Helen Mirren

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on August 31st, recommending five films for the Labor Day Weekend … “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” “Blue Beetle,” “Landscape with Invisible Hand,” “Golda” and “Barbie.”

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on August 25th, reviewing “Golda,” set in a tense period in the career of 1970s Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. In theaters on August 25th.

CHICAGO – A lot of blockbusters require you to check your brain at the door. “Fast X” requires a full scale lobotomy. To the uninitiated, Vin Diesel’s blatant disregard for the laws of gravity and physics represents a full scale assault on the senses, reason, and logic in its effort to bring audiences down to its star’s lunkheaded level.

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on April 28th, reviewing “The Duke,” a British heist comedy featuring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren, in select theaters April 29th.

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on June 24th, 2021, reviewing the new film “F9” the ninth “Fast & Furious” film, in theaters beginning June 25th.

CHICAGO – The dog days of the summer are upon us, which also reflects from the silver screen. “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” is a spin-off of the eight film “The Fast and the Furious” franchise. Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham are the title characters, fighting and driving their way into our hearts.

CHICAGO – Film has always felt like a much more accessible way to get cultured than, say, going to watch a play or opera. Watching a foreign film can educate you about the world and history as well as any play. “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” promised that kind of experience, but your time is better served catching the actual ballet at a local theater instead.

CHICAGO – Helen Mirren keeps establishing herself as an international treasure with each new role. She is the prime motivator in the new film “The Leisure Seeker,” about a retired couple taking one last spin in their RV, which takes its nickname from the title of the film. Along the way secrets are revealed and the devastation of dementia is exposed, but the story never gets too serious or heavy handed.

CHICAGO – My year in capturing 2017 celebrity portraits is best summed up with a bit of poetry: My subjects skewed older and politically bolder/In a year that demanded change/My list is longer with work hopefully stronger/In capturing these faces not strange.

CHICAGO – There ain’t nothing like Dame Helen Mirren, international star and Oscar winner for “The Queen.” She, along with her husband Taylor Hackford (director of “Ray” and “An Officer and a Gentleman”), were honored at the Cinema/Chicago Spring Gala on May 24, 2017.