Film Review

Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Jill Soloway’s Sundance Award-winning “Afternoon Delight” is such a frustrating near-miss. There will be some slight spoilers in this review. Because I can’t figure out how to express my issues with the film without mentioning one major point although it doesn’t spoil the action of the final act, just how Soloway chooses to get there.

Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – For a movie that should be about passion, sex, and scandal, “Adore” is surprisingly and depressingly tame. Two great lead actresses are left floating on a dock by a script that doesn’t treat them like real characters and a team that cast two inferior actors opposite them. For “Adore” to work, this tale of forbidden love needs to have an equal playing field.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – The saga of Wong Kar-wai’s “The Grandmaster” is already pretty well-known in the circles of those who would be drawn to the latest work from one of our best living directors. The man behind works like “Chunking Express,” “Happy Together,” and “In the Mood For Love” demands attention every time.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Is a film automatically flawed if we can see its influences? We don’t do it as quickly in music, in which it’s often incredibly easy to determine a new artist’s favorite bands as a kid. Authors that pull from a notable and recognizable literary history are often lauded for doing so.

Rating: 1.0/5.0

CHICAGO – You know a car chase movie is poorly made when you’re longing for more dialogue scenes between Selena Gomez & Ethan Hawke just to break up the tedium of the neverending, personality-free vehicular nonsense. At one point, Hawke’s character actually says, after one of several situations that could never possibly be replicated in the real world, “I can’t believe that actually worked.”

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – “You’re Next” is a brutal, blunt, bloody instrument of a horror film. It works as well as it does because of an engaging performance from a future star at its center and a writer/director team willing to get in, get gory, and get out. I wish the set-up was a bit more engaging and the tone more consistent but there’s a lot to like here, especially for fans of the genre looking for something that doesn’t need a supernatural twist to stay scary.

Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – There have been a depressing number of bad career choices on the part of Oscar winner Nicolas Cage and once-great actor John Cusack in recent years. Anyone seen “Seeking Justice,” “Stolen,” “The Numbers Station,” or “The Factory”? Someone owes you an apology.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Joe Swanberg’s “Drinking Buddies” has been billed as the Chicago writer/director’s breakthrough largely due to the star power on display in the cast list but the film works not merely because of the notable talents of its cast but a new maturity and wisdom displayed by its creator.

Rating: 1.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Much like 2011’s silly “Abduction” with Taylor Lautner, the title of “Paranoia” isn’t exactly accurate. Just as that previous film wasn’t really about an abduction, paranoia is only a minor aspect of Robert Luketic’s new thriller. It’s more about corporate intrigue, theft, intellectual property, and fear.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Chad Crawford Kinkle’s Slamdance hit “Jug Face,” opening this Friday, August 9, 2013 at the La Grange Theatre just outside Chicago and now available On Demand, would have made a great episode of “Masters of Horror.” It has the feel of a memorable short story with its memorable use of setting and sketch of a very unique community on the other side of civilization.