Patricia Arquette

CHICAGO – The Bird was the word at the 87th Academy Awards, as the film “Birdman” won Best Picture and Alejandro González Iñárrittu won Best Director for the same film. The stellar broadcast was hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, and was highlighted by some passionate speeches and song performances.

CHICAGO – The best of 2014 in film and TV was celebrated at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards on January 11th, 2015. Co-hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, the first big and splashy awards ceremony of the season honored the films “Boyhood” (Drama) and “The Grand Budapest Hotel (Comedy), plus continued to recognize the current influence of online TV series by awarding honors to “Transparent” (Amazon Prime) and its lead actor, Jeffrey Tambor.

CHICAGO – I remember when Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” was just a rare credit on IMDb, a project listed as “in production” for many years, while the director’s other completed work passed through. The curiosity of Linklater’s unparalleled experiment was certainly fulfilled by its release, which comes full circle today as it hits home video, an award season epilogue in sight.

CHICAGO – Life is made up of moments, as the philosophy of the new Richard Linklater film wants to convey. What formulates a person’s ideals and soul, born in a certain place and time? Over 12 years, the writer and director created a fictional family using the same actors in “Boyhood.”

CHICAGO – Director Richard Linklater is a great American storyteller. In 2002, he embarked on a filmmaking journey that would be twelve years long, and conceived a fictional tale of a boy as he ages from age six to 18. Using the same actors over all those years, the result is the epic and philosophical “Boyhood.”

It’s funny how things start to pair up over festivals. You’ll notice themes across at least two films, maybe more. Could just be the exhaustion. The six films I’ve seen since I last filed a diary definitely partner nicely and yet one can also trace through lines through them, despite their completely different genres. Let’s get going…

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Roman Coppola, Oscar-nominated as you read this for his great work co-writing “Moonrise Kingdom” (he also co-wrote “The Darjeeling Limited” with Wes Anderson) brings us the truly odd “A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III,” now available On Demand and opening this Friday in Chicago. The film proves two things – that Charlie Sheen is a better actor than his public persona and stint on “Two and a Half Men” may have led you to believe and that he needs to find a character to prove that instead of this riff on his real-life drama.

CHICAGO – Did you miss the DVD Round-Up? Well, it’s back with as diverse a selection as we’ve seen in some time. The purpose of the DVD Round-Up is to catch the titles that might otherwise fall through the cracks. With everything going on this crazy summer, we may not have time to devote full-length reviews to these five possible gems but we wanted to make sure you knew they were out there, waiting for your hard-earned dollar.

CHICAGO – Over the course of dozens of editions of HollywoodChicago.com’s DVD Round-Up column, we have brought our readers more than a few collections that possessed a remarkable variety of genres in one piece, but few match this week’s column, a quartet of titles that include supernatural drama, reality television, foreign animation, and classic fantasy.

CHICAGO – When NBC committed five hours a week to “The Jay Leno Show,” we knew a few corners would have to be cut when it came to scripted programming at the peacock network but no one really expected that the consistent (both creatively and in the ratings) “Medium” would get the axe.