Movie Reviews
My first love is the cinema.
My bachelor's degree is in film studies. I started working in movie theaters at age 16 and have spent many of my adult years working as a projectionist and as a theater manager. I also taught screenwriting for the Chicago Screenwriters Group for several years and worked as a film critic for a Chicago magazine for a while.
Even when I'm not being paid for it, I often write movie reviews for fun. In fact, a friend and I wrote an Oscar-focused website for many years. Here are a few of the movie reviews published there.
If you're looking for a historically accurate chronological account of the band's formation and rise to fame, you won't get it in Bryan Singer's biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody.
A Star Is Born (2018)
Bradley Cooper blends elements of the 1937 film into a thoroughly modern story that is impossible not
to become emotionally invested in.
to become emotionally invested in.
Dunkirk (2017)
Dunkirk is a masterpiece of nonlinear storytelling and awe-inspiring cinematography.
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Arrival (2016)
The part about language and communication was pretty interesting. I just wish everything else had been equally as creative.
Manchester By the Sea (2016)
I have not seen a cinematic depiction of grief as real and raw as this since Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, "The Body" (S5: E16).
Hell or High Water (2016)
Hell or High Water deftly reaches back in time to respectfully shake hands with classic western tropes.
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
I had yet to see a Wes Anderson film I liked. Turns out, I was just waiting for him to find his stride.
Appaloosa (2008)
I knew even as the end credits began that Appaloosa would be in my top three for the year, and I was pretty sure it would hold the #1 spot (it did).
To make a great film you need three things – the script, the script and the script.