Music Box Films

Film Review: Guilt, Grief Wrapped Up in Mystery of ‘The Silence’

CHICAGO – With echoes of “The Vanishing” and “Memories of Murder,” Baran bo Odar’s dread-filled “The Silence” is a character-based thriller that focuses more on the people wrapped up in its web of perversion and murder than the crimes themselves.

HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: 50 Pairs of Passes to ‘The Silence’ at the Music Box Theatre

CHICAGO – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film with our unique social giveaway technology, we have 50 pairs of movie passes up for grabs to the advance screening of the icy German thriller “The Silence” at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre!

Film Review: Alan Cumming Shines in Heartbreaking ‘Any Day Now’

CHICAGO – Travis Fine’s “Any Day Now” is an old-fashioned social problem film painted in the broadest of strokes. Fairly early on, the audience is faced with two choices: either resist the film’s assuredly tear-jerking formula or submit to it. Though some critics will always opt for the first choice, regardless of a film’s merits, I’m willing to praise a formula as long as it’s well-executed.

DVD Review: Fascinating ‘The Story of Film: An Odyssey’

The Story of Film: An Odyssey

CHICAGO – Music Box Films’ DVD presentation of Mark Cousins’ challenging and often fascinating “The Story of Film” is a perfect gift for the movie lover in your family who would truly appreciate going to a film class but doesn’t have the access, time, or money. It isn’t a perfect class (but it’s hard to imagine even the best professor in the world not stumbling a few times with such a vast scope of coverage) but this fifteen-hour journey from 1895 to today is a fascinating dissection of not just the men and women who innovated the art form but how our understanding of film history has long been incomplete.

Film Review: Deftly Lensed ‘Snowman’s Land’ Leaves Audience in the Cold

Snowman's Land Film Review

CHICAGO – The art of deadpan humor looks deceptively simple to the untrained eye. It’s fairly easy to say ridiculous things while maintaining a straight face. What separates the amateurs from the professionals is a mastery of timing as well as a keen understanding of a character’s interior life. The best deadpan laughs are the ones that allow an inside peek into the human psyche.

Blu-ray Review: ‘Monsieur Lazhar’ Stands as One of the Year’s Best Films

Monsieur Lazhar Blu-ray

CHICAGO – When the Academy nominates a film before it’s even been released in America, they end up doing it a disservice. Once the film finally shows up on American screens, the Oscar nominations have already faded from memory. This method also allows the Academy to ignore all the great films that audiences have actually seen during the past twelve months.

Film Review: Gripping ‘Wallander: The Revenge’ Shames Most American Thrillers

Wallander: The Revenge
HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 4.0/5.0
Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Why can’t American studios make thrillers like “Wallander: The Revenge”? As a matter of fact, why can’t we make ones like the recent production of “Sherlock” or even “Luther”? Perhaps it’s something about producing for TV that gives people more creative depth but the best thrillers so far this year have been the three episodes of “Sherlock” and this week’s release of “Wallander: The Revenge,” opening at Music Box today and available next week in a massive DVD box set.

DVD Review: ‘Young Goethe in Love’ Enchants With Bittersweet Romance

Young Goethe in Love DVD

CHICAGO – “Young Goethe in Love” is not the sort of title guaranteed to send American audiences to the theater in droves. For one thing, the title sounds too much like “Shakespeare in Love,” though its original German title, “Goethe!” sounds like a giddy musical along the lines of “Oliver!” Perhaps Goethe’s name should’ve been cut from the title altogether and relegated to a snappy tagline like, “Love Can Cometh and Goethe in an Instant.”

Blu-ray Review: ‘Mysteries of Lisbon’ Marks Final Triumph For Raúl Ruiz

Mysteries of Lisbon Blu-ray

CHICAGO – In many ways, 2011 was the year of startlingly successful throwbacks. Who could’ve guessed that Woody Allen, Tom Cruise and The Muppets would revive their crowd-pleasing appeal? How many moviegoing soothsayers predicted that Michel Hazanavicius’ melodrama, “The Artist,” would become an Oscar front-runner that proves the silent art form is far from dead?

DVD Review: Arresting African Noir ‘Viva Riva!’ Delivers Plentiful Thrills

Viva Riva DVD

CHICAGO – At this year’s MTV Movie Awards, Djo Tunda Wa Munga’s “Viva Riva!” had the distinction of winning the first ever “Best African Movie” award, thus equating it with such cinematic masterworks as “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.” Luckily, that’s not the only claim to fame for Munga’s slick neo-noir, which also garnered six African Academy Awards and single-handedly revitalized the film industry in Congo.

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  • 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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