Fire

I saw a good movie the other night, guided by a tight, 85-minute narrative and a gratifying seriousness underneath its supernatural premise. The film is “Presence,” made for a couple of million dollars, directed by Steven Soderbergh, and written by the equally versatile industry veteran, screenwriter David Koepp. They made “KIMI” together, similarly scaled, and … [Read more...] about Column: A movie’s story exposition is a tricky thing. Consider how we learn what’s what in ‘Presence.’

In the Hulu series “Paradise,” Sterling K. Brown plays Xavier Collins, a Secret Service agent who shows up to work one morning to find the president dead on the floor of his bedroom. Looks like murder. But the official story — determined by those higher up the food chain than Xavier — will be natural causes. Why? Because there’s a bigger story going on. Who killed the … [Read more...] about ‘Paradise’ review: A Secret Service agent goes rogue

Among the great lyrical wonders of the world are the metaphors and similes of Neko Case. It’s as if she’s never seen anything that she didn’t imagine as something else much more interesting. Wild animals play characters in her songs. Tornados turn sentient. Temptation is a long black train. She imagines she were the moon. Case once described herself on her Substack newsletter … [Read more...] about Neko Case didn’t set out to write a tell-all. Yet she still told plenty in ‘The Harder I Fight The More I Love You’

There is more to be said about the short film “Color Blind” than is said in the film itself. It’s a fairly straightforward plot — a girl and boy meet and, suddenly, their black and white world bursts into color. But it’s also a silent film and it was made in 11 days and it was made by high school students from Lyons Township High School so, in a way, it says a lot. The film was … [Read more...] about Lyons Township team goes silent for Film Festival challenge