PREVIEW! The Chicago International Film Festival

It's one of the best times of the year for fans of cinema in Chicago because the Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF) is now underway!

Celebrating its 60th year, CIFF is North America's longest-running competitive film festival. This year's Fest features more than 120 feature films and 70 short films from around the world, along with special events, career retrospectives, children's classes, and more. Visit the website for the full schedule.

I'm planning to attend many of the special programs and celebrity appearances for this year's fest but above all, I'm excited to see some great movies!

MY TOP 10 MOST ANTICIPATED FILMS at CIFF 2024!

in alphabetical order

BLITZ

Directed by  Steve McQueen

Country:  United Kingdom

Steve McQueen's "Blitz" follows the epic journey of George (Elliott Heffernan), a 9-year-old boy in World War II-era England whose mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) sends him to safety in the English countryside. George, defiant and determined to return home to his mom and his grandfather Gerald (Paul Weller) in East London, embarks on an adventure, only to find himself in immense peril. Meanwhile, a distraught Rita searches for her missing son.

Featuring impressive attention to period detail and empathetic performances from its all-star cast, "Blitz" is an inspiring, heartfelt tale of bravery and perseverance in the face of impossible odds, as McQueen's signature visual style conjures up an immersive vision of wartime London.

THE END

Directed by  Joshua Oppenheimer

Countries:  Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, United Kingdom

From Oscar-nominated director Joshua Oppenheimer ("The Act of Killing," "The Look of Silence") comes a poignant and deeply human musical about a family that survived the end of the world. Twenty-five years after environmental collapse left the Earth uninhabitable, Mother (Tilda Swinton), Father (Michael Shannon), and Son (George McKay) remain confined to their palatial bunker, where they struggle to maintain hope and a sense of normalcy by clinging to the rituals of daily life, until the arrival of a stranger, Girl, upends their happy routine.

As tensions rise, their seemingly idyllic existence starts to crumble, with long-repressed feelings of remorse and resentment threatening to destroy the family's delicate balance. But their reckoning with difficult truths also points to a different way forward, one based on acceptance, love, and a capacity for change—an urgent and unforgettable cautionary tale.

GRAFTED

Directed by  Sasha Rainbow

Country:  New Zealand

Young Wei is a blossoming scientist continuing the controversial yet innovative research on skin grafting that her late father began. Shunned by her family in China because of a hereditary facial disfigurement, she gets a scholarship to study in New Zealand, where she stays with her kind but absent aunt and mean-girl cousin Angela. Wei is a brilliant student who catches the attention of a down-on-his-luck professor but is still mercilessly bullied by Angela and her popular friends.

Then, she reaches her breaking point. What ensues is a gut-wrenching dive into visceral body horror, where vengeance and scientific hubris collide to lead Wei on a violent quest to possess the power of beauty and popularity at any cost. Sasha Rainbow's "Grafted" is a deliciously disgusting ride that pushes the societal obsession with normative beauty to horrific extremes.

HARD TRUTHS

Directed by  Mike Leigh

Countries:  United Kingdom, Spain

For his 23rd film, legendary British filmmaker Mike Leigh returns to the stark domestic dramas he's known for, like his 1971 feature debut "Bleak Moments" (a CIFF Gold Hugo winner) and his blistering, Cannes-winning 1993 breakthrough "Naked." Reunited with Leigh for the first time since his 1996 multiple Oscar nominee "Secrets and Lies," the astonishing Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays Pansy, a woman wracked by fear, tormented by afflictions, and prone to raging tirades against her husband, son, and anyone who looks her way. In stark contrast, Pansy's easygoing younger sister Michele is a single mother whose family life and hair salon are brimming with warmth.

Fierce, compassionate, and often darkly humorous, "Hard Truths" explores the intensities of kinship, duty, and the most enduring human mystery that even through lifetimes of hurt and hardship, we still find ways to love those we call family.

HERE

Directed by  Robert Zemeckis

Countries:  United Kingdom, United States

Reuniting the director, writer, and stars of "Forrest Gump," "Here" is an original film about multiple families and the special place they inhabit. The story travels through generations, capturing the most relatable of human experiences. Zemeckis ("Castaway," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "Contact," "Back to the Future") directs from a screenplay co-written by Eric Roth ("Forrest Gump," "Killers of the Flower Moon," "Dune," "A Star Is Born"). Told much in the style of Richard McGuire's acclaimed graphic novel that it's based on, Tom Hanks and Robin Wright star in a tale of love, loss, laughter, and life, all of which happen right Here.

"Here" is a Special Closing Night Event in which director Robert Zemeckis will receive the Founder's Legacy Award, presented by Chicago International Film Festival founder Michael Kutza. This will mark Zemeckis's third time closing the Festival. He received a Career Achievement Award for his Tom Hanks-starrer "The Polar Express," which held its World Premiere as the Closing Night film in 2004. In 2012, "Flight," starring Denzel Washington, closed the Festival with Zemeckis receiving the Founder's Award.

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL

Directed by  Adam Elliot

Country:  Australia

Visionary stop-motion animation director Adam Elliot returns to the Festival ("Mary and Max," 2009) with a film eight years in the making.

As a girl whose young life is troubled by misfortune, Grace (voiced by Sarah Snook) seeks comfort in her loving twin brother Gilbert and her pet snails. But when the siblings are forcibly separated after the death of their father and placed in foster homes at opposite ends of Australia, Grace's loneliness causes her to withdraw into her shell—much like her beloved pet snails.

Years pass, and her sorrow grows until she strikes up an odd friendship with Pinky (Jacki Weaver), an eccentric older woman with a glowing outlook on life and kindness to spare. At once gloomy, affecting, and hopeful, "Memoir of a Snail" is a beautiful testament to the power of friendship and resilience in the face of adversity.

NIGHTBITCH

Directed by  Marielle Heller

Country:  United States

Academy Award nominee Amy Adams stars as a woman who has left the city and her career to be a stay-at-home mom. Through the challenges of parenting a young toddler, her mighty maternal instincts begin to manifest in newly empowered canine form. In this penetrating, funny, and outrageous look at the realities of being an American mom, Marielle Heller ("Can You Ever Forgive Me") has crafted a wildly entertaining and satirical tale of female struggle and strength. Propelled by Adams's primal, captivating, and truly transformational performance, "Nightbitch" is a bold and sardonic story of motherhood like no other.

THE QUIET SON

Directed by  Delphine Coulin & Muriel Coulin

Country:  France

Pierre (Vincent Lindon, "La Haine," "Titane"), a devoted father in his fifties, is raising his two sons alone in a "rust belt" city in northern France. While the brothers couldn't be more different — athletic Fus spends his time on football and cage fighting, while Louis's nose is buried in his books — the three form a tight-knit family. However, as Louis immerses himself in his studies, Fus's behavior becomes increasingly furtive and distant. When it becomes clear that Fus has been seduced by a local far-right group, an explosive rift develops between him and his union-leader father.

A sense of intimacy and urgency propels this timely family drama from writer-director sister duo Delphine and Muriel Coulin. "The Quiet Son" grapples with questions about accepting and finding common ground with loved ones we no longer recognize. What can be forgiven, and what line is too far to cross? The always masterful Lindon stands out as a conflicted father torn between love and hate and hope and despair.

A REAL PAIN

Directed by  Jesse Eisenberg

Countries:  United States, Poland

This emotional comic journey follows mismatched cousins, David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin), who reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. But their adventure takes a turn when the odd couple's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history. Eisenberg, who also wrote and directed, has created a film that deftly mixes the humorous and the heartrending.

Fueled by its witty and sophisticated script and winning performances, especially Culkin's magnetic portrayal of the wild-card relative you can't — and may not even want to — control, "A Real Pain" subtly transforms into a compassionate story of family, forgiveness, and resilience.

THE ROOM NEXT DOOR

Directed by  Pedro Almodóvar

Country:  Spain

In celebrated Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar's first English-language film, Julianne Moore stars as Ingrid, a best-selling writer who reconnects after many years with her close childhood friend Martha — a war journalist played by Tilda Swinton. As the two reunite and rekindle their relationship, Martha makes a request of Ingrid that will test their newly re-forged bond.

Like his acclaimed films "Parallel Mothers," "Talk to Her," and "Volver" — to name a few — "The Room Next Door" is a beautifully crafted drama that continues Almodóvar's perceptive, emotional exploration of women's inner lives. Featuring luminous performances by Moore and Swinton and his signature saturated color palette, Almodóvar's latest masterwork is an exquisite and heartbreaking story of life, death, and friendship.

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I'll post full reviews of the above films, coverage of the special events, and much more here in my Blog throughout the Festival's run from October 16 - 27, 2024.

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CAPSULE MOVIE REVIEWS: 10-11-24

The Film Critic pants are out of the closet, and I have them on! It's time for some capsule (short) movie reviews on three New Releases for the week of Friday, October 11, 2024.

1) TERRIFIER 3

The idiotic Art The Clown kills more people in the awful sequel "Terrifier 3."

The third installment of this inexplicably popular gore/horror series created by the talent-free Damien Leone is more of the same. And by "same," I mean "shit." 

The irritatingly stupid Art The Clown is back, and this time, the twist is that he's wearing a Santa costume while silently murdering everything in his boring, derivative path.

Here's the deal, these movies suck. They absolutely suck. There is nothing redeemable or entertaining about any of them. Except for the piles of blood, gore, and latex makeup thrown across the screen in spectacularly unimaginative fashion, which passes for entertainment, nothing, and I mean NOTHING, happens in these stupid-ass movies.

This third chapter is more of the exact repetitive bunkum: non-existent story, horrific acting (my God, do these actors stink!), terrible writing, laughable technical work, and direction that is so dull and inept that the whole incompetent enterprise barely even qualifies as a frigging movie.

I hate this movie as I've hated every other worthless "Terrifier" movie. It's not because I'm offended by the content or think it's too gory, disturbing, or incursive. I couldn't care less that children get murdered in this thing, or that deaths go on for several minutes, or that every type of taboo is attempting to be broken. Nope, none of that bothers me or upsets me.

It's actually the opposite of upsetting. These movies are excruciatingly dull, even when the brutal and drawn-out kills are happening. During the mayhem, I spend more time yawning than being frightened, shocked, or repulsed, which is actually more offensive than feeling assaulted.

Look, I've been a horror fan my whole life, and I've seen everything you can possibly see within the genre, and I know my shit... trust me, I'm a horror expert. If you think you know more about horror than I do, you don't, and the meatheads responsible for this dreck certainly don't. This series is junk. Complete fucking junk.

I don't have room here, but I could list at least 75 movies with more scares, better gore, more imaginative kills, and better use of practical disgusting makeup effects than seen in this movie. I could also list about 100 films that have a better villain/killer and more interesting main characters, not to mention little things like, you know, a story and structure of any kind.

My film critic friend and colleague Steve Prokopy correctly compares these "Terrifier" movies to porno flicks, meaning that back in the day, you would fast-forward through the "plot" and "acting" of a porn video to get to the good stuff: the screwing. Well, in the case of these killer-clown movies, the screwing scenes are actually murder scenes, and they are absolute libido killers.

The thing that I find the most depressing is that a lot of fans of the genre love this crap, and that baffles me. You horror fans should know better, seriously, you should. The fact that scary movie lovers are falling for this garbage makes me very sad. Come on, Tribe, you're all better than this, and Leone and his talentless crew know it.

If you like these movies, good for you, have fun. I'll just be over here feeling very embarrassed for you. - Zero Stars

2) THE APPRENTICE

Written by Gabriel Sherman and directed by Ali Abbasi, this unauthorized drama tells the story of how a young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) started his real-estate business in New York during the 1970s and 80s while trying to break free of the controlling shadow of his father (Martin Donovan). He receives teaching and help from infamous lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) and the rest, as they say, is history.

This is a difficult film to review because of what is happening in the real world right now. As I write this, the subject of this film is currently threatening democracy and humankind. It's also impossible for me to review this movie without bias because I truly despise the person whose story is being told here.

Having said that, it's also very clear that the filmmakers, cast, and crew of this project completely share my opinion of this man. They made this movie as a warning and a cautionary tale. This is a specific tale about how an insignificant and insecure man is transformed into a dangerous and contemptible monster, and on that level, it works brilliantly.

This kind of expose has been done many times before, and the script isn't anything we haven't seen before. What sets it apart is Abbasi's stylish direction, which captures that specific time and place beautifully, and the phenomenal performances by the really outstanding cast.

Stan continues to be one of my favorite actors and is a true chameleon who is unrecognizable from film to film while doing some of the most original and detailed work in movies today. He is outstanding as Trump, wisely staying away from the exaggerated mannerisms and quirks that many impersonators do and creating a complex, layered portrait of evil.

The supporting cast is also terrific. Donovan is completely unrecognizable (seriously, I had no idea it was him until the final credits) as he dives deep into his character. At the same time, Maria Bakalova shines as Trump's first wife, Ivana, and Charlie Carrick is outstanding as Trump's brother, Freddy, all terrific performances.

But the film is all but stolen by Strong, who not only looks and sounds EXACTLY like Roy Cohn, he also captures the evil, relentless nature of this despicable human being while also showcasing the brazen relentlessness that carried him through his career and life which AIDS shortened.

The scenes between Stan and Strong are a masterclass of acting, and Abbasi handles these scenes brilliantly as he builds to the moment when Trump becomes the master, and Cohn becomes the student. Any movie that makes Roy Cohn look reasonably innocent and Trump look horrifyingly guilty has some balls.

Moments early in the movie don't quite work, and some repeated scenes in which everyone around Trump insists that he'd do well in politics seem loaded with forced irony. Still, overall, this is a very entertaining and smartly made film that I enjoyed even when I was wincing at the thought of the main character having any power in the real world. - ⭐️⭐️⭐️

3) PIECE BY PIECE

Snapped right before the Press Screening of "Piece by Piece" began. A fun crowd had a fun time.

This documentary about singer/songwriter and record producer Pharrell Williams could be more original in content, but it is incredibly original in its execution. Williams' life story is told with LEGO bricks in crazy animation.

The film's core is a standard, ego-stroking, by-the-numbers account of a rich musician's life, but the LEGO style makes it undeniably entertaining and endlessly charming.

The director here is Oscar-winning documentarian Morgan Neville ("20 Feet From Stardom," "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"), who does a remarkable job of taking Pharrell's LEGO idea and beautifully executing it.

The film rises above its standard VH1-Behind-The-Music-like content by creating a fanciful world in which music comes to colorful life, and beats are real creatures that must be nurtured. A place where standard documentary stories about growing up and working are peppered with LEGO world escapades and hilariously whimsical asides that couldn't possibly work in live-action.

It's also hilarious to see the LEGO versions of superstars such as Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes, and, especially, Snoop Dogg do the "talking head" thing that you see in all the documents while looking like LEGOs. It's funny, funny stuff.

Not everything works (I could have done without Oprah appearing in this), and there is a bit of self-importance that seeps to the surface of Williams' persona that is sometimes annoying. Still, overall, this is a very entertaining bit of fluff, and I thoroughly recommend it.

I am curious as to how the public will receive this movie. It's not really for kids because it's very talky and loaded with music that came out 20 years ago, and it might be too silly for adults or hardcore music fans. It will be interesting to see how this does at the box office, but hey, I'm a fan. - ⭐️⭐️⭐️

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CAPSULE MOVIE REVIEWS: 10-4-24

Film Critic pants, ON! It's time for some capsule (short) movie reviews, so here are my thoughts on five New Releases for the week of Friday, October 4, 2024. I must warn you; it is a pretty bad week...two of the very worst major releases of the year came out on the same day.

1) JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX

Todd Phillips is a terrible filmmaker who makes terrible films, his gifts to the world include absolute worthless trash like, "Road Trip," "Starsky and Hutch," "Due Date," "War Dogs," and, of course, the dreaded "The Hangover" trilogy (yeah, he made THREE of those friggin' things!)

He is also responsible for the very worst film of 2019, the shockingly awful, offensively stupid, amazingly pretentious "Joker," which also features the single worst performance ever to be awarded an Oscar, given by Joaquin Phoenix.

Well, the last thing anybody wanted was a sequel to that garbage, but here it is. Not only is it more of the same derivative amateurish nonsense, but it's also a musical, features Lady Gaga, and is 20 minutes longer... kill me.

To sum up briefly, after the events of the first film, failed comedian Arthur Fleck, AKA "Joker" (Phoenix), is now incarcerated in Arkham State Hospital awaiting trial for his crimes. While he is there, he meets another inmate, Harley Quinn (Gaga). They fall in love and plan a future together. Arthur then goes to trial, hoping to be released so that he and Quinn can live happily ever after.

That's the basic plot, and the movie consists of endlessly dreary scenes of a disturbingly gaunt Arthur slogging through the prison carrying a bucket of his own urine while being beaten by the guards (lead by a visibly bored Brendan Gleeson) or wandering around the yard being humiliated by fellow prisoners, or glumly watching cartoons on TV while smoking A LOT of cigarettes.

Then there are the endlessly dreary scenes in the courtroom, some of which include Arthur defending himself, dressed as the Joker, as crowds gather outside and Harley watches from inside wearing different costumes and makeup. And that's it—for over two hours—until something FINALLY happens at the end, and what happens is idiotic.

It's all shot in gloomy darkness, the same "style" that Phillips rips off from much better films. Like the first movie, it is topped with yet another incredibly mannered, pompous, irritating performance from Phoenix and a truly uninspired turn by a very sleepy Gaga, who looks and acts as though she had to be woken up before each take.

Oh, then there are the horrific, incompetently staged musical numbers that are as forced, inorganic, and lifeless as I've ever seen in a movie. The song choices are obvious and stupid; they are badly sung (on purpose), and I feel like Phillips simply typed "Old Standards Used in Better Movies" into Spotify and started choreographing (poorly).

This film, like the first one, is trash. It's marginally less crappy than the original because of the animated sequence by Sylvain Chomet, the director of "The Triplets of Belleville," that opens the film. In bright Looney Tunes style, the short movie says more in 4 minutes than Phillips does in 140. It's beautiful, and it clearly makes one wish that the whole film had been that instead of the junk it ends up being. - ⭐️

2) SATURDAY NIGHT

The sense of dread I was feeling as I took this picture before the press screening of this film was palpable.

If you know me, you know that I love "Saturday Night Live" and have watched it since the very first episode aired on October 11, 1975. I also host a podcast dedicated to SNL called "That Show Hasn't Been Funny in Years," I have read more books, seen more documentaries, and studied more behind-the-scenes stories about the beloved television institution than possibly anyone on the planet.

From the moment I first heard about this project, who was making it, and which story they were choosing to tell, I was skeptical. Then I saw the trailer, and my skepticism turned into dread. Then I saw the movie, which was worse than I could have imagined.

Co-written and directed by the minimally talented Jason Reitman (whose only good films were NOT written by him and were only watchable because of the scripts written by other people, namely Diablo Cody), this absolute crap is a GIANT misfire on every single level.

The film's unimaginative gimmick is that it takes place 90 minutes before the very first episode of "Saturday Night" is scheduled to air on that fateful night back in 1975. Shot in (mostly) real-time, it follows the endless chaos, complications, and general madness that occur until showtime at 11:30 p.m.

Any credibility that this movie could possibly have is lost almost immediately from the opening sequence when it is clearly established that truth and authenticity will be thrown out the window in favor of a chaotic, badly staged farce disguised as behind-the-scenes reality.

Reitman and his co-writer Gil Kenan have no interest in the truth or the proper and accurate portrayal of the real people involved with the creation of the show because the film is nothing but lie after lie after lie, topped with a tons of "that-never-happened-thens," layered with composites of urban legends, all proposed as truth.

Rietman also doesn't care about little things like tension-building, storytelling, or even setting up and delivering punchlines properly. Everything is thrown at the wall to see what sticks, and the only thing that sticks is real people being falsely and insultingly depicted to the point of absurdity and a group of actors pretending to be SNL legends by doing bad imitations and lobbing around famous quotes or catchphrases.

It's the equivalent of a bunch of children who may have once heard about some show from the 70s and decided to play dress up in their parent's garage with some bad wigs, terrible costumes, and no experience. Any kind of insight into the creation and execution of "Saturday Night Live" is nonexistent; in fact, you can acquire more knowledge about the behind-the-scenes aspect of SNL from watching an episode of "30 Rock," hell, you could acquire more knowledge from an episode of Aaron Sorkin's pitiful "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" than this crap.

The fact that about 98% of what is portrayed in the film NEVER happened, and that Reitman shows no interest in accurately presenting the actual creation of the show (which, you know, might really have made a good film), and that the movie consists of nothing but lightweight, easy-on-the-brain fan service and illogical Easter eggs thrown in to make the dumber people in the audience feel smart, are among the other crimes. Oh yeah, it's also snide, condescending, and derivative of other, much better movies.

I will say that a few performances rise above the dreck to warrant the one-star rating below, and they are given by Rachel Sennott, Lamorne Morris, Cooper Hoffman, and the great Willem Dafoe. - ⭐️

3) THE OUTRUN

I watched a screener of "The Outrun" which was watermarked with my name on it so as to prevent duplication, etc. It's weirdly satisfying to see Saoirse Ronan longingly staring at my name...even though it has absolutely nothing to do with the movie.

The remarkable Saoirse Ronan stars in this adaptation of Amy Liptrot's 2016 memoir as an alcoholic who tries to deal with her past by moving from London back to the Orkney Islands in Scotland to work on her father's sheep farm and recover.

Directed by Nora Fingscheidt, this overly stylized but sincere drama has some elements and narrative choices that need to be clarified. The shifting points of view, the jumping between flashbacks and fantasies, and the use of poetic voiceover are a bit overwhelming and unnecessary at times. Simple, straightforward storytelling would have sufficed.

This is not to say that the film isn't effective, because it really is, and at times, it is quite, quite moving. Most of the credit for that should go directly to Ronan, whose performance here is not only deeply affecting but stunning in its authenticity and bravery. She continues to cement herself as one of the best actresses on the planet and one of the most versatile performers in the world.

On a personal note, I am a recovering alcoholic, and I found the film's handling of those elements and its portrayal of the disease to be thoughtful, intelligent, and accurate, which is not always the case in films of this nature. So, bravo to that. - ⭐️⭐️⭐️

4) WHITE BIRD

Advertised as a sequel/prequel to the 2017 film "Wonder," this drama begins as a story about a teenager struggling to belong at a new school after being expelled from his former school for bullying and mistreatment of a classmate (that's the story of "Wonder"). It turns into a fanciful period piece about youth life in Nazi-occupied France.

Blandly directed by the bland Marc Forster, who directed such bland stuff as "Monster's Ball," "The Kite Runner," "Christopher Robin," "A Man Called Otto," and the blandest of all possible bland, "Finding Neverland," this is as bland and formulaic as you can possibly imagine, keyword being bland.

The always terrific Helen Mirren stars as the teen's grandmother, whose story is told in flashback, and she adds life to the proceedings. It's nicely photographed and edited, the score by Thomas Newman is quite good, and the great Gillian Anderson makes an always welcome appearance, but overall, there is really nothing that makes this film anything more than a reasonably forgettable "message movie."

Apparently, this is another film in the "Wonder Universe," which is a Universe that I'm not sure we need. I am a huge fan of the 2017 film, but trying to force a series of movies about similar subjects seems odd and insincere. The messages of acceptance, anti-bullying, and forgiveness, which were dealt with so beautifully in "Wonder," are always welcome and important, but let's not make them bland. - ⭐️⭐️

5) MONSTER SUMMER

This one is simple and quick:

See if any of this sounds familiar to you: A story in a pre-internet period where teenagers ride their bikes around New England trying to solve some mysterious, possibly supernatural mysteries with the help of a grizzled old ex-cop.

Yeah, this movie is pretty much "Stranger Things" with Mel Gibson, but without a cute alien named Eleven. If you liked "Stranger Things" you might enjoy this. If you didn't like "Stranger Things," you might not enjoy this. I didn't really like "Stranger Things," so: - ⭐️⭐️

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