Roger Ebert Reviews

It takes a lot of courage to play a buffoon, and Dabney Coleman, who passed on May 16 at the age of 92,  had it in spades. Not many character actors of his constitution in 1980 — white, male, middle-aged, thick mustache parting only to deliver his baleful bass of a voice — would have dared […]

Over sixty years ago, directors Henry Hathaway, John Ford, and George Marshall joined forces to tell the story of America’s push toward the pacific. “How The West Was Won” was a tremendous undertaking. Produced through the three-strip Cinerama process, it featured a deep ensemble of high-wattage stars—James Stewart, Spencer Tracy, John Wayne, Gregory Peck, Henry

The Cannes Film Festival is underway, and Chaz Ebert is on the ground to report on every development. In this video, critic Isaac Feldberg joins Chaz to briefly discuss Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness,” Paul Schrader’s “Oh Canada,” Andrea Arnold’s “Bird,” and Agathe Riedingers’ “Wild Diamond.” Watch the video below. The Cannes Film Festival is

On Monday, May 20th at 2:00PM CEST Chaz Ebert will be moderating a panel at Roger Ebert Conference Center in the American Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival. Entitled “Purpose-Driven Filmmaking: Empathy and the Movies,” panelists will discuss the trend toward purpose-driven filmmaking in today’s industry and how that is impacted by the diversity of

If someone told you that Cannes was showing an original musical about a ruthless cartel kingpin who wants to transition and secretly hires a top-flight lawyer to set the logistics in motion, which director would you guess was at the helm? Pedro Almodóvar? John Cameron Mitchell? The actual director of “Emilia Pérez” is Jacques Audiard,

For anyone who complained that Yorgos Lanthimos went soft with “Poor Things” and “The Favourite,” “Kinds of Kindness” revives the malicious tendencies that have run through even some of his best films. The movie reunites him with his early and frequent screenwriting collaborator Efthimis Filippou (“Dogtooth,” “The Killing of a Sacred Deer“), and the shift in

Immediately upon exiting “Megalopolis,” Francis Ford Coppola’s wine-backed passion project, I had a single, inescapable thought: I’m glad I got to watch Coppola’s “Chi-raq.” For some, that admittedly jarring comparison will be a total turnoff. After all, for Spike Lee, a maverick filmmaker who’s always been in a daunting dance with major studios, “Chi-raq” was

We are proud to present an excerpt from Hollywood Pride by Alonso Duralde. In stores now or get your copy here. The official synopsis is below, followed by the excerpt. For generations, members of the LGBTQ+ community in Hollywood needed to be discreet about their lives but—make no mistake—they were everywhere, both in front of and

In 1964, Robert Rauschenberg won the coveted Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, an international exhibition of contemporary work. The documentary “Taking Venice” is about the behind-the-scenes maneuvers that resulted in Rauschenberg taking the prize. Director Amei Wallach, an art critic and specialist in fine arts documentaries (she also did “Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here” and “Louise

Do you remember “Nightwatch,” the 1994 Danish thriller about a young psych ward attendant who gets stalked by a killer? There was an English language remake in 1997 with the same title and director (Ole Bornedal) and starring Ewan McGregor, Nick Nolte, and Patricia Arquette, among others. The Danish version was better, though even that