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Aidan O'Malley | Thursday, January 16, 2020
From the very first scene of “Marriage Story,” you can tell you’re in good hands. If you go to the movies a lot, you know what I mean: that nameless, soaring feeling you get when you realize you’re watching something special. But what makes “Marriage Story” particularly exciting isn’t just that this realization comes so
Aidan O'Malley | Thursday, December 5, 2019
Despite having aired its final episode nearly 20 years ago, there’s something about “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and its titular, real-life protagonist that seems particularly relevant today. Just last year, Oscar-winning documentarian Morgan Neville explored Fred Rogers’ life and legacy in “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” a poignant film that implored its audience to try a
Aidan O'Malley | Friday, November 15, 2019
Upon its release in 1980, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” polarized critics. In fact, at the first-ever Golden Raspberry Awards, not only did Shelley Duvall compete for Worst Supporting Actress but so, too, did Kubrick for Worst Director. But, like the majority of Kubrick’s films, it was only a matter of time before “The Shining” became
Aidan O'Malley | Monday, November 4, 2019
Nestled in the AMC River East just a stone’s throw away from its eponymous waterway, the Chicago International Film Festival (Oct. 16-27) quietly came to life. In its 55th year of competition, CIFF is the longest-running film festival in the country, but you wouldn’t know it just from going. Despite its buzzworthy lineup and a
Aidan O'Malley | Tuesday, October 15, 2019
For all its technical wizardry and for every commercial that claims “you’ve never seen anything like it” — “Gemini Man” is a movie you have certainly seen before. Quite an obvious reason for that has to do with the film’s script, which sat rotting in development hell for 20 years — literally. First conceived by
Aidan O'Malley | Wednesday, September 25, 2019
The phrase “Ad Astra” is Latin for “to the stars.” The movie “Ad Astra” makes reference to this in its opening with a red, inky font that calls to mind the opening crawl of “Blade Runner;” the word “replicant” practically bleeds. It’s the first of many allusions director James Gray (“The Immigrant,” “The Lost City