Phil Alden Robinson’s “Field of Dreams” (1989) may not be one of the greatest movies of all time but it surely has earned an astonishing amount of affection. It belongs to a very select group of features in which the audience doesn’t need to be familiar with the core subject to get the feeling they…

This morning the hard working folks behind the 57th  Chicago International Film Festival unveiled their full line-up, complete with nearly 90 feature films and four world premieres. From October 13-24, the festival will bring some of the year’s most anticipated films to the Windy City, starting with Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” which will be…

I read an email warning me about my mother’s impending death on a Wednesday in May 2021. It was just before I was to drive across town to a screening of “In the Heights.” Someone thought this film might take my mind off of my mother’s mortality, but I’m sure he didn’t know the themes explored…

The Toronto International Film Festival is well-known for being a layover location for major films that premiered at European fests earlier in the year. For those of us who don’t get to go to Cannes, Berlin, or Venice, it’s wonderful to use TIFF to catch up with some of the most acclaimed films of the…

Any list of actresses from the classic, golden-era age of Hollywood who fit the term “sultry” would be a long one. But the list of actresses who could be described as cheerful pretty much comes down to just Jane Powell, who died on September 16, 2021 at age 92. While other actresses played up their…

The stage-to-screen adaptation of “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” still keeps many of its theatrical stylings intact but it doesn’t make its core story any less affecting. It’s a familiar coming-of-age tale along the lines of “Billy Elliot” or even the Harry Potter series. A young boy, in this story his name is Jamie (Max Harwood),…