October 2013

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Opening Night! Director James Gray of ‘The Immigrant.’

CHICAGO – It was a spectacular opening night for the 49th Chicago International Film Festival on October 10th, 2013. Director James Gray (“Two Lovers,” “We Own the Night”) presented his new film, “The Immigrant,” featuring Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix. Plus on this Opening Night – taking place at the historic Chicago Theatre – there was a tribute to Roger Ebert, who passed away earlier this year.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – The incredibly talented men and women who make up the cast of “A.C.O.D.” make the relative failure of its script easier to bear. Just hearing brilliant actors like Richard Jenkins and Catherine O’Hara at each other’s throats or watching remarkably likable stars like Adam Scott and Mary Elizabeth Winstead figure out their relationship has enough charm to get one from lights down to credits roll.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) leaves his wife Andrea (Catherine Keener) for yet another journey captaining a cargo ship off the coast of Africa. Shortly thereafter, a Somali boy named Muse (Barkhad Abdi) heads into the same waters on a collision course with the Maersk Alabama.

CHICAGO – Take this with a giant grain of salt but FX’s “American Horror Story: Coven” shows incredible promise in its premiere episode tonight, setting a number of creative plates spinning in directions that could be fascinating. Why the salt? Well, “American Horror Story: Asylum” started with similar promise and quickly became cluttered and unfocused.

CHICAGO – Director Robert Rodriguez continues his “grindhouse” cinematic ways with his latest film, “Machete Kills.” This sequel to 2010’s “Machete,” the film is a gleeful celebration of 1970s exploitation films, villains played by familiar celebrities and the indestructible hero named Machete, portrayed by Danny Trejo.

CHICAGO – One of the more unique horror film stories is in the upcoming release of “We Are What We Are,” a re-imagining of a 2010 Mexican film, co-written and directed by Jim Mickle. In moving the story to America, Mickle changes the mood of how the rituals transpire, and attaches those rituals to extreme religion.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Space looks like a vast, dark ocean in the new film “Gravity,” with the sparkling blue orb of our planet Earth beckoning the voyagers on that ocean homeward. Co-writer/director Alfonso Cuarón fashions a metaphoric dreamscape that places the small molecules of human beings within the vast expanse, fighting to understand the value of their place in that sea of cosmos.

CHICAGO - It’s scary that I live in a world where that most gamers didn’t start with the Nintendo Entertainment system like I, and my peers, did. Having the first three levels of “Super Mario Bros.” memorized, playing “Teenage Mutant NInja Turtles The Arcade Game” until the way-too-late hour of 11pm on a school night, and nearly ending friendships over “Battletoads” were experiences I once thought universal to all game players.

CHICAGO – It’s been close to 50 years since 11/22/1963, the day when a certain American innocence was lost with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In time for that anniversary, is the excellent film overview entitled “Parkland.”

CHICAGO – Believe it or not, it’s already time to start holiday shopping, which means it’s the time of year that studios release lavish gift sets for their most beloved films. No one is better at this holiday season product design than Warner Bros., who has released great Limited Edition sets for “Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factor,” “Ben-Hur,” and the “Harry Potter” films in recent years. The first one this year is one of the best I’ve seen, a gorgeously packaged and beautifully accompanied collection for “The Dark Knight Trilogy,” including awesome physical collectibles and 90 minutes of new special features.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Off shore internet gambling sites, tons of money, glorious glamorous women, parties all the time – how the heck can all of that be dull? The new film “Runner Runner” found a way. Ben Affleck phones it in and Justin Timberlake is name recognition window dressing in this limp drama.

CHICAGO – People often ask me why low-rated NBC shows like “Community” keep getting renewed (or how “Whitney” and “Up All Night” got a second season) and I often turn to a sports analogy — they have no one in the minor leagues to replace them.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Greg Camalier’s “Muscle Shoals” is a robust, entertaining piece of work that captures the power of a place that has produced some of the most remarkable music in the history of the recorded form. It’s a testament to power of the “Muscle Shoals sound” that so many music legends sat down for Camalier to discuss it but the director wisely doesn’t turn this into cavalcade of stars, keeping the focus as much on the man who built this hotbed of creativity and the musicians who played behind the household names.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

CHICAGO – There used to be a stronger sense that films could take us someplace new. From the days of audience members screaming at the train coming at the camera because they didn’t understand that they wouldn’t be run over to Dorothy’s trip to Oz to young Skywalker’s family problems, movies captured a sense of wonder that’s been lost in an era when CGI is in KFC commercials and it feels like Hollywood has run out of new places to take us.