Roger Ebert Reviews

With “A Couple,” the legendary 92-year-old Frederick Wiseman has finally directed a scripted drama after making documentaries for 60 years. And not just any documentaries: Wiseman’s work tends to focus on institutions and the individual’s function within them. In filming, they practice a doctrine of non-intervention, observing events that are already happening while trying their […]

Back when I was a whelp in my early twenties, cruising through life with naught but my own pleasure in my windshield, my rearview, and both side mirrors, the diamond concern De Beers concocted an ingenious, some would even say diabolical, marketing campaign, strongly suggesting to the bachelors of Europe and America that when preparing

The modern blockbuster has been diluted on the big screen, overtaken by the MCU juggernaut that has delivered a pretty weak slate of post-pandemic films. One of the reasons that “Top Gun: Maverick” became one of the biggest films of all time was that it delivered the kind of escapist blockbuster entertainment that feels increasingly

For the young heroes and heroines in the tenderly magical fables by Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon, their large-than-life journeys take them inward. In tandem with the wondrous handcraft on display, it’s the honest richness of their characters’ personal predicaments that distinguishes the studio’s features from most Western family-friendly fare. Cartoon Saloon’s latest soul-soothing and modestly

“The Calling” brings God to a New York City crime scene, thanks to the immense Jewish faith of Detective Avraham Avraham. Played with almost too soft and monotone of a voice by Jeff Wilbusch, Det. Avraham (known by his colleagues as Avi) walks into a missing persons case with a certain confidence because of his

Every year as we turn back our clocks and woodsmoke fills the crisp air, Christmas movies begin to fill the airwaves. While Hallmark started their barrage of cinematic holiday treats as early as October this year, Netflix waited until November to begin their annual slate of romantic snow-filled sleigh rides. Leading the way is “Falling

“The English,” a new six-part mini-series on Prime Video, is a Western about outsiders made by an outsider. There’s always a bit of a different flavor when someone not from the United States tackles the most homegrown of genres, the Western. And one can feel the influence of Sergio Leone and the Spaghetti Western all

The center of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”—the sequel to the hugely popular “Black Panther,” and a tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman—is sincere, even if the overall film feels manufactured. It begins with a funeral for the recently deceased King T’Challa. Shuri (Letitia Wright) and Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) are dressed in white, following the

For its first four seasons, “The Crown” was a near-flawless prestige drama series. Part of the series’ magic was its ability to craft a sense of urgency; it was the first time the audience visualized intense crises—like the aftermath of King Edward VIII’s abdication, the relationship between Princess Margaret and Group Captain Peter Townsend, the

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 1997 film “Cure,” whose 4K restoration version was released in South Korean theaters this July and distributed by the Criterion Collection several months later, is an unnerving, creepy masterwork that will haunt you in more than one way. “Cure” gradually immerses you into its subtle but undeniably ominous atmosphere once you go along with