IFC Films

CHICAGO – The dreamy and lyrical often forges a duet with the brooding and ominous in the work of French auteur François Ozon, perhaps best known to American audiences for his 2003 mystery “Swimming Pool,” misleadingly billed as a Hitchcockian thriller. It was, in fact, a psychosexual drama about one uptight author’s self-actualization, and the mysterious young woman who sets it into motion.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – A much darker cousin of Matthew Vaughn’s “Kick-Ass” by way of “Taxi Driver,” James Gunn’s “Super” is a tonally inconsistent comedy that nevertheless features one of my absolute favorite performances of the year so far and enough interesting ideas to warrant a look. If only those ideas were shaped into something a bit more coherent. “Super” could have lived up to its title.

CHICAGO – Nothing transfixes me quite like transcendent acting and writing when viewed under a cinematic lens. My favorite films of early 2011 have been Tommy Lee Jones’s stunning adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s play, “The Sunset Limited,” and Abbas Kiarostami’s beguiling new masterwork, “Certified Copy.” Both films derive their dramatic power from the differing philosophies of two articulate characters who may or may not be what they seem.

CHICAGO – In our latest romantic drama edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 50 admit-two passes up for grabs to the advance Chicago screening of “Certified Copy” starring Juliette Binoche from legendary auteur Abbas Kiarostami!

CHICAGO – Rarely has the apocalypse appeared as trivial as it does in “Kaboom,” a disarmingly lovable mess of a picture that manages to work in spite of itself. It’s the tenth feature film directed by Queer New Wave icon Gregg Araki, who seems to be in an infinitely better mood than he was fifteen years ago, back when the Reagan era’s ignorance of the AIDS crisis was still festering like an open wound.

CHICAGO – Perhaps no one but Gregg Araki could make a hallucinogenic, doom-laden mystery as playful and curiously optimistic as “Kaboom”.

CHICAGO – Nothing inspires moviegoers to huddle around the warm glow of their television sets quite like a record-breaking snowstorm. And few films were more tailor-made for a slow-moving snow day than “Cold Weather,” the entrancing new picture from indie filmmaker Aaron Katz, best known for his breakout projects “Dance Party, USA” and “Quiet City.”

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Movies don’t get much weirder than “The Housemaid.” And I mean that in a good way. Mostly. The extreme Gothic elements of this twisted thriller work even if the ludicrous finale somewhat falls apart on recollection. “The Housemaid” opens this week at the Music Box Theater in Chicago after playing the International Film Festival in October 2010.

CHICAGO – Anyone who considers Joan Rivers to be little more than a plasticized sight gag is advised to check out Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg’s wonderful documentary, a sorely deserving (and unfairly snubbed) contender in this year’s Oscar race. The film invites viewers to look under Rivers’ immobile Botox mask and observe the angry, brilliant, brutally honest and fiercely insecure woman hiding beneath.

CHICAGO – The 24 year-old Lena Dunham is a new and notable voice for her generation of filmmakers, breaking in with her first feature, the memorable “Tiny Furniture.” Dunham wrote, directed and portrays the main character Aura, a newly minted film theory graduate who is going through the time honored process of what to do with her post collegiate life.