Bleecker Street Media

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review on the sci-fi romance “I’m Your Man” – featuring Dan Stevens (Disney’s live action “Beauty & the Beast”) – currently in select theaters.

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on October 7th, 2021, reviewing the new Bleecker Street Media film “Mass,” in select theaters beginning October 15th.



CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on August 26th, 2021, reviewing the new film “Together” – a pandemic-era relationship story – In theaters on August 27th, 2021.



CHICAGO – Gratefully, we live in a post-Weinstein environment of #metoo, and one of the first films to comment upon it is “The Assistant,” written and directed by Kitty Green. Coming off its run at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, the film explores a low level female production assistant (PA) as she navigates an office overwhelmed by a successful-but-abusive bossman.

CHICAGO – Families dealing with the effects of aging parents – which include dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease – can experience a new film which explores these topics through the family dynamic. “What They Had” is writer/director Elizabeth Chomko’s debut, and features Robert Forster, Blythe Danner, Hilary Swank and Michael Shannon.

CHICAGO – The maturation of Keira Knightley… from ‘Bend it Like Beckham” to “Pride and Prejudice” to the current “Colette,” has had the actor delivering an evolving depth and purpose to her roles. The latest is a fantastic overview of an ahead-of-her-time French novelist, as the rest of society tried to catch up.

CHICAGO – The remarkable true-ish story of “Papillon” is difficult to mess up. Henrí Charriére published the “autobiographical novel” in 1969, and the first film version dropped in 1973, with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman as the two leads no less. The latest film has Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek in those leads, as two French prisoners constantly trying to escape.

CHICAGO – The temptation to “drop out” must weigh heavily on the minds of many Americans on a daily basis. “Leave No Trace” views this phenomenon through a prism of many factors, including materialism and mental illness. Ben Foster and Thomasin McKenzie are a father/daughter duo who drop out, then tune in.

CHICAGO – If you hook up with people for that inevitable physical connection, you’ve experienced the odd emotional wrestling match of the “first time” – whether it’s the first “first time” or any other new partner first time. “On Chesil Beach” focuses on a young British couple in 1962, as they first time their virginal wedding night.

CHICAGO – The director Sebastían Lelio is no stranger to oddball human stories. His 2017 film, “A Fantastic Woman” – the Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film – was a one-of-a-kind but amazingly poignant story of identity. His latest, “Disobedience,” mines the same human territory with lesser results.