CHICAGO – Excelsior! Comic book legend Stan Lee’s famous exclamation puts a fine point on the third and final play of Mark Pracht’s FOUR COLOR TRILOGY, “The House of Ideas,” presented by and staged at City Lit Theater in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets/details, click HOUSE OF IDEAS.
Adam Driver
Francis Ford Coppola Gets ‘A’ for Effort in ‘Megalopolis’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 26, 2024 - 8:45amRating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – You can say this for Francis Ford Coppola, he gets an “A” for effort. “Megalopolis” is a project which boasts loads of ambition, but winds up in a narrative cul-de-sac that Coppola never finds a way to create his way out of … he has so many ideas floating around he never manages to establish much momentum because he’s trying to do too much, too often, all at once.
No Static at All! On-Air Film Review of ‘White Noise’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on December 3, 2022 - 9:11amRating: 5.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Jason Makos on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on December 1st, 2022, reviewing “White Noise,” an adaptation of the iconic 1985 Don DeLillo novel. In select theaters and streaming on Netflix beginning December 30th.
Be Italian Lady Gaga! Audio Review of ‘House of Gucci’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on November 26, 2021 - 3:35pmRating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review on “House of Gucci,” an epic family story about the famous fashion brand, directed by Ridley Scott and featuring Lady Gaga, Adam Driver and Al Pacino, opening in theaters on November 24th, 2021.
Frankie and ??? On-Air Review of ‘Annette’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on August 6, 2021 - 10:03amRating: 5.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on August 5th, 2021, reviewing the new film “Annette.” In theaters on August 6th, 2021, and streaming on Amazon Prime Video beginning August 20th.
‘BlackKkKlansman’ is a Spike Lee Joint That Burns
Submitted by PatrickMcD on August 10, 2018 - 10:51amRating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Director Spike Lee has hit the motherlode in good timing of the kind that says “Everything Old is New Again.” His overview in the true story of a black man that went undercover within the Klu Klux Klan in the 1970s nicely mirrors our current president’s divisiveness in the incendiary “BlacKkKlansman.”
‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Turns Up the Volume
Submitted by PatrickMcD on December 12, 2017 - 5:46pmRating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Everything that could be thrown into the Stars Wars legend – and the official story – is present in “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” With three concurrent stories converging into an amped-up climax, all manner of Star Wars-mania and fan satisfaction can be realized in Episode 8.
HollywoodChicago.com ESP, En Español: ‘xXx,’ ‘Split,’ ‘Paterson’ y ‘20th Century Women’
Submitted by JonHC on January 28, 2017 - 5:15amCHICAGO – Cada semana, HollywoodChicago.com le traerá las criticas de las películas que hemos visto y que están saliendo esa semana, pero en español. HollywoodChicago.com ESP no sólo representa HollywoodChicago.com Espanol, sino también Esta Semana en Peliculas.
Gravity of Poetic Dreams Carry Weight in ‘Paterson’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on January 20, 2017 - 11:08amRating: 5.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – What is more ordinary than a man alone with his thoughts, and then applying those thoughts to paper in the form of poetry? “Paterson” is a celebration of such ritual, and other dreams in the working class. It never panders, it never makes the “hero” that heroic, but it does challenge him in an ordinary sense, to work it out as meaningful poetics.
‘Silence’ is an Overwrought View of Religious Faith
Submitted by PatrickMcD on January 11, 2017 - 11:21amRating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – For gosh sakes, someone call the Vatican and make Marty Scorsese an honorary priest. He is overtly fascinated – in this work and his other films – with the notion of religious faith, particular within his Catholic roots. He approaches the subject again in the intense “Silence.”
‘Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens’ is the One We’ve Been Waiting For
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on December 16, 2015 - 3:01am- Adam Driver
- Adam Fendelman
- Andy Serkis
- Carrie Fisher
- Daisy Ridley
- Domhnall Gleeson
- George Lucas
- Gwendoline Christie
- Harrison Ford
- HollywoodChicago.com Content
- J.J. Abrams
- John Boyega
- Lupita Nyong'o
- Mark Hamill
- Oscar Isaac
- Peter Mayhew
- Simon Pegg
- Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens
- Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Rating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO (No Spoilers!) – I felt privileged on Tuesday morning. Not just to be a Chicago film critic, but to be a movie lover. Film critics and movie lovers alike wade through scores of yawners hoping for one or two masterpieces that remind us why we fell in love with the experience of watching a film in the company of people we like. Just in time to close out 2015, we’re met with the rare opportunity to take part in moviemaking magic once more.