Author Archives: Dann Gire

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 […]

In the comic “Post Grad,” Ryden Malby (Alexis Bledel) brushes off the affections of Adam Davies (Zach Gilford), but why? “Post Grad” is an innocuously pleasant romantic comedy lifted from the constraints of conventionality by the charismatic Alexis Bledel and a comical supporting cast of Michael Keaton, Jane Lynch and Carol Burnett. Bledel, the young […]

Toe Thompson (Jimmy Bennett) has no stomach for fighting a giant booger monster in Robert Rodriguez’s comedy “Shorts.” Robert Rodriguez totally gets pre-adolescent boys. So does “Shorts,” his daffy, witty and inventive new comedy crammed with booger monsters, belligerent bullies, magic stones, neglectful parents, evil bosses, insecure heroes and a girl appropriately named “Hel.” Don’t […]

When you think about it, a lot of places can tell filmmakers how to make movies: Columbia College. UCLA. USC. NYU. But how many of them can tell filmmakers ways to avoid bad reviews of their movies? I can. I offer 100 ways to warn filmmakers – beginners and veterans – on how they can […]

Henry (Eric Bana) shares a temporary, tender moment with Clare (Rachel McAdams) in “The Time Traveler’s Wife.” It occurred to me about halfway through “The Time Traveler’s Wife” that the whole ludicrously silly premise of this chronological jigsaw puzzle would have worked much better as a black comedy. Or at least a comic indictment of […]

Meryl Streep dons the voice and apron of the legendary cook Julia Child in the sort-of-fact-based comedy “Julie & Julia.” If you’ve seen Meryl Streep’s joyously ebullient take on Julia Child in trailers for “Julie & Julia,” then you already know: Streep is a hoot-and-a-half as the bigger-than-life American personality who conquered the culinary world […]

Max Mayer’s “Adam” strikes a pleasant balance of seriousness, humor and affection in its depiction of a romance between a gentle man (Hugh Dancy) with Asperger Syndrome and his attractive new neighbor (Rose Byrne). PG-13 (language, sexual situations). 99 minutes. (Read more…) Now playing at the Century Centre in Chicago and CineArts 6 in Evanston.