CHICAGO – Excelsior! Comic book legend Stan Lee’s famous exclamation puts a fine point on the third and final play of Mark Pracht’s FOUR COLOR TRILOGY, “The House of Ideas,” presented by and staged at City Lit Theater in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets/details, click HOUSE OF IDEAS.
Sarah Bolger
HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: 30 Pairs of Passes to ‘My All American’ With Aaron Eckhart
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on November 3, 2015 - 11:49pmCHICAGO – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 30 pairs of advance-screening movie passes up for grabs to the new sports biography “My All American” starring Aaron Eckhart and Finn Wittrock!
Film Review: Olivia Wilde Resurrects Horror in ‘The Lazarus Effect’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on February 27, 2015 - 11:34amCHICAGO – Psychological horror films are the best tweaks, because they remind us of our fears, and where are fears are rooted. The strange combination of science, religion and a blockbuster performance by Olivia Wilde creates an atmosphere of dread and weirdness in “The Lazarus Effect.”
Film Review: Studio Ghibli Gives Fans Sweet ‘From Up on Poppy Hill’
Submitted by BrianTT on March 28, 2013 - 12:36pmCHICAGO – The torch is being passed at Studio Ghibli from the great Hayao Miyazaki (“Princess Mononoke,” “Spirited Away”) to his son Goro, who directs this week’s tender “From Up on Poppy Hill,” certainly not one of the best in the Ghibli canon but a well-made, enjoyable melodrama nonetheless. A full awareness that it’s kind of a cheap melodrama (one of the characters even says so) doesn’t change the fact that it is but the young Miyazaki’s visual palette is notably beautiful and the voice work is strong throughout.
Blu-ray Review: Startlingly Amateurish ‘The Moth Diaries’ Fails to Frighten
Submitted by mattmovieman on August 29, 2012 - 8:55amCHICAGO – Sarah Bolger is a truly lovely actress. She delivered one of the best child performances of all time in Jim Sheridan’s 2002 family drama, “In America,” and over the last decade, has blossomed into a real screen beauty. Hopefully it will only be a matter of time before the actress starts getting offered projects more worthy of her abilities. No one this lovely should be sentenced to a film as dreary as “The Moth Diaries.”
Film Review: Inert, Ineffective ‘The Moth Diaries’ with Lily Cole
Submitted by BrianTT on May 16, 2012 - 11:32amCHICAGO – Mary Harron’s “The Moth Diaries” is a perfect teaching tool for potential filmmakers. It is proof of two oft-forgotten rules of cinema: 1. Not every successful piece of work in one medium should be adapted to another (or not all good books make good films). 2. Even talented directors can be the wrong fit for the material.
TV Review: 16th-Century Soap Opera Wears Thin on ‘The Tudors’
Submitted by BrianTT on April 10, 2010 - 8:29pmCHICAGO – Not exactly for history buffs, Showtime’s “The Tudors” has always been more about bodice-ripping and political intrigue than about straightforward historical facts. Still, in its first three seasons, with a combination of multi-dimensional characters and inspired casting choices, the “Desperate Housewives” of sixteenth-century England was a guilty pleasure not to be missed.