Blog

With the release of Paul Thomas Anderson ’s latest film, the absolute masterpiece One Battle After Another , I thought I’d sit down, hammer this out, and finally put together a piece about my favorite filmmaker of all time. That’s right, Paul Thomas Anderson. PTA. The best filmmaker on the planet. Period. I’m going to say this upfront: the man has not made a bad movie. Not one. Ten films, ten great films, all four-star movies in my book. Some of them are flat-out masterpieces

The 4th of July is right around the corner, and you know what that means: fireworks. Lots and lots of fireworks. Maybe you're headed to a big show—something elaborate and professional over Navy Pier here in Chicago, or bursting across the sky above Grant Park while a John Philip Sousa march blares in the background. Or maybe it's a baseball game, and the fireworks fly after the final out. That’s all great—classic, beautiful, family-friendly explosions in the sky. Then ther

Father’s Day is right around the corner, and while most people are picking out cards, firing up the grill, and celebrating the wholesome, dependable, hard-working dads of the world… I’ve decided to take a slightly different approach. In true Nick D fashion, I’m here to pay tribute not to the best movie dads—but to the worst. Yes, the terrible. The twisted. The criminally incompetent. The dangerous. The dads who never should’ve had kids in the first place, and somehow managed

I love food. I love TV shows about food. And I love movies about food. Basically, I just love food. I cook quite a bit—I'm a pretty good chef if I do say so myself—and it's one of my absolute favorite hobbies. It's fulfilling, it's creative, and it just makes me happy. I love eating food, I love talking about food, and when I was doing my radio show, food was a regular topic. We had chefs on as guests, we cooked live on the air, we did tastings—it was always a blast. I still

The new Film Critics pants fit like a glove, so I am wearing them to review another week's worth of new film releases—and this week, there are a lot of new ones. We have a glut of movies this week as studios rush to get the leftover 2024 releases into theaters. Six new films are featured in this week's capsule (short) movie reviews for Friday, January 10, 2025. 1) HARD TRUTHS The singular, brilliant, and prodigiously talented British writer/director Mike Leigh  ("Secrets and

New Year's Eve is traditionally a pretty insane night to go out and deal with big crowds, crazy drivers, and expensive drinks. Staying at home for a quiet night of food, good company, and a great movie is a much better idea. With that in mind, I have put together a list of fun movies to watch on that specific night because they either take place on that holiday or have at least one key or crucial scene that happens on NYE. Some of these films are better than others (A LOT bet