Matt Fagerholm

CHICAGO – 1993 will be nostalgically remembered by many members of my generation as the summer of “Jurassic Park” and the spring of “The Sandlot.” If you were a movie-loving kid during this year, it’s highly likely both of these films occupied a corner of your imagination. I clearly remember how the junkyard dog, dubbed by neighborhood pals in “The Sandlot” as “the Beast,” seemed as terrifying as any T-Rex.

CHICAGO – Roger Ebert may have left this world today, but he did not die. He is alive in every moviegoer he guided toward a cinematic epiphany and in every writer who believes that big ideas can be conveyed to and embraced by the masses. The following is a column I wrote five years ago for my college paper, The Columbia Chronicle.

CHICAGO – The first image that surfaced of Derek Cianfrance’s “The Place Beyond the Pines,” was that of a bleached blonde, tattooed Ryan Gosling seated on a motorcycle. For many viewers, that would be enough to earn their ticket, yet Cianfrance’s brooding epic is bound to give them far more than they bargained for. Some may feel betrayed, others will be hooked.

CHICAGO – “Primer” director Shane Carruth gave an exclusive interview to Indie Outlook, the independent film blog and podcast created by Hollywood Chicago writer Matt Fagerholm, about his acclaimed Sundance prize-winner, “Upstream Color.” The film makes its Chicago premiere at the Music Box Theatre on Friday, April 12th, and Carruth will be present for the opening night double bill of “Primer” and “Upstream Color.”

CHICAGO – Why should Judd Apatow and Lena Dunham have to apologize for making films about white upper-class people, considering they are indeed members of the white upper-class? Does their whiteness make their voices any less worthy of being heard? Is it the painstakingly intimate nature of their comedy that rubs some viewers the wrong way? Would these viewers prefer impersonal formulaic retreads populated by token representatives of every race on earth? I can’t imagine anything more dull.

CHICAGO – Remember that episode of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” where Rob and Laura Petrie become convinced that the baby they took home from the hospital is not their own? Imagine if they were right and that 18 years had passed before they came to this crushing realization. And imagine if the birth parents weren’t a kindly black couple, and instead the Petrie’s sworn enemies?

CHICAGO – At the dark heart of Luis Buñuel’s Oscar-nominated 1970 classic, “Tristana,” is a character so spectacularly hypocritical and richly fascinating that he upstages everyone including the titular heroine. As played by the great Fernando Rey, ignoble nobleman Don Lope is a self-professed libertine bound by traditional values. He passionately believes in the virtues of freedom, but only on his terms.

CHICAGO – There are plenty of good reasons to see Sally Potter’s beguiling, tenderly bittersweet coming-of-age drama, “Ginger & Rosa,” but one reason trumps them all. Her name is Elle Fanning. The enormous potential she exuded in everything from art house gems (“Somewhere”) to mainstream blockbusters (“Super 8”) pays off in this sterling showcase, solidifying her status—at age 14—as one of the top talents in modern film acting.

CHICAGO – If last year’s group of Best Picture nominees are any indication, American filmmakers seem convinced that in order for their work to be taken seriously, it has to be super-long. I understand why a picture like “Lincoln” would have an epic scope, but did disposable novelties like “Django Unchained” and “The Hobbit: Vol. 1” really have to clock in around three hours?

CHICAGO – I may never know how “In Their Skin” came into being, but I have a pretty good theory. Screenwriter/star Josh Close was so appalled by the unapologetic bleakness of Michael Haneke’s “Funny Games” that he took it upon himself to make the exact same movie, more or less, but with a much happier ending. It’s a noble effort but every bit as pointless as Rod Lurie’s proudly non-misogynistic remake of “Straw Dogs.”