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Kiss in 'Bloody Sunday' broke rules
After John Schlesinger made "Midnight Cowboy," which won the Oscar in 1969 for best picture and director, he had carte blanche to make any...
Golden Globes: 'Les Miz' 'Argo' and 'Girls' win big; Jodie Foster honored
Hosting the 70th Golden Globes Sunday in Beverly Hills, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler proved it was possible to skewer their Hollywood colleagues...
When movies feel like TV
Last month after a screening, even as the lights came up in the theater, I could feel "Zero Dark Thirty" fading, its images and impact...
Interview: Marlon Wayans talks 'A Haunted House,' explains 'Scary Movie' exit
You won't see Marlon Wayans reprising his role as Ripcord in "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" this spring — he and most of his co-stars were...
'A Haunted House' wears out its only joke ★
Marlon Wayans wrings every last down-and-dirty giggle out of a single joke in "A Haunted House," his return to "Scary Movie" territory, in...
Michael Phillips predicts the Oscars
Tribune movie critic Michael Phillips makes his picks for who should win and who will win the major categories for the 2013 Academy Awards:
Oscar nominations: 'Lincoln' leads Academy Award contenders with 12
With a conspicuous diss of Kathryn Bigelow, the un-nominated director of “Zero Dark Thirty,” the Academy Awards nominations were...
Movie gangsters so bad they're good
One hundred and one years ago, D.W. Griffith gave us "The Musketeers of Pig Alley," often credited as the first gangster film, and once...
Love and death shine through in 'Amour' ★★★★
We know how "Amour" will end, at least for one of its characters.
'Gangster Squad' a fusillade of bullets and cliches ★★
A triumph of production design but a pretty dull kill-'em-up otherwise, the post-World War II-set "Gangster Squad" comes from the director...
Midwest native looks east in 'Somewhere Between'
"I am a child stuck between two countries," says 15-year-old Fang "Jenni" Lee in the insightful new documentary "Somewhere Between." Adopted...
'Trouble With the Truth' takes it all personally
It's a testament to writer-director Jim Hemphill's enjoyably chatty script and to the hand-in-glove performances of his charismatic leads...
'Max and the Junkmen': A police procedural that moves at Paris' pace
"No ordinary policeman": This is how director Claude Sautet's intriguing 1971 drama "Max and the Junkmen" describes the Max of the title,...
The difficult path to a foreign-language film Oscar
Something like a glammed-up re-imagining of the United Nations, year-in, year-out the foreign-language film category at the Oscars is a home...
Michael Haneke goes in close for the anguish of 'Amour'
Michael Haneke's devastating "Amour" opens Friday in Chicago. And since its Cannes Film Festival premiere in May, this tale of a long-...
10 movies to see this winter
Tribune movie critic Michael Phillips picks 10 movies you should see in the coming months.
'Texas Chainsaw 3D' doesn't leave out the 'massacre' ★
The first movie to go into wide release in 2013 misses, by mere days, a qualifying run for the 2012 Oscars. Thus "Texas Chainsaw 3D" can't...
'Zero Dark Thirty' a first draft of history ★★★★
To consider what director Kathryn Bigelow has accomplished in "Zero Dark Thirty," imagine the events depicted by the story if they'd been...
'Price Check' offers real payoff ★★★
The sharp workplace comedy "Price Check" is a you-are-there slip-and-slide that follows a supermarket chain's pricing-department exec...
No heartstrings left unplucked with 'Any Day Now' ★★
A determined weepie, "Any Day Now" lives for such scenes as an adoptive parent being pulled away, screaming, from the child with Down...
Young thief steals show in heart-wrenching 'Sister' ★★★ 1/2
For 12-year-old Simon, the resilient central character in the Swiss drama "Sister," the ski season is a time of particular purpose. His...
'Price Check': Consumer-themed indie is one to check out
There is a science to the way products are placed on supermarket shelves, and it is one that can stealthily influences our choices.
'Les Miz' backlash: Do you hear the people sting?
"When was the last time you stood up and applauded a movie?" Filmgoers of a certain age may recall the question posed by the posters for the...
Restored movie house fits big picture for Mark Fishman
Famously, the old Logan Theatre at 2646 N. Milwaukee Ave. used to smell like pee. Urban legends abound of the stink detectable all over...
'Not Fade Away' like a Rolling Stone ★★★
"That pianola sure brings back memories," says Orson Welles, entranced by Marlene Dietrich's bordello background music in "Touch of Evil." A...
'Promised Land': Fracking tale barely touches surface ★★
For a fellow who's just been promoted to vice president of land management by his multibillion-dollar natural gas company, the character...
'Parental Guidance': Even Bette Midler and Billy Crystal can't correct so-so script ★★
Billy Crystal and Bette Midler do all they can (which is a lot) to entertain us in "Parental Guidance," but the movie keeps getting in the...
'Django Unchained' a brazen, bloody spectacle, critics say
With "Django Unchained," writer-director Quentin Tarantino has once again turned history on its head to carry out an audacious revenge...
'Fitzgerald Family Christmas': Not the McMullens, but close ★★
After making itself available in November through various on-demand viewing options, Edward Burns' latest little picture, "The Fitzgerald...
'The Big Picture': Camera-shy photographer a man with a secret ★★★
Hiding inside the identity of someone else — someone recently disappeared, or murdered, for example — is a theme running through...
'Django Unchained' is Tarantino, undisciplined ★★
In "Django Unchained," which has its moments of devilish glee in and among dubious wallows in numbing slaughter, writer-director-trash...
Timing is everything for 'Jack Reacher' ★★ 1/2
Considered outside the context of the bloody December so far, "Jack Reacher" does its work sleekly and well. Writer-director Christopher...
Judd Apatow misses chance to go deeper with 'This Is 40' ★★ 1/2
More like "This Is Whiny," "This Is 40" has its share of clever, zingy material, proving that writer-director Judd Apatow has lost none of...
'The Impossible': Mother's angle softens tale's too-narrow focus ★★★
Everything that was false about the tsunami sequence in the recent Clint Eastwood film "Hereafter" — the bland overview perspectives,...
Taking stock of Chicago TV, film
It was a notable year for Chicago's film and TV industry, both for projects that came — and those that didn't. First, the good news....
Advice for approaching DVD kiosk
As a relatively broke college student, Chicago-based writer Rob Christopher didn't have the cash to rent movies from a video store. Instead,...
'Cirque du Soleil' comes to town, but it's a might tedious ★★ 1/2
Cirque du Soleil movies are a lot like ballet films — long on beauty and artistry, short on story.
'Les Miserables': Looks like the front row ★ 1/2
I wouldn't be surprised if "Les Miserables" became the most popular movie musical since "Mamma Mia!" On stage, both diversions were, and...
'Guilt Trip' with a funny lady -- and son ★★★
Well, it's a masterpiece compared with "Little Fockers," the last movie featuring Barbra Streisand.
Disney-Pixar hit 'Monsters, Inc.' back with a fresh look
Disney-Pixar realized it had hit on a can't-miss formula for animated blockbusters about the time "Monsters, Inc." came out in 2001.
Bill Murray scoffs at doubt as FDR in 'Hyde Park on Hudson'
For Bill Murray, playing Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the new film “Hyde Park on Hudson” meant risking some serious derision....
Murray is the anchor, but plot adrift in 'Hyde Park on Hudson' ★★
The music’s the best thing about the peculiar, demurely prurient “Hyde Park on Hudson,” starring Bill Murray as Franklin...
Edward Burns returns to his roots
About halfway through writing the script for "The Fitzgerald Family Christmas" (which opens at the Wilmette Theatre next week), Edward Burns...
Anticipating the Oscars: These might contend
My Academy Awards predictions — and honestly, why not start now, a month before the nominations are announced? — carry an odor...
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