Patrick McDonald

CHICAGO – “High school is actually really important. It’s about formulating an identity, getting a path and sticking to it. A lot of the ghosts in your head that are critical can come from your high school years,” director Nanette Burstein said on her new documentary “American Teen”.

CHICAGO – David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young (collectively CSNY) have long established their credibility as a rock/folk group of the highest order.

CHICAGO – The celebrated Evelyn Waugh novel and 1981 BBC miniseries “Brideshead Revisited” have put the unusually titled story into cultural consciousness. Beloved by readers for years, the adapted miniseries brought the popular characters to life and further cemented the epic and literary journey of class awareness, star-crossed love and fine estates.

CHICAGO – Difficult as it is now, in 1835 women in Paris never really had many choices for an eventual lifestyle.

They could hope to marry rich and live in relative comfort or they could toil in a working-class marriage while raising children and working themselves to death.

CHICAGO – So far in the 2008 summer animation season we’ve seen cuddly martial artists (“Kung Fu Panda”) and robots in love (“WALL-E”).

CHICAGO – The most perfect description for the new French suspense film “Tell No One” comes from the most unlikely source: a 1957 American film called “Sweet Smell of Success”.

CHICAGO – The longtime career of Eddie Murphy has lately taken an interesting turn.

After a meteoric career with huge box-office comedies, Murphy has steered toward more family oriented fare (“Daddy Day Care,” the “Shrek” movies, etc.) before his Oscar-nominated performance in “Dreamgirls”. After the stumble of 2007’s “Norbit,” Murphy has again returned this summer in kid-friendly mode with “Meet Dave”.

CHICAGO – It’s 1994 in New York City. In an age before mobile phones, terrorist threats and a grown-up Olsen twin, there is “The Wackness”. This is the debut film of writer and director Jonathan Levine and a coming-out role of sorts for the child star Josh Peck of the popular Nickelodeon series “Drake & Josh”.

CHICAGO – The distinct, gauzy style of director Guy Maddin has created unique cinematic prisms to look through including his depression-era meditation in “The Saddest Music in the World”. In his latest film, which is a documentary of sorts, Maddin explores his own life through his hometown of Winnipeg.

CHICAGO – “My Boys,” which is a set-in-Chicago television comedy series on TBS, recently began its second season. The popular comedy stars Jordana Spiro as P.J. Franklin. She’s a Chicago Sun-Times sports writer who filters her life through bonding with her male buddies.

Three of the “boys” – Michael Bunin (Kenny in the show), Kyle Howard (Bobby) and Reid Scott (Brendan) – were recently interviewed by HollywoodChicago.com.