Mary-Louise Parker

CHICAGO – Jenji Kohan’s “Weeds” was one of the best comedies on television in its first few seasons on Showtime. From 2005-2008, it was easily one of the best half-hour programs on TV, netting Emmy nominations every year, including ones for Best Comedy, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress.

CHICAGO – The revolving door of talented actresses has turned at Showtime. “Nurse Jackie” and “The United States of Tara” just ended their seasons and so Edie Falco and Toni Collette head out one side while Laura Linney and Mary-Louise Parker come in the other with the season premieres of “The Big C” and “Weeds,” respectively.

CHICAGO – One of Showtime’s former best comedies and one of their current best both saw a season land on Blu-ray in the last few weeks and we’re here to give you the details. Lionsgate owns the rights to “Nurse Jackie” and “Weeds,” two of the more acclaimed cable programs on the air right now. Sadly, the once-brilliant “Weeds” is a shadow of its former self, but “Nurse Jackie” continues to deliver.

CHICAGO – James Franco gave a riveting performance in Danny Boyle’s “127 Hours” that is likely to earn one of the best actors of his generation an Academy Award nomination in a few weeks, but it wasn’t his only stellar turn in 2010. He also thoroughly delivered as the legendary poet Allen Ginsberg in the hybrid “Howl,” a film that’s part poem, part courtroom drama, and part history lesson. It doesn’t always come together but it’s worth seeing just for Franco’s work and the strength of the source material alone.

CHICAGO – They say you can learn as much from a bad movie as you can from a good one. If that’s true, what’s the lesson to be taken from the extremely boring and misguided “Red”?

CHICAGO – In our latest action/comedy edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 35 admit-two passes up for grabs to the advance screening of the new film “Red” with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren and Mary-Louise Parker!

CHICAGO – “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked…” So began the reading of Allen Ginsberg’s poem that rattled society, the very title of which is the inspiration for the new film, “Howl,” featuring James Franco, Jon Hamm and Mary Louise-Parker.

CHICAGO – The seismic shift that took place with the publication of Allen Ginsberg’s epic poem, “Howl” – which is also the title of the new movie about the verse – reverberates and inspires to this very day. The brilliantly rendered film, starring James Franco as Ginsberg, is written and directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman.

CHICAGO – In an unhinged series where anything can happen, what do you make of an episode where not much happens at all?

CHICAGO – In our latest comedy/drama edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 50 admit-two passes up for grabs to the advance Chicago screening of the new film “Solitary Man”!