Interview

CHICAGO – “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” knows what it is, what it isn’t and how to quench fans.

CHICAGO – Ben Foster has stolen scenes in works as diverse as “Six Feet Under,” “Freaks and Geeks,” “3:10 to Yuma,” and “Alpha Dog,” but he truly shines in the spotlight of the lead role in “The Messenger,” giving the best performance of his career to date.

CHICAGO – With U.S. high school dropout rates at epic proportions, the new documentary “Ten9Eight” highlights a teaching program and competition for poorer, immigrant and at-risk students. One of those students is Chicagoan Rodney Walker.

CHICAGO – HollywoodChicago.com recently interviewed Edward Norton on the new HBO documentary “By the People: The Election of Barack Obama” along with co-directors Amy Rice and Alicia Sams. Edward Norton served as a producer.

CHICAGO – The legendary Richard Curtis returns this week with “Pirate Radio,” the story of Radio Rock and the first disc jockeys to ever play rock and roll in the United Kingdom.

CHICAGO – One of the most talked about films this year is the Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey backed “Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire.” Essential to the film is Gabourey Sidibe, who plays the title character of Precious.

CHICAGO – The Adam Goldberg character is well known to fans of TV’s “Friends” and the movie’s “Saving Private Ryan.” With his heart-on-his-sleeve persona, he takes that character to rarified heights in the new film “(Untitled).”

CHICAGO – The legendary Martin Landau was recently in Chicago with two films in special presentation at The 45th Annual Chicago International Film Festival - the classic “North by Northwest,” also releasing on Blu-Ray tomorrow, November 3rd, 2009, and the new drama “Lovely, Still,” co-starring Ellen Burstyn.

CHICAGO – October 27th is the release date for “Nice Bombs,” a personal documentary from Cinema Obscura DVD about the homecoming of a native Iraqi to his old hometown of Baghdad, still in the midst of the Iraq War.

CHICAGO – In the new coming-of-age film, “An Education,” director Lone Scherfig creates a different time (the early 1960s) and place (middle class England) to tell the story of a teenage girl’s conflict between her academic life and older man lover.