CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio review for the streaming series “Emily in Paris” the adventures of Emily Cooper and her fanciful/fashionable Paris friends and lovers, now in its fourth season. Episodes 1-5 currently on Netflix.
Film Review
Film Review: Sofia Coppola Captures Cult of Celebrity in ‘The Bling Ring’
Submitted by BrianTT on June 20, 2013 - 8:32amCHICAGO – We live a celebrity-driven culture that not only easily dismisses when its celebutantes get DUIs but practically sees the occasion as a rite of passage. We follow gossip websites to the degree that we know the schedules of people who are famous just for being famous better than we know our family’s.
Film Review: ‘The Haunting of Helena’ Updates Tooth Fairy Legend
Submitted by BrianTT on June 17, 2013 - 4:20pmCHICAGO – Originally called “Fairytale,” “The Haunting of Helena” will be available on VOD tomorrow, June 18, 2013, before a very limited release on June 21, 2013. It’s a generic, mediocre horror flick with a few effective images and some interesting thematic play in the second act that is, sadly, totally underdeveloped.
Film Review: Frustrating ‘Somm’ Fails to Justify a Tasting
Submitted by BrianTT on June 14, 2013 - 1:57pmRating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “The history of wine is fascinating” – This is only one of many things in the frustrating “Somm,” opening today in Chicago at the Music Box and accompanied by actual wine tastings in the theater, that we’re told but not really shown. I love wine. I drink it too often.
Film Review: Undeniably Unique Oddity of ‘Berberian Sound Studio’
Submitted by BrianTT on June 13, 2013 - 12:48pmCHICAGO – If David Lynch directed a Giallo it might have come out something like “Berberian Sound Studio,” a truly surreal oddity opening this week at the Siskel Film Center, starring the great Toby Jones as a man driven mad by his work on a ‘70s horror film. Or is it? Like “Eraserhead” or “Inland Empire,” there are times when the film simply defies interpretation.
Film Review: ‘Man of Steel’ Soars Visually But Lacks Humanity
Submitted by BrianTT on June 12, 2013 - 9:24pmCHICAGO – From the CGI-heavy attack on Krypton that opens Zack Snyder’s “Man of Steel” to its soaring finale, I had the same reaction -– where’s the “Man half? Snyder’s attempt to reboot the Superman legacy with the loving assistance of David Goyer and Christopher Nolan of “The Dark Knight” fame gets the superhero part but misses the humanity at the core of this legendary character.
Film Review: ‘This is the End’ Turns Stoner Fantasy Into Comedy
Submitted by BrianTT on June 11, 2013 - 1:22pmCHICAGO – When David Gordon Green’s “Your Highness” hit fans of its writer/director and talented stars like a really bad pot hangover, its creators admitted that the project began life as a stoned what-if scenario. “Hey, let’s make a pot-laced fantasy movie, dude.” Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg’s “This is the End” clearly had similar origins.
Film Review: Stylish ‘Violet & Daisy’ Wastes Talented Cast
Submitted by BrianTT on June 7, 2013 - 2:22pmRating: 1.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The premise of “Violet & Daisy” and the three actors at its center leave so much room for hope. That room slowly dissipates over the course of the film like air leaking out of a tire. Really? You’ve got this cast with this concept and this is the best you can do? Overly stylized to the point of suffocation, “Violet & Daisy” is the kind of tragic misfire that you just know must have been apparent while it was being made.
Film Review: Opportunity For Insight Wasted in ‘The East’
Submitted by BrianTT on June 6, 2013 - 1:40pmRating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Brit Marling is an undeniably smart, forward-thinking writer/actress in that she refuses to succumb to gender stereotypes and tries to chart her own way through the independent film movement. If this is true, and I still believe it is, why did “The East,” in which she stars and which she co-wrote, end up so frustratingly melodramatic? Why was the opportunity for true commentary or even character development within this fascinating world discarded in favor of an awkwardly-staged and poorly-written love story laden with genre tropes? I so wanted to like “The East,” but it never pointed me in the direction where I could do so.
Film Review: ‘Rapture-Palooza’ Makes End of the World Boring
Submitted by BrianTT on June 6, 2013 - 10:17amRating: 2.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Craig Robinson has a movie coming out about the end of the world that co-stars friends and fellow comedians Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, and others. It’s called “This is the End.” Craig Robinson has another movie coming out about the end of the world that co-stars fellow comedians, including Rob Corddry, Paul Scheer, John Francis Daley, and Ana Gasteyer.
Film Review: ‘The Purge’ is Entertaining What-If Escapism
Submitted by BrianTT on June 6, 2013 - 8:40amCHICAGO – A vast majority of James DeMonaco’s “The Purge” makes absolutely no sense. It is the kind of what-if thriller that demands that the viewer put on blinders, suspend disbelief, and not pull at the plot threads left dangling or risk tearing the whole thing apart. It’s totally nonsense.