Directed by Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino, “Youth” is a cornucopia of quirk colliding with decadence. We get to see how the other half lives through messy characters making sense of their lives while soaking in a lavish vacation. Thanks to a stellar cast and brilliant performances, “Youth” surprises us to show how much interest and intrigue can be found in foppish people we normally wouldn’t closely identify with as an audience.
Read MorePicture your personal influences, either worshiped or admired, and imagine being granted the opportunity to have a conversation with them. What would you talk about? What would you ask them? How would it change you? In the world of cinema, such a conversation happened between a then-neophyte auteur Francois Truffaut and the aging master Alfred Hitchock in 1962. Their documented meeting has gone on to inspire generations of future filmmakers and cinephiles.
Read More51st Chicago International Film Festival OUT-Look Special Presentation
"Carol," among many other superlatives, is a film completely driven by the weight of reason and accountability within its female lead characters. Played by Oscar winner Cate Blanchett and Oscar nominee Rooney Mara, we witness two women formulating the capacity to reason with the undeniable truths they find in their hearts while understanding the ramifications and accountability acting on those feelings would result in as women of the pre-feminist 1950s. "Carol" is a fascinating and empowering love story, no matter what label you associate for your identity or disposition.
Read MoreFrench filmmaker Gaspar Noe's new film, "Love," demands audience acceptance of seeing art in the explicitness of sex. When you bring up the idea of explicit sex, the immediate label is "pornography." Lead by trio of unknown leads and shot in exploitative 3D, "Love" is going to have a hard time (go ahead and start inserting "that's what she said" at every opportunity) shaking that label of "pornography" in favor of "art."
Read More"The Assassin," directed by Taiwan New Wave director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, is the latest and brightest wuxia film looking to make an international splash. The film was an official Main Competition selection of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the awards for Best Director and the Soundtrack Award. It is making the rounds of the international film festival circuit, including a recent Highlight selection bow at the 51st Chicago International Film Festival, and will represent Taiwan's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards this coming February.
Read More"Sicario" is a raw labyrinth of grit and surprises. This film is a python of suspense. Just when you think the film can't squeeze you any tighter, it chokes you even more. It resets the bar as the best and finest film on drug warfare that Hollywood has ever attempted. "Sicario" is steely, seedy, scary, and jarring in its underlying social and political commentary to bore that out. It's the kind of film that will make you never want to visit Mexico or live in Arizona or Texas.
Read MoreThe next sure-fire addition to any list of possibly great coming-of-age films is "Dope," the fifth feature film from writer-director Rich Famuyiwa ("Brown Sugar," "The Wood'). "Dope" debuted in dramatic competition at the Sundance Film Festival and was selected as the prestigious closing film of the Director's Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in France last month. Those are prominent feathers to have in any film's cap. Better yet, they are kudos that are more than earned by this film's energetic brilliance.
Read MoreIf you are a casual follower of the movie industry, there's a good chance that you've probably heard of, but don't know much about, the Cannes International Film Festival. You probably have seen the fashion report on E! and a few red carpet interviews on Entertainment Tonight or Extra. First off, you've got to say it right to sound cinephile-cool. "Cannes" pronounced "CAN" and not "CANS". That will help right off the bat. In this column, I'm presenting this article on the facts and history of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival to help the unfamiliar and uninformed movie fan sound like one of the 1% of cinema aficionados.
Read MoreThe new foreign-backed "Clouds of Sils Maria" is the latest film to challenge the parallels of a performer channeling what may or not be a version of themselves. Written and directed by Olivier Assayas, "Clouds of Sils Maria" premiered in competition at last year's Cannes Film Festival and worked the film festival circuit last winter, including stops in Toronto, New York, and the 50th Chicago International Film Festival. The film finally makes its limited U.S. theatrical release on April 10th. Honed down to a serious scale far smaller and more intimate than the likes of "Notting Hill," the cinematic star in the center of this solar system microcosm is Academy Award winner Juliette Binoche. As a gracefully aging actress of peripheral prominence playing a fictional one of the same sort in a different situation, we are taken inside a phenomenal character study. "Clouds of Sils Maria" is a fascinating actor's showcase that deserves and earns your attention for the behind-the-scenes tribulations of acting and the livelihood attached to that career.
Read MoreAs beautifully presented as Mike Leigh's "Mr. Turner" is at telling the story of English Romanticist painter J.M.W. Turner, too much of it is uninteresting, familiar in tone, and predictably in execution. What normally can save a film about an artist is the subject's life beyond his or her work. An interesting person can make up for the uninteresting content. Though led by a invested performance from character actor Timothy Spall, "Mr. Turner" can't muster enough of that to separate itself as something special.
Read MoreWith Cotillard commanding the screen and using none of her looks and star power, the Dardennes have created an intentionally minimalistic film that packs a punch without the need for gaudy theatrics. If this was a Hollywood film, this storyline of encounters would be backed by over-acted reactions, flashy star cameos, unrealistic results, a ticking clock like a "24" episode, and a heaping pile "Norma Rae"-level workplace politics and finger-pointing backed by some sweeping musical score that crescendos to a predictable and manufactured happy ending. A Hollywood film would beat those themes of confidence, sympathy, and pity to death with syrup and imposed drama. What started as realistic and approachable would be rendered melodramatic and fake. Because of the focused simplicity and plainness of this story and the artistic intent of the Dardenne brothers, none of those mistakes of over-indulgence occur.
Read MoreWe men can’t resist a good western. On paper, the new film opening in Chicago this week, “The Homesman,” starring and directed by Tommy Lee Jones could sell tickets to us men just by his presence alone. His gruff persona is perfect for the genre in every way. The “guy film” potential and exterior stops there at Tommy Lee Jones. “The Homesman,” adapted from the novel of the same name from notable western writer Glendon Swarthout dives deeper, darker, and fervently towards a different perspective.
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