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.
Michael Stuhlbarg
Matt D. & Casey A.! On-Air Film Review of ‘The Instigators’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on August 9, 2024 - 3:22pm Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on August 8th, reviewing “The Instigators,” featuring Matt Damon and Mr Affleck (not that one, Casey) in a Boston heist caper. In select theaters and streaming on Apple TV+ beginning August 9th.
‘The Post’ Illuminates the Skills of Meryl Streep
Submitted by PatrickMcD on January 4, 2018 - 11:45am Rating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – For all the films Meryl Streep is privileged to make – which is remarkable considering the industry’s attitude toward older actresses – she has even admitted that the audience may be tired of seeing her. But as publisher Katherine Graham in ‘The Post’, she nails yet another great performance.
Ethereal ‘The Shape of Water’ Forms Cinema Magic
Submitted by PatrickMcD on December 13, 2017 - 2:44pm Rating: 5.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – This breathtaking morality and love story, set in a backward age, takes all of its major themes – passion, tolerance, symbolism and thrills – to the highest level. Writer/director Guillermo del Toro has created a masterwork that is part fairy tale, part adult desperation and all cinema magic.
‘Miss Sloane’ Thrills Politically, But Drags Narratively
Submitted by JonHC on December 9, 2016 - 7:27pmRating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Nothing says the holiday season like a film about lobbying and politics. If you read that sarcastically, you’d be wrong. “Miss Sloane” offers a female spin for an otherwise male dominated political landscape. Most of you are trying to tune out politics after the elections, but this film builds off of that momentum by reminding us how we arrived to that point.
Expansive ‘Steve Jobs’ is a Marvel of a Movie
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 16, 2015 - 2:07pmRating: 5.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – You don’t need CGI, entire cities being turned to rubble, or an army of assembling Avengers to make a great movie. All you need is a good story to tell and a team of people talented enough to tell it. Writer Aaron Sorkin, and Director Danny Boyle are just the right people to make “Steve Jobs” because their finished project positively springs to life on the screen.
‘Blue Jasmine’ Puts Woody Allen Back on Top
Submitted by PatrickMcD on August 2, 2013 - 5:59am Rating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The auteur Woody Allen is one of the most prolific post-studio-system directors, averaging one film a year for close to 40 years. His meditations on life have become part of the culture, and he brilliantly expresses himself once again – with help from Cate Blachett – in the emotional “Blue Jasmine.”
‘Men in Black III’ Deserves to Be Neuralyzed From Memory
Submitted by BrianTT on May 25, 2012 - 9:41am Rating: 2.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “Men in Black III” is such a soulless venture, a film made by committee that doesn’t display the touch of anyone with any remaining actual interest in the characters. In the pipeline for years, the film has been fine-tuned to the point that all of its personality was buffed out in the process.
Gorgeous ‘Hugo’ Plays Like Cinematic Snow Globe
Submitted by BrianTT on November 23, 2011 - 1:58pmRating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” is a deeply personal piece, a magical tale about imagination and the importance of film preservation presented with some of the most technical expertise in years. It is also a strikingly cold film, an adventure that doesn’t contain the whimsy, pace, or charm that it really needed to in order to connect emotionally as well as intellectually.
‘A Serious Man’ Plays as Masterfully Fictionalized Autobiography For Joel, Ethan Coen
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on October 11, 2009 - 11:55amRating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “A Serious Man” isn’t the story of Joel and Ethan Coen’s lives. But you might not necessarily know it. While the brothers continue to turn their films into Hollywood gold, this 1967-set black comedy is among the more personal projects in their repertoire.
