Roger Ebert Reviews

Full disclosure, right off the top: I knew I was going to be a soft touch on “Strays.” We’re a longtime Boston Terrier family, and I’ve always wondered what our dogs would sound like if they could talk to us. (Surely, I’m not the only one who entertains such insane ideas.) So the prospect of […]

Bodies are messy. Women’s bodies are especially messy. There are so many phases, and so much can go wrong! There are so many procedures required to make things run smoothly, and these procedures are sometimes painful, placing women at the mercy of medical professionals who treat women’s pain with cavalier indifference. (This pain gap has generated

Directing an R-rated studio comedy with a canine cast might prove ruff, but “Strays” director Josh Greenbaum found the right howling humor and heart. The latest flick from the “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar” filmmaker has him painting “Homeward Bound” in raunchy R-rated drool for the now-adult audience who grew up with

“The truth is, I didn’t see anything of myself in my father, and I don’t think he saw anything of himself in me. We were like strangers who knew each other very well.” – Will Bloom, “Big Fish” One afternoon, over ten years ago now, a colleague made a remark that betrayed what was likely

As a queer woman, Stewart Thorndike aims to make feminist films in the genre sphere. After receiving her MFA at NYU, her thesis short film, “Tess and Nana,” debuted at SXSW. She then began working on her first feature “Lyle,” the first of a planned thematic trilogy about the power of motherhood. A sort of

At first blush, there are few unexpected notes to “Blue Beetle.” When a baddie says, “The love you feel for your family makes you weak,” you know the hero will prove that claim wrong. The villain, Victoria (Susan Sarandon), is hardly configured; it doesn’t take much guessing to know they’re a metaphor for the past

The Lincoln Presidential Foundation’s first-ever multimedia project, the documentary film series, “Warning Signs: Lincoln’s Response to Rising Tensions in the 1850’s,” has received a prestigious Regional Emmy nomination in the Informational Content category from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) Mid-America chapter. The “Warning Signs” film series comprises four seven-minute films featuring a diverse group of experts who compare and

In the 20 years since it was first released, Park Chan-wook’s “Oldboy” has lost none of its ability to provoke and enthrall, none of its potency as a work of art that deploys graphic violence and equally visceral style to probe the depths of human nature.   The masterpiece that propelled South Korean cinema onto a

Sidney Lumet’s “The Verdict” is the best courtroom drama ever. It is also one of those rare features that doesn’t wear down with repeated viewings. That would seem odd for an entry that’s best remembered for the shock of its resolution, which should only be able to surprise the audience the first time around. And

“Hugo” came along in a wave of films in which major artists were experimenting with 3D technology. In the wake of James Cameron’s “Avatar,” artists like Wim Wenders (“Pina”), Ang Lee (“Life of Pi”), and Steven Spielberg (“The Adventures of Tintin”) experimented with the form, but arguably the best movie to emerge from this trend was