Gaby Hoffmann

CHICAGO – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 40 pairs of advance-screening movie passes up for grabs to the new SXSW, Sundance Film Festival and Chicago Critics Film Festival hit “Obvious Child” featuring a star-making performance from Jenny Slate!

CHICAGO – A TV movie for the silver screen, “Veronica Mars” is a historical film that was Kickstarted into existence by the will of 91,585 backers. Now, it stands like a crossroads in the intersection between TV and film, showing that what may work in TV doesn’t necessarily make for a great film.

CHICAGO – A TV movie for the silver screen, “Veronica Mars” is a historical film that was Kickstarted into existence by the will of 91,585 backers. Now, it stands like a crossroads in the intersection between TV and film, showing that what may work in TV doesn’t necessarily make for a great film.

CHICAGO – It’s a sad day in modern American distribution when a film as highly praised and perversely intriguing as Sebastián Silva’s “Magic Magic” fails to acquire a theatrical release. The very notion of a Sundance darling co-lensed by Christopher Doyle getting unceremoniously dumped on DVD is too maddening to contemplate. At a time when Disney labels a formulaic misfire like “The Lone Ranger” as a “risk,” it’s depressing to see a company like Sony Pictures follow suit.

CHICAGO – 12 years ago, Sebastián Silva went on a road trip with his friends. Their goal was to experience the hallucinogenic ecstasy of the San Pedro cactus. Along the way, he encountered a hippie named Crystal Fairy who ended up giving him a more transformative experience than any drug ever could. An evening of soul-bearing confessions caused Silva to have great compassion for the damaged women beneath the eccentric surface.

CHICAGO – Nothing forms the basis of a friendship quite like a shared understanding. When the hearts and minds of two people are compatible. everything else falls into place. It doesn’t matter if one happens to be a 52-year-old woman and the other is a 19-year-old man. That’s one of the simple truths that “Nate & Margaret” illuminates without drawing too much attention to it.

CHICAGO – Few performers are lucky enough to make their big-screen debut in a hit movie, let alone two. In 1989, 7-year-old Gaby Hoffmann starred opposite John Candy and Macaulay Culkin in John Hughes’ “Uncle Buck,” as well as shared the screen with Kevin Costner and Burt Lancaster in Phil Alden Robinson’s Oscar-nominee “Field of Dreams.” Not a bad way to start a career.

CHICAGO – One of Nathan Adloff’s goals as a filmmaker is mastering the art of the awkward silence. That moment when audiences shift uneasily in their chairs, balancing on the razor’s edge between amusement and agony, appeals greatly to Adloff, a self-professed fan of Christopher Guest and Todd Solondz.