Roger Joseph Ebert was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times said Ebert "was without question the nation's most prominent and influential film critic," and Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called him "the best-known film critic in America."
Moonstruck is a 1987 American romantic comedy-drama film directed and co-produced by Norman Jewison, written by John Patrick Shanley, and starring Cher, Nicolas Cage, Danny Aiello, Olympia Dukakis, and Vincent Gardenia. The film follows Loretta Castorini, a widowed Italian-American woman who falls in love with her fiancé's hot-tempered, estranged younger brother.
Dead Poets Society is a 1989 American drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Tom Schulman. The film, starring Robin Williams, is set in 1959 at the fictional elite boarding school Welton Academy, and tells the story of an English teacher who inspires his students through his teaching of poetry.
Round Midnight is a 1986 musical drama film directed by Bertrand Tavernier and written by Tavernier and David Rayfiel. It stars Dexter Gordon, with a soundtrack by Herbie Hancock. The title comes from Thelonious Monk's 1943 composition 'Round Midnight, which is featured in this film in a Hancock arrangement.
The Anarchist Cookbook, first published in 1971, is a book containing instructions for the manufacture of explosives, rudimentary telecommunications phreaking devices, and related weapons, as well as instructions for the home manufacture of illicit drugs, including LSD. It was written by William Powell at the apex of the counterculture era to protest against United States's involvement in the Vietnam War. Powell converted to Anglicanism in 1976 and later attempted to have the book removed from circulation. However, the copyright belonged to the publisher, who continued circulation until the company was acquired in 1991. Its legality has been questioned in several jurisdictions.
Eugene Kal Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his death in 1999.
Jeepers Creepers 2 is a 2003 American horror film written and directed by Victor Salva. A sequel to the 2001 film Jeepers Creepers, the film finds the Creeper, a demonic creature and mysterious serial killer who pursues a school bus filled with high school students. Ray Wise also appears as Jack Taggart, a farmer who seeks to hunt down and kill the Creeper as revenge for his younger son who the Creeper had murdered that same week. Additionally, Francis Ford Coppola returned to the franchise as an executive producer.
The Theory of Flight is a 1998 British comedy-drama film directed by Paul Greengrass from a screenplay written by Richard Hawkins. It stars Helena Bonham Carter and Kenneth Branagh.
Gina Philips is an American actress. She had recurring roles on David E. Kelley's Ally McBeal, as Sandy Hingle, and Boston Public, as Jenna Miller. She is perhaps best known as Trish Jenner in the horror film Jeepers Creepers (2001). She reprised her role in a cameo in Jeepers Creepers 3 (2017).
U Turn is a 1997 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Oliver Stone and starring Sean Penn, Billy Bob Thornton, Jennifer Lopez, Jon Voight, Powers Boothe, Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes, and Nick Nolte. It is based on the book Stray Dogs by John Ridley, who also wrote the screenplay.
The Anarchist Cookbook is a 2002 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Jordan Susman. The film follows a young honors student-turned-anarchist, Puck, and his group of anarchist friends living peacefully in a Dallas commune until a nihilist, Johnny Black, appears with a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook and completely destroys their way of life.
Body of Evidence is a 1993 erotic thriller film directed by Uli Edel, written by Brad Mirman, and starring Madonna and Willem Dafoe, with Joe Mantegna, Anne Archer, Julianne Moore, and Jürgen Prochnow in supporting roles.
Anomalisa is a 2015 American adult stop motion animated psychological comedy-drama film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, who co-directed with Duke Johnson. It was based on Kaufman's 2005 audio play of the same name under his alias Francis Fregoli, which is considered an exploration of the Fregoli delusion. Anomalisa follows British middle-aged customer service expert Michael Stone, who perceives everyone as identical except for Lisa Hesselman, whom he meets in a Cincinnati hotel.
Life of Crime is a 2013 American black comedy crime film written and directed by Daniel Schechter, based on Elmore Leonard's novel The Switch (1978), which includes characters later revisited in his novel Rum Punch (1992), which was adapted into the Quentin Tarantino film Jackie Brown (1997). Life of Crime was screened on the closing night 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, on the opening day of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, at the 2014 Traverse City Film Festival and released in theaters on August 29, 2014 by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions.
Daniel Nearing is a Chicago, Illinois-based director, screenwriter, and independent filmmaker. Hogtown, his "period-less" American film, has been called "the most original film made in Chicago about Chicago to date" and named one of the 10 Best Films of 2016 by Ben Kenigsberg, who reviewed the film for The New York Times. Nearing was named the inaugural Filmmaker in Residence for the City of Chicago and Chicagoan of the Year for Film (2016–17) by the Chicago Tribune
Ferdinand is a 2017 American computer-animated adventure comedy film produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The film, a loose remake of Ferdinand the Bull, and loosely based on Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson's 1936 children's book The Story of Ferdinand, was written by Robert L. Baird, Tim Federle, and Brad Copeland, and directed by Carlos Saldanha. The film features an ensemble voice cast that includes John Cena, Kate McKinnon, Bobby Cannavale, Peyton Manning, Anthony Anderson, David Tennant, Tim Nordquist, Lily Day, Juanes, Jerrod Carmichael, Miguel Ángel Silvestre, Raúl Esparza, Gina Rodriguez, Daveed Diggs, Gabriel Iglesias, Flula Borg, Boris Kodjoe, and Sally Phillips. The music for the film was composed by John Powell, making it his eighth and final collaboration with Blue Sky before it shut down on April 10, 2021. The story, written by Ron Burch, David Kidd, and Don Rhymer, follows a gentle pacifist bull named Ferdinand who refuses to participate in bullfighting but is forced back into the arena where his beliefs are challenged when he faces off against the world's greatest bullfighter.
Rosenwald: A Remarkable Story of a Jewish Partnership with African American Communities is a 2015 documentary film written and directed by Aviva Kempner about the career of American businessman and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald. It debuted on February 25, 2015 at the Washington Jewish Film Festival.
Denial is a 2016 biographical film directed by Mick Jackson and written by David Hare, based on Deborah Lipstadt's 2005 book History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier. It dramatises the Irving v Penguin Books Ltd case, in which Lipstadt, a Holocaust scholar, was sued by Holocaust denier David Irving for libel. It stars Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Spall, Andrew Scott, Jack Lowden, Caren Pistorius and Alex Jennings.
Welcome to Happiness is a 2015 American comedy film written and directed by Oliver Thompson and starring Kyle Gallner, Olivia Thirlby, Nick Offerman, Keegan-Michael Key, Brendan Sexton III and Josh Brener. It was released on May 20, 2016, by FilmBuff.
Epicentro is a 2020 Spanish-language documentary film directed by Hubert Sauper. The film stars Oona Chaplin and has been described as a travelogue focused on Cuba. At the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, it won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary Competition and it has a 90% rating on review-aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes reads, "As evocative as it is thought-provoking, Epicentro takes an affectionate look at a people and culture -- and delivers a quietly effective rejoinder to lingering Cold War resentment." It runs for 107 minutes and is in English and Spanish with English subtitles.
