:: FRIDAY, MAY 29 - THURSDAY, JUNE 4 ::

📽️ CRUCIAL VIEWING

Metal Movie Night presents James Cameron's THE TERMINATOR (US)

Music Box Theatre — Sunday, 7pm

During the release of his feature debut PIRANHA II: THE SPAWNING (1982), James Cameron fell ill and dreamt of a metallic torso with knives escaping an explosion. Inspired by John Carpenter's low-budget HALLOWEEN (1978), Cameron decided to write a slasher film. While THE TERMINATOR resembles Michael Crichton’s WESTWORLD more than FRIDAY THE 13TH, it includes classic slasher elements: a relentless killer, high-tension pursuit, an isolated victim, a significant body count, horny young adults murdered after sex, jump scares, vehicles not starting, and the final girl trope. Adam Greenberg’s gritty cinematography, following his work on 10 TO MIDNIGHT, and composer Brad Fiedel’s iconic synth-laden military dirge enhance the film's foreboding atmosphere. Cameron wrote the script while staying with his friend, sci-fi writer Randall Frakes, who later wrote the novelizations for THE TERMINATOR and TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY (1991). Cameron and Frakes first collaborated on the 1978 short film XENOGENESIS, which led Roger Corman to hire Cameron as an art director for BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980) and to complete the directorial duties on the partially filmed PIRANHA II. During this period, Cameron also worked on special effects for John Carpenter’s ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981). Cameron sold THE TERMINATOR script for one dollar with the condition that he could direct the film. This decision was pivotal, leading to sequels, TV adaptations, and extensive merchandising. THE TERMINATOR was Cameron's first feature as director with complete control. The film is an early showcase of his future motifs: technological innovations, strong female leads, comprehensive world-building, effects-driven sequences, and the themes of humanity versus technology, environmentalism, resilience, and redemption. The film’s inventive effects, distinctive visual style, and integration of character development with action established the film as a seminal work in both the science fiction and action genres; it was added to the Library of Congress in 2008. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s portrayal of the Terminator solidified his status as a leading actor, while Linda Hamilton’s role boosted her prominence. The time-travel narrative, integrated into a slasher framework, involves Skynet—​not to be confused with Elon Musk’s Starlink—​a future AI aiming to destroy humanity. The only resistance is John Connor, who leads the human fight against Skynet. To eliminate this threat, Skynet sends a T-800 back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) before she can give birth to John. In response, John Connor sends soldier Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) to protect Sarah. The film chronicles the individual trajectories of Reese, the T-800, and Sarah, converging aptly at the Tech Noir nightclub. As Kyle and Sarah grow closer, they engage in a brief sexual encounter which results in Kyle becoming the father of John Connor. This creates a closed causal loop within THE TERMINATOR universe. Without the T-800's mission, John Connor would not exist, and Skynet would not be constructed from the remnants of a destroyed machine. By blending sci-fi with slasher horror, THE TERMINATOR cemented James Cameron's reputation as a visionary director and set the stage for a decades-long career focused on technology and human resilience. Featuring a pre-party in the Music Box Lounge starting at 5pm with DJ Metal Vinyl Weekend spinning records and summoning spirits, plus vendor pop-up tables. The Metal Movie Night pre-show of classic trailers and metal videos starts at 6:45pm. (1984, 108 min, 35mm) [Shaun Huhn]

Carroll Ballard’s FLY AWAY HOME (US)

Chicago Film Society at the Siskel Film Center – Sunday, 6pm

There was a one-two punch of visually striking Frances Hodgson Burnett adaptations released in the first half of the 1990s: Agnieszka Holland’s THE SECRET GARDEN and Alfonso Cuarón’s A LITTLE PRINCESS. Both films revolve around abandoned or neglected children at the turn of the 20th century, and neither shy away from how harrowing life can be at a very young age. Though they are not free of wonder and include tear-filled happy endings, their refusal to sugarcoat the novels’ darker themes make them memorable. Contemporarily set and based on true events, FLY AWAY HOME (1996) follows as an honest portrayal of childhood and, like Burnett’s work, emphasizes the healing power of the natural world; these films remain a testament to a true family film genre, one that doesn’t condescend to or placate its audience. Director Carroll Ballard has often focused on natural themes, both in his early work as a documentarian and in his fiction projects, which include the 1979 version of THE BLACK STALLION. Amy (Anna Paquin) is forced to relocate to Canada from New Zealand after her mother dies in a car crash which she herself survived. Now living with her estranged father, Tom (Jeff Daniels), Amy struggles to find comfort in her new surroundings. Tom, a sculptor and inventor, lives on a large piece of land being threatened by developers. When Amy discovers an abandoned nest of wild Canadian goose eggs, she decides to take care of them in secret. They hatch and immediately imprint on Amy, who takes on raising them. There is, however, the goslings’ impending need to migrate. Tom, also an ultralight aviation enthusiast, comes up with the wild idea of teaching Amy to fly and the two of them guiding the geese southeast to North Carolina. Never over explanatory, especially as its themes about loss and rebuilding are quite evident, the film relies on extended, dialogue-free sequences of Amy exploring her father’s land, finding the goose eggs, watching them grow, and later featuring the flight south. The golden-hued imagery, by Ballard’s cinematographer and collaborator Caleb Deschanel, is stunning, heightening the film’s focus on the serenity and majesty of nature. FLY AWAY HOME still feels remarkably grounded, never quite leaning too far into animal movies cliches; it avoids overly anthropomorphizing the geese, acknowledging these are wild animals that belong in their own habitat. With the current growing threat of data centers and their damaging impact on the environment and wildlife, FLY AWAY HOME’s measured examination of nature is continually relevant. Preceded by BIRDS OF CHICAGO (10 min, 16mm). (1996, 107 min, 35mm) [Megan Fariello]

Gillo Pontecorvo's THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (Italy/Algeria)

FACETS — Wednesday, 7pm

One of political cinema's enduring masterpieces, THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS is also a world-historical document, an essential piece in the puzzle of a violent and hopeful time. No film before or since has conveyed the drama of insurrection with such intensity or precision. Depicting the bloody clash for Algerian independence waged against French colonial powers in the late 1950s, THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS is defined by dualities, beginning with the central spatial dichotomy between the “European City” and the Casbah, which serve as the film’s primary locations. The use of these real locations, like the stark, hand-held cinematography, show director Gillo Pontecorvo absorbing the techniques of Neorealism, but his masterful control of suspense and emotion owes just as much to the clockwork thrillers of Hitchcock and Lang. Like the latter's M, the film is also a study in the diverging methodologies of the underground and the police, with a particular interest in organizations of power and technologies of surveillance, detection, and terror. BATTLE OF ALGIERS is legendarily detailed and unflinching representation of the violence committed by both French colonial and Algerian radical forces, which has made the film an invaluable primer on guerrilla warfare to Black Panthers and Pentagon pencil-pushers alike. Indeed, with alternating scenes of reciprocal bloodshed, Pontecorvo proves himself as expert an architect of ethical complexity as of narrative tension. But his even-handedness is hard to mistake for pure ambivalence—the film’s heart undoubtedly lies with the revolutionary spirit of the Algerian people. For one, the FLN freedom fighters are much more sharply individuated than the French occupiers, with the crucial exception of Colonel Mathieu, the focused and methodical leader of the French counterinsurgency. Himself a composite of several historical figures, Mathieu often serves as a mouthpiece to rationalize the brutality of their repression effort; Pontecorvo contrasts his chilling detachment with scenes stressing the emotional and physical impact of the anti-colonial struggle on the Algerians. In a sense, the question of the film’s political sympathies may ultimately be a question of the viewer’s inclination towards empathy. If you receive the film as the dispassionate exercise in pseudo-reportage it’s often characterized as, you may take more from its overtures to impartiality; if you experience THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS as the gripping, devastating, and ultimately rousing work of art I think it is, you’ll know which side it's on. Screening as part of the Essentials series. (1966, 121 min, DCP Digital) [Michael Metzger]

Michael Glover Smith's HEKLA (US)

FACETS — Thursday, 7pm

HEKLA arrives as Chicago filmmaker (and Cine-File contributor) Michael Glover Smith’s most dynamic feature to date. Its genesis came from Smith’s desire to see a film about a day in the life of an actor—a universally known “impossible career.” Having wanted to tell this story for ten years, he waited for the right actor to come along. When making RELATIVE (2022), Smith discovered the powerhouse of actor Elizabeth Stam, a local young talent. Later, executive producer of Sweet Void Cinema Jack McCoy cast Smith in a supporting role of one of their films and provided resources for the director in the form of gear and manpower. Smith raised funds for previous features through multiple investors. Without securing any financiers for HEKLA, the director took a page from John Cassavetes, a high rolling artist known to bet the farm just to make the next picture, and sold his condo to finance the work. Already twelve drafts in, Michael invited Stam into the preproduction process to rewrite the script to cater to her character to her rhythms, patterns, mannerisms, and blemishes. To solidify the organic partnership between actor and director, Smith involved the actor to design dream sequences depicting her character’s inner life. The director’s open collaboration with the actor frees the actor to deliver an organic performance. HEKLA is Smith’s most kinetic and chaotic film as his most Chicago movie to date—it’s CLEO 5 FROM TO 7 (1962) if Cleo had a Malört shot at the end. Principal photography moved very fast, bypassing film permits, remaining handheld for all, an aesthetic rallying for more French New Wave inspired filmmaking. Stam gives her all. Rarely does an artist’s life look pretty; the audience bears witness as Hekla navigates the ugly. The film leans into the interpersonal strain one faces choosing their career over their relationships—the consequences echo both internally and externally for the character. For most, the struggle to create a life well lived feels like an impossible task, and such is making a living as an actor in 2026. At the conclusion of the film, Hekla stands reciting Shakespeare to drunks with a broken heart. The film feels so authentic in approach and performance, it feels like a piece of living autofiction. Aside from the ambition to make more films, Smith seeks to inspire other filmmakers whether his students or fellow filmmakers to just go out and do it. As a director who has hustled for years, his filmmaking only ascends and carries the rare passion for the local film scene. With an approach that requires no permits and no complicated lighting setups, the filmmaker hopes to fuel the fire for a Chicago New Wave. Preceded by cast member Sandro Miller’s short film PSYCHOGENIC FUGUE, starring John Malkovich, and followed by a Q&A with Smith, lead actress/co-writer Elizabeth Stam, cinematographer Jose Perez, production designer Heather Kuhlmann, and hair/makeup artist Heather Vogt. Moderated by Indie Outlook’s Matt Fagerholm. (2026, 89 min, DCP Digital) [Ray Ebarb]

John Waters’ MULTIPLE MANIACS (US)

Music Box Theatre — Friday, Midnight

Stephen Sondheim would often refer to one of his earliest musicals, Saturday Night, as his “baby pictures”: something fond to look back on, but nothing more than a glimpse into a blossoming career ahead. John Waters’ MULTIPLE MANIACS, then, is the ugliest baby picture you’ve ever laid eyes upon, and what a joy that is. With his debut feature MONDO TRASHO (1969) remaining barely accessible to the public due to the mundane horrors of music copyright law, MULTIPLE MANIACS is, for all intents and purposes, the true birth of the world of the self-appointed Filth Elder. Gathering his fellow Baltimore friends together in a makeshift ensemble dubbed the “Dreamlanders,” Waters (taking on the roles of writer, director, editor, producer, and cinematographer) is practically learning on the job what it means to make a motion picture; a variety of scenes suffer from the image being blown out, actors give endearingly stilted line readings throughout, and the camera often flitters around the scene in a desperate means of cross-cutting between actors. But what shines through is the absolutely depraved lens through which Waters sees the world, a vision of perverts and deviants lying and conning their way through melodrama of the highest order, facing a society that sees them as nothing less than utter monsters. The black and white 16mm photography here pales in comparison to Waters’ later films decked out in colorful puke, but we’re still able to bask in the hideous beauty of Divine, the deviousness of David Lochary, and the lustful gaze of Mink Stole (you’ll never be able to look at a rosary the same way again). As with many of Waters’ earlier films, Divine is the true standout, her devilish grin and hypnotic stare becoming more and more fiendish as the film goes on, climaxing in a finale where her transformation into Baltimore’s fiercest kaiju is complete. This early effort from Waters and his fellow Dreamlanders sets the stage for a decades-long career of throwing not just spaghetti at the wall, but puke and guts and whatever other forms of excrement they can get their filthy hands on. And don’t even mention the giant lobster. (1970, 91 mins, DCP Digital) [Ben Kaye]

Ben Creech, Nicole Rea, and Lucas Rea-Thomas’ A Supercut of Us: The Love Songs of Ben & Nicole (Chicago)

Chicago Filmmakers — Saturday, 1pm

Ben Creech is responsible for handling projection and tech at Northwestern’s Block Cinema but also works behind the scenes for other screenings around town, including his Picture Restart series last year. He’s also a filmmaker, and this collection of works hits the big screen just before his and Nicole Rea’s big day. The couple first met in 2012, started dating in 2016, and began making films two years later. This lineup of nine works can be separated into two different camps: home movies and more experimental fare, though some comfortably blur lines between the two. Firmly in the former camp are works like WNDR (2018, 5 min), which finds Ben, Nicole, and a young Lucas Rea-Thomas wandering the WNDR museum. Inspirational quotes are seen on the walls and are juxtaposed with Lucas interacting with the building’s many interactive set pieces. Any cynicism about such spaces washes away when seeing Nicole and Ben smiling at Lucas’ own fascinations. Such joy is palpable even in the silent CHIMERA CAMERA TESTS (2018, 3 min), which features black-and-white portraits shot during Chimera Film Society’s Day of Horror. Simple and effective, it’s anchored by a shot of Ben and Nicole kissing—a beautiful moment amidst hanging with friends, affecting in its quotidian nature. It is this plainness that is continually moving: BRAND NEW ROLLERSKATES (2023, 3 min) is a little montage of Nicole rollerskating while Ben rides his bike; BACKYARD MONTEREY (2018, 3 min) is a split-screen time-lapse documenting a late-night hang, and then there’s a selection of home movies that catalogues Ben and Nicole’s relationship throughout the past decade and then some. That these videos were, in many instances, culled from phone-recorded footage makes the feeling more intimate; vertical videos mesh with those shot in landscape and others cropped as squares. The most exhilarating home movie compilation centers on Carl, the family’s unmissable Bernese Mountain Dog. Seeing him as both a pup and the massive dog he is, in a variety of settings, is a real treat—Lucas’ curation on these videos is ace. The more “artful” films in the program include WRIGHTFILM (2025, 2 min), which finds the family visiting various Frank Lloyd Wright houses. While the houses themselves are striking, it’s the flickering of images that prove emotional; I found myself needing to gasp for air with all the cuts, and something about the film’s silence spoke to the specialness of the family’s time together, like it’s impossible to bottle that feeling up with any art we create. WE MAKE THE ROAD BY WALKING (2025, 10 min) is another sort of vacation film, finding the crew—Carl included—travelling to Cleveland to witness the solar eclipse in totality. Set to Electric Light Orchestra’s “Mr. Blue Sky,” it’s a jovial and spirited travelogue that concludes with a beautiful image of that glowing black circle, hovering in the sky like some alien force. Closing out the event is EDGEWATER RITUALS (2026, 3 min), a short film finding Ben and Nicole walking around the Chicago lakefront. As with many of their other films, a song sets the mood. We see the moon superimposed with images of the water and the horizon, and then a close-up of their hands held together. The former image feels like a bit of magic, but the latter is a magic made real. [Joshua Minsoo Kim]

📽️ ALSO RECOMMENDED

Cole Webley’s OMAHA (US)

Siskel Film Center — See Venue website for showtimes

As a kid, I loved road trips. Watching the scenery change as we drove further from home, playing games by myself or with my brother, and occasionally being lulled into a nap were as much a part of the adventure as any of the destinations on our itinerary. OMAHA stirs these pleasurable memories even as it portrays a much sadder kind of road trip, one spurred not by leisure but desperation. On the eve of his Nevada home’s foreclosure, a widowed father (John Magaro, stoic and taciturn) packs up his two young children and Golden Retriever and sets off across the country in a decrepit station wagon. They’re headed for Nebraska, but the reason is strategically withheld by writer Robert Machoian; what is evident is that this journey is an attempted escape from both family tragedy and economic hardship, launched by a dad at a breaking point. But while the dad broods behind the wheel, the kids, Ella (9) and Charlie (6), are being kids: goofing off, sleeping, savoring sweet treats, finding opportunities for joyous play at rest stops. Molly Belle Wright and Wyatt Solis are complete naturals as the siblings, and much of OMAHA simply observes their (seemingly improvised) amusements as they live unaware—or try to distract themselves—from the precarity of their situation. Webley and cinematographer Paul Meyers make gorgeous use of the ample Southwestern sunlight and open landscapes, whether capturing myriad shades of gold filtering through the car windows or filming the kids flying a kite on Utah’s sprawling salt flats. The minimalist storytelling, focus on dispossessed lives, and presence of John Magaro bring to mind Kelly Reichardt, but OMAHA has a narrower, less politically-inclined scope than that filmmaker’s work, homing in on the trio’s fragile emotional balance rather than exploring the social conditions of their poverty. In this way, OMAHA appeals nakedly to the heart, and yes, to nostalgia, for road trips and blissful childhood innocence and time spent with family, while it lasted. (2025, 83 min, DCP Digital) [Jonathan Leithold-Patt]

John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser’s HELLBENDER (US)

The Davis Theater — Monday, 7pm

Many filmmakers have taken a small crew into the woods to make horror (c.f., THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT [1972], THE EVIL DEAD [1980], THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT [1999]), but few were already established in the genre. The Adams family were; their distinctive horror style had already been demonstrated in THE DEEPER YOU DIG (2019). Toby Poser and John Adams, along with their daughters Zelda and Lola, emerged from the forest with a furious, intimate folk-horror coming-of-age tale that channels pandemic isolation, heavy metal energy, and mother-daughter tension into a distinctive mythology-building witch film. Set deep in the Catskill Mountains, the film follows sixteen-year-old Izzy (Zelda Adams), who has spent her life secluded from the outside world by her overprotective mother (Toby Poser). Told she suffers from a mysterious autoimmune disorder, Izzy survives on a vegan diet of foraged plants while spending her days making sludgy doom-metal music with her mother. The mother and daughter band H6LLB6ND6R now exists outside of the film. A brief encounter with local teenagers awakens an appetite within Izzy that carries both body horror and supernatural implications, triggering a transformation her mother had long shielded her from. An unofficial trilogy emerges across THE DEEPER YOU DIG, HELLBENDER, and MOTHER OF FLIES (2025). Each film uses witchcraft to examine mother-daughter power struggles; the tension between a mother’s protection and suffocation runs through all three. Poser stated HELLBENDER was conceived as a story for both mother and daughter, recognizing that the transition from childhood to adulthood transforms the parents as well as the child. The film refuses to treat female transformation as a tragedy. Horror critic Mark Kermode likened it to Brian De Palma's CARRIE (1976) and M. Night Shyamalan's THE VILLAGE (2004) filtered through Ari Aster's MIDSOMMAR (2019). The Adamses link adolescence to supernatural awakening: Izzy, living in a cult of two and sheltered from the outside world her entire life, ascends through the consumption of older generations. The moral panic is stripped from her transformation; as frightening as it may be, it is also her liberation. HELLBENDER constructs a female mythology operating outside patriarchal structures, where inheritance passes through mothers and daughters with both tenderness and violence. Even the film's grisliest revelations function as metaphors for generational succession and the painful necessity of a child surpassing their parents. The Adams family's collaborative method gives the film its unusual emotional texture. Shot during COVID lockdowns around their own home, often with improvised dialogue and rotating crew duties, HELLBENDER channels the suffocating rhythms of forced isolation into its narrative. The forests appear endless, the interiors claustrophobic, and the warm light from candles and fire amplify the minimal budget. The Adamses are a fully functional media collective that has achieved critical recognition and commercial distribution while maintaining complete creative and economic independence. Their ten feature films—from the early experiments of RUMBLESTRIPS (2013) to the festival-winning MOTHER OF FLIES—document an organic evolution driven by family dynamics, shared history, collaborative creativity, shorthand, the deepening confidence of self-taught artists, and alchemy. HELLBENDER is a punk-folk horror film, DIY-stitched during a global pandemic, and reflects the restlessness of isolation. A film made by witches, for witches. Presented by Joe Swanberg, who will be moderating a conversation with Toby Poser and John Adams. (2021, 83 min, Digital Projection) [Shaun Huhn]

Dario Argento's PHENOMENA (Italy)

Alamo Drafthouse — Tuesday, 9:30pm

Uncomfortable and alien, PHENOMENA was a massive departure from the furious, hallucinatory series of supernatural horrors Dario Argento had been making since 1977’s SUSPIRIA. Angry, violently colorful, and soaked with primal power, these magical films are inverted in PHENOMENA entirely. Rather than a film that peels back the viscera of the commonplace to reveal the skeleton of evil underneath, he produced a bizarre, clinical film that resists our gaze, one that grows ever more cryptic the more it progresses. At the heart of PHENOMENA is Jennifer Corvino, the daughter of a famous actor, who is sent to a mysterious Swiss boarding school for girls while her father is away on a shoot. Clever viewers might be lulled into thinking this will be a retread of the similarly-premised SUSPIRIA, but this is something entirely different, indeed almost it’s opposite. Jennifer (played expertly by Jennifer Connelly) seems to possess a psychic link with insects, and quickly makes friends with an elderly, disabled entomologist played by Donald Pleasance. As a murderer stalks the area, picking off teenage girls with abandon, Jennifer’s uncanny abilities allow her special access to the moments of death. But where an earlier Argento film would have delved into the carnal, corporeal violations, building a chromatic tapestry of gore and knife and flesh, the camerawork here is cold, dispassionate, refusing for the most part to engage with the violence within its frames. The characters, especially Jennifer, are shot as though wearing thick, hard suits of armor, and they move in eerie, inhuman ways, posturing their bodies to suggest additional joints, additional limbs. This is an insectoid horror, awash in near-monochrome, obsessively fascinated by decay and the comfortable, meatiness of death, unwilling to grant subtle psychologizing or motivations to the impenetrable interiorities of those it sees. The entomologist tells Jennifer at one point that a beetle she is holding is attempting to seduce her, that her mere presence is enough to provoke it into a premature mating season. It is a key insight into the metaphysics of PHENOMENA. The natural world is coming into its own through her. She is the gateway between the dwindling, self-important human civilization and the ever-present, marvelous wonders of the ant, the bee, the fly, beetle, who see all, reveal so little, and wait with infinite patience for us to kill ourselves off. Screening as part of the Terror Tuesday series. (1985, 116 min, DCP Digital) [Kian Bergstrom]

25 for 25

Siskel Film Center — See below for showtimes

Stephen Frears' HIGH FIDELITY (US)
Friday, 5:45pm; Saturday, 8:15pm; and Tuesday, 6pm
Now that Stephen Frears has retreated into middle-brow British heritage filmmaking (THE QUEEN, PHILOMENA, etc.), his director credit on HIGH FIDELITY, the all-American Sub-Pop rom-com, is all the more mysterious and unaccountable. Transplanting Nick Hornby's London-set novel to Chicago with the assistance of star/producer/writer John Cusack and his boyhood friends from Evanston, HIGH FIDELITY succeeds largely on the basis of its slippery but firmly committed command of local detail. Cusack's record store, Championship Vinyl, is located at the intersection of Milwaukee and Honore in a Wicker Park that's post-Liz Phair but still pre-gentrification and consequently overrun with over-achieving Charlie Brown crust punks. All the aspiring grown-ups live in one of those lovely old apartment buildings in Rogers Park or Lakeview, where the rain washes away your tears as you stomp through the unkempt courtyards. The hyper-specific observation always wins out, even when it's purely invented. (There's a moment when Cusack hops onto the Purple Line at Armitage. The train enters a tunnel and goes underground. Now, every CTA rider knows that the Purple Line remains elevated for the duration, but that's banal. HIGH FIDELITY implicitly suggests something better: a Purple Line ride that retains the ecstatic promise of coming out again on the other side in a blast of sunshine.) You always feel grounded in the film's crowded chronology, calling up personal memories that are inevitably intertwined with pop signposts: we had that conversation the week that "The Boy with the Arab Strap" came out; we went on that date the same night that THE DREAMLIFE OF ANGELS opened at the Music Box. It's all of a piece with the incessant list-making, the encyclopedic editorializing, the ever-fragile mantle of expertise. "This is a film about—and also for—not only obsessed clerks in record stores," suggested Roger Ebert upon HIGH FIDELITY's release, "but the video store clerks who have seen all the movies, and the bookstore employees who have read all the books. Also for bartenders, waitresses, greengrocers in health food stores..." Yes, HIGH FIDELITY speaks to all these people fine, but let's be real: this is a movie that is deeply, specifically, and unmistakably about the culture of record stores. It uncannily contains a piece of every single record store in which I've ever stepped foot. And if they all vanished tomorrow, the species could be genetically reconstituted purely on the basis of the collected side-eyes, chortles, guffaws, growls, and straight-up asshole moves in HIGH FIDELITY. It's anthropology, but it's also a superlative romantic comedy—an up-to-date ANNIE HALL purged of Allen's misogynistic impulse to crack all the jokes at the woman's expense. No matter how small the role, everybody here from Iben Hjejle to Todd Louiso is a three-dimensional presence. (In the closing reel, Jack Black gets elevated to a crowd-pleasing four-dimensional plateau.) It might not be in my Top 5, but it's damn close. Cusack in person for a post-screening Q&A after the Friday showtime. (2000, 113 min, DCP Digital) [K.A. Westphal]
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Henry Hathaway's CALL NORTHSIDE 777 (US)
Saturday, 4:15pm; Sunday, 12pm; and Wednesday, 8:15pm
This realist noir based on the true story of an unsolved murder that happened here in Chicago in 1932 is probably most interesting to audiences of today for its use of real locations. As Arnie Bernstein notes in his book Hollywood on Lake Michigan: 100 Years of Chicago and the Movies, the killing happened six months before the "Century of Progress" World's Fair was to take place, so mayor Anton Cermak wanted the mess to be cleaned up without delay and by any means necessary. Two guys of dubious guilt were quickly caught, tried, and sentenced to ninety-nine years in prison. This 1948 dramatization was shot all over Chicagoland, featuring many spots on the south side; downtown at a police station, the Chicago River, and the Wrigley Building; at the actual delicatessen where the murder took place, 4312 S. Ashland; in one of the participants’ actual apartments at 725 S. Honore; Stateville Correction Center in Joliet, IL (made famous by the prison scenes in NATURAL BORN KILLERS); the old State Capitol Building in Springfield; and at 3501 S. Lowe, the police station where the main character—a reporter played by Jimmy Stewart—holds his investigation. Filmed in stark black and white, and with a documentary feel by cinematographer Joseph MacDonald (BIGGER THAN LIFE, WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER?) and director Henry Hathaway (whose, "quiet, functional camera style suggests some of the classic simplicity of Hawks," according to Dave Kehr), CALL NORTHSIDE 777 is one of the definitive Chicago movies, using the city just as well as three of the city’s best native products—John Hughes's FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF, Michael Mann's THIEF, and Andrew Davis's ABOVE THE LAW. Keep an eye out for the man who operates the lie detector, Leonarde Keeler— the actual inventor of the polygraph device. (1948, 111 min, DCP Digital) [Kalvin Henley]
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Michael Schultz's COOLEY HIGH (US)
Saturday, 6:45pm; Monday, 6pm; and Tuesday, 8:30pm
“I grew up in the Cabrini–Green housing project,” said the Chicago-born writer Eric Monte, “and I had one of the best times of my life, the most fun you can have while inhaling and exhaling.” Monte’s assertion is, of course, antithetical to the general conception of the storied public housing projects as being a terrifying place out of which it would seem joy is unlikely to emanate. COOLEY HIGH, which Monte wrote and Michael Schultz (CAR WASH, WHICH WAY IS UP?) directed, revels in the elation of youth, apolitical inasmuch as children and young adults themselves usually are but still evincing a message similar to Monte’s above, resisting any kind of bourgeois pity. It’s the final weeks of high school for Preach (Glynn Turman) and Cochise (Lawrence Hilton Jacobs) at Cooley High (the film was inspired by Monte’s childhood and his time at Cooley Vocational High School, near Cabrini–Green); the story takes place over the course of several days, during which Preach (a bad student but one who nevertheless reads poetry and history books for fun) falls in love and Cochise finds out he received a full basketball scholarship. All of this is seemingly incidental as the boys and their friends hang out at the local dive, go to a party, take a joy ride in a stolen car (where they partake in an impressive car chase through warehouses on Navy Pier), and see a movie (GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA, though it’s the fight in the theater that really grabs the audience’s—both in the film and out— attention), normal things young people do, the memories of which are often bright spots among the relative dimness of subsequent adulthood. Preach and Cochice eventually find themselves in trouble for the joy ride, though an encouraging teacher (played by Saturday Night Live cast member Garrett Morris) helps get them out of trouble with the cops. That, however, sets into motion the events that lead to the film’s heartbreaking conclusion. It’s been compared to George Lucas’ AMERICAN GRAFFITI, which was released the year prior, but, as Keith Corson notes in Trying to Get Over: African American Directors after Blaxploitation, 1977-1986, “While Lucas’s portrait of high school graduates in the San Fernando Valley relies heavily on on feelings of nostalgia, COOLEY HIGH remains grounded in the realities of urban transformation and decline.” Though not political in nature, the stakes in Schultz’s film are naturally higher than that of any predominantly white corollary, as is evidenced by the dramatic climax and sobering aftermath. The film has gone on to inspire many a Black filmmaker (e.g., Spike Lee, John Singleton) yet still stands on its own as an auspicious entry into the coming-of-age subgenre and a necessary corrective to pervasive assumptions. (1975, 107 min, DCP Digital) [Kat Sachs]
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The 25 For 25 series celebrates the Siskel Film Center's 25 years on State Street.

Park Chan-wook's THE HANDMAIDEN (South Korea)

Alamo Drafthouse — Saturday, 3pm

Widely known for his Revenge Trilogy, which includes the seminal OLDBOY, Chan-wook Park’s films have frequently employed the use of retribution. His latest work, although less violent than some of his previous outings, finds the Korean director swimming in familiar waters. In THE HANDMAIDEN, a swindler is hired by a Japanese heiress (set to inherit an exorbitant amount of priceless books) to be her handmaiden; but she is secretly planning to steal her employer’s fortune by having the heiress committed to an insane asylum through the help of her partner, who plans to marry her. The film is divided into three parts, with each part building upon the previous as new twists and wrinkles are exposed through perspective shifts. The resulting web is complex and mischievous. The love story is equal parts passionate and perverted. Love of all kinds is explored and Park does not shy away from sensual moments. From gorgeous cherry blossom trees to rolling fog over a river, the cinematography captures everything in a large depth of field. This added clarity helps to show off what's at stake (such as the heiress's gigantic estate) as well as to provide the audience with more screen real estate in which to catch clues. THE HANDMAIDEN finds Park in peak creative form thanks to its captivating source material, dynamic cast, and beautiful undertones. An Alamo Drafthouse Movie Book Club screening. (2016, 144 min, DCP Digital) [Kyle Cubr]

Ildikó Enyedi’s SILENT FRIEND (Germany/Hungary/France)

Siskel Film Center — See Venue website for showtimes

The title character of this puzzling art movie is not a person, but rather a tree, specifically a gingko biloba located on a German university campus. SILENT FRIEND alternates between three separate time periods and considers how people relate to this tree at different points in history. The principal story line concerns a neuroscientist from Hong Kong (Tony Leung) who comes to the university as a visiting scholar in 2020; during the COVID lockdown, he becomes fascinated with the tree and ends up conducting an unusual experiment having to do with its reproduction. The other two narratives take place in 1908 and 1972 and deal with, respectively, the exploits of the university’s first female student and the relationship between a socially awkward graduate student and the co-ed who tries to get him to open up. It’s never clear what writer-director Ildikó Enyedi is trying to say with all this, but that’s typical of this Hungarian writer-director, who’s marched to the beat of her own drummer since her debut feature, MY TWENTIETH CENTURY (1989). SILENT FRIEND circles around themes of alienation, connection, and the mystery of the natural world without coming to a point about any of them—the film is essentially a dance of ideas, kind of like Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s MEMORIA (2021) but without the transcendental elements. And like MEMORIA, this functions partly as a love letter to higher learning, as Enyedi successfully conveys the excitement of performing research and making academic discoveries. It’s a film that advances a scientific worldview, regarding people as case studies and their feelings as so much data to sort through. Some may find this perspective comforting; for one thing, it reflects a certain faith in progress and the triumph of intellectual endeavor. If nothing else, it’s undeniably unique, highlighting an alternative approach to both humanist and antihumanist thinking. (2025, 147 min, DCP Digital) [Ben Sachs]

Robert Zemeckis' DEATH BECOMES HER (US)

Alamo Drafthouse — Wednesday, 6:30pm

My first exposure to DEATH BECOMES HER, which came long before watching the film itself, was from seeing images in a coffee table book about the history of Industrial Light & Magic. Directed by the special effects-attentive Robert Zemeckis, it holds up as a visual marvel 30 years after its release: a stunning combination of practical and groundbreaking digital effects. It remains relevant as a camp classic, however, from its shrewd blending of genres and over-the-top performances; all combined, DEATH BECOMES HER, while maybe not flawless, is like the best of Zemeckis’ films, a perfectly satisfying watch. A biting commentary on aging in Hollywood, the film stars Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn as frenemies waging war for the attention of a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon played by Bruce Willis. Driving their rivalry and need for revenge is a desperation to find the secret to everlasting youth. They each discover a mysterious socialite (Isabella Rossellini) who claims to have a magic potion to reverse the aging process, but its side effects come at quite a disturbing cost. DEATH BECOMES HER’s combination of dark comedy and body horror is balanced seamlessly by the added melodrama of the four main performances—it's hard to argue a standout when they're all so great. The clever, slow-revealing camerawork and giant set pieces never let the iconic special effects scenes fall completely into the cartoonish, balancing the absurd and the grotesque. The film’s fun is in its constant teetering on the edge; DEATH BECOMES HER manages to express complete uninhibitedness with precise visual filmmaking. (1992, 104 min, DCP Digital) [Megan Fariello]

Curry Barker’s OBSESSION (US)

Alamo Drafthouse, the Davis Theater, Landmark's Century Centre Cinema, the Music Box Theatre and others — See Venue websites for showtimes

With a “One Wish Willow” sold at your local magic shop, all your dreams can come true. But what would you wish for? Since “The Monkey’s Paw,” horror cinema has warned that every wish carries a shadow. In OBSESSION, however, the wish itself is almost secondary. Curry Barker understands that supernatural objects do not create darkness so much as expose what already exists beneath the surface. Alongside roommate and creative partner Cooper Tomlinson, Barker dropped out of film school in 2017 to pursue independent filmmaking full-time, building an audience through their sketch-comedy channel “That’s a Bad Idea.” Their comedy often sprung from minor social discomforts spiraling into absurdist chaos, an instinct essential to OBSESSION. After the viral success of “The Chair” (2023) and the release of the $800 found-footage film MILK & SERIAL (2024) on YouTube, Barker found himself with a budget near $1 million for OBSESSION. The story centers on Bear (Michael Johnston) who has been in love with Nikki (Inde Navarrette) since childhood. Even his best friend Ian (Tomlinson) grows tired of hearing about it. Ian urges him to simply ask her out, but Bear is too emotionally paralyzed to risk rejection. Instead, he buys a One Wish Willow—“A love only the branch of a Willow tree could conjure.” A familiar idiom (be careful what you wish for, you might just get it) gradually mutates into a body-horror film about consent, disguised as romantic fantasy. After Bear makes his wish, Nikki immediately becomes devoted to him. At first, it resembles a dream come true, but Barker poisons every interaction with stomach-churning wrongness. Bear notices it. Their friends notice it. Nikki herself occasionally appears trapped beneath the performance, as if her real consciousness is screaming somewhere inside her own body. Yet Bear continually chooses fantasy over reality. Barker’s sharpest insight is recognizing how entitlement disguises itself as vulnerability. Bear never sees himself as monstrous, which makes him even more disturbing. Johnston balances Bear’s sympathy and selfishness effectively, though the film ultimately belongs to Navarrette. Already carrying the energy of a future scream queen, she channels shades of Mia Goth in PEARL while creating something uniquely feral and tragic. Barker has joked that Johnston and Navarrette’s lack of chemistry helped secure their casting, and that tension becomes crucial to the film’s unease. Navarrette pivots from flirtation to psychosis in seconds, occasionally snapping back into terrified lucidity before the wish reasserts control. Visually, Barker and cinematographer Taylor Clemons create a world defined by loneliness. Center-composed frames and oppressive headroom make every room feel emotionally vacant, even when crowded. Barker’s intentionally off-rhythm editing prevents scenes from settling naturally, keeping comedy and horror on the same unstable wavelength. Laughter curdles into revulsion almost instantly. What makes OBSESSION linger is how human the horror feels beneath its supernatural mechanics. Barker transforms romantic desperation into body horror without losing sight of the sadness underneath it all. Somewhere between internet sketch comedy, splatter horror, and poisoned melodrama, Barker has created something distinctly contemporary: a horror film where the monster never stops believing they’re the good guy. (2025, 108 min, DCP) [Shaun Huhn]

Noah Baumbach's FRANCES HA (US)

Alamo Drafthouse — Sunday, 7:30pm

The most financially and critically successful of the mumblecore films, FRANCES HA is also Noah Baumbach at his finest and firmly pushed the genre into the wider public eye. Heavily influenced by Woody Allen films (ANNIE HALL and MANHATTAN) as well as the French New Wave, Baumbach's magnum opus showcases the straightforward side to filmmaking and demonstrates how a strong director can make one hell of a film from a simple screenplay. The script is full of sharp, candid dialogue that feels honest and natural. This character study relies heavily on the emotional and disenfranchised power that conversation has in daily life. Greta Gerwig plays the titular Frances, a 27-year old dancer whose life is crumbling around her with no end in sight. Like a drummer behind the punchline of a joke, Frances is often a beat late in her conversations, her finances, and most importantly, her livelihood. Gerwig's performance serves an apt metaphor for the millennial generation and the obstacles that they face. It's refreshing to see a film provide an authentic look at how a character's life isn't always going to work out in that special, feel-good way. Despite all this, FRANCES HA is inspiring for its views on the influence of personal growth and the highly personal definition of success that exists when people finally find their own little slice of heaven. Frances just wants to find happiness, and it's fascinating to watch her take that intimate journey towards it. (2013, 86 min, DCP Digital) [Kyle Cubr]

📽️ ALSO SCREENING

⚫ Alamo Drafthouse
Yoshimitsu Banno's 1971 film GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH (1971, 85 min, Digital Projection) screens Saturday at 12:15pm; Sunday at 11:30am and 5pm; and Wednesday at 5pm.

Brian De Palma's 1996 film MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (110 min, Digital Projection) screens Sunday at 10pm; Monday at 7:15pm; and Tuesday at 12pm.

Xander Robin's 2025 documentary THE PYTHON HUNT (91 min, Digital Projection) screens Tuesday at  7pm.

Danny Boyle's 1996 film TRAINSPOTTING (93 min, Digital Projection) screens Thursday at 7pm and 9:45pm in celebration of the film’s 30th anniversary. More info on all screenings here.

⚫ Chicago Cultural Center (Claudia Cassidy Theater, 78 E. Washington St., 2nd Floor North)
On Set: Conversations - Directing the Craft with Sam Bailey & Chinaka Hodge, a free public conversation between director and executive producer Sam Bailey and writer-producer Chinaka Hodge about their collaboration on the Chicago-filmed Marvel Television series Ironheart, takes place Friday, 6:30pm, as part of the On Set: Conversations speaker series presented by the Chicago Film Office. Free admission.

The Midwest Film Festival opens its 2026 season on Sunday with the Midwest Film Fair and Expo, presented in partnership with DCASE and the Chicago Film Office. A morning workforce workshop, Prepping Your Project for Post, presented by Journeywork Entertainment, starts at 9am. Limited capacity, RSVP required. A 2025 BMA Winners Showcase Screening and Talkback takes place at 3pm. A free Film Fair Expo runs simultaneously to these events starting at 11am in GAR Hall, featuring university film programs, equipment vendors, set designers, and other filmmaking departments in an immersive interactive environment. More info here.

⚫ Chicago Film Archives
A Celebration, a large-scale video installation by experimental filmmaker and Chicago Film Archives curatorial assistant Colin Mason, is on view through Saturday, July 4, in the lobby of 150 N. Riverside Plaza (enter via Randolph Street); free and open to the public Monday–Friday 4–7pm and Saturdays 11am–5pm. The installation is part of the 150 Media Stream arts program, curated by Chicago video artist Yuge Zhou, and was produced in partnership with Chicago Film Archives. More info here.

⚫ Chicago Public Library
The Chicago Public Library's Community Cinema program presents free film and TV screenings at dozens of neighborhood branches throughout the week. See the full schedule here.

⚫ Cinema/Chicago
Laura Samani's 2021 film SMALL BODY (89 min, Digital Projection) screens Wednesday, 6:30pm, at the Chicago Cultural Center (78 E. Washington St.), as part of Cinema/Chicago's Free Summer Screenings series, co-presented by the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago. Note that online ticketing is sold out; a standby line opens one hour before showtime, with seats released to standby ticket holders 15 minutes before the screening. More info here.

⚫ Cinemanita
Lino Brocka's 1975 film MANILA IN THE CLAWS OF LIGHT (125 min, Digital Projection) screens Saturday, 8pm, at Chicago Art Department (1926 S. Halsted St., Pilsen), presented by Cinemanita in celebration of the collective's first anniversary; a pre-show fundraiser with tribute performances co-presented by Anakbayan Chicago and CCHRP, honoring the 19 martyrs of Negros massacred during a military operation in the Philippines, begins at 6:30pm. More info here.

⚫ Dwell Studio Chicago (7449 W. Irving Park Rd.)
The Visual History of Polish Chicago, a lecture and film screening by Agata Zborowska, takes place Wednesday, 6pm, presented by the Chicago Chapter of the Kosciuszko Foundation and with a reception to follow. Free admission. More info here.

⚫ FACETS
Henry Hanson's 2026 film PUPPYGIRL (58 min, Digital Projection) screens Friday, with an introduction and short surprise film at 7:30pm and the feature at 8pm, followed by a post-screening Q&A with Hanson and star Milo Talwani.

The inaugural Not Without Company Film Festival takes place Sunday with two screenings at 10am and 12pm. Each program presents nine short films produced for the 48 Hour Film Project Chicago competition by BearCat Productions and Rishi Productions over the past decade, followed by a talkback with collaborating artists.

Cafe Focus, a monthly coworking pop-up for Chicago filmmakers and film workers of all backgrounds and experience levels, takes place Sunday from 2pm to 5pm.

Sweet Void Cinema presents a screenwriting workshop on Wednesday from 6 to 9pm in the FACETS Studio. More info on all screenings and events here.

⚫ First Nations Film and Video Festival
The Spring 2026 First Nations Film and Video Festival continues through Saturday.

A program of fourteen short films screens Friday, 2pm, at the Evanston Public Library (1703 Orrington Ave., Evanston).

A program of two films screens Saturday, 2pm, also at the Evanston Public Library (1703 Orrington Ave., Evanston). Free admission for both.

Note: the previously scheduled closing screening at Citlalin Gallery on Sunday has been cancelled due to technical difficulties. More info on all screenings and the festival overall here.

⚫ Goethe-Institut Chicago (150 N. Michigan Ave.)
Lateral Entrant, a site-specific exhibition by Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist Maya Nguyen incorporating video, photography, and performance, exploring migrant strategies of camouflage and adaptation across languages and visual cultures connecting Vietnam, Germany, and the United States, is on view through July 31. Public viewing hours are available by advance registration on Eventbrite, and a state- or federally-issued photo ID is required for building check-in. More info here.

⚫ Mouse Arts and Letters (555 W. 31st St.)
A program of three Iranian documentary classics—Forugh Farrokhzad's 1963 film THE HOUSE IS BLACK (22 min, Digital Projection), Kaveh Golestan's 1991 film RECORDING THE TRUTH (24 min, Digital Projection), and Kāmrān Shīrdil's 1968 film THE NIGHT IT RAINED (35min)—screens Monday, 7pm, with art historian and documentarian Hamed Yousefi in attendance for a post-screening discussion. Free admission. More info here.

⚫ Music Box Theatre
Katie Aselton's 2025 film MAGIC HOUR (89 min, DCP Digital) screens Friday, 7pm, with Aselton in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.

Rose Troche's 1994 film GO FISH (83 min, 35mm) screens Saturday, 11:30am, as part of Sapphopalooza series, followed by a post-screening conversation with writer/actor Guinevere Turner moderated by Aja Essex.

That Very Witch—a double feature of two occult-inflected cult films, Corrado Farina's 1973 film BABA YAGA (90 min, DCP Digital) and Ray Austin's 1972 film VIRGIN WITCH (88 min, DCP Digital)—screens Saturday at 9:30pm.

Olivier Assayas' 2014 film CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA (124 min, DCP Digital) screens Sunday, 1:30pm, also as part of Sapphopalooza.

Adam Carter Rehmeier's 2025 film CAROLINA CAROLINE (105 min, DCP Digital) screens Monday, 7pm, in advance of a run beginning Friday, June 5. Rehmeier in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.

Phil Alden Robinson's 1989 film FIELD OF DREAMS (106 min, DCP Digital) screens Tuesday, 7pm, as part of the Play Ball series, co-presented with the Chicago Cubs. There’s preshow trivia with musician Elizabeth Moen and comedian Kerry Stevens.

Joshua Bailey's 2025 documentary STOLEN KINGDOM (74 min, DCP Digital) screens Wednesday, 7pm, with Bailey in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. More info on all screenings here.

⚫ Siskel Film Center
Joel Alfonso Vargas' 2025 film MAD BILLS TO PAY (101 min, DCP Digital) continues screening. See Venue website for showtimes.

Kate Woods's 2025 film KANGAROO (107 min, DCP Digital) screens Saturday, 2pm, with a reception following in the lobby sponsored by the Australian Consulate-General. More info on all screenings here.

CINE-LIST: May 29 - June 4, 2026

MANAGING EDITORS // Ben and Kat Sachs

CONTRIBUTORS // Kian Bergstrom, Kyle Cubr, Ray Ebarb, Megan Fariello, Kalvin Henley, Shaun Huhn, Ben Kaye, Joshua Minsoo Kim, Jonathan Leithold-Patt, Michael Metzger, K.A. Westphal