Rupert Friend

CHICAGO – One of the peculiar secrets … since revealed … in the new Apple TV+ series “High Desert” is that the icon Bernadette Peters portrays two characters. One is the mother (Rosalyn) of main character Peggy, and the other is mysterious actor Ginger who somehow ended up in California desert country. New episodes drop every Wednesday.

CHICAGO – How has actor/singer/Broadway icon Bernadette Peters ended up in the arid lands of California? She is featured in the new Apple TV+ series “High Desert.” It has an ensemble cast led by Patricia Arquette as Peggy Newman, a recovering human being in an odd and spiritual place. The series begins streaming on May 17th.

CHICAGO – As the secrets are revealed in “A Simple Favor,” filtered through the witty and entertaining directorial style of Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids”), the story moves with charm and energy for three-quarters of its running time. But as the mystery gets solved, the conclusion doesn’t live up to the promising beginning.

CHICAGO – Exclusive! Free festival 6-packs! In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 50 pairs of festival 6-packs up for grabs to the second-annual Chicago Critics Film Festival (CCFF) at the Music Box Theatre from the Chicago Film Critics Association!

CHICAGO – “5 Days of War” is a stark reminder of the atrocities that can occur when a B-movie director tries to tackle serious material. The Russo-Georgian War of 2008 was largely ignored by the U.S. government and media, so it was only a matter of time until filmmakers attempted to raise belated awareness about the devastation. Too bad director Renny Harlin is skilled solely in the art of action-packed kitsch.

CHICAGO – In our latest action/war drama edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 25 admit-two run-of-engagement movie passes up for grabs to the new film “5 Days of War” with Val Kilmer, Andy Garcia and Rupert Friend!

CHICAGO – The end of April and beginning of May has produced an onslaught of 2009 Oscar winners and nominees on Blu-ray including “Avatar,” “Crazy Heart,” “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” “Nine,” and Oscar winner for Best Costume Design, “The Young Victoria”.

CHICAGO – One of the functions of royalty seems to be an expected adoration from the peasants. Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend and Paul Bettany offer their interpretation on a monarch’s origins with “The Young Victoria.”

CHICAGO – “Cheri” could be confused with an updated adaptation of a Jane Austen novel if its characters weren’t so comfortable with what goes on between the sheets. Like players in many stuffy costume dramas, they wear the best clothes, live in lavishly decorated homes and speak their perfect grammar in posh accents. But since they aren’t sexually repressed, they do it all with a little bounce in their step.

DVD Rating: 1.5/5.0

CHICAGO – The plot of “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” new to DVD and based on a best-selling novel by John Boyne, may have worked on the page but a number of awful decisions on the way to the screen have taken a story with inherent emotional strength and turned it into misguided, manipulative drama.