Before Midnight

CHICAGO – The renaissance for women filmmakers has been a boon for the creative voice in cinema, and in Chicago the conduit of that voice is Rebecca Martin Fagerholm, the founder of Cinema Femme, and festival director for the CINEMA FEMME SHORT FILM FEST.

CHICAGO – Life is made up of moments, as the philosophy of the new Richard Linklater film wants to convey. What formulates a person’s ideals and soul, born in a certain place and time? Over 12 years, the writer and director created a fictional family using the same actors in “Boyhood.”

CHICAGO – Director Richard Linklater is a great American storyteller. In 2002, he embarked on a filmmaking journey that would be twelve years long, and conceived a fictional tale of a boy as he ages from age six to 18. Using the same actors over all those years, the result is the epic and philosophical “Boyhood.”

It was too good a year for ten. The best year in cinema since 2007 saw such a diverse, fascinating array of art that included amazing works from some of our most well-known directors (Joel & Ethan Coen, Martin Scorsese, Alexander Payne, Hayao Miyazaki) alongside its newer voices (Shane Carruth, Destin Cretton, Joshua Oppenheimer, James Ponsoldt).

CHICAGO – As the excellent year in film winds to a close, I’m going to be writing a lot about a drama I saw almost ten months ago in Park City, Utah, and is now available on Blu-ray, DVD, and streaming services — the amazing “Before Midnight.” Building on the romantic foundation of “Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset,” Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, & Julie Delpy examine the truth of what happens after the grand gestures of romance we often see in cinema. It’s a masterpiece, a film that deserves comparison with the work of John Cassavetes in the way it captures pain, beauty, regret, and love in the same moment. There are a few weeks left but it’s still my choice for the best film of the year.

CHICAGO – Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise” brilliantly captured the live-in-the-moment romanticism of youth, that time in our 20s when anything was possible before the dawn.

CHICAGO – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film with our unique social giveaway technology, we have 30 pairs of movie passes up for grabs to the advance screening of “Before Midnight”: HollywoodChicago.com’s #1 film of Sundance 2013!

CHICAGO – The general consensus in Park City this year was that the overall quality of films presented to critics, industry, and paying audiences was near the highest it’s ever been. There seemed to be a lack of true stand-outs — I heard people say “There’s no Beasts of the Southern Wild” repeatedly — but the overall picture was a pretty one.

PARK CITY, Utah – Every film festival produces at least one film (hopefully more) that just blows audiences away, shattering expectations and leaving them breathless. The future Oscar nominee from Sundance Film Festival 2013 is Richard Linklater’s “Before Midnight,” a film that is quite simply perfect.