Switch to the mobile version of this page.

- Username
- View Profile
- Edit Profile
- Log Out
- Log in
- Create Account

The Chicago Reader

Articles

Loading...

Blogs, Bleader Jun 4, 2018
Chicago Underground Film Festival at 25: A look back

As the 25th Chicago Underground Film Festival approaches, here are ten stand-out features from festivals past.
- By Patrick Friel
- Tags: Film, Comedy, LGBTQ+, Music, On Video, Chicago Underground Film Festival, CUFF, underground, Half-Cocked, Suki Hawley, Michael Galinsky, Horns and Halos, Freakwater, Sleepyhead, Grifters, J.R. Jones, The Delicate Art of the Rifle, D.W. Harper, Charles Whitman, Stephen Grant, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Straightman, Ben Berkowitz, Benjamin Redgrave, John Cassavetes, Shadows, The Target Shoots First, Christopher Wilcha, Columbia Record and Tape Club, 60 Minutes, Migrating Forms, James Fotopoulos, Fred Camper, Benjamin Smoke, Jem Cohen, Peter Sillen, Robert Dickerson, Smoke, AIDS, Patti Smith, Nice Bombs, Usama Alshaibi, Baghdad, Iraq, Putty Hill, Hamilton, Matthew Porterfield, David Gordon Green, George Washington, Your Highness, The Color Wheel, Alex Ross Perry, Ronald Bronstein, Frownland, Carlen Altman, Two Years at Sea, Ben Rivers, Jake Williams, This Is My Land, Ben Sachs

Blogs, Bleader Feb 23, 2018
An interview with local filmmaker Kyle Henry about his latest feature, Rogers Park

Henry's intimate character study screens for a week at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Film, Neighborhoods, Kyle Henry, Rogers Park, Carlos Treviño, Mike Leigh, local filmmaking, John Cassavetes, middle age, improvisation, Jonny Mars, Antoine McKay, Sara Sevigny, Christine Horn

Columns & Opinion, On Politics May 4, 2016
UNO’s records-request dodge was artless, but other charter schools may try the same move

There’s still not enough scrutiny over how privately run charters spend public money.
- By Ben Joravsky
- Tags: Ben Joravsky on Politics, News, Dan Mihalopoulos, Neil Rosenbaum, Juan Rangel, United Neighborhood Organization, UNO, Rahm Emanuel, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Board of Education, Richard M. Daley, Lisa Madigan, Chicago Sun-Times, Wrapports, Peter Falk, John Cassavetes

Film, Movie Review Aug 12, 2015
Recommended
Tokyo Tribe: A mixture of Cassavetes, Fassbinder, and arterial spray

Japanese street gangs do battle in the latest art-shocker from Sion Sono.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Movie Review, Sion Sono, Tokyo Tribe, Suicide Club, Love Exposure, John Cassavetes, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Walter Hill, The Warriors, Riki Takeuchi, Takashi Miike, Dead or Alive, Recommended

Film, Movie Review Jul 30, 2015
How one Hemingway short story became three different movies

A recent Blu-Ray reissue of a Criterion Collection set features different cinematic interpretations of 1927's "The Killers."
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Movie Review, Ernest Hemingway, David Lodge, Gene D. Phillips, Loyola University, Hemingway and Film, The Killers, Don Siegel, Robert Siodmak, Gene Phillips, Universal Studios, John Huston, Andre Anderson, Gene Coon, Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, Angie Dickinson, Stacy Keach, Andrei Tarkovsky

Blogs, Bleader Nov 27, 2013
This week in Claire Denis: Talking with Columbia professor Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa (and others) about No Fear, No Die and 35 Shots of Rum

A conversation about the French filmmaker's two films about immigrant communities in France, No Fear, No Die (1990) and 35 Shots of Rum (2008)
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Foreign, Poetry, Film, Claire Denis, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa, Jerry & Me, 35 Shots of Rum, No Fear No Die, Alex Descas, Cockfighter, Monte Hellman, Yasujiro Ozu, Late Spring, colonialism, Jean-Claude Brialy, Frantz Fanon, John Cassavetes, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Abbas Kiarostami, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Cafe Lumiere, Five Dedicated to Ozu, Chester Himes, Jean-Luc Godard, nouvelle vague, Jacques Rivette, Isaach de Bankolé, Agnes Varda

Blogs, Bleader Nov 15, 2013
Video
Wild Chicago, lost Chicago, and the rest of this week's screenings

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Opening, Film, Wild Chicago, WTTW, Ben Hollis, John Davies, Patio Theater Chicago, Comfort Station Chicago, Chicago Film Archives, Vanishing Neighborhoods, The Armstrong Lie, Alex Gibney, Lance Armstrong, The Book Thief, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, Museum Hours, Jem Cohen, R.E.M., Benjamin Smoke, No Time for Love, Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Northern Lights, Cannes film festival, Voices of the Gods, Al Santana, Terence Malick, Days of Heaven, Gene Siskel Film Center, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Flowers of Shanghai, University of Chicago Doc Films, Todd Haynes, I'm Not There, John Cassavetes, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, F.W. Murnau, Tabu: A Story of the South Seas, Gus Van Sant, To Die For, Raoul Walsh, The Thief of Bagdad, Pickwick Theater Park Ridge, Jay Warren, Jaromil Jires, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Music Box Chicago, Darren Aronofsky, The Wrestler, TheGirl With the Dragon Tattoo, Polish Film Festival in America, Facets Cinematheque, Society for Arts, Oliver Stone, Peter Kuznick, Showtime, The Untold History of the United States, film festivals, movies, Video

Blogs, Bleader Nov 1, 2013
Video
M Is for Mimicry, and the rest of this week's screenings

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Opening, Film, M Fritz Lang, Green Day, American Idiot, Broadway Idiot, About Time, Richard Curtis, Love Actually, La Camioneta, Children Without Parents, Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card, I Used to Be Darker, Matthew Porterfield, Putty Hill, Kill Your Darlings, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Last Vegas, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro, Kevin Kline, Man of Tai Chi, Keanu Reeves, The Pervert's Guide to Ideology, Slavoj Zizek, The Visitor, Michelangelo Antonioni, L'Avventura, Music Box, Olivier Assayas, Demonlover, Todd Haynes, Far From Heaven, University of Chicago Doc Films, Robert Hamer, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Terence Davies, The Long Day Closes, Alfred Hitchcock Rope, Strangers on a Train, Gene Siskel Film Center, Clair Denis, White Material, John Cassavetes, A Woman Under the Influence, film festivals, movies, Video

Blogs, Bleader Oct 25, 2013
Video
Guerrillas, gamma people, and the rest of this week's screenings

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Opening, Film, Escape From Tomorrow, Disneyland, Disney World, Ben Sachs, Jodie Mack: Let Your Light Shine, School of the Art Institute, All Is Lost, Robert Redford, Bad Grandpa, Jackass, Johnny Knoxville, Jeff Tremaine, Carrie movie, Chloe Grace Moretz, Sissy Spacek, The Counselor, Ridley Scott, Cormac McCarthy, The Gamma People, Marianna Milhorat: Notions of Space, Hou Hsiao-hsien, City of Sadness, University of Chicago Doc Films, Michael Reeves, The Conqueror Worm, Gene Siskel Film Center, Far From Vietnam, Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais, Agnes Varda, Chris Marker, Northwestern University Block Museum of Art, John Carpenter Halloween, Logan Theater Chicago, River East 21, Landmark's Century Centre, D.W. Griffith Intolerance, John Cassavetes, Minnie and Moskowitz, Roman Polanski, Rosemary's Baby, Music Box Chicago, Alexander Sokurov, Russian Ark, George Pal, War of the Worlds, Robin Hardy, The Wicker Man, Englewood International Film Festival, Chatham 14, Chicago International Film Festival, Facets Cinematheque, Chris & Heather's Halloween Hootenanny, Fitzgerald's, film festivals, movies, Video

Blogs, Bleader Oct 4, 2013
Video
The year's most Seussian-named film festival, and the rest of this week's movies

A roundup of new and notable movies playing in Chicago between October 4 and 10
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Opening, Film, Movies, Music Box Theatre, Docs at the Box, Shepard and Dark, Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself, A Fierce Green Fire, documentaries, nonfiction filmmaking, Gravity, Alfonso Cuaron, Jean-Pierre Melville, Gene Siskel Film Center, French Classics Conserved, A Pig Across Paris, Our Children, Un Flic, Dirty Money, Dead Man, Nick Offerman, Jim Jarmusch, Doc Films, A Time to Live and a Time to Die, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, John Cassavetes, Faces, Josef von Sternberg, Thunderbolt, Cold Water, Olivier Assayas, Northwest Chicago Film Society, Goldstein, Mr. Bug Goes to Town, Symphony for the Soil, Hannah Arendt, Margarethe von Trotta, Barbara Sukowa, Jacques Audiard, A Prophet, Niels Arestrup, Tahar Rahim, Parkland, JFK assassination, The Trials of Muhammad Ali, Kartemquin Films, Our Nixon, Video

Blogs, Bleader Sep 27, 2013
Video
The best new movie in theaters, the best new movie not in theaters, and the rest of this week's movies

A roundup of new and notable movies playing in Chicago between September 27 and October 3
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Art House, Opening, Film, Computer Chess, Andrew Bujalski, Music Box Theatre, Gordon Kindlmann, Anne Dodge, Hong Sang-soo, School of the Art Institute, SAIC, Nobody's Daughter Haewon, Don Jon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, I Declare War, Inequality for All, Mother of George, Metallica: Through the Never, Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel With the World, Shirley Clarke, Thom Andersen, Eadweard Muybridge Zoopraxographer, Gene Siskel Film Center, Ron Howard, Rush, Formula 1, Enough Said, Nicole Holofcener, Please Give, Doc Films, The Terence Davies Trilogy, The Great Gabbo, Shadows, John Cassavetes, Olivier Assayas, Todd Solondz, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Summer Hours, Band of Outsiders, Jean-Luc Godard, House of Games, David Mamet, Sabotage, Alfred Hitchcock, Patio Theater, The Big Clock, Northbrook Public Library, The Creature From the Black Lagoon, 3-D, movies, Video

Blogs, Bleader Sep 26, 2013
This fall at Doc Films: heavy-hitters and hard-to-find classics

Noting the major films to play at the University of Chicago this quarter, several of which are unavailable on DVD in the United States
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Whoa, Booze, Film, Doc Films, fall calendar, John Cassavetes, A Woman Under the Influence, Todd Haynes, Todd Solondz, murder comedies, F.W. Murnau, Tabu, early sound cinema, David Fincher, Olivier Assayas, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, A City of Sadness, Dust in the Wind, Cold Water, L'Eau Froide, Sparks, Lincoln Hall, Terence Davies, Terence Davies Trilogy, Distant Voices Still Lives, The Long Day Closes, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Remember Last Night?, James Whale, Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula's Daughter, Universal Pictures, The Thin Man

Film, Movie Review May 21, 2013
Recommended Video
Portrait of Jason delves inside a hustler's world

Shirley Clarke's classic documentary screens in a new restoration.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Movie Review, Portage, Northwest Chicago Film Society, Shirley Clarke, Portrait of Jason, The Connection, Jason Holliday, Chelsea Hotel, Trenton, New Jersey, Nob Hill, San Francisco, Aquatic Park, Hans Richter, Park Avenue, College of New York, Elaine Dundy, Hans Richter, John Cassavetes, Jonas Mekas, Stan Brakhage, Lionel Rogosin, The Connection, Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel With the World, Funny Girl, DeeDee Halleck, Recommended, Video

Blogs, Bleader May 6, 2013
In the case of celluloid, it's better to fade away than to burn out

How the discoloration of faded prints can add to a movie's meaning.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Moviegoing, Film, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Chicago Cinema Society, Patio Theater, Neil Calderone, John Cassavetes, Timothy Carey, Centennial Summer, Showboat, celluloid film, discoloration, Nashville, Robert Altman, Showboat, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Blogs, Bleader May 3, 2013
Video
Feeling the burn, and the rest of this week's screenings

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Opening, Film, Ben Sachs, Pain & Gain, Michael Bay, Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie, Persistence of Vision, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mira Nair, Mississippi Masala, The Namesake, The Big Wedding, Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Hava Nagila (The Movie), Iron Man 3, Robert Downey Jr., Kon Tiki, Thor Heyerdahl, My Afghanistan: Life in the Forbidden Zone, Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Lizzie Borden, Born in Flames, Gene Siskel Film Center, Haile Gerima, Bush Mama, Logan Center for the Arts, Stanley Donen, Funny Face, University of Chicago Doc Films, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather, Part II, John Cassavetes, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Patio Theater Chicago, Orson Welles, The Lady From Shanghai, Touch of Evil, Music Box Chicago, Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman, Detroit Threat Management, University of Chicago Film Studies Center, Beneath the Blindfold, Wellington Avenue Church of Christ, film festivals, movies, Video

Blogs, Bleader May 2, 2013
This weekend's must-see revival: The Killing of a Chinese Bookie on 35-millimeter

John Cassavetes's personal take on the crime film screens Friday and Sunday at the Patio Theater.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Crime, Do This, Film, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, John Cassavetes, Ben Gazzara, Patio Theater, Chicago Cinema Society, Ray Carney, Gloria, The Godfather Part II, Sans Soleil, Fantastic Planet, Touch of Evil, Orson Welles, crime film, revival screenings, repertory screenings, Frank Capra, Aurora, Cristi Puiu, Philip Lopate, Criterion Collection, film noir, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Music Box Theatre, Doc Films

Blogs, Bleader Sep 30, 2012
The Weekly Top Five: Debuts

Top Five Debut Films
- By Drew Hunt
- Tags: Weekly Top Five, Film, They Live by Night, Nicholas Ray, Rebel Without a Cause, The Great McGinty, Preston Sturges, The Miracle of Morgan Creek, Unfaithfully Yours, Targets, Peter Bogdanovich, Roger Corman, Francis Ford Coppola, Monte Hellman, Jack Hill, Jack Nicholson, Boris Karloff, L'Age D'Or, Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali, Shadows, John Cassavetes, Bela Tarr, The Family Nest, Kevin Smith, Clerks, Badlands, Roman Polanski, Knife in the Water, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Accatone, Mama Roma, Citizen Kane, Orson Welles, Breathless, Jean-Luc Godard, Sauve qui peut (la vie), Drew Hunt's Weekly Top Five

Blogs, Bleader Aug 2, 2012
Abel, willing and ready

Looking at Abel Ferrara's 4:44 Last Day on Earth, now available on DVD
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: On Video, Film, Abel Ferrara, 4:44 Last Day on Earth, Driller Killer, Doc Films, Willem Defoe, Shanyn Leigh, The Addiction, New Rose Hotel, John Cassavetes, Nicole Brenez

Film, Movie Review May 16, 2012
Andrzej Zulawski's Possession, uncut

The Gene Siskel Film Center premieres the Polish director's confounding masterpiece
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Movie Review, Poland, Roman Polanski, Jerzy Skolimowski, and Andrzej Zulawski, World War II, Sam Neill, Isabelle Adjani, Ingmar Bergman, John Cassavetes, Jerzy Grotowski

Blogs, Bleader Mar 20, 2012
A filmmaker under the influence

A brief consideration of alcohol's effect on filmmaking
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Hangover Week, Film, Hangover Week, John Ford, The Wings of Eagles, George Cukor, Yasujiro Ozu, John Cassavetes, Hong Sang-soo, Tokyo Story, Variations on a Theme

Film, Movie Review Feb 16, 2012
One drink over the line

Lionel Rogosin's On the Bowery exposed life on skid row, but the filmmakers had their own problems with booze
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Movie Review, Lionel Rogosin, documentary, cinema verite, neorealism, the Bowery, John Cassavetes, Marina Goldovskya, rayon, James Agee, Mark Sufrin, Richard Bagley, skid row

Blogs, Bleader Feb 10, 2012
Video
This week's movie action

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Film, Ben Sachs, House of Pleasures, Bertrand Bonello, Gene Siskel Film Center, Walter Benjamin, Oscar Nominated Short Films 2012, Addiction Incorporated, Big Miracle, John Krasinski, Drew Barrymore, Chronicle movie, Leap Year, Roscoe Arbuckle, Fatty Arbuckle, Mr. Rogers & Me, The Owls movie, Cheryl Dunye, Splinters, Papua New Guinea, W.E. movie, Madonna, King Edward VIII, Wallis Simpson, Robert Bresson, Au Hasard Balthazar, Pickpocket movie, Otto Preminger, Fallen Angel, Northbrook Public Library, Todd Haynes, I'm Not There, Daniel Eisenberg, John Cassavetes, Love Streams, Northwestern University Block Museum of Art, Paul Thomas Anderson, Magnolia movie, University of Chicago Doc Films, Mikio Naruse, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, World on a Wire, movies, Video

Blogs, Bleader Dec 20, 2011
Coming soon: Northwest Chicago Film Society's winter calendar

A preview of Northwest Chicago Film Society's winter calendar
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Film, Northwest Chicago Film Society, repertory programming, Portage Theater, Too Late Blues, John Cassavetes, Reds, Warren Beatty, Jean-Luc Godard, Histoire(s) du cinema, WPA Federal Theater, One-Third of a Nation, Edward Dmytryk, Give Us This Day, Christ in Concrete, House Un-American Activities, Preston Sturges, Sullivan's Travels, Gregory LaCava, So's Your Old Man, W.C. Fields, Twentieth Century, Howard Hawks, Anthony Mann, Man of the West, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Cecil B. DeMiille, Ten Commandments, Angel (1937), Marlene Dietrich, Ernst Lubitsch, Billy Wilder, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Margaret, Brasher Doubloon, John Brahm, Otto Preminger, Centennial Summer, Max Ophuls, Liebelei, exile, Cine-File, Michael Castelle

Blogs, Bleader Dec 10, 2009
Video
The New Year Parade

Tom Quinn's working class Philadelphia family drama "The New Year Parade" opens Friday at Facets Cinematheque.
- By Ed M. Koziarski
- Tags: Film, Philadelphia, Mummers, Slamdance, New Year Parade, Tom Quinn, Facets Multi-Media, John Cassavetes, Independent Spirit Awards, working class, Video

Blogs, Bleader Apr 29, 2007
Golden links

More treasures available online
- By Jonathan Rosenbaum
- Tags: Film, Web Sites, Orson Welles, Alain Resnais, Links, John Cassavetes, Lennie Tristano

1 2 next »

Issue Cover

Browse by Issue

Other Searches