Film

CHICAGO – There is a moral darkness in director David Cronenberg’s “Maps to the Stars” that is hard to shake. It is filled with circumstance and souls right at the edge of insanity, polluted by an atmosphere that doesn’t give them much of a chance. The apocalypse is now, and living in Los Angeles.

CHICAGO – The announcements keep coming for award season winners and nominees. Today, we have the list of nominees for this year’s Screen Actors’ Guild awards. The awards celebrate the best male and female performances in film and television, leaving out awards like Best Picture or Best Director. “The Help” leads this year’s films with four different nominations.

CHICAGO – In our latest edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 50 admit-two passes up for grabs to two separate Chicago screenings of the Sundance Film Festival hit film “American Teen” from writer, director and producer Nanette Burstein.

CHICAGO – With superhero films as hot in 2008 as psychedelics were in the 1960s, the new blockbuster superhero film “Hancock” fits in with the label but without any of the ancestry.

CHICAGO – The distinct, gauzy style of director Guy Maddin has created unique cinematic prisms to look through including his depression-era meditation in “The Saddest Music in the World”. In his latest film, which is a documentary of sorts, Maddin explores his own life through his hometown of Winnipeg.

CHICAGO – Amy Ryan’s star just keeps rising. The breakout actress from HBO’s “The Wire,” who was nominated for a Golden Globe and Academy Award for her role in “Gone Baby Gone,” will be featured in at least five episodes on this coming season of NBC hit TV show “The Office”.

CHICAGO – Tara Reid, who for this Chicago appearance was branded as the “wildest girl in Hollywood,” appeared in the Windy City at Crobar Nightclub on Saturday for 103.5 KISS FM’s Bikini Beach 2008 party. We have exclusive, candid photos of the “American Pie” actress behind the velvet ropes.

CHICAGO – China is on the world’s mind. The once-mysterious communist “enemy” is now the economic friend of all the essential profiteers.

CHICAGO – Brothers Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein of The Weinstein Company are becoming just as big on Broadway as they have been in the movies.

CHICAGO – Observing the new “Get Smart” film, which is based on the 1960s TV sitcom of the same name, is to note how much has changed since the Cold War ended.