Dann Gire
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Action, gore dominate suspense and scares in violently funny ‘Death of a Unicorn’Mar 26, 2025 4:04 pm - As a fantasy-horror-comedy steeped in mythology, writer/director Alex Scharfman’s “Death of a Unicorn” goes for action over suspense. But as a sassy class satire, “Death” delivers a timely expose of the semantic tactics of control and disinformation sowed by the hilariously clueless, selfish rich elite.
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Cute, quick Quaid weaponizes a handicap in ridiculously violent, quirky action comedy ‘Novocaine’Mar 11, 2025 1:31 pm - The cheerfully violent, stunt-stuffed “Novocaine,” starring Jack Quaid as a normal guy who suffers from the inability to feel physical pain, sets its entertainment sights fairly low, then wildly exceeds them for most of its brisk and bloody running time, film critic Dann Gire says.
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Hey, ‘Mickey’ you’re not so fine: Ambitious sci-fi comedy disappoints with restrained laughs, muddled metaphorsMar 05, 2025 10:52 am - After watching Bong Joon Ho’s slightly too-lengthy and bombastically zany sci-fi black comedy “Mickey 17,” this question came to me. Could Robert Pattinson be simultaneously nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for playing two different versions of the same character in a single movie?
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A Brutalistic battle: ‘Anora’ and ‘The Brutalist’ vie for top honors in tight, intense Oscars raceFeb 26, 2025 5:54 pm - Let’s start with the easiest category to predict when the 97th Academy Awards are announced starting at 6 p.m. Sunday, March 2. Zoe Saldaña in “Emilia Pérez” will easily smoke her competition for the Supporting Actress Oscar.
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The Monkey’s pause: Violent, darkly cartoony humor trumps terror in tonally dissonant horror taleFeb 19, 2025 5:03 pm - Writer/director Osgood Perkins’ latest horror film, “The Monkey,” based on Stephen King’s 1980 short story of the same title, fails to terrify us. It barely scares us. But man, oh man, does it ever gross us out.
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Paranormal inactivity: ‘Presence’ a well-cast but gimmicky ghost tale that runs short on the boosJan 23, 2025 5:15 am - In Steven Soderbergh’s gimmicky, unscary ghost story “Presence,” we the audience become the supernatural entity roaming through a large suburban house with Steadicam fluidity, seeing only what it sees, hearing only what it hears. This concept feels inspiringly fresh, for a while.
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Weak acting, direction plague suspense-challenged horror remake ‘Wolf Man’Jan 15, 2025 1:46 pm - Leigh Whannell’s sometimes ridiculous and emotionally muted horror tale “Wolf Man” tosses out all the traditional conventions we expect in the werewolf genre, film critic Dann Gire says.
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A novel approach: ‘Brutalist’ a captivating, ambitious epic that feels like a book, looks like a paintingJan 07, 2025 1:47 pm - Austere, foreboding, harsh and intoxicatingly masculine. What’s to like about Brady Corbet’s third movie “The Brutalist”? Not much. And yet, it’s the best picture of 2024, just now opening in Chicago.
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A brutal(ist) top 10 list for 2024’s best moviesDec 26, 2024 10:10 am - “The Brutalist” recently won the 2024 Best Picture from the Chicago Film Critics members, and for good reason. It tops film critic Dann Gire’s best movies for 2024.
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Sub-woofer: Adams’ fiercely engaging performance drives tame adult fairy taleDec 04, 2024 4:37 pm - This provocative black comedy owes its narrative propulsion to Amy Adams’ harried, emotionally buried Mother of a 4-year-old boy, and wife of a benignly neglectful, stay-away-from-home husband.