Roger Ebert Reviews

“The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic and a killer,” British-born D.H. Lawrence asserted in his seminal 1924 book Studies in Classic American Literature, in which he considered writers ranging from Franklin to Poe to Melville and others. Lawrence had a point, to be sure, but his remark seemed to have opened a Pandora’s box […]

There is a moment in “Plan A,” based on the true story of a revenge plot by German Jews following WWII, when two exhausted, deeply traumatized people, devastated by the loss of friends, family, homes, and a belief in a world that makes sense, take a moment to do something normal. They go to a

Anyone who’s read the stunning true story of “The Watcher” remembers it. Published in New York Magazine in November 2018, it’s the tale of 657 Boulevard, a Westfield, New Jersey address that was stalked by a mysterious stranger. Derek Broaddus and his wife Maria had found their dream house in 2014, but they quickly started

The official launch of the Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies in the College of Media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will take place with an Inaugural Lecture on Friday, October 28th. The lecture, titled, “Re-Enchanting Our Relationship to Film and Media History: A Brief Survey of the Media Ecology Project,” will feature University of Illinois

For years, Canadian twin sister pop duo Tegan and Sara Quin have raised the spirits of many LGBTQ indie-pop/rock fans with their upbeat angsty music. During the early 2000s, no viewer could escape the Quin sisters’ music, as their music was featured in nearly every popular teen drama television series from “Degrassi” to “90210” to “One

“Till” isn’t an easy story to tell. Recalling the 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, who left Chicago to visit his cousins in Money, Mississippi before being ripped from his bed by racist white Southerners —“Till” has already ignited passionate discussions surrounding the worthwhileness of depicting Black trauma on screen. Directed by Chinonye Chukwu, a

The Chicago International Film Festival, the longest-running competitive film festival in North America, is once again returning to give local moviegoers their first look at what’s happening right now in the world of global cinema. Running October 12-23, the festival will be screening 96 feature films from around the world, including 2 world premieres, 14

In a career in the performing arts that spanned 80 years, Angela Lansbury kept herself fresh and ready to razzle-dazzle through all manner of career challenges and disappointments. There was a deep well of emotion in her that she could always draw from, and it only seemed to get deeper and become more mysterious as

Matt writes: While awaiting my early morning flight to the BendFilm Festival, all I could think about was every precious moment I shared with my dear friend and colleague, Sergio Mims. The news had just been posted of his passing last week at age 67. Sergio was the co-founder of the Black Harvest Film Festival, a contributor

I’ve long joked that Apple TV+ is a streaming service solely marketed to TV critics: With its enormous budgets, ambitious briefs, and A-list casts, the streamer has a stunningly high batting average and (with a few exceptions, like “Ted Lasso” or “Severance”) hardly ever break through into the pop culture mainstream. Each of its properties