Belfast

CHICAGO – The nominees for the 94th Academy Awards … taking place on March 27th, 2022 … were announced on February 8th. 23 categories will be up for Oscar, and the favorites will be will be debated as the Awards season plays out. The 94th Academy Awards will be broadcast on ABC-TV.

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on November 11th, 2021, reviewing the new film by Kenneth Branagh about his childhood, “Belfast” in theaters on November 12th.

CHICAGO – Kenneth Branagh may be the ultimate hybrid. Hie reputation as an actor is beyond the pale … he is a performer that makes a film or stage play better. But beyond that, he has just directed his 23rd and most personal film. “Belfast” is an elegy to his hometown, but it is also a remembrance of when his life changed profoundly at the tender age of nine.

CHICAGO – Day Nine of the 57th Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF) honors actor Kenneth Branagh in presenting “Belfast,” the nostalgic homage to his hometown Irish city during the 1960s. This is Branagh’s 23rd film as director. (click BELFAST for details).

CHICAGO – The story of auto impresario John DeLorean is definitely one of truth is stranger than fiction, but also has a basis in “what ifs?” The fascinating new documentary of his life tells that story, breaking down the vagueness of how a former General Motors superstar got involved in a drug deal to save his own car company. As always, a situation like that has more loopholes.

CHICAGO – Sectarian violence and terrorism were the norm in the days of the late 1960s and early ‘70s in Northern Ireland. Often mistook for a religious clash between Catholics and Protestants in the region, the conflict was actually about keeping the industrial region either part of Britain or part of Ireland. The extreme nature of the conflict is tensely played out in “’71,” the year when it all boiled over.