Michael Phillips

Michael Phillips is the Chicago Tribune film critic. He previously wrote about theater, movies, arts and culture for the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer Press and other outlets. He appears weekly on Classical WFMT-FM's "Soundtrack" and is a frequent guest on the "Filmspotting" podcast. He got paid for his first opinion in print at age 17, which more or less ruined him.

Graham Chapman (left) and Terry Jones in the 1975 comedy "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." (Python Pictures/TNS)

Column: 50 years ago, ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ showed us what comedy needs — and doesn’t

April 30, 2025 at 5:40 a.m.

Back in theaters for its 50th birthday, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" remains a sublimely ridiculous Arthurian travesty that we can't stop quoting.

Florence Pugh as Yelena, aka Black Widow, in Marvel's "Thunderbolts*." (Marvel Studios)

‘Thunderbolts*’ review: Tormented superheroes in the first pretty-good Marvel movie in a while

April 29, 2025 at 5:01 p.m.

Florence Pugh leads a crew of scrappy misfits. It's a familiar premise, "Suicide Squad" did the same thing, but here it works.

Helena Zengel in "The Legend of Ochi." (A24)

Review: ‘The Legend of Ochi’ is a rich, intense fairy tale with a human touch

April 24, 2025 at 1:16 p.m.

Blending story elements from 1980s titles like "Gremlins" with a persuasive fantasy texture, this sweet movie has a terrific teenage girl (Helena Zengel) at its center.

Anthony Kaufman, Doc10 co-founder and programmer, at home in Evanston on April 18, 2025. The all-documentary film festival will feature 10 titles from around the world. (Audrey Richardson/Chicago Tribune)

Column: Doc10’s Anthony Kaufman on the perils facing documentary film — and why it’ll survive

April 24, 2025 at 10:29 a.m.

From the Ukraine front lines to a Chinese "mistress dispeller," the films in this year's Doc10 fest in Chicago cast a wide net.

Jon Bernthal and Ben Affleck return for the eight-years-later sequel "The Accountant 2." (Warrick Page/MGM/Amazon Studios)

‘Accountant 2’ review: Ben Affleck’s back in a human trafficking sequel where guns beat spreadsheets

April 24, 2025 at 4:10 p.m.

To get along like they mean it, the estranged brothers played by Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal in “The Accountant 2” learn by doing. What they learn is that most...

A moment, captured sometime in the early 1970s in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts, from "Killer of Sheep." (Milestone Films)

Review: ‘Killer of Sheep,’ a poetic-realist masterwork, returns sharper than ever

April 18, 2025 at 11:45 a.m.

Charles Burnett's gently astonishing movie tells the stories of the people he knew in his Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts in the 1970s. It's at the Gene Siskel Film Center...

Colin Bliss and Greta Scheing in "Secret Mall Apartment," a documentary about displaced artists living in the bowels of a Rhode Island mall for four years. (Wheelhouse Creative)

‘Secret Mall Apartment’ review: When an extra-special shopping trip lasts 4 years

April 17, 2025 at 10:33 a.m.

Effortlessly weaving together urban renewal debates and the DIY artistic spirit, Jeremy Workman's "Secret Mall Apartment" scores.

Chicago bootleggers and identical twins Smoke and Stack, played by Michael B. Jordan, return home to Mississippi in Ryan Coogler's "Sinners." (Warner Bros. Pictures)

‘Sinners’ review: In Ryan Coogler’s juicy mashup, a pair of Michael B. Jordans dance with the devil

April 16, 2025 at 8:09 a.m.

With "Sinners," filmmaker Ryan Coogler creates a big, flawed, juicy blues folktale of Black enterprise vs. vampires, literal and figurative.

Meghann Fahy as Violet in the thriller "Drop." (Universal Pictures)

‘Drop’ review: We’ll start with the death threats, and two glasses of the Malbec

April 10, 2025 at 3:31 p.m.

Led by Meghann Fahy, the gleefully improbable "Drop" puts its first-date heroine through hell, right down to a comic-relief waiter.

Charles Melton (center) co-stars in "Warfare," based on co-writer and co-director Ray Mendoza's Iraq war experience as a U.S. Navy SEAL. (A24)

Column: Can a war film evoke the authentic chaos of combat? The makers of ‘Warfare’ made it their mission.

April 10, 2025 at 5:15 a.m.

"Warfare" co-writers and co-directors Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza talk about how they threw out the usual Hollywood touches and went only for veracity.

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