Michael Phillips

1 week ago | chicagotribune.com | Michael Phillips

Of all the memorable feature film debuts, Charles Burnett’s “Killer of Sheep” may be the freest from contrivance,  disinterested to a lovely degree in conventional story machinery or in anything more than moments in time and the daily lives of people Burnett knew in his Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts. Like Burnett himself, whose family relocated from Mississippi to LA, many of these people feel the pull of the place they knew, in this place they have come to know.

2 weeks ago | thederrick.com | Michael Phillips

The numbers tell a story. “American Sniper,” Clint Eastwood’s film about U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and his 160 confirmed “kills” across his four tours of duty in Iraq, stands as the most profitable war movie ever made. Its merits and drawbacks have been debated since 2014, when its massive popularity tapped into a desire millions plainly felt for deadly American marksmanship, honored in old-school, patriotic Hollywood fashion, albeit at a price.

2 weeks ago | thebrunswicknews.com | Michael Phillips

The numbers tell a story. "American Sniper," Clint Eastwood's film about U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and his 160 confirmed "kills" across his four tours of duty in Iraq, stands as the most profitable war movie ever made. Its merits and drawbacks have been debated since 2014, when its massive popularity tapped into a desire millions plainly felt for deadly American marksmanship, honored in old-school, patriotic Hollywood fashion, albeit at a price.

2 weeks ago | chicagotribune.com | Michael Phillips

The numbers tell a story. “American Sniper,” Clint Eastwood’s film about U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and his 160 confirmed “kills” across his four tours of duty in Iraq, stands as the most profitable war movie ever made. Its merits and drawbacks have been debated since 2014, when its massive popularity tapped into a desire millions plainly felt for deadly American marksmanship, honored in old-school, patriotic Hollywood fashion, albeit at a price.

2 weeks ago | hastingstribune.com | Michael Phillips

CHICAGO - Temperamentally different as they are, the playwright, screenwriter and Northwestern University professor Brett Neveu, a peppy, zigzaggy thinker and talker, has a lot in common with the formidable actor, musician and first-time film director Michael Shannon. The commonalities begin with a propensity to juggle more projects, more or less simultaneously, than would seem humanly plausible. Their joint collaborations spring from the Chicago storefront theater mainstay A Red Orchid Theatre.