The Chicago International Film Festival October 15th through 26th

The 61st Chicago International Film Festival Opening Night features  One Golden Summer. The Festival runs October 15th through the 26th with more than 120 feature, documentary and short films scheduled. We are there and there’s an * before the titles of movies we have already screened with capsule reviews. Many of the films have more than one screening. Get tickets and details at https://www.chicagofilmfestival.com/festival/all-films-list

Very exciting. Watch this space!

*IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT – Winner of this year’s Palme d’Or at the Festival de Cannes. Director Jahad Panahi directs this intricate revenge thriller laced with dark comedy about a man who thinks he recognizes his former torturer during unrest in Iran. He kidnaps and ties up the man in a box in the van,  taking him from friend to friend who were also tortured to have them corroborate his identity. Is he, or isn’t he? And what a payoff!

*FRANKENSTEIN –  Writer/Director Guillermo del Toro puts his own unique spin on the Mary Shelley classic where the egotistical scientist creates a monstrous living being. Guillermo del Toro’s intricate epic shows the excruciating relationship between Isaac as demented scientist and Elordi, the tormented monster. This is all about defining what is human. Can a creation have emotion, find love and really be considered a person? Can Creator and Creation both survive?  Stars Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz. Guillermo del Toro has found a way to make this an uplifting monster story.

*WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY –  From the detailed  detective mind of mystery Writer/Director Rian Johnson is 3rd installment, again, packed with a stellar cast and details you have to pay close attention to.  Daniel Craig is back as Benoit Blanc to sort out who did what to who, and when. Josh O’Connor is excellent as the wayward pastor sent to a very strange church where the caretakers and congregants all have significant backstories. Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, Thomas Haden Church are all atwitter over the death of their wacked -out pastor played manically by Josh Brolin.

*BUGONIA – Yorgos Lanthimos creates another mind bender starring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemmons. This is a consistently intense and volatile psychological thriller. It reflects our current time of madness following conspiracy-obsessed men who kidnap a high-powered CEO they believe to be an alien. Their mission is to remove the aliens from Earth. They engage in a series of intense mental and physical battles that will leave you breathless. Also starring newcomer Aiden Delbis.

*IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU – Mary Bronstein directs Rose Byrne following a woman who creates much of her own serious, but also funny, chaos trying to navigate her daughter’s mysterious illness, her inattentive husband, and horrible relationship with her therapist (Conan O’Brien in a serious and very caustic role). This film could become a classic example of parental anxiety, but with many unexpected twists and turns. Rose Byrne is on camera every minute going through every relatable pressure and confusion of balancing all the roles females face.

ARCO – This is the first feature length film for French illustrator, graphic novelist, and animator Ugo Bienvenu who crafts a warm, uplifting tale recalling the great work of Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki. This is a sci-fi inflected fantasy and love letter to the power of the imagination, with an uplifting look at the power of kinship and camaraderie to affect change.

*TRAIN DREAMS- – Train Dreams is beautifully visualized following the life of Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton), during an era of unprecedented change in early 20th century America. Orphaned at a young age, Robert grows up logging in the towering forests of the Pacific Northwest, working to help expand the railroad empire alongside unforgettable characters in breathtaking landscapes. He marries Gladys (Felicity Jones), and builds a life for her and their daughter, but is away for long periods cutting down forests until life suddenly changes.

*RENTAL FAMILY – Award-winning Writer/Director Hikari creates a genuinely touching film, magnificently visual, set in modern-day Tokyo where a struggling actor, in a very unique role, works for a Japanese “Rental Family” agency. Brendan Fraser (Academy award winning actor for The Whale) has to play relatives in families he has never met. But when he begins to have emotional feelings, and attachments to his clients, he has figure out whether he’s really doing a service for families or for himself. Fraser gives a subtle and sensitive performance in this engaging film.

*JAY KELLY – What a pair! George Clooney and Adam Sandler star in this entertaining coming-of-age comedy about adults taking a good long look at their lives and themselves. Touching moments with hilarious adventures ensue as a movie star and his manager come to grips with Hollywood, fame, marriage, divorce and family. Regret over time passing with family and friends lead to a train ride you’ll never forget.

*DEAD MAN’S WIRE – Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting) directs Bill Skarsgård as an unhinged man who takes a hostage seeking retribution from a big Mortgage company. Colman Domingo plays a popular Indianapolis radio DJ who gets up caught in the chaos, and Al Pacino is the stubborn mogul whose son, played by Dacre Montgomery, is under the gun. Incredibly taut performances in a very disturbing story based on a true incident in  1977. It makes you wonder who is the criminal vs. hero in our society, even now. Having worked in news, we white-knuckled this excellent film.

*NOUVELLE VLAGUE– Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater shows when and how French cinema revolutionized movie making in this recreation of Jean-Luc Godard’s unique French classic film, Breathless. Linklater shows the French New Wave as it was, where all the rules were broken. Zoey Deutch stars, and looks exactly like, Jean Seberg. Aubry Dullin, play Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Guillaume Marbeck is portrayed as Godard himself. Nouvelle Vlague brings us to Paris in 1959 to see this radically spontaneous change that set a new standard of filmmaking.

*IS THIS THING ON? – Bradley Cooper directs this touching, often heartbreaking, but also funny examination of the break up of a marriage at middle age. Cooper wrote it along with Mark Chappell and Will Arnett, who plays Alex, the husband, living on his own, who decides to explore stand up comedy in New York City. It’s funny, and emotional. Will Arnett and Laura Dern as his wife, give are convincing as a couple who love each other but may not be able to live together. 

*HEDDA – Writer/Director, Nia DaCosta reveals the importance of social standing in this elegant but also chaotic production of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play. Hedda (Tessa Thompson) is biting, flirtatious and stunning as she flits through the grandiose party in the elegant manor she made her boring professor husband buy so she can show up her guests. She readily challenges them all during a lethal night where attitude and insults abound. Complications arise as sparks fly throughout., including a violent occurrence. Exquisite production but we found the acting, as well as the opulence, over-the-top.