Roger Ebert Reviews

“Bros,” co-written by and starring Billy Eichner, has been touted as the first mainstream Hollywood studio-backed rom-com to feature gay men as the leads. Directed by Nicholas Stoller and produced by Judd Apatow, the film consciously evokes tropes from the hey-day of studio-backed romantic comedies, including nods to more than one Meg Ryan classic and […]

Usually, this feature would offer mini-reviews of the six films in the latest “World Cinema Project,” an essential release from the Criterion Collection. However, life got hectic enough (including three Covid diagnoses in my house) that I haven’t been able to sample the set like I wanted to but didn’t want to let its release

The subhead for Michael Kutza’s autobiography really says it all: “How I magically transformed Chicago into Hollywood for more than fifty years.” Centered on a cover that includes shots of Tom Cruise, Sophia Loren, Jack Lemmon, and Anna Nicole Smith (?), Kutza’s intention is clear: This is a book about star power and how the

“Blonde” abuses and exploits Marilyn Monroe all over again, the way so many men did over the cultural icon’s tragic, too-short life. Maybe that’s the point, but it creates a maddening paradox: condemning the cruelty the superstar endured until her death at 36 while also reveling in it. And yet writer/director Andrew Dominik’s film, based on the

We are proud to present an excerpt from Talk ’90s with Me by Matt Pais, in stores and online now. Get a copy here. And here’s the official description of the book, followed by an excerpted interview with Tom Everett Scott, star of “That Thing You Do!”. “Jurassic Park.” “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” “That

These days, for a good number of notable directors, six years between films isn’t necessarily an unconscionably long time. So why, you may wonder, has there been so much excited anticipation about “Dead for a Dollar,” the first feature in six years from the protean action director Walter Hill? Well, for one thing, he turned

Ramy Youssef was born in Queens, New York, to Egyptian parents, and was raised Muslim in New Jersey. I was born in New Delhi, India to Indian parents and was raised Hindu in India and Texas. Youssef is a practicing Muslim and speaks movingly, humorously about his faith. I became an atheist in high school

The 1993 Disney movie “Hocus Pocus” is the story of three witch sisters who were executed in Salem in 1693 and returned to create havoc 300 years later on Halloween. It is more than a classic; it is a cultural touchstone. Moderately successful on its first release, it became a phenomenon on home video and

“God’s Creatures” is yet another movie about a mother realizing too slowly that her son may be a dangerous sociopath. Screenwriter Shane Crowley’s thin characterizations do little to make this tired trope worth revisiting, instead opting to shroud the film in mystery regarding its central crime. The mother in question, Aileen O’Hara (Emily Watson) immediately

An ecological catastrophe has launched the world into “the new dark ages,” as an opening title announces at the start of “Vesper,” a dystopian fairy tale about a 13-year-old girl who wants more than she’s taught to expect. Vesper (Raffiella Chapman), the curious title character, scavenges for seeds (to grow her own food), for power