Dann Gire
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Big gain with ‘Pain’: Sublime cast, sharp characters, wit, sentiment blend in emotionally honest relationship studyNov 13, 2024 5:30 am - Jesse Eisenberg has hand-crafted a wonderful gem of a movie wisely titled “A Real Pain.” This compact 89-minute relationship study works with an almost nonexistent plot, and with sharply drawn, realistic characters brought to life by a sublime cast.
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Hugh Grant diabolically good as a villainous scholar in religious thriller ‘Heretic’Nov 05, 2024 12:27 pm - Once two missionaries (Chloe East and Sophie Thatcher) settle in to discuss religion with Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant) in the religious thriller “Heretic,” the directors turn him into a congenial spider that has us —along with his guests — in his tightly crafted web.
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‘Here’ isn’t there: Conceptually daring visuals blunt empathy, emotions in tiresome gimmick movieOct 31, 2024 5:30 am - “Here” is a conceptually daring, but tiresome gimmick movie, a virtually plotless, visually busy anthology of nonintersecting stories spanning zillions of years, and we feel as if we’ve seen most of them already.
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Highbrow drama: Smart, savvy Vatican thriller presciently parallels U.S. politics in ‘Conclave’Oct 23, 2024 2:52 pm - If the Academy Awards ever created a special Oscar for “Best Performance by a Furrowed Brow,” Ralph Fiennes would handily win for his lively and versatile forehead wrinkles in Edward Berger’s elegantly staged, unpredictable and extremely timely drama “Conclave.”
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Mitzi Gaynor: Superstar, one-time Elgin girlOct 17, 2024 4:15 pm - Editor’s note: Actor-dancer Mitzi Gaynor died Thursday at age 93. This story was originally published on March 19, 2013. “Oh, honey,” Mitzi Gaynor told us, “it's hard to...
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Grin Reaper: Visceral visuals, sly humor prevent overstuffed ‘Smile 2’ from being frowned uponOct 17, 2024 5:30 am - A great horror movie dwells deep within Parker Finn’s enigmatic “Smile 2.” The film constantly keeps us off-kilter, employing a brutal barrage of mind-bending perspectives that plop us directly inside the embattled brain of a woman under psychic assault by a nebulous evil entity.
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Gibson’s crusty cop highlights a flawed but fun pre-Halloween treat in ‘Monster Summer’Oct 03, 2024 5:30 am - The visually slick indie movie “Monster Summer” meets its modest aspirations as a fun, end-of-summer romp targeting a tweener demographic anxious for another “Goonies” knockoff.
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Committed, fearless Ronan triumphs in nonfiction addiction drama ‘The Outrun’Oct 03, 2024 5:30 am - Nora Fingscheidt’s contemplative and cluttered biographical drama “The Outrun” adds a little bit of individuality to the cinematic canon of struggling substance abusers bottoming out until finally clawing their way out of addiction to face a brighter tomorrow.
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A very fable genius: Coppola’s crazy, baffling film still a pure cinematic delightSep 25, 2024 1:39 pm - Francis Ford Coppola poured four decades of frustration, compromise, stress and hope into every frame of “Megalopolis.” The result is a joyous, artistic mess.
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Visionary horror film ‘The Substance’ guaranteed to shock, amaze and repulseSep 17, 2024 6:03 pm - “The Substance,” starring an excellent Demi Moore, comes from director/writer Coralie Fargeat, who elevates an exploitation premise into an explosively visionary, blackly comic cinematic experience that rails against society’s addiction to superficiality.