Roger Ebert Reviews

Spiders. Why’d it have to be spiders? Any of us who flinch at the sight of a spider can confirm the many legged arachnids are an easy source of terror. Most of us don’t like finding them on our windowsills, crawling on our walls, or making thread-y homes of their own in forgotten crevices. They […]

At a time when moviegoers are noting the lack of sex in mainstream films, “The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed” is something of a revelation—both because of what it shows and how casually it shows it. The feature-length debut of writer, director, editor and star Joanna Arnow, this sharp indie comedy

When films premiere at festivals, it’s not unusual for those movies to go through some fine-tuning before they make their way to general audiences. Maybe a little color-correction still needs to be done—a small tweak here or there is necessary. Most times, you wouldn’t notice the differences. But occasionally, the changes are more substantial.  Last

Like its ghostly protagonists, Netflix’s “Dead Boy Detectives” is caught between two worlds—or rather, IPs. Initially conceived as a spinoff of then-HBO Max’s cult DC anti-hero series “Doom Patrol” (in which the characters, all played by different actors than here, guested in a backdoor pilot of sorts), the show was sold to Netflix—presumably as a

It’s weirdly funny to see a year mentioned in the title of “Art College 1994,” an animated Chinese college dorm rom-com about young people and their greatest loves, themselves. You could easily imagine this feature-length cartoon taking place in another time or place without losing much of either its specificity or universality. Swap out a

As we enter the warmth of spring, we are one step closer to the return of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) — this year celebrating its 58th edition. As one of Europe’s oldest film festivals, nestled in a verdant, picturesque, mountain spa town in the Czech Republic, the festival has always been a

The sixth annual Cinema Femme Short Film Festival will celebrate its second year of in-person events and screenings from April 25th to May 2nd. The festival’s ethos centers on uplifting up-and-coming female and non-binary filmmakers by platforming their work and facilitating connections with industry professionals.  Hosted at Chicago’s beloved Music Box Theatre, twenty short films

Actor and producer Terry Carter has died in New York City. The former co-star of TV’s “McCloud” and “Battlestar Galactica” was 95. Carter’s death follows on the heels of Black male stars Jim Brown, Richard Roundtree, Carl Weathers, Lou Gossett, Jr., and athlete-actor O.J. Simpson. Carter, born in Brooklyn in 1928, was older than them

There’s an ongoing theme in Alexander Payne’s films — the people we think are the antagonists aren’t actually bad people; we simply force ourselves into the corner of seeing them that way. From the simple-minded and unfortunately coiffed future in-laws in “About Schmidt” to the adulterous characters in “Sideways” and “The Descendants,” to the animosity of

By now, we’re all aware that Elisabeth Moss can do anything. She’s proven it again and again in film and television. However, seeing the star of “Mad Men” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” play a suave super-spy with a British accent in the opening scenes of FX’s “The Veil” is initially off-putting. Really? It’s not just