CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.
Ben Mendelsohn
Film Review: Brutal Coming-of-Rage Prison Drama ‘Starred Up’
Submitted by NickHC on September 5, 2014 - 8:33amCHICAGO – Opening this weekend at Chicago’s Facets Cinematheque after a week on VOD is “Starred Up,” a bloody-knuckles British prison drama that was also a favorite at the most recent Chicago Critics Film Festival. This is an at-times beastly movie that follows in the line of previous character-driven jail films like “Chopper” (starring Eric Bana), or Tom Hardy’s raging breakout movie “Bronson”.
Film Review: Naomi Watts, Robin Wright Fake It in ‘Adore’
Submitted by BrianTT on September 5, 2013 - 9:25amCHICAGO – For a movie that should be about passion, sex, and scandal, “Adore” is surprisingly and depressingly tame. Two great lead actresses are left floating on a dock by a script that doesn’t treat them like real characters and a team that cast two inferior actors opposite them.
Blu-ray Review: Talented People Falter in ‘Killing Them Softly’
Submitted by BrianTT on April 11, 2013 - 3:59pmCHICAGO – Andrew Dominik delivered one of the best movies of the ’00s the last time he worked with Brad Pitt when the two made “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.” And so there was intense anticipation for their follow-up collaboration, “Killing Them Softly,” recently released on Blu-ray and DVD. Call it a sophomore slump but “KTS” is a film with tons of style and some interesting ideas that nonetheless feels like a dirge and plays like a film twice as long as its running time.
Film Review: Crime, Fatherhood Intersect in ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’
Submitted by BrianTT on April 5, 2013 - 8:49amCHICAGO – Derek Cianfrance’s masterful “The Place Beyond the Pines” is a complex, epic piece of storytelling about the ripple effect of crime through families and across generations. Drastic action does not exist in a vacuum. It influences generations below and those impacted by their parent’s decisions.
Film Review: Metaphor is Message in Violent ‘Killing Them Softly’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on November 30, 2012 - 1:53pmCHICAGO – If there ever was an industry that deserved a good metaphor bashing, it would be the financial sector. “Killing Them Softly” does a hit-over-the-head with the symbolism, but at the same time delivers a gritty and literate parable, featuring Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini and Ray Liotta.
Film Review: Horrendous ‘Trespass’ With Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman
Submitted by BrianTT on October 14, 2011 - 11:19amCHICAGO – Joel Schumacher’s “Trespass” represents a new low for the often divisive and (lately) horrendous director of such gems as “The Number 23,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Bad Company,” “8MM,” “Batman & Robin,” and “Batman Forever.”
DVD Review: Excellent ‘Animal Kingdom’ Features Oscar-Nominated Performance
Submitted by BrianTT on January 25, 2011 - 6:28pmCHICAGO – One of the most wonderful nominations on Oscar morning this year was that of the great Jacki Weaver for the movie that most “E!”-watchers probably had never even heard of — “Animal Kingdom.” This searing crime thriller barely found an audience when it was released in art houses but should get a nice boost from the Academy and was just released on DVD last week, Jan. 18, 2011.
Video: DVD Trailer For Nicolas Cage’s ‘Knowing’
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on February 16, 2009 - 5:12pmCHICAGO – The studio for the new Nicolas Cage film “Knowing” has provided to HollywoodChicago.com the DVD trailer for the movie, which also stars Rose Byrne, Chandler Canterbury, Ben Mendelsohn, Nadia Townsend and Adrienne Pickering.