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The Chicago Reader

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Film, Movie Review Jul 25, 2018
‘Welcome to Castle Rock’ proves there’s no formula for adapting a Stephen King novel

Music Box and Consequence of Sound present a weekend festival of King chillers.
- By Keith Phipps
- Tags: Movie Review, Welcome to Castle Rock: A Stephen King Festival, Internet Movie Database, It Stephen King, Music Box Chicago, Consequence of Sound, Hulu, Stand by Me, Needful Things, David Cronenberg, The Dead Zone, Christopher Walken, Videodrome, Scanners

Blogs, Bleader Jul 24, 2018
Five big-screen movies obsessed with the small screen

Five movies remind us that filmmakers have always been fascinated with the box in the living room
- By Patrick Friel
- Tags: Film, Media, Moviegoing, On Video, Television, Unfriended, Gene Siskel Film Center, Accumulator 1, Network, Paddy Chayefsky, Sidney Lumet, television, TV, Peter Finch, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Robert Duvall, Wesley Addy, Ned Beatty, Beatrice Straight, Jonathan Rosenbaum, The King of Comedy, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Taxi Driver Diahnne Abbott, Sandra Bernhard, Dave Kehr, Videodrome, David Cronenberg, James Woods, Deborah Harry, Kenneth Anger, Star Wars, Spin, Brian Springer, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, George Bush, Pat Robertson, Jerry Brown, Larry King, Dan Rather, Saddam Hussein, Ted Turner, PBS, POV, Bill Stamets, The Truman Show, Jim Carrey, Andrew Niccol, Peter Weir, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone, Holland Taylor

Film, Movie Review Jun 14, 2018
Upgrade is so derivative, it’s original

Horror director Leigh Whannell rips off so many other movies that his new feature becomes a collage.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Movie Review, Upgrade movie, Leigh Whannell, Brian De Palma, Hi, Mom!, Phantom of the Paradise, Takashi Miike, Fudoh: The New Generation, The Happiness of the Katakuris, Logan Marshall-Green, Melanie Vallejo, David Cronenberg, eXistenZ, Spike Jonze Her, Mi

Blogs, Bleader Sep 12, 2017
Video
Nocturama is the most important new movie to play in Chicago this year

Bertrand Bonello's 2016 masterpiece is currently in the middle of a weeklong Chicago run at Facets.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Boom!, Do This, Film, Nocturama, Bertrand Bonello, The Brood, David Cronenberg, The Devil Probably, Robert Bresson, Toni Erdmann, Willow Smith, Whip My Hair, John Carpenter, Assault on Precinct 13, George A. Romero, Dawn of the Dead, Steadicam, Jacques Rivette, Video

Blogs, Bleader Mar 11, 2016
Video
Embrace of the Serpent slithers into town, plus more new reviews and notable screenings

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Film, Opening, Ciro Guerra, Embrace of the Serpent, Knight of Cups, Terrence Malick, Days of Heaven, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Brian Dennehy, Requiem for the American Dream, Noam Chomsky, Trapped, Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers, European Union Film Festival, The Fencer, Free Entry, Lolo, Julie Deply, Before Sunrise, Love Island, Viva movie, Wondrous Boccaccio, Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani, The Decameron, Martin Scorsese Hugo, Isao Takahata, Only Yesterday, Tom Palazzolo, Harold Lloyd, Speedy, Silent Film Society of Chicago, Jay Warren, David Cronenberg, Videodrome, Chicago Jewish Film Festival, Spotlight, Video

Blogs, Bleader Apr 3, 2015
Video
The year's best movie (so far), plus more new reviews and notable screenings

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Opening, Film, David Cronenberg, Maps to the Stars, White God, European Union Film Festival, Asian American Showcase, Man From Reno, Dave Boyle, Surrogate Valentine, Daylight Savings, Ben Sachs, Charlie Minn, Es El Chapo?, Human Capital, Law & Order, Frederick Wiseman, Ned Rifle, Hal Hartley, Nelson Algren: The End Is Nothing the Road Is All, Chicago: City on the Make, The Salt of the Earth, Wim Wenders, Sebastiao Salgados, Woman in Gold, Helen Mirren, Gustav Klimt, Frank Tashlin, Artists and Models, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Dust in the Wind, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel, Leviathan, Orson Welles, The Magnificent Ambersons, Victor Fleming, The Wizard of Oz, Dan Rybicky, Aaron Wickenden, Kartemquin Films, Almost There, Daniel Sousa, Video

Blogs, Bleader Mar 17, 2015
Maps to the Stars is David Cronenberg's latest science project

How and why the Canadian director puts his characters inside a petri dish
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Science, $$$, Film, David Cronenberg, Maps to the Stars, Cosmopolis, Howard Shore

Blogs, Bleader Mar 15, 2015
David Cronenberg's five best films

Highlights from the filmography of David Cronenberg
- By Drew Hunt
- Tags: Weekly Top Five, Film, David Cronenberg, Maps to the Stars, J. Hoberman, Crash, The Brood, Naked Lunch, A History of Violence, The Fly

Blogs, Bleader Mar 13, 2015
Video
David Cronenberg invades Hollywood, plus more new reviews and notable screenings

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Opening, Film, David Cronenberg, Maps to the Stars, Drew Hunt, Joel Potrykus, Buzzard, Music Box Chicago, Cinderella, Kenneth Branagh, The Duke of Burgundy, Berberian Sound Studio, Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, Last Year at Marienbad, European Union Film Festival, Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed, John Lennon, How I Won the War, Merchants of Doubt, Run All Night, Liam Neeson, Ed Harris, La Sapienza, '71 movie, She's Beautiful When She's Angry, Stations of the Cross, Joshua Oppenheimer, The Act of Killing, Gene Siskel Film Center, Alfred Hitchcock, The Birds, University of Chicago Doc Films, Chistopher Nolan, Interstellar, Dziga Vertov, The Man With a Movie Camera, Tomm Moore, The Secret of Kells, Facets Cinematheque, Frank Borzage, Seventh Heaven, Dennis Scott, Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Chicago Symphony Center, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Robert Zemeckis, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Andrea Gronvall, Columbia College Chicago, Julian Grant, Disney Frozen, Cinema Slapdown, Columbia College Film Row Cinema, Maidan movie, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, Get Real: Docs at the Box, The Touch of an Angel, Society for Arts, film festivals, movies, Video

Film, Movie Review Mar 11, 2015
Recommended Video
In Maps to the Stars, Hollywood is a living hell

David Cronenberg's latest portrays the movie business as a nightmare of outsize egos.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Movie Review, Hollywood, Maps to the Stars, David Cronenberg, Music Box Theatre, Billy Wilder, Sunset Boulevard, Vincente Minnelli, The Bad and the Beautiful, Blake Edwards, Julie Andrews, S.O.B., Robert Altman, The Player, Nathanael West, The Day of the Locust, Joan Didion, Play It As It Lays, Evan Bird, John Cusack, Julianne Moore, Olivia Williams, Justin Kelly, Sarah Gadon, Kiara Glasco, Mia Wasikowska, Recommended, Video

Blogs, Bleader Mar 6, 2015
Video
The European Union Film Festival invades Chicago, plus more new reviews and notable screenings

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Opening, Film, European Union Film Festival, Gene Siskel Film Center, Chappie, Neil Blomkamp, District 9, Encounters: Experimental Film and Video From Croatia, The Hand That Feeds, Music Box Chicago, Kung-Fu Elliot, The Lazarus Effect, Paranormal Activity, Maps to the Stars, David Cronenberg, Road Hard, Adam Carolla, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Unfinished Business, Vince Vaughn, Dave Franco, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Feig, Bridesmaids, University of Chicago Doc Films, Amy Heckerling, Clueless movie, Marx Brothers, Duck Soup, D.W. Griffith Intolerance, Bangkok Orchestra, Somtow Sucharitkul, University of Chicago Logan Center for the Arts, Rithy Pahn, The Missing Picture, Gene Siskel Film Center, Andrzej Zulawski, Possession movie, Alfred Hitchcock Rope, Chicago Irish Film Festival, Society for Arts, film festivals, movies, Video

Blogs, Bleader Aug 28, 2014
Michel Gondry's Mood Indigo, now with 5,000 percent more corpses

Gondry's adaptation of Boris Vian's unfilmable novel is much darker in its original-release version than in the 94-minute cut that recently played in Chicago.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Books, Foreign, On Video, Film, Mood Indigo, Michel Gondry, Boris Vian, surrealism, Romain Duris, Audrey Tatou, Naked Lunch, David Cronenberg

Blogs, Bleader Mar 30, 2014
Weekly Top Five: The best unrealized films

Notable films that never made it to screen
- By Drew Hunt
- Tags: Weekly Top Five, Film, Alain Resnais, Stan Lee, the Monster Maker, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Jesus, historical Jesus, David Cronenberg, Pierre David, Marry Shelley, Frankenstein, The Fly, Robert Bresson, Genesis, Dino de Laurentiis, A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole, Harold Ramis, Steven Soderbergh, David Gordon Green, John Waters, John Belushi, John Goodman, Chris Farley, Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Zach Galifianakis

Blogs, Bleader Oct 27, 2013
Weekly Top Five: Stephen King adaptations

Weekly Top Five: Stephen King adaptations
- By Drew Hunt
- Tags: Weekly Top Five, Film, Kimberly Peirce, Carrie, Stephen King, Brian de Palma, Dead Zone, David Cronenberg, The Mist, Frank Darabont, Christine, John Carpenter, Maximum Overdrive, From a Buick 8, The Shining, Stanley Kubrick

Blogs, Bleader Aug 26, 2013
Those movies that say "Thank you, come again"

When narrative movies construct self-contained little worlds for you to explore
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Moviegoing, Film, The World's End, Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright, David Gordon Green, Prince Avalanche, Paul Rudd, Emile Hirsch, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, I Know Where I'm Going!, The 49th Parallel, David Cronenberg, moviegoing

Film, Movie Review Jul 3, 2013
Recommended
Pedro Almodovar, wacky once more

I'm So Excited! is a throwback to the director's early farces.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Movie Review, Pedro Almodovar, I'm So Excited, Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderas, Madrid, Mexico City, Pointer Sisters, What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Law of Desire, David Cronenberg, The Flower of My Secret, Lola Dueñas, Javier Camara, Antonio de la Torre, Hugo Silva, Raul Arevalo, Recommended

Blogs, Bleader Jun 26, 2013
What movies can tell us about dying

A close look at the climax of Paul Newman's Sometimes a Great Notion, which screened in Chicago this past Monday.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: This Will Kill You, Film, Paul Newman, Sometimes a Great Notion, Richard Jaeckel, death, cinema, duration, Alfred Hitchcock, Torn Curtain, David Cronenberg, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises

Blogs, Bleader May 31, 2013
After Earth: An epic struggle between good and bad taste

M. Night Shyamalan's big-budget sci-fi adventure features some of the year's best cinematography . . . and some of the worst acting, writing, and philosophy.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Grammar, Opening, Film, Visual Art, After Earth, M. Night Shyamalan, Peter Suschitzky, David Cronenberg, visual grammar, cinematography, Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Christopher Doyle, Tak Fujimoto, Roger Deakins, sci-fi, eXistenz, The Village, Lady in the Water, Unbreakable, Gerry, Gus Van Sant, Harris Savides, Pain & Gain, Johnny Wu

Blogs, Bleader Mar 3, 2013
Weekly Top Five: Science fiction, the art of extrapolation

Weekly Top Five: sci-films
- By Drew Hunt
- Tags: Weekly Top Five, Film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Don Siegel, Philip Kaufman, Dave Kehr, Fearless Frank, sci-fi, Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dead End Drive-In, Brian Trenchard-Smith, Raoul Walsh, Robert Aldrich, unk food, punk rock, B-movies, Silent Running, Douglas Trumbull, Southland Tales, Richard Kelly, Cannes Film Festival, 9/11, Repo Man, Alex Cox, Ronald Reagan, Criterion Collection, Luis Bunuel, Scanners, David Cronenberg, The Fly, Roger Corman, It Conquered the Earth, Edgar G. Ulmer, The Man From Planet X, Nacho Vigalondo, Timecrimes

Blogs, Bleader Jan 21, 2013
Cosmopolis and the incredible shrinking theater

Is David Cronenberg's latest a different movie on DVD than it is in the cinema?
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: On Video, Transportation, Moviegoing, Film, Cosmopolis, David Cronenberg, Don DeLillo, Robert Pattinson, Doc Films, Ida Noyes Hall, DVD, moviegoing, mise-en-scene, stretch limo

Blogs, Bleader Jan 18, 2013
Video
A neglected Chicago filmmaker gets his due, and the rest of this week's screenings

Previewing new releases and notable revival screenings playing in town between January 18 and 24
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Opening, Film, Gunman's Walk, Phil Karlson, Andrew Sarris, Jean Rouch, Moi un Noir, The Lion Hunters, Doc Films, Music Box Theatre, Doc Films, Gene Siskel Film Center, Raising Arizona, Coen brothers, Cosmopolis, David Cronenberg, The Trouble With Harry, Alfred Hitchcock, Out of the Past, Jacques Tourneur, Zazie in the Metro, Louis Malle, Days of Being Wild, Wong Kar-wai, Devil in a Blue Dress, Walter Mosley, Chicago Cultural Center, West of Memphis, Amy Berg, West Memphis Three, Bel Borba Aqui, In Bed With Ulysses, A Haunted House, Marlon Wayans, Sexy Baby, La Rafle, Luv, Common, Video

Blogs, Bleader Sep 14, 2012
Now (barely) playing: Branded

Trying to disentangle the "what the fuck?" movie of 2012
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Seriously?, Film, Branded, Jamie Bradshaw, Alexander Dulerayn, Target, Aleksandr Zeldovich, Russian sci-fi, advertising, Ed Stoppard, Leelee Sobieski, Max von Sydow, Andrei Tarkovsky, Edward Artemyev, Rogier Stoffers, Robert Grasmere, Jeffrey Tambor, David Cronenberg, Cosmopolis, Richard Gere, Pretty Woman

Blogs, Bleader Aug 29, 2012
Cosmopolis and other talking books

Thinking about movies where everyone speaks the same way in light of David Cronenberg's faithful Don DeLillo adaptation
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Books, Film, Don DeLillo, Cosmopolis, David Cronenberg, literary adaptations, Manoel de Oliveira, Film Comment, Doomed Love, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Ben Hecht, Hal Hartley, Philip Haas, Paul Auster, The Music of Chance, Angels Over Broadway

Blogs, Bleader Aug 24, 2012
Video
The boy who wasn't there, and the rest of this week's movies

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Film, Bart Layton, The Imposter, Chicken With Plums, Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis, Cosmopolis, David Cronenberg, Don DeLillo, Robert Pattinson, The Expendables 2, Sylvester Stallone, Hit and Run movie, Dax Shepard, Patang movie, Prashant Bhargava, Premium Rush movie, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Shannon, Robot & Frank, Frank Langella, Black Harvest Film Festiva, Gene Siskel Film Center, Brooklyn Castle, Father's Day, White Scripts and Black Supermen, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, The Big Lebowski, Music Box, Arthur Penn, The Chase movie, Portage theater, Northwest Chicago Film Society, Noel, Pretty Poison, Greg Mottola, Superbad, University of Chicago Doc Films, Martin Scorsese, Taxi Driver, Landmark's Century Centre, movies, Video

Blogs, Bleader Jan 24, 2012
The best game in the history of the universe

The greatest game Bradyfly, I mean Tom Brady, has ever played
- By Tal Rosenberg
- Tags: Mudville, Sports, Super Bowl, Tom Brady, New England Patriots, New York Giants, Kevin Warwick, Baltimore Ravens, Billy Cundiff, Wes Welker, Osi Umenyiora, Eli Manning, Grantland, Rob Gronkowski, Victor Cruz, BenJarvus Green-Ellis, The Fly, The Fly 1986, David Cronenberg, Chris Collinsworth, Terry Bradshaw

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