Ben Sachs
Chicago Reader
Chicago, IL, United States
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Past articles by Ben:
A fond farewell to Odd Obsession
Remembering the people and films that made the video store special. → Read More
Chicago movie journal: Make no little home-viewing plans
Now is the time to tackle some daunting cinema. → Read More
Chicago Movie Journal: Two Walshes, two Invisibles
Four films exploring humanity, made for the big screen. → Read More
Ben Sachs’s 25 favorite movies of the decade
You might have missed some of the most groundbreaking and innovative films of the 2010s. → Read More
Rick Alverson’s The Mountain is a fascinating yet frustrating mood piece
But if you get on this film's wavelength, you just might find it trancelike. → Read More
Movie Tuesday: The search for signs of intelligent life in the universe
Five outstanding films about beings from outer space → Read More
Ad Astra sends father-son conflict into space
Director James Gray’s latest returns to the theme of the powerful but imperfect patriarch. → Read More
Movie Tuesday: What do kids know?
One of the most exciting aspects of the Abbas Kiarostami retrospective currently under way at the Gene Siskel Film Center (and which runs through the end of October) is that it contains many of the early short films Kiarostami made for Iran’s Institute for the Intellectual Development of Youth. Whether or not they feature children (though many of them do), these works showcase Kiarostami’s deep… → Read More
Movie Tuesday: The male animal
Five films that examine, interrogate, or critique traditional male behavior. → Read More
Movie Tuesday: Post Labor Day/Back to work
Five films that consider the true meaning of the holiday. → Read More
Los Reyes and What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire take viewers deep into two communities
A Chilean skate park through the eyes of two dogs and a Black neighborhood in New Orleans → Read More
Movie Tuesday: Happy 90th anniversary, Music Box Theatre
Five films that put theaters at the center of the action. → Read More
Movie Tuesday: A few words (and movies) on kindness
Now playing in wide release, Richard Linklater’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette contains one of my favorite scenes to appear in an American movie this year. → Read More
Movie Tuesday: Doggiewoggiez! Poochiewoochiez!
In honor of the Reader’s Pets issue, here are five films with plenty of cinematic canine charisma. → Read More
Movie Tuesday: Movies directed by and/or starring musicians
Five films with turns in front of and behind the camera by Frank Zappa, Prince, Diana Ross, and more. → Read More
Our Time
Diego García’s widescreen cinematography is almost stunning enough to hold one’s interest for the entirety of this self-regarding three-hour drama by Mexican writer-director Carlos Reygadas... → Read More
Funny, sexy, and vibrant,“I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians” weighs the cost of confronting the past
Radu Jude’s latest feature examines the Romanian Holocaust and a nation in denial. → Read More
Movie Tuesday: Superior sequels and remakes
Five films that achieve the rare cinematic feat of improving upon their predecessors. → Read More
Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood indulges the fantasy of movie history when it could be questioning it
Or, a collection of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite things about late-60s LA. → Read More
Movie Tuesday: In the good old summertime
Inspired by the rerelease of Do the Right Thing, five films that most effectively make summer a part of the story → Read More