Roger Ebert Home

Far Flungers

Far Flungers

To Roger, from far-flung friends

Longtime readers of the Chicago Sun-Times are familiar with Roger Ebert's "One-Minute Reviews." These are capsule reviews (roughly 75-150 words or so), condensing his responses to current movies. As any writer knows, the short versions can be harder to write…

Far Flungers

Inside Kubrick's Room 237

"Room 237" is a captivating and engrossing new documentary exploring the covert symbols and whacked-out theories that have obsessed ardent fans of Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror film, "The Shining." From a personal secret statement about the Holocaust to a cryptic…

Far Flungers

In memory of Donald Richie

More than anyone else, Jeannette Hereniko introduced me to the concept of the cinema of the Pacific Rim. I knew Donald Richie through his books, and in particular learned from him about Ozu. More than anyone else, he was responsible…

Far Flungers

Steven Spielberg: My animated tribute

In my copy of his book "Scorsese," Roger Ebert wrote these words: "Every movie lover needs a hero." I've found mine in Steven Spielberg. Spielberg has been my hero ever since I, in my childhood, saw his more popular films…

Far Flungers

Chan-wook Park's Stoker: Young girl meets Oldboy

For better and worse, "Stoker," South Korean director Chan-wook Park's first film with an all English-speaking cast, is very much Park's baby. Park ("Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance," "Thirst") is most well-known for directing "Oldboy." In that now-famously bloody, operatic revenge…

Reviews

Everybody in Our Family

Family squabbles have a way of turning ugly in a matter of seconds, and yet can be weirdly comical to a bystander. Relatives know too much about each other and have too wide a range of weaponry to choose from. When a burned dinner from ten years before can suddenly surface as a major accusation, it's safe to say that all bets are off and we enter the realm of the absurd.

Far Flungers

Black designers show the French a thing or deux

For those of us who missed our calling as jet setters, socialites or fashion models along comes the edifying, spritely documentary "Versailles '73: American Runway Revolution" to show us how much work it is to be spontaneously fabulous. Nearly 40…