Interview

CHICAGO – He’s the accomplished actor best known for locking horns with Daniel Day-Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterpiece, “There Will Be Blood.” She’s the acclaimed playwright who’s earned raves for her acting both onstage (“Angels in America”) and onscreen (“The Exploding Girl”). Together, they are a match made in movie heaven.

CHICAGO – Wink (Dwight Henry) and Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané “Nazie” Wallis) don’t have a typical father-daughter relationship in Benh Zeitlin’s visionary fantasy, “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

CHICAGO – Beefcake is on parade in the new film “Magic Mike,” about a troupe of male strippers in sunny Florida. The film was partially based on the true life experiences of Channing Tatum, who did perform briefly in his late teens. In the film he is Magic Mike, and Joe Manganiello portrays “Big Dick” Ritchie.

CHICAGO – Writer/director Alex Kurtzman has been an incredibly powerful creative voice in the world of sci-fi from TV’s “Fringe” to film’s “Star Trek” & “Transformers” but his new work comes from someplace much more personal. Starring Chris Pine, “People Like Us” was born from Kurtzman’s own desire to find the half-siblings that his father had left behind years earlier.

CHICAGO – The term “arrested development” could easily be applied not only to every character in a Todd Solondz picture, but every neurotic man-child currently populating the vast majority of Hollywood comedies.

CHICAGO – One of the Chicago filmmakers to watch is Todd Looby. The director, who has won awards for his short film “Son of None” at Slamdance 2011 and the Boston Film Festival, premieres his latest feature film, “Be Good,” on June 22nd at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago.

CHICAGO – The cliché “up and coming” applies to Eric Andre, Natasha Leggero and Chicago’s own Susan Messing. While not quite household names, they are all on the cusp of comic greatness, and had notable shows at the recent “Just for Laughs Chicago” comedy festival, sponsored by the TBS Network.

CHICAGO – The just completed “Just for Laughs Chicago” comedy festival brought in a variety of name acts. Insult comedy, improvisation and stand up was performed by Jeff Ross (“Comedy Central Roast”), Scott Adsit (“30 Rock”) and Chris D’Elia (“Whitney”).

CHICAGO – Director Mark Andrews is a part of the one of the most important creative brain trusts of the last twenty years — the men and women at Pixar. He was one of the story supervisors for Brad Bird’s “The Incredibles” and took over the directorial reins from Brenda Chapman on this week’s “Brave.”

CHICAGO – One of the great nights of the TBS ‘Just for Laughs Chicago’ comedy festival is the ‘New Faces of Chicago’ revue. The cream of the Windy City crop did their killer stand-up routines at The Comedy Bar, a new laugh venue in the River North neighborhood in Chicago.