Chaz's Journal
Cannes Flashback: Quentin Tarantino, Werner Herzog, Ernest White II and More
Chaz Ebert's fifth video dispatch from Cannes 2019, featuring her interactions with Werner Herzog, Quentin Tarantino and more.
Chaz Ebert's fifth video dispatch from Cannes 2019, featuring her interactions with Werner Herzog, Quentin Tarantino and more.
The ten best films of 2018, according to Glenn Kenny.
Reviews from the New York Film Festival of the latest by Alfonso Cuaron, Alex Ross Perry, the Coen brothers and Julian Schnabel.
An overview of the films that will be theatrically released in the 2015 fall season.
"Birdman," "Whiplash," "The Theory of Everything," and "Big Hero 6" hit Blu-ray just in time to capitalize on their Oscar wins, along with a complete list of how and when to see all of the 2015 Oscar nominees.
A guide to the best new releases on Blu-ray and DVD, including Nightcrawler, John Wick, Dear White People, Force Majeure, and more.
A guide to the latest and greatest on Netflix, On Demand, and Blu-ray/DVD, including "Guardians of the Galaxy," "Magic in the Moonlight," "Frank," and Criterion editions of "Safe" and "Time Bandits."
A report on "Song of the Sea" and "Over Your Dead Body" at the 2014 AFI Fest.
Sheila writes: Nelson Carvajal and Jed Mayer, over at Press Play, present a video and an essay about the "scary summer" of 1979. It's a beautiful blend of autobiography and cultural and film memories from that particular summer. Jed Mayer writes: "As tag-lines go, George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead sports a pretty good one: 'When there’s no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the earth.' I stared for weeks at the lurid poster bearing these ominous words. It hung in the front windows of the Maplewood Mall multiplex. Looking back, I think a more fitting tag-line might have come from a speech given by President Jimmy Carter later that same summer: 'Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift. What can we do?'" Well worth a look!
Simon Abrams ranks the films he saw at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, from best to worst.
Simon Abrams goes from gory horror comedy to to earnest dramas about love, growing up and spirituality. Who says Sundance films are all the same?
Marie writes: As some of you may have heard, a fireball lit up the skies over Russia on February 15, 2013 when a meteoroid entered Earth's atmosphere. Around the same time, I was outside with my spiffy new digital camera - the Canon PowerShot SX260 HS. And albeit small, it's got a built-in 20x zoom lens. I was actually able to photograph the surface of the moon!
(click to enlarge)
As we race further and faster toward a global war between Christians and Muslims, and as we feel compelled to choose sides, I have to think back to my childhood. One of the blessings of my youth is that my parents raised me in the simple, small life of the South Suburbs of Chicago. When we landed, the overwhelming majority of South Asian immigrants took residence in the North and West sides. The blessing is not that I was raised away from most other Pakistanis and Indians. Rather, that I grew up in a town that boldly, humbly calls itself a "Community of Churches." It is a small town that banned all business on Sundays and prohibited any liquor sales any time of the day or week. And, what becomes more important is that when watching a film like Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven" (2005), I remember my wonderful neighbors, childhood friends, and teachers far more than I remember the television and internet bigots who today masquerade as Christians, no matter how many of them there seem to be.
Marie writes: According to the calendar, summer is now officially over (GASP!) and with its demise comes the first day of school. Not all embrace the occasion, however. Some wrap themselves proudly in capes of defiance and make a break for it - rightly believing that summer isn't over until the last Himalayan Blackberry has been picked and turned into freezer jam!
