Jess Weixler

CHICAGO – At the start, I’ll admit to kind of hating Bob Byington’s truly unusual “Somebody Up There Likes Me,” playing this weekend at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago with local actor and “Parks and Recreation” scene-stealer Nick Offerman in attendance. It’s such a mannered, unique piece that it verges on grating.

CHICAGO – Most film fans don’t have the time, money, or connections to get to film festivals in their own city, much less ones that take place out of town. The festival circuit has created many an independent film hit but most of them don’t make their way to even Chicago much less the small towns of America. Now you can bring the film festival experience home with IFC Direct.

CHICAGO – In one of the great light bulb ideas that could only happen in association with making movies, along comes “Teeth” to bite us in the – well, to bite us hard. Writer and director Mitchell Lichtenstein has fashioned a one-of-a-kind horror epic (based, of course, on a Japanese film) that at the same time tangles with significant social and cultural issues.