CHICAGO – There is no better time to take in a stage play that is based in U.S. history, depicting the battle between fact and religion. The old theater chestnut – first mounted in 1955 – is “Inherit the Wind,” now at the Goodman Theatre, completing it’s short run through October 20th. For tickets and more information, click INHERIT.
Catholic Church
Setting Free the Truth: Audio Film Review of ‘Sugarcane’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on August 21, 2024 - 9:03am Rating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review for “Sugarcane,” a different road of a documentary from National Geographic Films, chronicling the discovery of heinous and complicit crimes of Canada and the Catholic Church. In select theaters since August 16th, see local listings.
Truth Sets Us Free! Audio Film Review of ‘A Sexplanation’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on July 14, 2022 - 9:54am Rating: 5.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review on “A Sexplanation,” a truth telling documentary about searching for one’s self, within the nature of our inherent sexual being, currently available for download through Video On Demand.
Authentic Coming-of-Age in Expressive ‘Lady Bird’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on November 13, 2017 - 1:30pmRating: 5.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – In one of the best American films of 2017, Greta Gerwig went behind the camera to write and direct an autobiographical overview of her Senior Year in high school, within a directionless town and family. The result is enlightening truth, told with laugh-out-loud directness and connective empathy. The film is a total winner.
‘Novitiate’ Goes Inside the 1960s Catholic Church
Submitted by PatrickMcD on November 3, 2017 - 1:08pm Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – In a “mystery of faith” narrative disguised as a feminist statement, the new film “Novitiate” goes inside a nunnery in 1964 America, just as the Catholic Church was about to make some radical changes to their procedures. How it affected the church is how it affected the nuns, and the intriguing insider story is full of back room shocks.
Despite One Premise, Laughs Are Plenty in ‘The Little Hours’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on July 14, 2017 - 11:01amRating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – It occurred to me in assessing “The Little Hours” that the basic premise is somewhat like “The Beguiled” – a man is taken in, rooster-like, into a henhouse where there are women with “needs.” Except this time, instead of a girl’s boarding school, it is a 14th Century nunnery. Get thee to it, if thou wants to laugheth.
Celebrating the Ordinary Couple in ‘Love is Strange’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on August 29, 2014 - 6:50amRating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – It is a time, and the time is now. Leave it to filmmaker Ira Sachs to break a barrier simply by having the right timing. Exploring a longtime gay couple, right at the cusp of their now-legal marriage, opens the door to an odd series of ordinary circumstances in “Love is Strange.”
Life’s Other Plans at Full Disclosure in ‘Philomena’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on November 27, 2013 - 4:22pmRating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Although “Philomena” sounds like a faraway land, it actually is a name of a real Irish lady, who lost her son through a Catholic adoption service that was designed to hide her out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Judi Dench portrays the title character as an older woman, with Steve Coogan as the reporter trying to help locate the son for her.
