Trust me, I well know that books are not movies and movies are not books—I’m fully aware of (and fascinated by) the differences in how the two mediums tell stories and create meaning and experience. And I also know that in this age of Internet tribalism, Hel hath no impotent, squealing fury like a fan … More The Hobbit: The Battle of the Battle of the Battles for the Battle

During World War II, British mathematician Alan Turing and a secret team of cryptologists eventually succeeded in using an early electronic computing machine to crack the seemingly uncrackable German Enigma machine code and help bring the war to a swifter close. In 1952, Turing, his immeasurable contribution to the British war effort still a state … More Interview: The Imitation Game's Writer Graham Moore and Director Morten Tyldum

Director Bennett Miller has been collecting praise for his smart, restrained film-making since his debut documentary The Cruise in 1998, through his Oscar-nominated Capote in 2005, and 2011’s Moneyball. Miller’s latest film, Foxcatcher (written by E. Max Frye and Capote writer Dan Futterman) is yet another look at real-life characters, this time the Olympic-medal-winning wrestlers, … More Interview: Foxcatcher Director Bennett Miller

A couple years ago I spoke with local Chicago documentary film maker Darryl Roberts about his film America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments, the second in his ongoing series about our modern culture’s ideas of and obsession with beauty and our sometimes warped self-images. Roberts’ latest documentary is America the Beautiful 3: The Sexualization … More Interview: America the Beautiful 3 Director Darryl Roberts

Christopher Nolan loves his daughter very much. He would like you to know that his parental love for his daughter is super large. Larger than your love for anything you might love in your lesser, non-blockbuster-making ways. Once a cold, calculating director, Christopher Nolan now believes in love, and his love for his daughter is … More Interstellar’s Quantum Love and Other Cosmic Horses#*t

Let’s start at the end. Stylistically and thematically, the closing credits of writer-director David Ayer’s WWII tank film, Fury, starring Brad Pitt, are some of the most fascinatingly jarring of recent years. The proceeding film is an often brutal, gruesome look at the psychological cost of war, namely the anger—yes, the fury—that some long-time soldiers … More Fury: The War Rages On

Heading to the press screening of David Fincher’s Gone Girl, I was, as usual, running late. But as I rushed from bus to cab to dashing down crowded Chicago streets, I reassured myself that even if I was five minutes late, I had a pretty good sense of what I’d miss in that opening: a … More Gone Girl, Gone

In 1996 the San Jose Mercury News published (in print and on the nascent World Wide Web) a series of investigative articles entitled “Dark Alliance” by journalist Gary Webb. In the articles, Webb stated that in the ’80s the CIA not only supported cocaine smuggling out of Nicaragua in order to fund its clandestine war … More Interview: Kill the Messenger Director Michael Cuesta

A few years ago, director Adam Wingard and his creative partner, writer Simon Barrett began intriguing horror fans with low-fi, often deftly deconstructive and ironic films like the mumblecore serial-killer flick A Horrible Way to Die, the V/H/S horror anthologies, and last year’s terrific You’re Next. While part of the mumblecore film un-movement with pals … More Interview: The Guest Star Dan Stevens, Writer Simon Barrett, and Director Adam Wingard

The Skeleton Twins feels so clichéd “indie” that it almost folds over into meta. That’s not entirely a bad thing—at least we’ve reached the point where delicately essayed indie-feelin’ films about human people not wearing superhero costumes or trying to blow each other up are created and appreciated often enough to be criticized for familiar … More The Skeleton Twins: (Sad) Funny Bones