IFC Films

CHICAGO – Now that the socially distanced Thanksgiving is past us, it’s time to turn to Christmas and the films that are associated with that holiday. Documentary director Dana Nachman has a series of emotional and true stories in her latest film “Dear Santa,” an overview of a gift-giving charity that starts with a child’s letter.

CHICAGO – When a prominent and influential producer made the transition into solo directing, she sought stories that matched her intuitive and natural passions. Lydia Dean Pilcher chose “A Call to Spy,” a World War II-era drama that focuses on three women who defied their obstacles and became early war heroes.

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on October 1st, 2020, reviewing the new films On the Rocks” (In select theaters October 2nd and on AppleTV+ starting October 23rd.) and “A Call to Spy” (In theaters & Video-On-Demand).

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on September 18th, 2020, reviewing the new films “The Nest” (in theaters) and “Antebellum” (VOD).

CHICAGO – His first film in 2011 was classic independent cinema. “Martha Marcy May Marlene” put writer/director Sean Durkin on the map, and now nine years later he has a new film, “The Nest,” which features Jude Law against type as a go-go 1980s financial guru who is trying to balance a career and family. The film releases in theaters on September 18th.

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on August 13th, 2020, reviewing the new films (VOD, virtual theaters online, actual theaters) “Sputnik” and “Red Penguins.”

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on July 23rd, 2020, reviewing the new Video-On-Demand film “The Rental” and the infamous 2019 film, “Cats” (Digital & DVD).

CHICAGO – The “star is born” expression is not to be used lightly, yet it absolutely applies to the performance of Aisling Franciosi (Lyanna Stark in “Game of Thrones”) in the role of Clare for “The Nightingale.” As a late 19th Century woman with nothing to lose, she suffers an emotional death, a survival rebirth and humanist hope.

CHICAGO – Some extraordinary local and outside talent coordinated to produce the film “An Acceptable Loss” in 2018, including featured stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Tika Sumpter (“Southside with You”). Producer Colleen Griffen and writer/director Joe Chappelle, who hail from Chicagoland, helped to create this passionate thriller, with echoes of paranoid government oversight films like “All the President’s Men” and the recent “Vice.” The Midwest Independent Film Festival has made “An Acceptable Loss” the kickoff film for their 2019 season. Click here for tickets and details.

CHICAGO – With director Lars von Trier, who is a mad f**king genius of a filmmaker, it’s always make or break (or both). He breaks in his latest, “The House That Jack Built” which is all too much of evil everything, until it morphs into a last act that has an intriguing and unsettling sense of weird purpose. The story of a serial killer and the meticulous realizations of his killings is like a sound meter that is constantly going into the red zone, until the damn thing shatters.