Roger Ebert Reviews

A woman wakes up early, straightens up around the house, grabs a few items, and leaves her husband and two children sleeping. She drives away from her life, and her family’s panic starts to set in as they realize that mom isn’t coming home. There’s an early reference to “two months” that will have viewers […]

Adamma Ebo’s satirical “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul,” which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, features career-best performances from its stars Sterling K. Brown and Regina Hall. Brown plays Lee-Curtis Childs, pastor of the fictional megachurch Wander To Greater Paths Baptist Church, who is in the midst of a sexual misconduct scandal. Hall plays

I am inviting you to join me (only a few tickets are left) and help support FACETS at the 2022 Screen Gems Benefit on Wednesday, September 28th, at 6 pm at the Arts Club of Chicago, 201 E. Ontario Street. FACETS is Chicago’s historic film screening cinematheque and educational non-profit started by the late Milos Stehlik. I am proud

The Whole Earth Catalog, a broad-scope multi-disciplinarian magazine published between 1968 and 1972, opened with words from founder Stewart Brand: “We are as gods so we might as well get good at it.” This hubristic statement, so common in “visionary” types, particularly those who emerged from the “counterculture,” could sum up Stewart Brand (if he

Francois Ozon’s “Peter von Kant” is an odd, chilly film, even by this director’s standards. A psychological drama about a filmmaker in mid’-’70s Cologne, it gender-flips Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1978 “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant,” about the relationship between the eponymous fashion designer (Margit Carstensen), her nonspeaking assistant Marlene (Irm Hermann), and a young woman

The Clinton legend looms large. They’re perhaps the most well-known American family, having been in the public eye for decades now. As a viewing public, we know so much about them and the type of political junky who will be drawn to “Gutsy” with a curiosity to know more about the Clinton women will probably

With school back in session and many students enrolled in after school sports or other competitive programs, Peter and Ian Edlund’s “the Ref” feels like the right short film for this month, particularly for anyone involved in education. All teachers are referees on many levels and with the political storms that have been brewing over

Early in “The Whale,” the new film directed by Darren Aronofsky from a script by Samuel D. Hunter (adapting his stage play), Liz (Hong Chau), a nurse who voluntarily looks after her friend Charlie (Brendan Frasier) notes that Charlie, who’s having an episode that convulses the entirety of his 600-pound body, is showing a blood

It’s that time of year again! We’ve already run pieces from Venice and Telluride, and our crew heads to Toronto this week for the Festival of Festivals, the world-famous Toronto International Film Festival. Almost back to its pre-pandemic form, this year’s fest boasts some of the most impressive world premieres the annual event has ever

Two political documentaries that recently premiered at the 2022 Telluride Film Festival were inadvertent thematic companions of sorts, charting the US’s involvement in two different wars from varying viewpoints. First, there’s the soul-piercing “Retrograde” by the fearless documentarian Matthew Heineman, who knows a thing or two about being on the front lines, following an unfolding