Roger Ebert

CHICAGO – There’s something even more bittersweet and poignant about the beautiful, mesmerizing “Blancanieves,” new to Blu-ray and DVD, when one thinks that it was one of the last movies that Roger Ebert fell in love with. The legendary critic adored this film so much that he programmed it for the Overlooked Film Festival, which unspooled shortly after his death. Seeing the film now and the way it deals with loss while also paying homage to the history of cinema, it seems almost like a tribute to the man who engendered a love of film for so many people. Although the connection to Ebert is only the final beautiful twist to a major piece of work, one of the more engaging and well-made films of 2013. This film is a special one. Don’t miss it.

CHICAGO – Sarah Polley’s brilliant “Stories We Tell” was the opening night film of the 2013 Chicago Critics Film Festival and the writer/director/actress sat down with HollywoodChicago.com to discuss the very personal documentary about her family history. It opens next Friday, May 17, 2013. Come back next week for a full review of the best film of the year to date.

CHICAGO – Writer/director Ramin Bahrani delivers his most mainstream film this weekend with the Chicago release of “At Any Price,” an old-fashioned melodrama starring Dennis Quaid as a grain farmer caught in some awful situations in order to protect his family.

CHICAGO – Rare is the film that explores love from a male perspective and doesn’t become overtly preoccupied with sex. Writer/director Jeff Nichols’s fabulously entertaining third feature, “Mud,” is a bittersweet ode to the broken heart, and how it can both hinder and bolster one’s evolution as an individual. The picture is romantic in every sense of the word.

CHICAGO – When I first walked into the Chicago film critic’s screening room in January of 2008, Roger Ebert was sitting there, in the seat where he always held court. I had met him only a couple times earlier, as just a film buff and his admirer. It was the first time I was to join him as a fellow film critic, and it didn’t seem possible.

CHICAGO – Roger Ebert may have left this world today, but he did not die. He is alive in every moviegoer he guided toward a cinematic epiphany and in every writer who believes that big ideas can be conveyed to and embraced by the masses. The following is a column I wrote five years ago for my college paper, The Columbia Chronicle.

CHICAGO – The Chicago Sun-Times has reported that Roger Ebert, beloved and influential film critic at the Chicago Sun-Times, has died today at age 70, of complications due to cancer.

CHICAGO – On Thursday, April 4, 2013, the film industry lost a titan as Roger Ebert succumbed to his long battle with cancer. Far more than just an icon in the film industry, the first film critic to ever win a Pulitzer Prize became so much more than a writer to those who knew him, worked with him, and felt inspired by his unimaginable courage and incredible way with words. Everyone who was inspired by him (which is pretty much everyone who’s ever written a movie review) is shaken to the core today but encouraged by the lasting lessons he taught us all. The movie theater is a little darker tonight.

CHICAGO – The great Anthony Bourdain, who entertained viewers for seasons with his foodie adventures around the world on “No Reservations,” has altered his recipe a bit for The Travel Channel’s “The Layover with Anthony Bourdain,” which returns tonight for a second season premiere which finds the chef/personality spending 43 hours in our favorite city in the world, Chicago.

CHICAGO – In Feb. 2012, the Music Box Theatre (on Chicago’s north side) offered a challenge to Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert. If he could beat them in predicting the 86th Annual Oscars – as part of his “Outguess Ebert” contest – then the theatre would screen any film chosen by the Pulitzer Prize-winning legend. Roger Ebert presents “Red Rock West” at the Music Box Theatre on May 1, 2012.