When Chicago's main black comedy club was serious business
Throughout the '90s, All Jokes Aside in Chicago's South Loop was one of the most prominent black comedy clubs in the country. Co-owner...
It's a short trip from 'Psycho' to 'Happy Father's Day'
My father, whom I admire as much as I admire and appreciate my own son, never was a lascivious man given to comments or behavior of an...
Lantern or Hornet: Films about emerald-hued heroes are no gems
Green just isn't the superhero color this year.
Posher 'Penguins' still pleasant
For some reason I was under the impression Jim Carrey already made his penguin movie. Doesn't it seem like it? Am I the only one who had...
A pair of comic aces pack their wit and take a drive
In its sidewinding, frequently riotous fashion "The Trip" muses on friendship, commitment, narcissism and the onslaught of middle age, but...
Humor bridges a divide
Egyptian-American comedian Ahmed Ahmed documents his journey across the Middle East performing stand-up for Arab and Muslim laugh-seekers in...
Coasting on wave of angst and an emo soundtrack
Living in a daze of arch, quippy diffidence, George is a Manhattan private school senior played by Freddie Highmore, best known for "Charlie...
Perspective: A little splice of heaven
If there's an afterlife, here's hoping it turns out to be like the tasty one that writer-director Albert Brooks envisioned in "Defending...
Are Reese Witherspoon's pet donkeys too noisy?
Is there a hee haw hullabaloo developing over the two pet donkeys Reese Witherspoon keeps at her Ojai, Calif., home?
'Green Lantern' star embraces comic fans
— He's one of the few actors who has gone seamlessly from romantic comedies to dramas to his latest, a high-power superhero movie....
Turns out Godard's worldview includes a llama
In Jean-Luc Godard's elegant, impudent "Film Socialisme," people on board a Mediterranean cruise ship are perpetually photographing their...
Judy Moody's movie isn't a bummer — but it's not great
Megan McDonald's third-grade spitfire Judy Moody makes her leap from the page to the big screen with much of the spit, if not her fire,...
Performances save 'Boy' from queasy premise
"We decided to use a campus shooting and yet write nothing about it."
2nd-generation 'Centipede' spawns censorship issue
In 1932, offended by Hollywood's gangster pictures and his own city's popular image as Machine Gun Central, Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak...
Christopher Plummer tones up a too-cute tale
"Beginners" begins at the end, with news that Hal, the retired LA museum curator played by Christopher Plummer, has died of cancer. Then...
Filmmaker John Waters gets wicked in Chicago
Does it come as any surprise to find out that John Waters, Mr. Subversive himself, cites "The Wizard of Oz" — one of the most...
'X-Men: First Class' review: In a crowd, one stands out
Primarily for dues-paying "X-Men" club members in good standing, rather than anyone wandering by a multiplex wondering if the prequel stands...
Yutz's mutterings yield some universal truths
Half the time I was laughing during the bracingly unsentimental coming-of-age comedy "Submarine," I wasn't even sure why. Writer-director...
TV's loss is the movies' gain
If things had turned out differently, it is possible that film director Richard Ayoade would be a recognizable American television star.
'Super 8' review: J.J. Abrams, phone home
Set in 1979 and the summer of "Alien" and "Breaking Away," "Super 8" evokes a time before smartphones and YouTube, when making movies with...
Thinking inside box nets intimate movie experience
Even on her wedding day, a small-town bride finds she can't quite outshine her dazzling sister, an Angelina Jolie-esque creature played to...
'The Tree of Life' review: Malick's ages of man
In 1975 writer-director Terrence Malick told a writer from Sight and Sound magazine: "There's something about growing up in the Midwest....
Engaging 'L'Amour Fou' ultimately a love story
According to his longtime lover and business partner Pierre Berge, the designer and global name-brand Yves Saint Laurent adored haute...
'70s, Spielberg, summer
When J.J. Abrams turned 13, back in the summer of 1979 — the same sleepy summer he uses as the backdrop for his new picture, "Super 8,...
Playing catch-up
Welcome to the summer of sequels, in which just about every other movie has had a previous installment, if not two or three or six. Unlike...
Cannes, Day 9: More von Trier fallout; plus, Antonio Banderas is a doctor. Trust him.
CANNES – Wednesday at the Cannes Film Festival, "Melancholia" writer-director Lars von Trier muttered some wisecracks about Jews and...
Director grabs spotlight, but films stand out
I sit here amid the blender-on-medium whirr of the Cannes Film Festival Wi-Fi press room, Italian being spoken across from me, German to...
'Tree of Life' triumphs at Cannes
CANNES, France -- "What a week it's been!" said Kirsten Dunst Sunday, understating things a bit as she accepted, gratefully, the best...
'Jumping the Broom' takes a different comedic turn
The makers of "Jumping the Broom" are looking for a leap of faith.
'Pirates 4' debuts to a Yo-Ho-Hum
On a typical year for its art-house sins, the Cannes Film Festival makes way for the worldwide launch of at least one joyless Hollywood...
Malick's cosmic film debuts — at last — to boos, cheers
You know why the Cannes Film Festival is like nowhere else in the cosmos for movie lovers?
Cannes: The Finn cheers up
Cannes believes in loyalty, as much as its nation professes liberty, fraternity and equality. Traditionally, the world's highest-cholesterol...
Cannes 2011, Day 8: That's Lars (with response from Cannes)
Perpetually starring in real-life remakes of "The Nutty Provocateur," Danish writer-director Lars von Trier competed in the main competition...
Bad news for industry; some good news for moviegoers
With movie theater attendance in North America down a grim 20 percent so far this year compared with 2010, as reported by the Los Angeles...
Things really clique for 'Prom'
Like "Glee," the monosyllabic TV phenom whose action it so dearly covets, Disney's "Prom" sells its target audience on the idea that we...
A look ahead at Cannes 2011 and what it means in Chicago
Sixteen days ahead of its U.S. opening, director Terrence Malick's new film "The Tree of Life" starring Brad Pitt will compete with 18 other...
Lumet, his films embodied grace under fire
Sidney Lumet relished tight spaces, and actors unafraid of sweat. He died Saturday, at 86 due to complications from lymphoma. He went out...
Music Box Films wins in the margins
Music Box Films handled all U.S. theatrical and home entertainment distribution for "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," "The Girl Who Played...
Hold the phone — that fake number works
The politician played by Matt Damon doesn't initially remember the phone number that the dancer played by Emily Blunt gives him in "The...
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