March 2013

CHICAGO – Millions of viewers will return this week to a land of dragons, swords, magic, and characters that are difficult to tell apart when HBO’s “Game of Thrones” premieres its third season tonight, March 31, 2013 at 8pm CST. What is it about “Game of Thrones” that has engendered such incredible loyalty?

CHICAGO – At one point in awards season, right after it won five Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, including Best Picture, Actress, Screenplay, and Director, it really looked like Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty” was going to be the most award-winning film of 2012. When all was said and done, it only won a single Oscar for Sound Editing and Bigelow wasn’t even nominated.

CHICAGO – When “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” was released 25 years ago, it was a revolutionary critical and commercial smash on its way to four Oscars, including a special Academy Award created just for its amazing technical achievement (live-action and animation may be as common as McDonald’s commercials now but not in 1988). However, not every film from the late ’80s has held up well.

CHICAGO – The world of the movies is also a world of discovery. Like new, hot authors, the breakthrough directors emerge with an original first work that generates deserved attention. Writer/director Adam Leon has created that freshness in the his debut feature, “Gimme the Loot.”

CHICAGO – “You’ll believe a man can have 533 children” might be a better tagline than, “You’ll believe a man can fly.” The extremely funny new Canadian film “Starbuck” will not only make you a true believer, but also loudly professes a romantic and gooey refrain that is sometimes necessary in a cold, cynical world.

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CHICAGO – Stephenie Meyer is one of the most famous authors in America, because of the phenomenon of her “Twilight” series of books, and their subsequent film versions. She embarks on a new chapter with “The Host,” which was published in 2008, and has just been adapted to the screen. Meyer made a promotional appearance in Chicago recently with co-stars from “The Host,” Max Irons and Jake Abel.

CHICAGO – “The Sapphires” is inspired by a true story, about an Australian girl group who entertains the troops in 1968 Viet Nam. There is little feeling regarding the era the film is portraying, and it’s essentially used as a vehicle for period pop songs that have been heard before.

CHICAGO – “Primer” director Shane Carruth gave an exclusive interview to Indie Outlook, the independent film blog and podcast created by Hollywood Chicago writer Matt Fagerholm, about his acclaimed Sundance prize-winner, “Upstream Color.” The film makes its Chicago premiere at the Music Box Theatre on Friday, April 12th, and Carruth will be present for the opening night double bill of “Primer” and “Upstream Color.”

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Author Stephenie Meyer can’t help herself. Despite breaking out from the “Twilight” saga and creating science fiction in her latest novel, it still features angst-ridden teen romance, which becomes less important versus the bizarre other worldly infiltration in the film adaptation of “The Host.”

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – 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.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” is the kind of dumb summer action blockbuster that works in the season when the kids aren’t in school and the movie theater is used as an excuse to get in the air conditioning as much as see anything approaching filmmaking. It nearly works in March. Nearly.

CHICAGO – Despite boasting the talented efforts of the always-great and tragically underrated Toni Collette, P.J. Hogan’s “Mental,” opening this weekend in Chicago, is a tonal mess. It’s a bewilderingly strange movie, the kind of thing that one might write off as being lost in translation from its Australian origin before realizing it wasn’t that funny there either.

CHICAGO – Matteo Garrone is a notable talent. His highly acclaimed 2008 film “Gomorrah” earned praise around the world and the follow-up, “Reality,” won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival last year.

CHICAGO – Why should Judd Apatow and Lena Dunham have to apologize for making films about white upper-class people, considering they are indeed members of the white upper-class? Does their whiteness make their voices any less worthy of being heard? Is it the painstakingly intimate nature of their comedy that rubs some viewers the wrong way? Would these viewers prefer impersonal formulaic retreads populated by token representatives of every race on earth? I can’t imagine anything more dull.