A.A. Dowd

Writer

A.A. Dowd, or Alex to his friends, is a writer and editor based in Chicago. He has held staff positions at The A.V. Club and Time Out Chicago, and is a member of the National Society of Film Critics.

Last Breath review: Apollo 13 goes under the sea

Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu star in a deep-sea survival thriller that could used a little embellishing.

Entertainment Reviews         February 28

What will win, and what should win, at the Oscars this Sunday

Wicked? Dune? Anora? Here's what we're predicting will win at the Academy Awards this year — and what we hope does.

Features         February 25

What’s the state of the Academy Awards, 10 years after #OscarsSoWhite?

The Academy is more diverse than ever in the wake of #OscarsSoWhite. So are the movies it celebrates.

Features         February 21

20 years later, Constantine is more devilish fun than you remember

Keanu Reeves followed the Matrix trilogy with a DC comics adaptation that's a little better than critics said it was in 2005.

Features         February 18

Captain America: Brave New World review: a new rock bottom for Marvel

Harrison Ford Hulks out in a new Captain America movie that's as sloppy as anything Marvel has ever made.

Entertainment Reviews         February 12

The Marvel movies lost something when they lost Steve Rogers

Anthony Mackie is a worthy successor, but the MCU has still suffered from the absence of The First Avenger.

Features         February 6

Why did the Oscars snub one of last year’s best movies?

Challengers got great reviews, made good money, and delivered Hollywood a rare adult-oriented hit. So why did the Academy completely ignore it?

Features         January 26

Flight Risk review: Mark Wahlberg thriller crashes and burns

Mel Gibson casts Mark Wahlberg against type as a psycho in the cheap and lousy action thriller, Flight Risk, now in theaters.

Entertainment Reviews         January 24

All the 2025 Best Picture Oscar nominees, ranked

From Wicked and Dune to The Brutalist and A Complete Unknown, we rank all 10 films vying for the top Oscar this year

Features         January 24

20 years ago, they brought a John Carpenter classic into the 2000s

At 20 years, the remake of Assault on Precinct 13 looks more dated than the crackerjack 1970s thriller it upgraded.

Features         January 19

Wolf Man review: Woof!

Leigh Whannell follows his thrilling Invisible Man with a curiously dull, murky, and undercooked Wolf Man, in theaters now.

Entertainment Reviews         January 17

Nosferatu review: A lush, lusty new take on Dracula

The director of The Witch and The Northman returns with a remake of the horror classic Nosferatu that's best at its kinkiest.

Entertainment Reviews         December 25, 2024

Kraven the Hunter review: a suitably awful farewell to Sony’s Spider-Verse

Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a muscular bore in the latest and maybe last entry in Sony's misbegotten franchise of Spider-Man movies without Spider-Man.

Entertainment Reviews         December 13, 2024

Gladiator II review: Paul Mescal is no Russell Crowe in Ridley Scott’s disappointing sequel

Without original star Russell Crowe, Gladiator II, Ridley Scott's belated sequel to his Oscar-winning 2000 epic, falls short in just about every way.

Entertainment Reviews         November 21, 2024

Robert Zemeckis is still lost in the uncanny valley. Can he be saved?

Here, Robert Zemeckis' latest movie with Tom Hanks, finds the director still stranded in the digital abyss that ruined The Polar Express, Beowulf, and others.

Features         November 7, 2024

Juror #2 review: Clint Eastwood’s best movie in years. It’s a shame you probably can’t see it

Whether it's his last movie or not, Juror #2 is a perverse spin on 12 Angry Men that ranks among the strongest of director Clint Eastwood's late-career efforts.

Entertainment Reviews         November 1, 2024

Saturday Night review: A Saturday Night Live origin story that plays it too safe

Jason Reitman assembles a giant, game ensemble for Saturday Night, a SNL origin story that's a little too reverent and tidy.

Entertainment Reviews         October 12, 2024

At 50, this classic horror movie is still cinema’s ultimate nightmare

Tobe Hooper's 1974 classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has lost none of its nightmarish power over 50 years. Here's why it's still so unsettling.

Features         October 12, 2024

Joker: Folie à Deux review: an oddly timid musical sequel

In Joker: Folie à Deux, Joaquin Phoenix reprises the role of a misfit wallflower killer in a genre-bending sequel too cautious to really go for it.

Entertainment Reviews         October 4, 2024

At 10, this modern classic remains a brilliant prank of a thriller

David Fincher's adaptation of the bestselling thriller Gone Girl, which turns 10 today, might be his most Hitchcockian achievement.

Features         October 3, 2024

Megalopolis review: Francis Ford Coppola’s flawed, insane sci-fi opus

From the director of The Godfather comes Megalopolis, a sci-fi epic 40 years in the making that trips on its own ambitions.

Entertainment Reviews         September 27, 2024

30 years ago, Tim Burton offered his most adult, bittersweet fairy tale

With Beetlejuice Beetlejuice now in theaters, let's revisit one of director Tim Burton's best movies, which turns 30 this week.

Features         September 26, 2024