Amy Brenneman

CHICAGO – “Words and Pictures” is a bit twee. In the film’s central debate between which medium has more influence, there was a drunken writer, prep students straight out of “Dead Poet’s Society” and cutesy romance. But there was also Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche at the top of their performance games, and they uplifted all these regular story elements.

CHICAGO – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 75 pairs of advance-screening movie passes up for grabs to the new romantic comedy “Words and Pictures” starring Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche!

CHICAGO – “Mother and Child,” with an all star cast of Annette Bening, Naomi Watts, Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits and Kerry Washington, is mindful of its subject matter, that rare and elusive connection between a mother and their offspring. However, the film has difficulties when the characters become inconsistent with their past backgrounds after that connection is introduced.

CHICAGO – Michael Mann might first seem the ideal fit for Blu-Ray. He’s a notorious perfectionist, apparent in every frame of his remarkable output of films that includes such great modern classics as “Manhunter,” “The Insider,” “Collateral,” and “Public Enemies”.

CHICAGO – Before the new fall season really gets underway, we thought we’d take a look back at several of the shows recently released or about to be released on DVD in season sets from ABC Studios and Buena Vista Home Video including the first season of “Castle,” the third season of “Ugly Betty,” the second season of “Private Practice,” and the fifth season of “Grey’s Anatomy”.