Roger Ebert Reviews

The great William Friedkin’s final credit will be on this weekend’s excellent adaptation of “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” a Showtime/Paramount+ film that might at first seem slight for the man who gave the world “The Exorcist” and “The French Connection,” but this is a deceptively brilliant piece of work, a reminder of the refined, undeniable […]

Both the book and the movie “Surprised by Oxford” take their title from C.S. Lewis’ Christian apologetical Surprised by Joy. Like Lewis, Carolyn (Caro) Weber is a skeptic-turned-believer, and the memoir and film are based on her experience at Oxford, where she attended a college 400 years older than the United States of America. Oxford

After seeing hundreds of films a year, it’s easy to forget that sometimes the surest and sometimes best pleasure comes from simple comfort food. Director Maggie Betts’ “The Burial,” a throwback ’90s inspirational courtroom drama pitched to extreme comedy, comes as simple and sweet as a summer Southern breeze when flashy personal injury lawyer Willie

“Dicks: The Musical” is billed as the first A24 musical and it’s going to be a tough opening act to follow. A twisted genre experiment that plays with sexuality, classic genre tropes, and general lunacy, it’s half a movie, but it’s so committed to its rebellious tone that it makes for a hell of a

At most film festivals, the Satanic ritual would have gotten a little more attention. But in a satellite theater livestreaming the opening ceremony for Fantastic Fest 2023, the festival staff chanting in a circle wearing long black robes as festival founder Tim League did a fire-and-brimstone preacher schtick barely warranted a glance from festival-goers preoccupied

In her debut narrative film, the workplace horror “The Assistant,” writer/director Kitty Green took the most ordinary setting and made it a tense, nauseating psychological thriller. Pairing again with Julia Garner, her follow-up “The Royal Hotel,” co-written with Oscar Redding, plays like a Gen Z twist on the Australian classic “Wake in Fright.” While Green and

The world lost a true legend with the death of Clarence Avant, the “Godfather of Black Entertainment,” who passed away August 13th in Los Angeles at age 92. He worked quietly behind the scenes to help advance the careers of so many who became giants in the worlds of music, sports and politics, with the aim of providing

“Back on the Strip,” about a young man who wants to become a magician and the middle-aged ex-strippers who train him to be an exotic dancer instead, is a slapped-together indie comedy. It would probably crater completely and become unwatchable were it not for the charisma of its actors, which is boundless, and the lightheartedness of the

It’s 2036 AD, and space aliens have not only landed on Earth, but also maybe forever changed the economy, too. That’s the main premise of “Landscape with Invisible Hand,” a satirical sci-fi comedy based on M.T. Anderson’s award-winning young adult sci-fi novel. Adapted and directed by Cory Finley (“Thoroughbreds,” “Bad Education”), “Landscape with Invisible Hand”

Michael Cera does an impeccable Marge Simpson impression midway through Dustin Guy Defa’s “The Adults” in a scene in which his character, a vengeful poker player named Eric, doesn’t want to say what he’s really feeling. It’s a defense mechanism Eric shares with his siblings, the similarly aged Rachel (Hannah Gross) and the younger Maggie (Sophia