CHICAGO – Excelsior! Comic book legend Stan Lee’s famous exclamation puts a fine point on the third and final play of Mark Pracht’s FOUR COLOR TRILOGY, “The House of Ideas,” presented by and staged at City Lit Theater in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets/details, click HOUSE OF IDEAS.
Jon Espino
Film Review: ‘American Honey’ is a New National Anthem for All of Us
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 15, 2016 - 8:03amCHICAGO – The America we find ourselves in today would never have been imagined by our ancestors. Sure, we don’t have flying cars or robotic house servants but we do have different ways of life. “American Honey” shows the sweet and sour side of my generation’s new American Dream while keeping it infinitely relatable to everyone.
Preview: First Week of Films at 52nd Chicago International Film Festival
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 14, 2016 - 4:05pmCHICAGO – It’s Week One of the 52nd Chicago International Film Festival, and with so many film opportunities to experience, what are some of the highlights? The intrepid film reviewers of HollywoodChicago.com has been sampling the cinema fare for the first week, and offers the following capsule summaries.
Film Review: Great Visuals Save the Shallow ‘Deepwater Horizon’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 3, 2016 - 10:28amCHICAGO – There are a few things in our lives that, if we’re lucky, we will never have to experience. Things like childbirth, limb loss, or a near death experience. The closest most of can get is by watching a well-made film. If “Deepwater Horizon” succeeds at anything, it’s creating the engrossing experience of being there on that fateful day.
Interviews: Red-Carpet Talk for Reeling2016 Opening Night
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 28, 2016 - 11:33am- 34th
- Bi-Sexual
- Bianca Del Rio
- Brittani Nichols
- Carly Usdin
- Chicago
- Drag Queens
- Gay
- HollywoodChicago.com Content
- Hurricane Bianca
- Interview
- Jon Espino
- Lesbian
- LGBTQ+
- Matt Kugelman
- Music Box Theatre
- Opening Night
- Patrick McDonald
- Queer
- Red Carpet
- Reeling2016
- Roy Haylock
- Suicide Kale
- Transparent
- Transsexual
CHICAGO – Reeling2016, Chicago’s LGBTQ+ International Film Festival, opened last week (Sep. 22nd) with a hurricane force, through Bianca Del Rio. The comic goddess premiered the film “Hurricane Bianca,” directed by Matt Kugelman. Del Rio, Kugelman and others walked the Red Carpet at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre.
Slideshow: Red-Carpet Opening Night for Reeling2016, Chicago’s LGTBQ+ Film Festival
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 28, 2016 - 8:48am- 34th
- Bi-Sexual
- Bianca Del Rio
- Brittani Nichols
- Carly Usdin
- Chicago
- Drag Queens
- Gay
- HollywoodChicago.com Content
- HollywoodChicago.com Slideshow
- Hurricane Bianca
- Jon Espino
- Lesbian
- LGBTQ+
- Matt Kugelman
- Music Box Theatre
- Opening Night
- Patrick McDonald
- Queer
- Red Carpet
- Reeling2016
- Roy Haylock
- Suicide Kale
- Transsexual
CHICAGO – The historic Music Box Theatre was extra fabulous on September 22nd, as Reeling2016, Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival, rolled out the Red Carpet on Opening Night for the the film “Hurricane Bianca,” featuring Bianca Del Rio (Roy Haylock), and directed by Matt Kugelman. Filmmakers Carly Usdin and Brittani Nichols of “Suicide Kale” also walked the Carpet, as well as Three Queens.
Film Review: ‘The Magnificent Seven’ is How the Western Was Lost
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 23, 2016 - 6:20pmCHICAGO – The appeal of Westerns was mostly lost on me when I was younger. The tales of these hypermasculine wanderers, answering every problem with a gun, never appealed to me. When I got older, I discovered their messages of honor and self-defense against corruption. The genre proved it could be more than one-liners and shootouts, but “The Magnificent Seven” set out to be only that.
Film Review: ‘Blair Witch’ Takes a Familiar Trail to a Dead End
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 18, 2016 - 8:10pmCHICAGO – The forest is an elusive environment that can hold hope for one person or isolation for another. You can enter the forest for some Thoreauvian wisdom, but end up being engulfed by its overwhelming monotony. As we revisit the world of “Blair Witch”, we are reminded that the found footage genre has come a long way from its humble origins, but perhaps some footage is better off not “found.”
Film Review: ‘When the Bough Breaks’ is in Need of Repairs
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 13, 2016 - 7:17pmCHICAGO – Popular nursery rhymes are told to children as a way to calm them, but also as some kind of cautionary tale. Most of us could hear the melody and be able to sing the words along with it. This predictability is both its greatest strength and weakness, but the predictability that is the nursery cautionary tale in “When the Bough Breaks” is anything but a strength.
Film Review: ‘Morgan’ Takes Out Intelligence in Artificial Intelligence
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 4, 2016 - 9:12pmCHICAGO – There is nothing like the feeling of watching a completely immersive sci-fi film that delivers the complexity of technology in a modest package, and uses elements of nature to create a beautiful contrast. Unfortunately, “Morgan” doesn’t deliver on the enlightenment it promises.
Film Review: ‘Don’t Breathe’ is a Terrifying Sensory Experience
Submitted by PatrickMcD on August 27, 2016 - 6:21pmCHICAGO – The horror genre can be a complex creature. The great films can show you the difference between ‘horror’ and ‘terror’. Some horror is all shock and no substance, while terror can be all fear, but no shock. The difference between them is so nuanced that only a skilled director, like Fede Alvarez, can show you the difference in his latest film, “Don’t Breathe.”