Chicago International Film Festival October 11th through October 22nd.

We Grown Now – Opening Night! Minhal Baig directs a film about two 12-year-old friends growing up in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing complex in the early 1990’s. We screened the film just blocks from where the complex stood. Cinematically beautiful, well-written and paced, with an excellent cast including Jurnee Smollett, Blake Cameron James, and Gian Knight Ramirez. We actually worked in Chicago TV News covering the violence there at that time, and became close with a family that got out. Also produced a multicultural musical anti-drug, gangs and drug special for PBS with kids from Cabrini-Green. 

Saltburn – Oscar winning screenwriter Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) directs a salacious, provocative film about a scholarship student (Barry Keoghan) at Oxford of meager means who befriends a rich student (Jacob Lord) from wealthy Saltburn. When summer comes with no place to go, the elite friend invites him to his estate where he sees the high life as he’s never seen before and manipulates the rich family to get exactly what he wants. Be prepared to see a lot of sex and nudity, not just for shock value, but as part of a power play.

Eric LaRue – Michael Shannon in his directorial debut tackles well the very serious situation for, Janice, a mother (Judith Greer) dealing with the pain and agony trying to cope with life after her teen son shot three bullies at school. Alexander Skarsgard plays her conflicted husband as each seek help from different pastors. Will she meet with the mothers of those boys? What has her son said?  Shannon was inspired to direct this after seeing Brett Neves’s play, who also wrote the screenplay. Also starring Tracy Letts and Alison Pill. Click here for our interview with Writer/Director Michael Shannon.

The Taste of Things (The Pot au Feu) – Have already seen Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel star in this delicious French film with subtitles about a female cook, who is an incredible gourmet chef. She is the muse of a rich gourmand she cooks with. The first hour will send your taste buds reeling watching the choreography in this 1885 French kitchen, making the most delectable dishes.  You can almost smell them. It is not only a study of food, but of their very sensual relationship.

Poor Things –  Emma Stone in a tour de force role in Director Yorgos Lanthimos’ film as the product of a genius doctor (Willem Dafoe) who created a modern day Miss Frankenstein. The film begins with Bella Baxter as a child with the brain of a baby and follows her as she learns and develops as a woman who goes on an adventure around the world. Suitor Duncan (Mark Ruffalo) is intrigued and turns her on, literally, to the point where she is willing to experiment having sex further by joining a brothel in Paris. Victorian period presented with fantastical sets and costumes made creatively with current materials and futuristic designs. We interviewed Costume Designer Holly Waddington who explains how she created Bella’s incredible wardrobe the director wanted for his film. Watch for our interview with costumer, Holly Waddington talking about working with Emma Stone and their collaboration.

Memory – A surprisingly memorable film directed by Michel Franco starring Peter Sarsgaard and Jessica Chastain as people with opposite conditions in what becomes a strangely beautiful love story. He has dementia and continues to forget, while she is haunted by memories she cannot forget. Sarsgaard received the Chicago International Film Festival’s Career Achievement award at this, the World Premiere at the Music Box Theatre.

The Bikeriders – Director Jeff Nichols (Mud, Loving, Take Shelter) revs it up writing and directing this film inspired by a photo book from Danny Lyon about a midwest motorcycle club.  Nichols stellar cast includes Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Jodie Comer, and Mike Faist in a film showing the relationships among the outsiders in the 1960’s who ride together for enjoyment and more. Watch for our interview with Jeff Nichols about the Chicago influence for the look of the film. Watch for our interview with Director Jeff Nichols. 

Silver Dollar Road – Have already seen. This documentary directed by Raoul Peck (I am Not Your Negro) tells the heartbreaking true story of a Black family that has spent decades trying to save the land bequeathed to them by their dying relative at the end of the Civil War. the film shows how the descendants have had to fight a racist system in North Carolina, not only for the land, but to free two of their male relatives who spent years in jail. Click here for our interview with Raoul Peck. 

All Happy Families – Haroula Rose directs a dramedy about a totally dysfunction family of characters and their strange way of showing love for each other. Set in real Chicago neighborhoods, they just keep getting in each other’s way which gets worse when the famous actor brother shows up to complicate his brother’s living quarters and romance. Chicago based, the pace is a little uneven, but it delivers some good lines about families.

The Boy and the Heron – Legendary Japanese Writer/Director of beautiful animated films, Hayo Miyazaki (Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirit) said he was retiring in 2013. Reportedly the most expensive animated film ever produced in Japan, this film was disrupted during COVID. Extraordinarily detailed animation with superb sound design. Miyazaki has made another feast for the eyes in a semi-autobiographical story where he was obviously thinking about the stages of life. The young boy grieves the loss of his mother having to live with distant family members. Mahito enters a fantasy world when he befriends a part-man, talking Heron in this coming-of-age story coping with the real world.

The Holdovers – Dramedy director by Alexander Payne and written by David Hemingson about a teacher, a student and a worker at a prep school left behind during the holidays. Push comes to shove between the teacher (Paul Giamatti) and the difficult student (Dominic Tessa) with head cook Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) playing sensitivity referee. 

Rustin – Did you know who was responsible for putting together the March on Washington in 1963? Colman Domingo is dynamic as Bayard Rustin in Tony Award winner  and Director George C. Wolfe’s film about the gay Black organizer and activist. Rustin is the unsung hero, until now, who buoyed the massive rally where Dr. Martin Luther King made his “I Have a Dream” speech and galvanized Black activism to fight for freedom and equali

Fingernails – We were told in high school that there is not just ONE right person in the world for you. But, can it be scientifically or psychologically tested? This film examines romance from that very perspective casting doubt. Jessie Buckley, Jeremy Allen White, Riz Ahmed, and Luke Wilson star.