My Courses

Don’t go to the masterpieces, the classics, the five-star pictures you have memorized from a hundred montages and telecasts. Pick one at random, one you don’t know. There are about 80 that meet this description. Pick … Andrew Davis’ “The Package” from 1989. It’s no one’s favorite film who doesn’t have a favorite armchair where…

Season three of AMC’s underrated “Dark Winds” opens with an image of the dark desert, illuminated only by a fallen flashlight. David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” bleeds into the scene, as the camera pans to reveal an unconscious Lt. Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) laying amongst the dirt. The camera pans away from his body, swirling and…

Continuing the tradition of Chicago-based critics and creatives curating film festivals, this weekend marks the very first Filmspotting Fest, a three-day in-person film festival celebrating twenty years of the iconic podcast of the same name.  Set to run from February 28th-March 2nd, screenings are split across the Music Box Theatre and Gene Siskel Film Center…

We’re back to hold your hand and walk you through the new movie offerings over the next 30 days on the biggest streaming service in the world. Believe it or not, mere weeks after it was in theaters, the Gerard Butler action sequel “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” is hitting the service, one of the…

Now marking its 30th year, the annual “Rendez-Vous with French Cinema” festival returns to give American audiences a taste of what is happening in contemporary French cinema. Running March 6-16th at New York’s Walter Reade Theatre, the program offers up 23 films—a number of which are making their U.S./North American premieres—that include both the latest…