Magnolia Home Entertainment

Blu-Ray Review: ‘Page One’ Chronicles Best of Times, Worst of Times

Page One Blu-Ray

CHICAGO – Billing Andrew Rossi’s documentary “Page One” as a year in the life of The New York Times is a trifle misleading. Such a sprawling premise would demand a running time better suited to a miniseries than a 92-minute feature. Rossi limits his focus to the Media Desk and the reporters struggling to keep their paper relevant, but like all great documentaries, the film is about so much more than the figures inhabiting its foreground.

Blu-Ray Review: Overlooked ‘Ceremony’ Deserves to Be Celebrated

Ceremony Blu-Ray

CHICAGO – How can the directorial debut of the Fonz’s son slip by unnoticed during its initial theatrical run? Max Winkler was only 25 when he shot “Ceremony,” a film dismissed by many critics as a mere imitation of Wes Anderson’s “Rushmore.” To be fair, Winkler looks remarkably like the iconic filmmaker, and his premise does bear certain similarities to Anderson’s widely celebrated 1998 comedy.

Blu-Ray Review: ‘Four Lions’ Subversively Pokes Fun at Terrorism

Four Lions Blu-Ray

CHICAGO – In Dan Reed’s unmissable 2009 HBO documentary “Terror in Mumbai,” cameras captured the overwhelming carnage caused by ten young Pakistani men. They were obeying every word of their elders, heard in the film via phone correspondence. The terrorists gradually began to resemble wide-eyed kids, as they became dazzled by the lavish scenery in Mumbai, an environment that clashed with their sheltered existence.

Blu-Ray Review: ‘Night Catches Us’ Illuminates Overlooked History

Night Catches Us Blu-Ray

CHICAGO – Nominated right alongside buzzed-about features such as “Get Low” and “Tiny Furniture” in the Best First Feature category at this year’s Indie Spirit Awards is “Night Catches Us,” the impressive yet entirely overlooked filmmaking debut of writer/producer/director Tanya Hamilton. The film breaks no new ground artistically, but its historical backdrop has rarely been explored in cinema.

DVD Review: ‘I Am Love’ Captures Revolutionary Power of Romance

I Am Love DVD

CHICAGO – Critics don’t have any business reviewing films if they aren’t able to admit when they are wrong. I am here to freely admit that I was wrong about “I Am Love.” While it blindsided me at the European Union Film Festival, I detected certain glaring flaws in its plot during the film’s limited theatrical run, which seem to have evaporated upon its magnificent DVD release.

DVD Review: ‘Ondine’ Melds Gritty Drama With Muddled Enchantment

Ondine DVD

CHICAGO – One of the defining thematic elements in a Neil Jordan picture is a central relationships built upon a giant question mark, whether it be between a call girl and her chauffeur (“Mona Lisa”), an IRA volunteer and a seductive hairdresser (“The Crying Game”), or in this case, a fisherman and the woman he catches in his net.

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TV, DVD, BLU-RAY & THEATER REVIEWS

  • Manhunt

    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+.

  • Topdog/Underdog, Invictus Theatre

    CHICAGO – When two brothers confront the sins of each other and it expands into a psychology of an entire race, it’s at a stage play found in Chicago’s Invictus Theatre Company production of “Topdog/Underdog,” now at their new home at the Windy City Playhouse through March 31st, 2024. Click TD/UD for tickets/info.

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