People often ask me if, after all these years of covering entertainment, there’s a celebrity I was especially nervous to interview. It wasn’t a superstar like Chris Evans or Penelope Cruz. It wasn’t an influential filmmaker like Clint Eastwood or Noah Baumbach. (Although I will say that Tommy Lee Jones...
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Revisiting
RogerEbert.com — Maze Runner: The Death Cure
Supposedly, the maze running is over. We’re out of the Glade and the Scorch, and we’ve escaped the flailing, gnashing zombies. The third and final installment in this particular dystopian Young Adult franchise is now complete. While its action sequences are strong — as was also the case in director...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — 12 Strong
“Understated” isn’t a word you’d ordinarily use to describe a Jerry Bruckheimer production, but that’s surprisingly what “12 Strong” ends up being. Director Nicolai Fuglsig, making his feature filmmaking debut, draws on his photojournalism background in telling this story of real-life heroism. Chris Hemsworth stars as the leader of a...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Molly’s Game
If you’re a fan of Aaron Sorkin’s particular brand of impossibly intelligent characters exchanging rat-a-tat dialogue, you’ll be in heaven here. The hose is on full blast for two-plus hours. Nothing and no one seems to be holding the longtime screenwriter back in his directorial debut, for better and for...
Read moreWine the Flick?! — All the Money in the World
My dear friend and What the Flick?! co-host Matt Atchity steps out from behind the camera to join me for a drink and discussion of “All the Money in the World.” Ridley Scott famously did last-minute reshoots of several scenes, replacing Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer — his first choice to...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — The Leisure Seeker
It’s hard to imagine that legendary actors like Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland could co-star in a movie that’s flat-out terrible but … they have. And it’s called “The Leisure Seeker.” That’s also the affectionate name of their clunky RV, which they take on one last road trip. Director Paolo...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — I, Tonya
As a (wannabe) figure skater, I was already predisposed to liking “I, Tonya.” But I was blown away by how surprisingly powerful and poignant it was. It’s “GoodFellas” on ice: darkly comic and often just plain dark, but always breathtakingly alive. Margot Robbie is heartbreaking as the disgraced skater and Allison...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Call Me By Your Name
Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me By Your Name” is the best film of 2017. This story of unexpected first love set in northern Italy during the summer of 1983 is lushly beautiful and achingly sad, with pitch-perfect performances from Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer. It left me a sobbing mess. Come...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Wonder
What a wonderful surprise this movie is. It looks like a mawkish family drama about a young boy who overcomes a genetic abnormality and finds some happiness in the world. But it ends up being genuinely moving, thanks to strong performances from Jacob Tremblay, Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson and...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Bitch
As director, writer and star, Marianna Palka has come up with a creative, provocative concept with “Bitch”: She plays an overwhelmed, underappreciated wife and mother who snaps one day and starts living life as a dog. But Palka has trouble balancing dark comedy with dire melodrama, struggling to find the right tone...
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