January 20, 2025 7:56 pm

Roger Ebert Reviews

The Trauma of Inevitability: Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold on “The Brutalist”

An epic saga of assimilation, architecture, and the artist’s struggle to endure, Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” tells the story of László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian-born Jewish architect who escapes postwar Europe by emigrating to the United States, where he labors to rebuild his life, career, and marriage to wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones). Eventually settling […]

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Dream of Death: Robert Eggers on “Nosferatu”

Death and desire collide with seductive, shivering power in Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu,” a grandly Gothic reinterpretation of F.W. Murnau’s silent-film classic that channels the dark, psychosexual energies at the core of vampire mythology into a haunting tale of obsession.  Steeped in the shadows of its lineage—not only the German Expressionist original but also Bram Stoker’s

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What’s gone can never be replaced: thoughts on Los Angeles, disasters, and the present moment

As you read this, Los Angeles is still in flames. The fires that consumed the Pacific Palisades and Eaton are already thought to be the worst in the region’s history, with over 2,000 structures burned and at least 130,000 residents ordered to evacuate. The full scope will take a long time to be known because

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Peter Berg Shows the Ugly Side of American History With the Frustrating “American Primeval”

Director Peter Berg‘s works alternate between wholesome American stories and completely unhinged jingoism. Over the past decade, the latter side has come out in films like “Lone Survivor,” “Patriots Day,” and even “Mile 22,” depicting marginalized groups or non-Americans as savages and manipulating viewer affection by killing “noble” heroes. For Berg, it’s America first, and

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Cinema Is Freedom: Mohammad Rasoulof on “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”

Leaving behind the more metaphorical language of his earlier films in favor of an incendiary direct address, Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” is a brave and searing drama about an Iranian family torn apart by theocracy and its repressive mechanisms. Shot entirely in secret, it’s also the last film that Rasoulof was

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Tim Allen and Kat Dennings Fire on All Cylinders in ABC’s “Shifting Gears”

Having grown up watching Tim Allen in “Home Improvement,” I went into ABC’s “Shifting Gears” with some skepticism. It’s not so much that I don’t like the guy as I had a hard time imagining his talents translating to 2025. But “Shifting Gears” won me over easily. Was I tearing up already in the first

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Noah Wyle Anchors Intense, Effective Max Medical Drama “The Pitt”

It’s a bit disconcerting to see the “new kid” of Cook County General Hospital on the massive hit “ER” become the grizzled veteran of a similar medical drama three decades later, but that’s where we’re at with the very good “The Pitt,” a show that reminds one of the simple charms of well-done procedural television.

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