Roger Ebert Reviews

Over the last few years, there has been a trend of opulent destination wedding romantic comedies. Two years ago, there was “Ticket to Paradise” starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts and “Shotgun Wedding” starring Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel. Most recently, “Anyone But You,” starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, got rave reviews and made […]

Black people are the architects of American culture. The hip verbiage many young people speak, the music they consume, and even the most influential art among what could be called hipsters are derived from Black people. Our distinctive perception of the world has become a pavement for creativity, and social media is no exception. During

For the 54 years since “Let It Be” premiered in theaters in May 1970, the documentary that chronicled what turned out to be the last studio album the Beatles released has been most notable for its absence. The Fab Four despised it. (“I was stoned all the time, and I just didn’t give a shit,”

Netflix’s new comedic thriller “Bodkin” opens with the show’s protagonist, Gilbert Power (Will Forte), stating, “When I started this podcast, I didn’t expect to solve anything. I didn’t expect it to change my life.” It sets up the characters’ preoccupations well, and also exposes the main problem with the genre their fictional series is embedded

During the Super Bowl broadcast of 1984, Apple debuted one of the most innovative and spectacular commercials ever made: Ridley Scott’s ad for the then-brand new MacIntosh home computer. It showed an auditorium full of lifeless human drones staring at a dictator-like figure ranting on a giant screen, followed by an athletic blonde woman (the only splash of

When Rupert Wyatt’s 2011 revival “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” revived a five-decade-old franchise—one that spanned books, films, TV series, and comics since the ’60s—it did so with a refreshing commitment to a powerful, timeless story: simple but not simple-minded, deeply emotional but far from corny. Portrayed via groundbreaking performance capture technology by Andy

George Lucas gets a lot of flak for his screenwriting, but credit must be given when due: Sheev Palpatine, the humble senator from Naboo who becomes a galactic despot in the “Star Wars” movies, is one of the great screen villains.  The narrative architecture of his rise is ingenious. It’s thorough, too: the first few bricks of his foundation are

“Last Stop in Yuma County” is the kind of movie where you root for the worst to happen, because every escalation of misfortune makes things more entertaining.   Written and directed by Francis Gallupi, “Yuma” is a period piece that makes the most of a small budget. It’s set in the Arizona desert, roughly fifty years

The premise for Francis Gallupi’s directorial debut, “The Last Stop in Yuma County,” feels like it’s setting up a long-winded joke: a traveling knife salesman, two bank robbers, a traveling elderly couple, and two wannabe criminals walk into a diner while waiting for a fuel truck to arrive. Although some characters wear their menace on

We are re-posting this review in honor of the re-release for the film’s 25th anniversary. If it were the first “Star Wars” movie, “The Phantom Menace” would be hailed as a visionary breakthrough. But this is the fourth movie of the famous series, and we think we know the territory; many of the early reviews