IFC Films

Blu-ray Review: ‘Perfect Sense’ Offers Drab Yet Touching Metaphor for Death

Perfect Sense Blu-ray

CHICAGO – For a film that promises steamy scenes between two stars who share a fearlessness for performing in the nude, “Perfect Sense” is a doozy of a downer. It’s a fine showcase for the oft-underutilized talents of Ewan McGregor and Eva Green, but the plot is one slow descent toward doom that leaves viewers with very little to contemplate besides the sickening tragedy of death.

Film Review: Fallible Human Beings Bless ‘We Have a Pope’

We Have a Pope

CHICAGO – It’s getting harder and harder to satirize something as über-holy as the Vatican, given their preferred state of reality, but director Nanni Morretti gives it an absurd cinematic try just by highlighting the humanity behind the state of grace. Michel Piccoli portrays the title character in ‘We Have a Pope.’

DVD Review: ‘House of Pleasures’ Vividly Explores Life in Parisian Brothel

House of Pleasures DVD

CHICAGO – L’Apollonide, the Parisian brothel in Bertrand Bonello’s “House of Pleasures,” is one of the most vividly realized movie locations in recent memory. The voyeuristic allure of cinema fuses with the film’s painterly imagery to create a subtly surrealistic dreamscape within the establishment’s claustrophobic walls. The picture is seductive and repellant in about equal measure, but never short of hypnotic.

Blu-ray Review: ‘The Human Centipede II: Full Sequence’ Grows Exceedingly Tedious

The Human Centipede II Blu-ray

CHICAGO – With this sequel to his 2009 cult hit, filmmaker Tom Six appears to have finally mistaken stomach-churning exploitation for nightmare-inducing terror. No quality scares could possibly be produced by this hollow enterprise, only nauseated groans. The first flick was diverting B-movie schlock. This is just a tedious and obnoxiously tasteless retread.

Film Review: Director Wim Wenders Celebrates Choreographer in 3-D ‘Pina’

Pina

CHICAGO – Director Wim Wenders, famous for his magical takes on life and love in “Wings of Desire” and “Until the End of the World,” brings that same enchantment through a 3-D documentary about a rebellious and unusual German choreographer named Pina Bausch in “Pina.”

DVD Review: Flawed ‘Brighton Rock’ Adaptation Enhanced By Fine Ensemble

Brighton Rock Thumb

CHICAGO – Graham Greene’s haunting 1938 crime novel doesn’t deserve to be uttered in the same breath as Stephenie Meyer’s tween phenomenon, “Twilight.” Yet in the hands of British filmmaker Rowan Joffe, Greene’s masterwork loses its theological intrigue and becomes a self-conscious melodrama fueled by two grim lovers who could be dead ringers for Bella Swan and Edward Cullen.

Blu-ray Review: ‘Flypaper’ Falters With Paper-Thin Characterizations

Flypaper Thumb

CHICAGO – After the not-so-surprising success of the heavily marketed farce “The Hangover,” Jon Lucas and Scott Moore have quickly become Hollywood’s most overrated screenwriters. They specialize in injecting high concepts with frat-boy vulgarity, mean spirited gags and entirely superficial warmth. If Zach Galifianakis hadn’t bolstered “Hangover” with his deadpan genius, the film almost surely would’ve flopped.

HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: 50 Pairs of Chicago Passes to Werner Herzog’s ‘Into the Abyss’

Into the Abyss from

CHICAGO – In our latest documentary edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 50 admit-two movie passes up for grabs to the advance Chicago screening of IFC Films’ “Into the Abyss” from Werner Herzog about why people kill – and why a state kills!

Blu-Ray Review: ‘The Ledge’ Falls Flat Despite All-Star Cast

The Ledge Blu-Ray

CHICAGO – If Fox Faith’s target audience was comprised of atheists, the studio might have churned out this deeply shallow thriller about religious fundamentalism. Though hate-spewing cult leaders like Fred Phelps deserve to be reviled, the vast majority of fictional films about extremism come off as profoundly simple-minded. Like Kevin Smith’s “Red State,” this picture sidesteps its provocative subject matter in favor of routine clichés.

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TV, DVD, BLU-RAY & THEATER REVIEWS

  • Manhunt

    CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.

  • Topdog/Underdog, Invictus Theatre

    CHICAGO – When two brothers confront the sins of each other and it expands into a psychology of an entire race, it’s at a stage play found in Chicago’s Invictus Theatre Company production of “Topdog/Underdog,” now at their new home at the Windy City Playhouse through March 31st, 2024. Click TD/UD for tickets/info.

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