Patrick McDonald

CHICAGO – The 2016 Fall Season of the Asian Pop-Up Cinema of Chicago kicked off on September 17th, with the South Korean film “Sori: Voice of the Heart.” The director behind this purposeful man-and-machine relationship movie is Lee Ho-Jae. The unusual story combined our modern tech world with a satellite turned robot who is sick of it all.

CHICAGO – The Asian Pop-Up Cinema Series, spotlighting a variety of diverse Asian films, continues its 2016 Fall Season with a Filipino film, “Hamog,” directed by Ralston Jover. The film, making its Chicago premiere, will screen at 2pm on Sunday, Sep 25th, 2016, at the Wilmette Theatre in Willmette, Ill.

CHICAGO – I’ve waited all week to write that headline, and I will be joining the 100,000 other similar headlines out there. Hey-ooh! “Storks” is a lot of fun, without the dire need for any “message” or heavy handedness that is too familiar in the current animation environment. It’s just funny.

CHICAGO – The second oldest LGBTQ+ International Film Festival in America, Reeling2016, is about to launched its 34th edition in Chicago at the historic Music Box Theatre on Thursday, September 22th (details below). The Opening Night film will be “Hurricane Bianca,” featuring famed comedian Roy Haylock, and his outrageous alter ego Bianca Del Rio. Haylock/Del Rio will walk the Red Carpet with writer/director (and Chicago native) Matt Kugelman.

CHICAGO – The most American game of baseball gets a new spin in the film “Weeds on Fire,” directed by Steve Chan. The story explores a youth team in the 1980s whose exploits coincided with a renaissance in Hong Kong. The film is screening on Sep. 21st, 2016, at the AMC River East 21 in Chicago, part of the Asian Pop-Up Cinema series (details below).

CHICAGO – They were the greatest show on earth, for what it was worth. But what they also were was one of the most fascinating show business stories in history. Director Ron Howard encapsulates John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr during their initial meteoric rise in the descriptively titled ‘The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years.’

CHICAGO – The experience of director Oliver Stone, to look underneath the slimy rocks of government secrecy and bureaucracy, produces an excellent history lesson in “Snowden,” an overview of Edward Snowden, a whistleblower against the government who is still in exile.

CHICAGO – The Asian Pop-Up Cinema Series, spotlighting a variety of diverse Asian films, premieres its 2016 Fall Season with the South Korean film, “Sori: Voice of the Heart,” directed by Lee Ho-Jae. The director will make an appearance at the screening, beginning at 1:30pm on Saturday, Sep 17th, 2016, at the Wilmette Theatre in Willmette, Ill. (details below).

CHICAGO – The season finale of TNT Network’s “The Last Ship” was this previous Sunday (Sep. 11, 2016), and as finales tend to do, there were surprises. One of these shocks was the death of the character Roberta Price, the regional leader of the Deep South. The actress who portrayed her, Lucy Butler, was a surprised as anyone else, and talked to HollywoodChicago.com regarding the transition.

CHICAGO – The brothers from Haiti, by way of Chicago – Tirf Alexius and Remoh Romeo – are back with their latest production, “Bastard Son of a Thousand Fathers.” The U.S. premiere will be in Chicago this Friday, September 16th, 2016. This is the brother’s third feature, after “Critical Nexus” (2013) and the documentary “Lakay” (2014).