Football

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 16th, 2023, reviewing “Boston Strangler,” another film version of one of the most notorious crimes of the 1960s. Streaming on HULU beginning March 17th.

CHICAGO – “80 for Brady” has an all star lineup, but when it comes to scoring any genuine laughs it has a serious case of fumble-itis. It’s fun to see these talented women together on the screen but there’s not much there. It’s four old friends going to the Super Bowl, and that’s about it.

CHICAGO – What is “greatness”? Is it an undefinable element in human beings that no one can explain, or can we get insight if we listen to those who have achieved it? Documentary filmmaker Gabe Polsky (“Red Army”) went on a journey to understand the concept in his new film, “In Search of Greatness.”

CHICAGO – Humor flows from one individual, and reaches another. Whether the receiver laughs or not is subjective, based on experiences and worldview. It can be agreed, however, that animator Nick Park (“Wallace & Gromit”) is hilarious, and he’ll make the world laugh in “Early Man.”

CHICAGO – “Concussion” suffers from what I call the “Moneyball” problem – it’s got an interesting subject matter, but it doesn’t seem to know what to do with it. It doesn’t have enough faith in its own material or its audience, so it stocks up on a lot of off-the-shelf melodrama in effort to avoid digging into what makes the story interesting in the first place. It’s also a movie that chickens out at the end and seems afraid to pick a fight.

CHICAGO – Why has a seemingly ordinary tale of an oil patch town in Texas and their high school football obsession conquered books, film and television? Because the folks telling the story continue a tradition of beautiful, significant truth.