“What made you talk to them?” “Still kinda putting that together in my own mind.” That really is the impossible question at the center of HBO’s wildly influential “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” isn’t it? Why did Robert Durst talk to Andrew Jarecki? What compelled a man who had seemingly gotten away with multiple murders to have all of his flimsy explanations destroyed and then top it all off with one of the most infamous conclusions ever, in which it sure seemed like Durst confessed on a mic he didn’t know was open?  Nine years after that landmark TV show, Jarecki and h ..read more

For the past twenty-five years, Chaz Ebert and the College of Media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have hosted the Ebertfest Film Festival at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign, Illinois. Roger Ebert was the first Film Critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for film criticism. He held his colleagues in esteem. Since his death, Chaz Ebert and Festival Director Nate Kohn have continued a tradition of inviting acclaimed film critics and scholars to participate at Ebertfest. This year's festival is dedicated to the memory of Roger Ebert and David Bordwell.  ..read more

The fact-based “Hard Miles” begins with a failure. Social worker Greg Townsend (Matthew Modine) urges a judge to allow the resident of a facility for teenage boys who have been in trouble to allow him to stay there, even though he pushed another boy. Townsend explains that he was protecting someone else, not instigating violence. But the judge rules that the boy must be transferred to a higher-security facility, one with “juvenile penitentiary” in its name.  It is not Townsend’s failure; it is a failure of a system that wants to treat these teenagers as criminals instead of opportunities ..read more

At the end of "The Beekeeper," an amazing thing happens: they fade to black and roll the credits. I saw the film earlier this year (it's on home video now and worth $5) and was slightly flummoxed. Written and directed by David Ayer ("Fury"), it stars Jason Statham as a former commando turned vigilante waging violent warfare against swindlers who hide behind the anonymity of the Internet. It's one of those films with a conspiracy that Goes Right to the Top, so of course it ends in a massive oceanside villa where some of the most important people on earth have gathered. Stat ..read more

“The Hands of Orlac,” a twisty and lurid 1924 Austrian psychodrama, was the last movie I saw in New Orleans at the Overlook Film Festival. The four day-long festival’s revival of the century-old silent movie, about a celebrated pianist who believes he’s haunted by the spirit of a killer, felt like an event thanks in no small part to a live, movie-length musical performance by local faves Listen More, Hear Less. I’d never seen this version of “The Hands of Orlac,” just its 1935 remake, “Mad Love,” which swaps out a memorably stricken Conrad Veidt for the usually ferocious Peter Lorre. The fest ..read more

Despite its gently bummed-out vibe, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is a sneakily powerful film. It’s so affecting, in fact, that I get a little sad just thinking about the story and characters. Even though I saw "Eternal Sunshine" twice in a theater when it came out and put it on my 2004 Top 10 list, I only revisited it once more after that (to be interviewed for a video essay that, as far as I know, is no longer available online) and haven’t watched it since. It’s not just the story itself that’s piercing; it’s the film’s visualization of memories being destroyed, which hits harder ..read more

If the 2020s were going to be any film subgenre, they would be body horror. It’s a genre preoccupied with testing the limits, pleasures, and possibilities of the flesh. It also has a streak of fear under the radical physical transformations it showcases: the loss of bodily autonomy. The fear of losing control of your body is a deep-seated and primal one. Body horror classics like “The Fly” and “Possession” had this in their bones, understanding that losing control of the corporeal can be frightening but also freeing. In more current titles, like “Crimes of the Future,” “Infinity Pool,” “Immac ..read more

Just when you think they’ve run out of real-life World War II stories to turn into blockbuster movies than some documents get declassified, inspiring or at least suggesting new sagas of heroism. This new movie about a small mission of Allied fighters killing Nazis on a grand scale wherever they go, directed by Guy Ritchie from a script by Ritchie, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, Arash Amel and Ritchie, claims as source material information that only became available after some secret history stuff was declassified in 2016. It also happens to be, according to its credits, based on a book by Damien ..read more

This week marks the 25th anniversary of Ebertfest, the film festival Roger and I co-founded in conjunction with the College of Media at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. lt is  hosted by me and Festival Director, Dr Nathaniel ("Nate") Kohn, every year at the Virginia Theatre. Nate has been the Festival Director since year one! This year we are joined by Festival Coordinator Molly Cornyn.   April 17th to April 20th, this year's fest spans thirteen features both old and new, one panel, and more than twenty-five guests and presenters, including Fi ..read more

How will you respond if you are evaluated for another life after your death? “Nine Days” is a little but poignant fantasy drama film which throws that thought-provoking question and some other interesting ones involved with life and humanity. When I watched it for the first time around the end of 2021, I was initially quite intrigued by its offbeat story premise, and then I found myself reflecting a lot on how I had lived my life—and how I should live for the rest of my life.   At first, the movie lets us get immersed in a small and isolated world inhabited by its hero Will (Winston ..read more