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So it’s that time of year again. Time to sharpen the knives, crack the knuckles, and put together the lists: the best movies of the year and, of course, the worst movies of the year. I know people love to get mad about these lists. They love to argue, they love to scream, they love to send me emails that start with “How could you possibly...?” But listen: I’ve been a professional film critic for 40 years. March 5th, 2025 was my actual 40-year anniversary of doing this job for

It's a holiday weekend (and, not to mention, MY BIRTHDAY weekend), so it's a fun time. I am wearing nice shorts. Nice Film Critic Shorts that is. They fit. They are on, and I'm ready to review four new movies in this week's capsule (short) movie reviews for Friday, July 4, 2025. 1) JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH I've never been a fan of the Jurassic Park  franchise. Yeah, yeah, I know. Heresy. Sacrilege. I'm supposed to bow at the altar of Spielberg's  1993 dino spectacle. But here's

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of immersing myself—almost entirely—in what has become one of my favorite cinematic events of the year: The Chicago Critics Film Festival . This was its 12th edition, and yeah... I was there for six of the seven glorious days. I saw 13 feature films (some incredible, some not so much) and enjoyed two blocks of terrific shorts, all while soaking in the magic that only the Music Box Theatre  on Southport can provide. Now, for those of y