Movies

The Chicago Film Critics Association announces the line-up for the 13th Chicago Critics Film Festival, running from May 1-7, 2026 at the historic Music Box Theatre. A blend of new and familiar voices, this year’s line-up reflects the breadth of filmmaking in 2026 including new works from Olivia Wilde, Dawn Porter, and Joe Swanberg, all…

A confession: I am really not a fan of the French filmmaker Franoçois Ozon. He seems like a lovely chap. Literate, passionate, with a major crush on the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. But the thought of having to sit through another mediocre annual missive of ​“quality” coffee-table arthouse fare has become something of a dismal chore. Yet you’ve gotta…

This is an amazing example of a famous actor making his directorial debut but then completely stealing the film from under the feet of its two young leads. James McAvoy’s presence as a bloodcurdling record label boss injects a sense of hair-trigger violence into this otherwise featherlight tale of two aspirant Scottish rappers who decide to feign American…

The first two episodes of Netflix’s “Big Mistakes,” which basically play as one hour-long episode, actively annoyed me. A premise that feels overly familiar in the era of ordinary people getting caught up in violent situations a la “Ozark” with frustratingly dim lighting that matches that increasingly influential award winner centered by two obnoxious characters…

The annual tradition of Cannes head honcho Thierry Frémaux sitting at a little table at the front of a Parisian cinema and reading out his print out of titles with some soft rambling between each drop has happened for the 2026 edition of the festival. We’ve of course been combing through all the prediction articles to get…

In the modern theatrical ecosystem, certain genres inevitably take precedence over others; those with mass appeal and blockbuster potential tend to push the rest toward streaming purgatory. The once-beloved and culturally significant rom-com was among the first casualties, now stripped of much of the prevalence and legitimacy it once possessed. Every so often, one breaks…

As the political procedural turns 50, its depiction of paranoid, uncertain times bears a chilling resemblance to our own. With world politics in turmoil and constant revelations surfacing of powerful individuals’ ties to corruption, it seems impossible to place trust in figures of authority. These words describe the present, of course, but could equally apply…

They say no one wins when the family feuds. Maybe not, but the bestseller lists, box office, and streaming would like a word. Anything that makes us yell, “mommy, daddy, don’t!” with our faces only partially covered and a grin on our lips, has a good chance of winning us over. There’s the vitriolic fallout…

HBO’s “Euphoria” is in such a weird place in 2026. A show that once felt abrasively fresh and inventive went away for long enough that not only did its stars all become just as bright in other places, but its provocations seem increasingly hollow in a very different world. Premiering four years after we last…