Phillip Seymour Hoffman

CHICAGO – This has to be what the filmmakers intended when they split the final book of the “Hunger Games” series into two films. While “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1” was all set up, Part 2 doesn’t just lead up to a huge climax.

CHICAGO – A mother trying to protect her son from an assassin, a man who coordinates lap dances for a living, a woman whose dreams have died, a gambler betting on his son, and two people at the heart of Abraham Lincoln’s fight to end slavery and the Civil War — 2012 certainly offered a wide array of memorable supporting characters in motion pictures.

CHICAGO – The second week of The 45th Chicago Film Festival kicks off tonight (or tomorrow depending on how you look at the fest that runs from the 8th to the 22nd) and the upcoming weekend features just as much and arguably more interesting films unspooling at the AMC River East than the first.