J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader
Chicago, IL, United States
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Past articles by J.:
Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot
A leaky urine bag of a movie—and I mean that as a compliment—this uninhibited biopic immortalizes John Callahan, who was left quadriplegic by a drunken... → Read More
Blindspotting and Sorry to Bother You expose the class tensions often obscured by race
Two of the year’s best movies come rocketing out of Oakland, California. → Read More
Triplets ripped from family in a Nazi-like experiment, probed in Three Identical Strangers
This true story of brothers separated at birth in the name of science hits like a thunderbolt. → Read More
Superfly rolls back the clock on African-American movie heroes
Cocaine dealer Youngblood Priest returns to louse up the Black Panther era. → Read More
Chicago’s Wax Trax! Records portrayed as a romance etched in vinyl in new documentary
Industrial Accident chronicles the love relationship that sustained Chicago's legendary record store and label. → Read More
Animator Jiří Trnka created magical worlds amid stifling communist censorship
Gene Siskel Film Center presents a dazzling monthlong retrospective of the Czech master’s work. → Read More
Paul Schrader’s First Reformed finds pride at the root of despair
Ethan Hawke stars as a minister who can't talk to his boss. → Read More
The Rider
An extraordinary translation of life into art, Chloé Zhao's drama fictionalizes the experiences of Brady Jandreau, a Lakota cowboy on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation... → Read More
First Reformed
Still best known as the screenwriter of Taxi Driver (1976), veteran director Paul Schrader indulges his two big passions—Calvinism and bloodletting—with this audacious drama. Ethan... → Read More
Solo: A Star Wars Story
After Rogue One (2016), this is the second installment in Disney's "Star Wars Anthology" franchise filling in the nooks and crannies of George Lucas's original... → Read More
Solo: A Star Wars Story--The IMAX 2D Experience
After Rogue One (2016), this is the second installment in Disney's "Star Wars Anthology" franchise filling in the nooks and crannies of George Lucas's original... → Read More
Deadpool 2: Not enough orgies
Marvel's wisecracking antihero returns in a sequel that lacks the original's agreeable excess. → Read More
Like Juno, Diablo Cody's Tully is a tale of motherhood and waning youth
Charlize Theron stars as a woman rescued from postpartum depression by a new friend. → Read More
RBG
Documentary makers Julie Cohen and Betsy West celebrate the career of Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, noting her recent emergence as a feminist rock... → Read More
Mod Fuck Explosion: Stuck in the past, ahead of its time
Jon Moritsugu's underground classic reheats the 60s mod craze and strikes an early blow for Asian-American identity. → Read More
The Chicago Film Critics Association takes a break from journalism to present its own slate of films
New work by Andrew Bujalski (Results), Debra Granik (Winter’s Bone), and Paul Schrader (Auto Focus) turns up in this year’s Chicago Critics Film Festival. → Read More
With The Green Fog, Guy Maddin delivers an experimental feature that’s pure entertainment
Clips from movies shot in San Francisco are edited into a reimagining of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. → Read More
Chappaquiddick: How to spin a movie about spin?
A new drama about the Ted Kennedy scandal seeks a mass audience in a politically polarized climate. → Read More
Game Night | Chicago Reader
I've always found Jason Bateman's comedies to be a pretty good bet; he’s never doubled me over, but the movies he's produced (Identity Thief, Bad... → Read More
The wall’s gonna fall at the Chicago Latino Film Festival
The 34th edition brings 60 new features from Spain, the U.S., and Central and South America. → Read More