Like Crazy

CHICAGO – Young love isn’t just crazy, it’s also often pretty stupid. How else to explain a decision to break the law just to spend more time with the man you love? Such is the decision made by Anna (gorgeous newcomer Felicity Jones) when she sends her young love spiralling in “Like Crazy,” recently released on Blu-ray and DVD. The talented young cast elevate a daring-but-often-frustrating script. Whatever problems the film may have, see it for Jones, Anton Yelchin, and Jennifer Lawrence, giving three of the best performances of their generation in 2011.

CHICAGO – Some films never get a fair shot with audiences. They open in a handful of art house theaters scattered throughout the country before inconspicuously landing on DVD. Passionate movie lovers are left with the task of championing these unjustly obscure titles and helping them to acquire the audience they deserve.

CHICAGO – The young love affair, that first one that breaks through the heart, mind and biological objectives, is the memory that never really goes away. Sometimes it works out for a lifetime, sometimes it ends. Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones play out this oft-remembered experience in “Like Crazy.”

CHICAGO – From the moment filmmaker Drake Doremus and actress Felicity Jones won big at the Sundance Film Festival, their film “Like Crazy” has been garnering a good deal of award season buzz. Jones’ star-making portrayal of Anna, a British college student attempting to sustain a long-distance relationship with her American boyfriend, Jacob (Anton Yelchin), has become the focus of media hype that threatens to drown out the film itself.

CHICAGO – This year’s line-up for the 47th Annual Chicago International Film Festival is an eclectic mix of major Oscar contenders (“My Week With Marilyn,” “The Artist,” “The Descendants”) along with a number of interesting smaller films.

CHICAGO – With a tremendously promising awards season in the very near future, it’s only natural that the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival would feature an embarrassment of riches. A whopping 268 feature films and 68 shorts are scheduled to screen at the 36th edition of TIFF, which runs from September 8th through the 18th. Here are a few of the highlights.

CHICAGO – An overarching feeling of optimism seemed to permeate throughout the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Studios purchased the distribution rights to roughly 30 movies, nearly double the number of films that sold last year. Several of the festival’s most buzzed-about discoveries could easily find a sizable audience outside of the festival circuit, either in theaters or on VOD.