Awards

The Overlook Film Festival 2024 Highlights, Part 1: Fasterpiece Theater, Exhuma, All You Need is Death, Me | Festivals & Awards

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You can tell that the Overlook’s organizer have already cultivated a receptive audience for their programming given how engaged and focused theatergoers’ questions were after each screening. People were really excited to find out more about whatever they just saw, including a special screening of “Me,” Don Hertzfeldt’s trippy, unsettling 23-minute long musical. Most people … Read more

Chicago Critics Film Festival Announces Full 2024 Lineup with Sing Sing, Ghostlight, Babes, I Saw the TV Glow, More | Festivals & Awards

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SING SING Director: Greg Kwedar | 105 mins Divine G (Colman Domingo), imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn’t commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other men who are incarcerated, including wary newcomer (Clarence Maclin), in this stirring true story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art, … Read more

Which Cannes Film Will Win the Palme d’Or? Let’s Rank Their Chances | Festivals & Awards

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It’s worth keeping in mind that critics haven’t seen any of these films, and in some cases, we don’t even have a really strong sense of what a particular movie is about. Also important: Handicappers will sometimes base their predictions on who the jury president is, assuming that the kind of film that he or … Read more

SXSW 2024: Diane Warren: Relentless, Thank You Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird, Preconceived | Festivals & Awards

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“Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird” is as dissatisfied and restless as the Bon Jovi project is settled and happy. The title comes from something that Omar Rodríguez-López said to his childhood friend Cedric Bixler-Zavala 24 years ago, right before their band At the Drive-In recorded their breakthrough post-hardcore album Relationship of Command: … Read more

SXSW 2024: Songs from the Hole, The Black Sea, Adrianne & The Castle | Festivals & Awards

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But for all the fest’s foibles, I think it would be shortsighted to pass that ire down to the filmmakers or their projects–many of whom had little to no say in these decisions and who may not even support the actions the festival endorses (or knew about it before their role at the fest was … Read more

SXSW 2024: Sing Sing, Bob Trevino Likes It, Hood Witch | Festivals & Awards

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“Bob Trevino Likes It” is an example of what some people have called “Nicecore,” meaning a work of art that stresses kindness, generosity, empathy and other positive behaviors, and doesn’t undercut it with irony or cynicism. The main character, Lily Trevino (Barbie Ferreira), is a 25-year-old home care nurse whose father Bob (French Stewart) is … Read more

SXSW 2024: Omni Loop, Desert Road, Things Will Be Different | Festivals & Awards

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A very different kind of loop unfolds in Shannon Triplett’s very good “Desert Road,” a film that it truly feels that Rod Serling would have dug. “The Twilight Zone” regularly returned to travelers who break from reality, and that’s the basic template of Triplett’s film, a movie that consistently challenges perception of what’s really going … Read more

SXSW 2024: Clemente, Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie, This is a Movie About the Black Keys | Festivals & Awards

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That film is David Altrogge’s “Clemente,” a loving ode to one of the most impressive and important athletes of all time. Robert Clemente was the first Latin-American to win an MVP, a World Series MVP, and be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He shattered the color barrier in a way that still resonates … Read more

SXSW 2024: Whatever It Takes, Resynator, The Hobby | Festivals & Awards

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The tag for Jenny Carchman’s film is “The Most Shocking Scandal in Silicon Valley History” and it actually lives up to that high bar. Produced by Allyson Luchak (who worked on the game-changing “The Staircase”), “Whatever It Takes” is the story of Ina and David Steiner, an ordinary, likable couple who had a deep interest … Read more

SXSW 2024: Dandelion, A Nice Indian Boy, I Don’t Understand You, I Love You Forever | Festivals & Awards

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Without spoiling anything, Dandelion has to find the creative courage within herself. Casey may have helped light the match for her fire to burn, but the brilliant screenwriting element of the back half of this movie is that Riegel never lets it become just another story of how a woman needs a man to inspire … Read more