Robert Duvall

CHICAGO – While normally I’d never think the date I screened a film was newsworthy, being subjected to “Jack Reacher” on Dec. 13, 2012 turned out to put even a therapist into therapy. The very next day, well, just two words: Sandy Hook.

CHICAGO – It pains me to say this — HBO’s “Hemingway & Gellhorn” is a complete mess, a film littered with awful directorial decisions, built on a misguided screenplay, and featuring performances that range from mediocre to downright horrendous. I’m as big a cheerleader for HBO and their line of original films as you’re likely to find but this is one of the worst.

CHICAGO – What do Robert Duvall and Melissa Leo have in common? They both have won an Oscar and they both cashed a paycheck for the fake virtuous hack job called “Seven Days in Utopia.” For Duvall especially, maybe the mortgage payment is due on the vacation home.

CHICAGO – There are few Westerns more iconic than the original “True Grit.” Ask a hundred people to name the first Western that comes to mind and I firmly believe that “True Grit” will be one of the most-mentioned films. It is beloved enough that Joel and Ethan Coen have remade it into an already award-winning drama that will be released this week with Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, and Hailee Steinfeld. Catch up with the original on Blu-ray before you see the new film.

CHICAGO – It’s the time of year when critics and Oscar pundits like to take a look back at the performances of the last twelve months and pick out the ones most deserving of special citation. As every critics group in the country prepares to unveil their choices for the cream of the acting crop, we thought we’d offer a guide to who they should reflect upon, first in the lead actor and actress categories and then, later this week, in the supporting ones.

CHICAGO – What could possibly drive a man into such a deep pit of despair that he would choose to break from society and take on the life of a hermit?

CHICAGO – The legend of a 1930s country hermit – part folk tale, part exaggeration and some truth – comes to life through director Aaron Schneider and the great Robert Duvall in the new film “Get Low.” Also featuring Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek, this character driven drama is a pastiche of secrets, regrets and redemption.

CHICAGO – Anyone who’s read Cormac McCarthy’s phenomenal 2006 novel, “The Road,” has already, in a sense, seen the movie. McCarthy’s deceptively simple, mesmerizing poetry produced such vivid and unforgettable images in the minds of his readers that a cinematic adaptation seems almost redundant.

CHICAGO – The Oscar-winning “Crazy Heart,” recently released on Blu-ray and DVD, is miraculous proof that sometimes a veteran actor need merely wait for the right young director to write them the part that will finally get them the credit they deserve. Jeff Bridges has long been Hollywood’s most underrated leading man and it took debut writer/director Scott Cooper to get him long-deserved praise.

CHICAGO – In our latest edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 25 admit-two run-of-engagement movie passes up for grabs to the new film “Crazy Heart” with Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Robert Duvall!