Monthly Archives: August 2009

Joe (Andy Griffith) goes looking for romance but falls for the already-attached Rose (Doris Roberts) in “Play the Game.” What? Sheriff Andy Taylor discussing alternate sexual practices with a woman sans her dentures? Say it ain’t so, Andy! What’s next? Aunt Bea in a G-string? Opie doing opium? Gomer Pyle starring in a porn flick? […]

In Jennifer Steinman’s online documentary “Motherland,” six American women go on a mission of mercy to South Africa where they work with hundreds of children orphaned by poverty, pestilence and rampant AIDS. But that’s not the real reason they have come. They have come to these remote South African villages seeking solace and healing. Not […]

Elliot (Demetri Martin), right, gets sidetracked on his way to the big show by a couple of happy LSD campers in the fact-based “Taking Woodstock.” “Taking Woodstock,” Ang Lee’s hippy trip down memory lane to the biggest block party in the Age of Aquarius, offers a clever running gag about the young man responsible for […]

“Off to see the Wizard: Fantasy Goes to the Movies” Join Dann Gire (film critic of Chicago’s suburban newspaper THE DAILY HERALD, as well as the founder and president of the Chicago Film Critics Association, and adjunct instructor at Aurora and Harper Colleges in Illinois) and Raymond Benson (novelist, author of 20 books, former official […]

Anyone who loves electric guitars, anyone who’s played electric guitars, heck, anyone who’s even played electric air guitars will appreciate Davis Guggenheim’s fresh documentary about rock’s premiere instrument. Guggenheim interviews Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White, who eventually get around to making a slice of history with a jam session. Rated: PG. 98 minutes. […]

Part biography, part concert movie, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s “Youssou N’Dour: I Bring What I Love” is a meandering, journalistically one-sided look at Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour, whose album “Egypt” was branded blasphemy by his countrymen for presenting the Islamic faith in pop music. Rated: PG. 102 minutes. (Read more…) Starts Friday, Aug. 28 at the […]

Join Dann for an evening of Northwest suburban teens armed with digital cameras as we present the winners in the third annual Teen Film Fest. Dann will be there to critique the works of budding Spielbergs and host a brief Q&A with the directors. For information go to http://www.ahml.info Cost: Free Friday, August 21, 7:00 […]

A Seattle TV weather girl (producer Tricia O’Kelley) freaks out on-camera about her co-host lover (a perfectly pompous Mark Harmon) cheating on her. She winds up in her little brother’s crowded apartment with no prospects for romance or employment. Rated R (language). 93 minutes. (Read more…) Now playing at the Pipers Alley Theaters in Chicago.

Sophie Barthes’ clever capitalism satire never quite achieves the erudite flair of a Charlie Kaufman brain gouge, but Paul Giamatti’s comically agonized performance as himself keeps the dark humor immediate and funny. Giamatti pays to have his soul extracted so he can better perform Chekhov. PG-13 (nudity, language). 101 minutes. (Read more…) Now playing at […]

Martin McGartland (Jim Sturgess) gets recruited by Fergus (Ben Kingsley) to spy on the IRA in “Fifty Dead Men Walking.” Kari Skogland’s fact-based thriller “Fifty Dead Men Walking” is a gritty, character-driven throwback to Sidney Lumet’s 1973 fact-based undercover cop drama “Serpico,” this time without the cop. The unlikely undercover agent here is a street […]