CHICAGO – In anticipation of the scariest week of the year, HollywoodChicago.com launches its 2024 Movie Gifts series, which will suggest DVDs and collections for holiday giving.
Lea Séydoux
Memorable ‘Sister’ Strikes Emotional Chords
Submitted by BrianTT on January 3, 2013 - 2:16pm Rating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – With a delicacy and melancholy reminiscent of the Dardennes brothers, Ursula Meier’s “Sister,” shortlisted for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and opening tomorrow in Chicago at the Music Box Theatre, is a heartbreakingly effective piece of work about a boy forced to be a man by his circumstance.
‘Farewell, My Queen’ Paints Seductive Portrait of Encroaching Doom
Submitted by mattmovieman on July 20, 2012 - 7:09amRating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Is there any actress in the world today with more seductive and transfixing eyes than Léa Seydoux? She often tilts her head in a direction that allows her to peer up from beneath lowered brows. Stanley Kubrick would loved to photograph her. Yet her radiant orbs are capable of conveying more than mere menace. She can appear frighteningly vulnerable and coldly calculating within the same take.
‘Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol’ Rocks Your Holiday
Submitted by BrianTT on December 15, 2011 - 3:52pmRating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Brad Bird proves that he can make the leap from Pixar to action with one of the best genre films of the year, the adrenalized “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.” Proving there is a way to make a big budget franchise installment that feels vibrant, alive, and like more than just a pathetic retread of what has come before (unlike this year’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Sherlock Holmes” entries), “Ghost Protocol” delivers with breakneck pace and stellar action choreography. This movie wastes little time – it’s a lean, mean, action machine.
Woody Allen’s Charming ‘Midnight in Paris’ Delights
Submitted by BrianTT on May 27, 2011 - 9:01am Rating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Writer/director Woody Allen and the amazing cinematographer Darius Khondji (“Seven,” “The City of Lost Children”) very purposefully open their new film “Midnight in Paris” with a long series of static shots of the title city before even presenting a cast list. You see, Paris is a cast member in this film. The sun rises, people hustle and bustle through Paris, they sip coffee in cafes, the lights go on at dusk, and the city sleeps.
Haunting ‘Lourdes’ Revels in the Poetry of Ambiguity
Submitted by BrianTT on May 13, 2010 - 12:34pm Rating: 5.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Most films about faith seem artistically limited by their spiritual subject matter. Some religiously devout filmmakers are so fixed in their beliefs that they lack the ability to perceive life with the complexity necessary to create resonant art. A perennial classic like Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” may have magnificent scope and spectacle, but it has all the dramatic depth and nuance of a Bible card.
