January 2011

CHICAGO – Imagine working on the most ambitious, personal artistic endeavor of your life only to watch the most unusual circumstances of fate tear it away from the public eye. Such was the case with 1969’s excellent “Army of Shadows,” a film that took 37 years to find an audience stateside. Released in U.S. theaters for the first time in 2006, Jean-Pierre Melville’s fascinating tale of the French Resistance has now been given the Criterion Blu-ray upgrade and firmly stands as the excellent piece of work that it should have been recognized as for the last several decades.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Dealing with an overall economic downturn, as the world is still experiencing, becomes the story of the individual. The frustration and insecurity that develops in a long dry spell is poignantly rendered in writer/director John Well’s “The Company Men.” Ben Affleck joins Oscar winners Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper and Kevin Costner in telling the story.

CHICAGO – There are few character actors in the history of cinema more mesmerizing and fearless than Philip Seymour Hoffman. He’s created some of the most memorable characters ever to grace the screen: from the sexually arrested Allen in “Happiness” and the obsessed playwright Caden Cotard in “Synecdoche, New York” to the electrifying title role in “Capote.”

CHICAGO – Working with high level actors such as Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman didn’t faze director Richard J. Lewis. He had pursued the film version of the Mordecai Richler’s novel “Barney’s Version” for several years, and it was his direction that recently got Giamatti (as Barney) the Golden Globe Award.

CHICAGO – The midseason premiere of season three of “Parks & Recreation” starts by catching us up on what we’ve missed. It details the arrivals of auditors, the “black hats,” played by the non-descript Adam Scott and a goofily-exuberant Rob Lowe, and features a tongue-and-cheek detailing of the budget crisis facing the parks department.

CHICAGO – The second wacky legal show debut of the week (after NBC’s awful “Harry’s Law”) is the fairly good “Fairly Legal,” a show that works largely due to the incredible charm of its lead, Sarah Shahi (“Life”).

CHICAGO – USA’s “Royal Pains” follows the same, odd season structure as the network’s “White Collar,” which returned earlier this week to USA to pick up where it left off in its second season.

CHICAGO – Many films have attempted to portray the unimaginably terrifying experience of being buried alive, from George Sluizer’s bone-chillingly bleak thriller, “The Vanishing,” to Quentin Tarantino’s crowd-pleaser, “Kill Bill Vol. 2.” Yet Rodrigo Cortés’ “Buried” is the first film in cinema history to take place entirely within the rectangular confines of a coffin.

CHICAGO – After Robert De Niro’s “Pupkin”-esque acceptance speech on Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards, some of our younger readers may be curious about some of the films that got him to that awkward moment. His second Oscar came for what is undeniably one of the best performances of all time. De Niro would give at least a dozen great performances, some before and some after, but “Raging Bull,” recently released in a beautiful 30th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray, is the peak of one of the most notable acting careers in film history.

CHICAGO – There are few things more excruciating to sit through than a botched adaptation of Shakespeare. The Bard’s language is so intricately textured and poetically structured that it must be fully understood in order to be adequately delivered. An audacious mess like Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo and Juliet” recalls memories of amateur high school productions where students raced through the dialogue in order to sound naturalistic.

CHICAGO – Few couples have made as indelible an impression on the modern independent film scene as Mark Duplass and Katie Aselton. Best known for their breakout work in 2005’s “The Puffy Chair,” the two actors-turned-filmmakers have forged a variety of collaborations, most recently in the FX sitcom, “The League.”

CHICAGO – Two 2010 films, “The Social Network” and “The Kids Are All Right,” plus TV’s “Glee” and “Boardwalk Empire” were multiple winners at the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – “The Green Hornet,” which could have been titled “The Seth Rogen Show,” is an uneven mix between a stroke of comic book genius and a self-righteous attempt at being both comedy and drama. The untidy story is wrapped inside a messy box that’s a portion of what it successfully is and what it should have been.

CHICAGO – Incredible high-end trip for two to Cancun, Mexico! In our latest VIP edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we’re offering you and a friend the chance to win an all-expenses-paid, three-night, high-end trip to Cancun!