CHICAGO – If you’ve never seen the farcical ensemble theater chestnut “Noises Off,” you will see no better version than on the Steppenwolf Theatre stage, now at their northside Chicago venue through November 3rd. For tickets and details for this riotous theater experience, click NOISES OFF.
Open Road Films (II)
Film Review: ‘The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature’ is in the No-Fun Zone
Submitted by PatrickMcD on August 10, 2017 - 10:34pmCHICAGO – Anyone showing up to the “The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature” will know exactly what they’re going to get… it’s a late summer sequel to an animated movie you may be surprised was successful enough to warrant a sequel at all, much less a theatrically released one.
Film Review: Oliver Stone’s ‘Snowden’ a Lesson for Our Times
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 18, 2016 - 7:32pmCHICAGO – The experience of director Oliver Stone, to look underneath the slimy rocks of government secrecy and bureaucracy, produces an excellent history lesson in “Snowden,” an overview of Edward Snowden, a whistleblower against the government who is still in exile.
Film Review: ‘Spotlight’ Offers a Relevant First Draft to History
Submitted by PatrickMcD on November 16, 2015 - 7:01pmCHICAGO – “Spotlight” is a movie which aspires to greatness and oftentimes just about gets there. It’s a movie that is thoroughly confident that the process of journalism and a great story provides all the excitement it needs to grab an audience’s attention. And what a great story it is.
Film Review: Bill Murray Rolls Downhill in ‘Rock the Kasbah’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 25, 2015 - 11:12amCHICAGO – What’s up with this movie? Everything in it is so wrong headed, despite movie star casting and a attempt toward “current events.” Setting itself in a modern and complex country – Afghanistan – but creating a perspective on that country that is straight ugly American, “Rock the Kasbah” is a total downer.
Film Review: Alternate American Dream Played Out in ‘Dope’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on June 19, 2015 - 12:35pmCHICAGO – If you’re lucky enough, you’ll never know what it’s like to grow up in a poor American neighborhood. But what if the notions of such societies are flipped on its ear, and what if the message draws attention to our current perceptions of race? This is what the new film “Dope” conveys.
Interview: The Story of Maziar Bahari in Jon Stewart’s ‘Rosewater’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on November 13, 2014 - 10:57pmCHICAGO – Journalists are under fire, both in the hot zones of the world’s conflicts, and within the economics of the shrinking news business. One journalist – Maziar Bahari – became part of the drama in the 2009 Iranian presidential elections, and that story is told in writer/director Jon Stewart’s new film, “Rosewater.”
Film Review: Jake Gyllenhaal is Eerily Seductive as the ‘Nightcrawler’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 30, 2014 - 10:01pmCHICAGO – This film can be defined as “Network” meets Norman Bates, but it also exposes virtually all our modern sins, in a chilling story about a loser who spouts business self help while taping bloody crimes that sell on the morning news. Jake Gyllenhaal is the “Nightcrawler.”
Interview: Comedian Gabriel Iglesias For ‘The Fluffy Movie’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on July 24, 2014 - 10:38amCHICAGO – One the hottest, most creative and “fluffiest” stand-up comics working today is Gabriel Iglesias. The comedian riffs on the circumstances of his own life, as he deals with his adventures in the comedy world. He has put that all together in a new stand-up concert film, appropriately entitled “The Fluffy Movie.”
Film Review: Dull ‘Homefront’ Can’t Get Action Into an Action Movie
Submitted by PatrickMcD on November 27, 2013 - 6:27amCHICAGO – Sylvester Stallone is a difficult man to comprehend, unless if doing a thesis on male menopause. The one time screenwriter of gritty soul pictures like “Rocky,” “Paradise Alley” and “First Blood” is spending his later years pumping out undistinguished boom-boom pictures like “Homefront.”
Film Review: ‘Machete Kills’ So Over the Top, it Has No Bottom
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 11, 2013 - 8:20amCHICAGO – You gotta love director Robert Rodriguez. When other filmmakers are slogging through their important films, he’s out convincing big stars to blow off cinematic fireworks, giggling all the time. The excess is the thing, more so and more so, in his new film “Machete Kills.”