Michael Phillips

Michael Phillips is a former film critic for the Tribune.

Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson in a scene from "The Smashing Machine." (Ken Hirama Dunn/A24 via AP)

Movies for fall 2025: Our top 10 picks, from ‘Smashing Machine’ to a Springsteen story

September 4, 2025 at 4:33 p.m.

Coming this fall on screen: Julia Roberts, Daniel Day-Lewis, a George Clooney comedy and Russell Crowe in "Nuremberg."

Tribune film critic Michael Phillips, here at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago on Aug. 19, 2025, is departing the newspaper, where he has worked since 2002. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Column: The Tribune’s film critic Michael Phillips says so long for now

August 21, 2025 at 4:27 a.m.

Goodbye for now, as the Sondheim song from the film “Reds” put it. Thank you for reading.

Denzel Washington and Ilfenesh Hadera in director Spike Lee's "Highest 2 Lowest." (A24)

‘Highest 2 Lowest’ review: Spike Lee and Denzel Washington re-team for a heist movie that pays off

August 14, 2025 at 5:15 a.m.

A lot like the 1963 Akira Kurosawa film "High and Low," but a lot not, Spike Lee's "Highest 2 Lowest" goes its own unpredictable way.

Julia Garner plays a traumatized schoolteacher in "Weapons." (Warner Bros. Pictures)

‘Weapons’ review: The kids aren’t all right, but the movie works like a fiendish charm

August 7, 2025 at 5:15 a.m.

A missing children mystery collides with horror and, yes, humor, in "Barbarians" filmmaker Zach Cregger's absorbing "Weapons."

Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan return to body-swap land in "Freakier Friday." (Glen Wilson/Disney)

‘Freakier Friday’ review: A multiplied Disney reboot for the age of anxiety

August 7, 2025 at 9:35 a.m.

Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan are two of many repeat players in "Freakier Friday," and that's good news. The script, less so.

Siskel Film Center programming director Rebecca Fons in a 2022 photo. She moves to London in Sept. 2025 to become Head of Cinema for the Barbican Centre. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Column: A Chicago film curator reflects on her new job in London, where national arts funding is still a thing

July 31, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

Siskel Film Center's Rebecca Fons is the new cinema head at the London Barbican: "We're all connected by this business we love."

Alison Brie and Dave Franco in writer-director Michael Shanks' "Together." (Ben King/Neon)

‘Together’ review: Codependency gets a little sticky in clever horror parable with Alison Brie and Dave Franco

July 31, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

One couple's codependency comes to a head in this clever body horror feature.

Liam Neeson, a big man in little girl disguise, is the new Lt. Frank Drebin in "The Naked Gun." (Paramount Pictures)

‘The Naked Gun’ review: Liam Neeson brings a ‘Taken’-or-leave-it air to a rougher reboot

August 6, 2025 at 10:43 p.m.

Liam Neeson brings a surly, disgruntled air to the coarse, moderately funny "Naked Gun" reboot.

Rebecca Fons at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago on Dec. 8, 2022. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Siskel Center director Rebecca Fons is hired away by London’s Barbican Centre

July 28, 2025 at 11:32 p.m.

Rebecca Fons, the director of programming at the Siskel Film Center in Chicago since 2021, is the new head of cinema for London's multidisciplinary Barbican Centre, effective Sept. 1.

Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal) and Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) in "The Fantastic Four: First Steps." (Marvel Studios/20th Century Studios)

‘The Fantastic Four’ review: In a jet age dream of Manhattan, Marvel’s world-savers take care of business

July 23, 2025 at 6:33 p.m.

Is the new "Fantastic Four" movie fantastic? No, and not everyone will love the amount of downtime in this one. But good is good enough for a Marvel superhero movie...

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