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🟠 BLACK HARVEST FILM FESTIVAL AT THE GENE SISKEL FILM CENTER

The 28th Black Harvest Film Festival starts Friday and continues through Sunday, November 20 at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Reviews of select films can be found below. There’s a virtual component to the festival as well, from Monday, November 21 through Sunday, November 27. This year's festival is dedicated to Sergio Mims, co-founder of the festival and its longtime co-programmer and consultant. Sergio sadly passed away on October 4; he will be greatly missed by the community. More info on the festival here.

Jo Rochelle’s JASMINE IS A STAR (US)
Saturday, 4pm
16-year-old Jasmine (Iyana LeShea) aspires to be a model, and she seems to have what it takes: the looks, the dedication, the drive. Writer-director Jo Rochelle’s auspicious debut feature delicately balances Jasmine’s dreams with a crucial aspect of her reality—Jasmine has albinism, which results in a lack of pigment in her hair, skin, and eyes. The film opens with Jasmine and her mother (Sha Cage) attending an IEP meeting at her school, as Jasmine, like many people with albinism, is legally blind and needs to be accommodated accordingly. Rochelle conveys the nuances of Jasmine’s experiences with expert subtlety. When she defiantly sits at the back of class in order to be near a boy she likes (she’s supposed to sit in the front), one understands the social limitations she experiences as a person with albinism; when she dons a pair of thigh-high boots and walks around a picturesque Minneapolis sculpture park, one gleans the seriousness with which she’s pursuing her dreams. This is also conveyed via audio of podcasts and other interviews with models that are intermittently heard over sequences of Jasmine thinking silently, further reflecting the internal journey underway. Eventually she’s booked for a local shoot, where, in galaxy print athletic wear, she’s made up as a beautiful, otherworldly alien. In another instance of the film’s sense of nuance, Jasmine’s father rightfully balks at the implication of the creative direction, that his daughter is only otherworldly as a result of her albinism; it does, however, seem standard for fashion, yet Rochelle’s framing of the scenario causes one to check their bias and consider the industry’s exploitative nature. Still, Jasmine’s passion endures in the face of such dilemmas, and it’s suggested that her motivation and ingenuity ultimately win out in the end. Rochelle’s direction is assured, and both LeShea and Cage deliver outstanding performances. (2022, 58 min, DCP Digital) [Kat Sachs]
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Derek Grace’s WHAT'S YOUR STORY? THE COMMUNITY FILM WORKSHOP'S 50 YEAR JOURNEY (US/Documentary)
Sunday, 2pm
The Community Film Workshop is an invaluable part of local history. Founded in 1971, it’s one of several Chicago-based organizations that have recently celebrated or are nearing golden anniversaries, a testament both to the tenacity of the organizations’ leaders and the community that supports them. Derek Grace’s WHAT'S YOUR STORY? THE COMMUNITY FILM WORKSHOP'S 50 YEAR JOURNEY is a love letter to the storied organization, the beneficiaries of its offerings, and the hardworking people who have kept it going all these years. Now housed on the South Side, the Community Film Workshop’s mission has always been to bring educational resources and equipment to underserved aspiring filmmakers. The documentary spans the organization’s history, starting with its founding as part of a nationwide effort to establish local film workshops. Here in Chicago the honor of leading up the project was bestowed to Jim Taylor, also known as JT, a photographer and filmmaker who had trouble finding work because he was Black and who then wanted to help others in his community. (He passed away in 2000.) Crucial to his and the workshop’s success is Taylor’s wife, Margaret Caples, the organization’s longtime executive director. She appears frequently in the film, both in archival footage and interviews shot specifically for the film; she’s always excelled as an advocate, helping to secure funds and promote the importance of media arts. Grace’s documentary also looks at the nuts and bolts of how the workshop functions, from class curricula to the hurdles a nonprofit must jump over to continue operating. The workshop has a dual mission of helping disenfranchised community members tell their stories—a privilege denied to them by society at large—and preparing its students for jobs in the industry. There’s also footage from the workshop’s fiftieth anniversary celebration, where, among others, Kartemquin’s Gordon Quinn elaborate on the organization’s impact on the Chicago filmmaking community. Grace and subject Margaret Caples in person. (2022, 30 min, Digital Projection) [Kat Sachs]
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Sidney Poitier’s BUCK AND THE PREACHER (US)
Wednesday, 6pm
Sidney Poitier made his directorial debut on the comic Western BUCK AND THE PREACHER when he realized the story needed to be told by a Black artist and decided, as one of the film’s producers, to fire director Joseph Sargent after one week of production. His direction is never awe-inspiring, but it’s perfectly competent—like many actors who take up directing as a second or side career, Poitier emphasizes character over everything else, and most of his shots have a purely functional quality, existing primarily to guide our enjoyment of the characterization. That said, the characters here are wonderful: the title duo derives its easygoing appeal from the real-life close friendship between Poitier (who plays Buck) and Harry Belafonte (who plays the preacher), and there is fine supporting work, as per usual, by Ruby Dee (who plays Poitier’s wife). The film came out during the height of the blaxploitation cycle, and while it offers rousing scenes of heroic Black characters taking violent revenge on racist whites, it also provides insight into the largely forgotten history of the “Exodusters,” former slaves who traveled west in the years after the Civil War to settle in Kansas. Poitier’s Buck is a wagon master who guides groups of Exodusters across the country; the difficulties of life on the trail are compounded by the constant threat of mercenaries who follow Black wagon teams and threaten—or sometimes force—the migrants into returning to work on southern plantations. (The film might be read as a revisionist take on one of John Ford’s greatest films, WAGONMASTER [1950].) Belafonte’s “Reverend” Willis Oaks Rutherford is a nervy con man with gold teeth who crosses paths with Buck and ends up becoming his partner. Their adventures are good fun to watch, but the film is ultimately quite serious about exposing the legacy of racism on the American frontier. (1972, 102 min, New 4K DCP Digital Restoration) [Ben Sachs]

📽️ CRUCIAL VIEWING

2022 Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation

Block Cinema (at Northwestern University) – Friday, 7pm and Saturday, 12:30pm and 3pm (Free Admission)

Following a two-year hiatus, the Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation returns for another round of shorts that run the gamut from clever to gorgeous to deeply weird. The festival begins Friday night at 7pm with a program of three works by local animator Laura Harrison, who will attend the screening with curators Alexander Stewart and Lilli Carré. Per Harrison’s artist bio, the animator’s “fringe characters provide a focal point for her concerns with diaspora, trans-humanism, gender, and the loss of touch in an overwhelmingly visual world,” which sounds like the jumping-off point for a fascinating postshow discussion. The festival continues on Saturday afternoon with two programs that showcase a variety of styles, eras, and formats (most of the shorts will be projected digitally, though a few will screen on celluloid). Some highlights of the first program are Jane Aaron’s SET IN MOTION (1987), a live-action stop-motion work that features original music by Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen; Andy Cahill’s trippy hand-drawn work TODAY I WILL BE THE BREAD (2022), which presents characters and figures fluidly changing form; David Daniels’ claymation media satire BUZZ BOX (1985), which suggests an out-of-control Pee-Wee’s Playhouse segment; and Brandon Blommaert’s quasi-abstract THE JEWELLER (2022). The second program is no less diverse, with wonderful new work by Canadian computer animator Barry Doupé (THE RED HOUSE), Japanese artist Yoriko Mizushiri (ANXIOUS BODY, a selection in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes), and South Korean-born Justin Jinsoo Kim (THE EXHAUSTED, an eerie antiwar parable made with doll-like figures). There are a number of remarkable rediscoveries in the second program as well, including Rastko Ćirić’s INVISIBLE AND POORLY VISIBLE ANIMAL SPECIES (1998), a witty inventory of imaginary creatures; Rose Lowder’s characteristically beautiful BOUQUETS 28-30 (2005); and, from just a few years ago, Sondra Perry’s IT’S IN THE GAME ‘17 (2017), a sort-of documentary in which a college basketball player reflects on his likeness being used in an EA Sports video game. All three programs come highly recommended; the concentration of imaginative ideas in each program is so great as to be practically overwhelming. [Ben Sachs]

Raphael Jose Martinez’s TODOS TUS SECRETOS SERAN TU SOGA and NOSTRES CARRES (US & US/Documentary)

Analog Video — Saturday, 9:30pm (Free Admission)

Cine-File contributor Raphael Jose Martinez premieres two excellent short films during a proper underground screening at Analog Video, whose address we can’t divulge. (Email us at editors@cinefile.info for details.) The first, TODOS TUS SECRETOS SERAN TU SOGA (2022, 15 min, Digital Projection), is a short giallo set largely in Barcelona, though the cinematic stylization of the Sky’s the Limit music and light installation at O’Hare as the protagonist travels to Spain is particularly inspired. I was impressed at how much story the film communicates in such a short runtime; though obviously not a feature-length giallo, I nevertheless came away with the same overpowering impression of garishness and dread. Throughout are brief moments where a pair of vampish hands superimposed on screen give distinct Jack Smith vibes. Also shot in Spain, NOSTRES CARRES (2022, 5 min, Digital Projection) is an atmospheric documentary depicting a 2021 demonstration on the streets of Barcelona. The voice of Juan García Oliver, a leading anarchist and Minister of Justice of the Second Spanish Republic, plays over the images. Both are shot on 8mm; the cinematography is exceptional. Also screening are two of Martinez’s music videos (shot on 8mm as well). [Kat Sachs]

Charlie Chaplin’s THE KID (US)

Music Box Theatre – Saturday, 4:30pm

Like Stanley Kubrick, Charlie Chaplin was infamous for his long production schedules, often shooting dozens of takes of the same shot. THE KID, his first feature, took five and a half months to film—particularly long when considering that the finished version runs just over an hour. (IMDB lists that the shooting ratio was reportedly 53:1.) Yet neither Kubrick nor Chaplin should be accused of wasting time; rather, they used time purposefully, having their actors replay complex actions (and enact complex emotions) to the point where they seem effortless and innate. Watching THE KID, one marvels at how the gags seem to fall into place, how adroit everyone—but especially six-year-old Jackie Coogan—is at physical comedy. (Chaplin, in fact, instructed his young costar in how to play every movement, yet the performance onscreen never seems forced.) As in most of his films, Chaplin uses his fellow actors to construct an emotional universe in which the grandiose expressiveness of the Tramp makes sense. THE KID is a remarkable fusion of humor and sentiment, outdone only by Chaplin’s later CITY LIGHTS. The Tramp’s relationship with the orphaned little boy climaxes in some of the most moving expressions of love in cinema; what had been comic, even moving, erupts into something transcendently beautiful. The film feels very much like a transition from shorts to features—consider the extended dream sequence set in heaven, which feels like it could be a stand-alone piece—but that’s not meant as a slight. As Dave Kehr has noted, all of Chaplin’s films feel haphazard in shape, built out of disparate observations and moods. Yet the constant emotional specificity of the filmmaking develops a cumulative power nonetheless, as THE KID amply proves. Featuring live musical accompaniment by guitarist Marc Ribot. (1921, 68 min, 35mm) [Ben Sachs]
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Screening as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival, which has a full day of events going on at the Music Box Theatre, including Jim Jarmusch in conversation with Jonathan Ames on Saturday at 1pm.

Farida Benlyazid’s A DOOR TO THE SKY (Morocco)

Block Cinema (at Northwestern University) – Thursday, 7pm

During a meal Nadia (Zakia Tahri) is having with her siblings, all of whom have come to Fez to be with their dying father, her brother tells his son to eat European-style with a fork, not with his hands, because he wants his son to consider himself French, not Moroccan. In reply to his inference that he and Nadia, who both live in France, have chosen to be French, Nadia demurs: “I didn’t choose anything. I want to be both.” With that bit of dialogue in her first feature film, director Farida Benlyazid announces her creative philosophy—a blend of her Moroccan Sufi roots and the feminism she encountered when she left for Paris to study filmmaking in the mid 1970s. As one of the few women making films in Morocco (the only one, in fact, until 2003) Benlyazid could be considered a feminist, but a Western viewer might be confused about exactly how A DOOR TO THE SKY expresses its feminism. Contrary to what we in the West might expect, Benlyazid transitions Nadia from a Europunk look to a modest hijab and djellaba. More important, Nadia’s European attitudes wither under the ministrations of a spiritual mentor (Chaabia Laadraoui) who helps her find her way through a maze of identities best symbolized by the many-chambered mansion in which she was raised. In Benlyazid’s story progression, Nadia initially occupies a room that is filled with figural paintings—a contrast to the mansion’s dominant geometric designs, which are the only decorations allowed under Islamic law. As she becomes more steeped in Sufi teachings and her own memories, Nadia starts to have visions, particularly of an older man, a “master of magic” and family friend she adored as a child. She fights her brother’s plan to sell the family home by reviving a Sufi tradition of establishing a shelter that provides safety and spiritual instruction to women and children in need. Benlyazid makes frequent use of “eye of God” camera angles to suggest the door to the sky Nadia is unlocking slowly with her devotions and study; indeed, the family struggle over the sale of the house falls out of the narrative completely, suggesting that the outside world no longer holds any meaning. Like other films from this region, A DOOR TO THE SKY leaves the final word to destiny in a lovely concluding image. Followed by a recorded conversation with the director. (1988, 107 min, DCP Digital) [Marilyn Ferdinand]

Peter Ho-Sun Chan’s COMRADES: ALMOST A LOVE STORY (China)

Doc Films (at the University of Chicago) – Wednesday, 7pm

One kind of love story that most of us are suckers for is one in which a pair of lovers, cruelly torn apart, reunite years later and find that their feelings are as strong as ever. Hong Kong screenwriter Ivy Ho keeps one foot in the West as she tells a quintessential immigration story, set in Hong Kong instead of the Lower East Side. Xiao-Jun Li (Leon Lai) arrives on a crowded train at the Kowloon train station ready to earn his fortune and marry his hometown girlfriend (Kristy Yeung) back on the mainland. In his letters home, he lies about his life—crowing about indoor plumbing when, in fact, he lives in a back room of a brothel run by his Aunt Rosie (Irene Tsu) that has two rusty sinks a couple of feet away from his bed. He also says he works in transport without revealing that he delivers butchered chickens on his bike. He needs to learn Cantonese and English to get a decent job, and McDonald’s worker Qiao Li (Maggie Cheung), who helps him order his first hamburger and Coke, just happens to moonlight at an English school. She helps him learn Cantonese and the ropes of life in Hong Kong, and as the two lonely strivers spend more and more time together, nature eventually takes its course. But, as they say, it’s complicated. The film spans about 10 years, during which Xiao-Jun and Qiao’s fortunes and romantic entanglements push them apart and toward new horizons. Following the humorous and charming beginning, the film darkens and becomes more melodramatic and bittersweet as our protagonists, especially Qiao, face losses and find themselves having to start over. Lai is believable as a country mouse in the big city, though his innocence about prostitution is a little hard to believe. Unsurprisingly, Cheung is beyond good as her character’s outward confidence and energy slowly give way to softness, vulnerability, and real love and affection, even for a man she might not be expected to care for. COMRADES: ALMOST A LOVE STORY contains a few side love stories, including for Hong Kong itself, and some interesting details about the Chinese economy that make the film feel fuller than a standard Hollywood love story might. But Ho and director Peter Ho-Sun Chan pay homage to Hollywood with Rosie’s obsession with William Holden and LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING (1955) and a New York ending that will fit many classic film buffs like a glove. Screening as part of Doc’s Wednesday series, “Center Stage: The Films of Maggie Cheung.” (1996, 158 min, 35mm) [Marilyn Ferdinand]

Jia Zhang-ke's STILL LIFE (China)

Doc Films (at the University of Chicago) – Tuesday, 7pm

The people of Fengjie scramble to salvage what they can as their surroundings are submerged by water displaced by the Three Gorges Dam; there're the sensations of walking across rubble, of soup-steam getting in your face, of cheap labor and unheated rooms. STILL LIFE is a poem and a survey by director Jia Zhang-Ke, his actors, cinematographer Yu Lik Wai, the 21st century, digital video, and China's landscapes. (Social landscapes as well as geographic ones/the architecture of interactions as much as the architecture of bridges and the building-ghosts of razed cities/great spans of distance across gorges and between people seated side by side.) It is tactile, aromatic, romantic, simple and final. A document of China's break-neck growth that tells us more about the present than most films that would call themselves documentaries. It's a lunar expedition to a familiar place: a Neo-(Sur)Realist film written by world economics like Jia's THE WORLD and UNKNOWN PLEASURES, and a (modern) history lesson like his debut PLATFORM. The film has more in common with a photograph than the painting its title suggests, capturing an instant in a rapidly changing world. It stresses the passage of time to express a feeling for life. A focus on time brings a focus to life. Screening as part of Doc’s Tuesday series, “After the 5th: China and the 21st Century.” (2006, 108 min, 35mm) [Kalvin Henley and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky]

Alfred Hitchcock's NORTH BY NORTHWEST (US)

Music Box Theatre – Sunday, 4:30pm

An urbane gentleman is pursued by a sinister organization headed by a cultured villain while simultaneously shadowed by a gorgeous female spy. That's the basic setup for NORTH BY NORTHWEST—and a sizeable portion of the James Bond series. What's under-acknowledged is that Hitchcock, and specifically this masterpiece of playful paranoia, 1950s style, has acted as a lasting and flexible template for 007's cinematic adventures. James Mason's ultramodern, mountaintop house, as imagined by production designer Robert Boyle, uncannily anticipates many of the fantastic evil lairs designed by Ken Adam for Bond villains (especially Goldfinger). And doesn't the film's famous closing scene remind you of many 007 double-entendre finales? But where NORTH BY NORTHWEST moves into deeper territory is on the question of identity. Not only is no one else who you thought they were, but you yourself are not who you thought you were. Yet in Hitchcock's hands such a weighty existential theme sounds like the best time a guy could have. Co-presented by the Chicago Architecture Center as part of “Chicago on the Silver Screen” and featuring an Introduction by Author Christine Madrid French. (1959, 131 min, 35mm) [Rob Christopher]

Jacques Rivette’s THE GANG OF FOUR (France/Switzerland)

Doc Films (at the University of Chicago) – Sunday, 5pm

If you haven’t seen a Jacques Rivette film (or maybe you have and didn’t see what all the fuss was about), THE GANG OF FOUR may be the perfect place to start appreciating his work. At 155 minutes, it’s one of the shortest of Rivette’s major features, and it feels brisk in the way it streamlines the critic-turned-filmmaker’s usual interests. The film takes place mainly in two locations: the rehearsal studio at a Paris acting school and a small two-story house on the outskirts of the city, where four young female students at the school live. Gradually, the major characters get involved with the same mysterious middle-aged man (Benoît Régent); he tells them that he’s caught up in international intrigue, and his stories, at various points, involve stolen paintings, conspiracies, and murder. As is often the case with Rivette, the conspiracies are difficult, if not impossible, to parse; the thrill lies in seeing the director create the illusion of vast mystery out of thin air. Rivette saw illusion as inextricable from performance, hence his career-long fascination with actors, and that fascination is given full expression in THE GANG OF FOUR. The film devotes about as much time to the mystery man plot as it does to lengthy, unbroken takes showing dramatic rehearsals at the acting school. I couldn’t tell you which classic works are being performed here, but I don’t think it’s essential to know. What matters is how Rivette keys us to appreciate the hard work that goes into creating a character. Laurence Côte, Bernadette Giraud, Fejiria Deliba, and Inês de Medeiros star as the four roommates, which means they each play multiple characters (some of the film’s biggest scenes involve the protagonists acting as other people); notable supporting characters are played by Nathalie Richard (a fellow student and former roommate) and Rivette regular Bulle Ogier (the women’s mysterious, sage-like teacher). Every player leaves a strong impression, as befits a film about acting, but more importantly, Rivette allows each to reveal something about his or her craft (in this regard, it’s like one of Frederick Wiseman’s dance documentaries). The interplay between fantasy and documentary realism is absorbing and constantly surprising. (1989, 155 min, DCP Digital) [Ben Sachs]

Ari Folman's WALTZ WITH BASHIR (Israel/Animation)

Film Studies Center (at the Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St., University of Chicago) – Friday, 7pm (Free Admission)

WALTZ WITH BASHIR is a movie that doesn't need to be live action because it doesn't set out, like so many others, to impress us with how movies can make war look real and scary, or as in THE THIN RED LINE, beautifully and disorientingly unreal. It's a movie that uses animation to bring us into characters' memories, to bring us back to places that may never have been real to begin with, and that would never have been recreated accurately in live action anyway. It wants us to consider the human element of war rather than the strategies, the numbers, the visceralness, the characters that it can create. Director-writer Ari Folman (writer of HBO's therapy show IN TREATMENT) stars as himself, an Israeli survivor of the Lebanon War in the early 80s trying to remember what he experienced by talking with his friends and fellow survivors. Through this form of therapy, he learns of memories he can't remember, but that he can imagine; he learns that memories are living things that change as we change. He is haunted by one memory that no one else seems to remember and we are reminded how everyone copes differently with traumatic experiences. Some suppress it, others replace it, and, most notably, that from a human's perspective, war is never how it objectively looks on camera. Director in person. (2008, 90 min, 35mm) [Kalvin Henley]

Hong Sang-soo’s THE NOVELIST'S FILM (South Korea)

Gene Siskel Film Center – See Venue website for showtimes

Another year, another couple Hong Sang-soo features. THE NOVELIST'S FILM, the first of two movies Hong released in 2022 (followed by WALK UP), is also the third of his films to win a Silver Bear at the Berlinale in the past three years. In spite of the recent acclaim (or perhaps even because of it), Hong's extreme prolificity can make it easy to take each of his new features for granted. Given the similarities between so many of his movies in terms of form and content, it can also be easy to overlook what he might be doing that's new each time out. THE NOVELIST'S FILM is a witty black-and-white drama that centers on a veteran novelist, Jun-hee, who attempts to overcome writer's block by making her first short film. This continues Hong's recent trends of focusing on female characters and offering a substantial lead role to an older actress (the star is Lee Hye-young, who also played the lead in Hong's previous feature, IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE), a welcome development in his work. What's most fascinating about THE NOVELIST'S FILM, though, is the way that Hong investigates the creative process by focusing on the role that chance encounters can play in sparking artistic inspiration—and by daringly keeping the actual production of the film-within-the-film offscreen. Most of the running time is spent following Jun-hee over the course of a single day as she first meets an old acquaintance who runs a book shop, then a film director who once expressed interest in adapting one of her novels (but ultimately failed to do so) and, finally, a popular actress in semi-retirement named Kil-soo (the inevitable Kim Min-hee) with whom she shares a mutual admiration. The ending jumps ahead several months to a scene outside of a screening room where a private viewing of Jun-hee's short is being held. Although the film itself is never glimpsed, Hong provides a mysterious documentary-like coda featuring Kil-soo arranging a bouquet of flowers with another actress in a public park that seems intended to "stand in" for Jun-hee's footage. This sequence—which is partially shot in color and resembles the controversial coda to Abbas Kiarostami's TASTE OF CHERRY (1997)—is the key to THE NOVELIST'S FILM, as it contains a moment where Hong himself can be heard offscreen telling Kim, his real-life paramour, that he loves her. It's a breathtaking scene that dissolves the line between documentary and fiction and asks us to reconsider the entire project along more highly personal (perhaps even autobiographical) lines. (2022, 92 min, DCP Digital) [Michael Glover Smith]

📽️ ALSO RECOMMENDED

Robert Zemeckis’ DEATH BECOMES HER (US)

Music Box Theatre – Sunday, 11:30am

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. Screening as part of the Music Box Staff Picks! series. (1992, 104 min, DCP Digital) [Megan Fariello]

Alex Phillips’ ALL JACKED UP AND FULL OF WORMS (US)

Music Box Theatre – Friday, 11:15pm

This batshit-crazy body horror/black comedy is the reason why "After Dark" sidebars at film festivals exist. It may not have a lot on its mind, aside from the desire to provoke visceral reactions from adventurous viewers, but seeing it with a boozy late-night crowd should be fun. ALL JACKED UP begins with bearded weirdo Benny (Trevor Dawkins) mail-ordering a plastic baby sex doll aimed at the pedophile market—one of the more disturbing props in contemporary cinema—to satisfy his earnest desire to become a parent. After sex-worker Henrietta (Eva Fellows) turns him on to eating earthworms that possess hallucinogenic properties, Benny teams up with motel employee and fellow worm enthusiast Roscoe (Phillip Andre Botello), and the duo embark on an absurd and violent crime spree. This microbudget psychedelic odyssey, which boasts a fair number of gruesome and impressive practical effects, may not ultimately "mean anything" but it does possess a certain scuzzy integrity. The cast, led by Dawkins (a veteran of Chicago's Neo-Futurist Theater who first proved his transgressive cinema bonafides in Spencer Parsons' BITE RADIUS [2015]), certainly gives it their all; and, formally, the story becomes increasingly non-narrative as it progresses in order to correspond to the disintegrating mental states of the characters. By the final scene, it feels like the film itself is tripping. Director in person for a post-screening Q&A moderated by local filmmaker Spencer Parsons. (2022, 72 min, DCP Digital) [Michael Glover Smith]

Yorgos Lanthimos' DOGTOOTH (Greece)

Doc Films (at the University of Chicago) – Friday, 7pm

Mention of the words "Greek" and "cinema" in the same sentence often provokes shudders from veteran filmgoers. The fact is, one is used to seeing the same touristic views of the southeastern European country in film after film; the same easygoing, slightly quirky story of an extended family (usually staring Irene Pappas) set against a Mediterranean paradise. Either that, or the latest chef d'oeuvre by Theo Angelopoulos, who is to Greece what Manoel de Oliveira has become to Portugal. The novelty of Greek cinema seems to have worn off years ago (in the not too distant past the Film Center even offered a yearly spotlight on the country), and now one can finally look beyond it to individual works. On the surface and at its core, DOGTOOTH has very little in common with some of the dominant characteristics associated with Greek cinema: it's set mostly in interiors (a single house, in fact); the characters at the center of the film are completely atypical, in fact, totally balls-out nuts by any national standards; and its style is closer to Ulrich Seidl or Harmony Korine in the way it flattens out space, often capturing its protagonists in awkward, slightly off-center compositions. DOGTOOTH is a real oddity, and as such it merits close attention. Expertly straddling dark, Buñuelian humor with psychological horror, the film centers on three kids who are held captive by their parents at a remote estate. Even when the film's central contrivance becomes perfectly coherent, the film never loses its fascination or mystery. Director Yorgos Lanthimos' approach is to shoot and edit as if each scene were a loose fragment, so that small details or clues are teased out in the elaborate narrative. A discussion piece, if there was ever one, and a film that grows with multiple viewings. Screening as part of Doc’s Friday series, “Programmers’ Picks.” (2009, 96 min, 35mm) [Gabe Klinger]

Henry Selick's CORALINE (US/Animation)

Doc Films (at the University of Chicago) – Thursday, 9:30pm

Over the last decade, the family-friendly film has been irrevocably sanitized—especially animated films intended for young audiences. No longer is the focus solely put on creating engaging plots and characters that resonate with both children and adults; rather the new normal has been to prioritize popular franchises with capitalistic success as well as big-name voice actors to bolster market appeal. But there was a time where family-friendly movies could take risks in storytelling and style, break conventions, and still be commercially successful—and Henry Selick’s CORALINE is a prime example. After moving into a dreary new town, the film’s brash and spitfire titular character (voiced by Dakota Fanning) discovers a parallel world that seems like a dream come true—one that’s exciting, full of color, and starkly contrasts her everyday. But when Coraline’s friends and family sew buttons onto their eyes and are a bit too sickly sweet for comfort, she has to face the fact that not everything is what it seems. Animation studio Laika’s whimsical stop-motion work is a standout and helped cement what would later be considered a studio standard of excellence. But what’s most remarkable about CORALINE is that it takes its young-intended audience seriously. Selick is not afraid to frighten; nor is he shy to delve into complicated topics like toxic familial relationships and how one's perception of the world drastically shifts in their adolescence. (2009, 100 min, DCP Digital) [Cody Corrall]

Park Chan-wook's DECISION TO LEAVE (South Korea)

Gene Siskel Film Center and Music Box Theatre – See Venue websites for showtimes (and screening format)

When the 59-year-old South Korean artist Park Chan-wook sat down to write a neo-noir for the modern age, he knew he wanted to write a love story. While it may seem like a story of the detective and femme fatale descending into tragedy, there is much more at play in the drama and technique of this one-of-a-kind filmmaker. In both writing and cinematography, it’s clear that Park is experimenting with his tools in the hopes of reaching a broader audience, much like Bong Joon-ho did with PARASITE (2019). Cinematographer Ji-yong Kim creates gorgeous visuals of a colder palette and close-ups of a Sven Nykvist sensibility; Park, meanwhile, is a great defender of his actors, having known to be more upset when they aren’t nominated for international accolades than himself. He provides the groundwork for both stars here to commit to their characters. The audience falls for Tang Wei’s great performance as a suspiciously indifferent widow the same way her male counterpart does. As the investigator and her soon-to-be lover, Park Hae-il wins audiences over as a charismatic leading man. Park has always been known for extreme violence with films like OLDBOY (2003) but even he has stated in interviews this film is separate from the rest of his filmography. As a police procedural, DECISION TO LEAVE takes influence from Billy Wilder’s DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) and Alfred Hitchcock’s VERTIGO (1958). While many detective noirs have been made in the history of cinema, DECISION TO LEAVE is enthrallingly enigmatic even among Park's own filmography. He interweaves genres and an unusual love story; it’s sexy yet asexual, as scarce intimacy is shown between lovers. There are few police procedurals that successfully integrate modern technology into the storytelling, making not only scenes more relatable to adding to the greater cause of having a film speak to the modern times of communication and connection. Park’s film breathes fresh air into the detective film through its inventiveness and manages to express profound thoughts on love in the new age of social media and smartphones. (2022, 139 min, DCP Digital [at the Film Center and the Music Box Theatre for select screenings] and 35mm [at the Music Box Theatre for select screenings]) [Ray Ebarb]

Amanda Kramer's PLEASE BABY PLEASE (US)

Music Box Theatre – See Venue website for showtimes

Amanda Kramer’s PLEASE BABY PLEASE presents a surreally playful examination of power dynamics and gender roles; the extreme stylization of the film—an imagined version of 1950s New York—allows for characters to discuss and play out sexual fantasies in a fabricated, fictional space. Deep conversations about the roles of men and women and their relationships are surrounded by visual mischievousness: neon lighting, wipe edits, and theatrically staged sets create a sense of ease in its clear construction. PLEASE BABY PLEASE takes its themes seriously by presenting them in a setting out of time where they are completely unencumbered. While returning home to their apartment building, beatnik couple Arthur and Suze (Harry Melling and Andrea Riseborough) witness a vicious murder committed by a street gang, the Young Gents. Both are deeply affected; brooding Arthur is instantaneously attracted to the gang’s leader, Teddy (Karl Glusman), in his leather and mesh get-up complete with Brando-style cap, while Suze is concurrently troubled and titillated by the demonstration of masculine violence. Encouraged by an encounter with their femme fatale upstairs neighbor, Maureen (Demi Moore), Suze begins to explore her own S&M fantasies while Arthur struggles to come to terms with his masculinity. A WEST SIDE STORY-inspired musical number opens the film, and interludes continue throughout, marking shifts from scene to scene. PLEASE BABY PLEASE’s cast all commit to this earnest artifice, especially Riseborough as the catlike, curious Suze; a particular standout, as well, is comedian Cole Escola as Maureen’s friend, Billy. In its colorfully fun and mischievous vignettes, PLEASE BABY PLEASE is still a sincere scrutiny of strict cultural expectations and simultaneous celebration of the fluidity of gender and sexuality. (2022, 95 min, DCP Digital) [Megan Fariello]

Todd Field’s TÁR (US)

AMC River East 21, The Logan Theatre, Music Box Theatre, et al. – See Venue websites for showtimes

Writer-director Todd Field (IN THE BEDROOM, LITTLE CHILDREN) returns to the screen after a 14-year absence with this towering drama about a lionized classical music composer-conductor (Cate Blanchett, in a role written for her) whose brutal control of the people in her professional orbit comes back to haunt and finally destroy her. Lydia Tár is a former protégé of Leonard Bernstein, and like her mentor she has won popular stardom through her talent for precisely articulating the emotional force of music; her own emotional life is one of praise and privilege, and her power as an international celebrity and longtime conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic extends to her domestic partnership with one of its players (Nina Hoss) and their school-age daughter. When Tár stands at the podium, trying to get her arms around the violence of Mahler’s Fifth, Field shoots Blanchett from a low angle so extreme you feel as if you’re craning up a cliff. But like so many celebrities intoxicated by adoration, Tár has developed an appetite for it, and her romantic attraction to young women in her orchestra pulls her along a trajectory that many men have traveled before her. Her 21st-century fall from grace is terrifying in its speed and steepness, yet as the final scene reveals, Tár must always submit to the music’s power, just as so many others have submitted to hers. (2022, 158 min, DCP Digital) [J.R. Jones]

🎞️ PHYSICAL SCREENINGS/EVENTS –
ALSO SCREENING

⚫ Asian Pop-Up Cinema
The extensive Asian Pop-Up Cinema series continues its fifteenth season. Their in-person and virtual offerings are too many to list. Visit here for more information.

⚫ Comfort Film at Comfort Station
Presented by First Nations Film and Video Festival, Polo Cortés and José Guerrero Urzua’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN HUASCO ALTO (2021, 101 min) screens on Wednesday at 8pm. Free admission. More info here.

⚫ Doc Chicago (at the Cultural Center)
Doc Chicago, an annual gathering for Midwest documentary filmmakers, takes place on Saturday at the Chicago Cultural Center with multiple events throughout the day, including the Doc Chicago Short Film Showcase at the Gene Siskel Film center (see below). Free admission with pre-registeration via Eventbrite. More info here.

⚫ Doc Films (at the University of Chicago)
David Leitch’s 2022 action film BULLET TRAIN (126 min, DCP Digital) screens on Saturday, 7pm, as part of the “Top Doc: Maverdock—New Releases” series.

Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2003 film INTOLERABLE CRUELTY (100 min, 35mm) screens on Monday, 7pm, as part of the “Wonderfully Loathsome: Screwball Romance Through the Ages” series. 

Tom Stoppard’s 1990 film ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD (117 min, Digital Projection) screens on Thursday, 7pm, as part of Thursday I series, “Shakespeare Remixed.” More info on all screenings here. 

⚫ FACETS Cinema
The 39th Chicago International Children’s Film Festival starts on Friday and goes through Sunday, November 20. The festival includes a diverse array of short and feature films for children ages 2 through 25, with both in-person and virtual screenings. More info here.

⚫ Film Studies Center (at the Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago)
“Celluloid Journeys: Films by UChicago Students” (2022, 35 min total, Digital Projection), featuring work from the 16mm film production courses in the Departments of Cinema and Media Studies and Studio Art during the winter and spring 2022 quarters, screens on Thursday at 7pm. More info here.

⚫ First Nations Film and Video Festival
In addition to the Wednesday screening at Comfort Station (see above), the First Nations Film and Video Festival (running through Thursday) has screenings at several other venues throughout Chicago, including Northeastern Illinois University and the Evanston and Edgewater libraries, as well as some virtual offerings. More info here. 

⚫ Gene Siskel Film Center
The Doc Chicago Short Film Showcase screens on Saturday, 6pm, with filmmakers in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. This follows a full day of events as part of the Doc Chicago gathering at the Chicago Cultural Center (see above). More info here. 

⚫ Music Box Theatre
Chris LaMartina’s OUT THERE HALLOWEEN MEGA TAPE (aka the WNUF HALLOWEEN Sequel) screens on Saturday, 9:45pm, followed by a post-screening Q&A with director LaMartina and co-producer/star Melissa LaMartina. Sponsored by Shudder.

Noah Segan’s 2022 film BLOOD RELATIVES (87 min, DCP Digital), a Shudder original, screens on Sunday, 1:45pm, followed by a post-screening Q&A with Segan. 

Clerks III: The Convenience Tour, which includes a screening of Kevin Smith’s 2022 film (115 min, DCP Digital), takes place on Monday and Tuesday, 7pm, followed by a post-screening Q&A with Smith at each show. 

Bloody Disgusting brings its three biggest fiction podcasts to the Music Box Theatre on Thursday with the event One Night Left to LIVE. More info on all screenings and events here. 

🎞️ LOCAL ONLINE SCREENINGS –
ALSO SCREENING/STREAMING

⚫ Media Burn Archive
As part of their Virtual Talks with Video Activists series, Media Burn presents “Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train,” in honor of the 100th anniversary of Zinn’s birth, on Thursday at 6pm. The event includes a screening of excerpts from Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller’s titular 2004 documentary HOWARD ZINN: YOU CAN’T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN, after which there will be a post-screening discussion with the, moderated by Jordana Dym, professor of history at Skidmore College. Free with registration. More info here.

⚫ Video Data Bank
“‘Make Believe, It’s Just like the Truth Clings to It’: In Conversation with the Work of Cecilia Dougherty,” curated by Amanda Mendelsohn, is available to stream for free on VDB TV. The program includes Dougherty’s THE DRAMA OF THE GIFTED CHILD (1992, 6 min); MY FAILURE TO ASSIMILATE (1995, 20 min); THE DREAM AND THE WAKING (1997, 15 min); and GONE (2001, 36 min). More info here.

CINE-LIST: November 4 - November 10, 2022

MANAGING EDITORS // Ben and Kat Sachs

CONTRIBUTORS // Rob Christopher, Cody Corrall, Ray Ebarb, Megan Fariello, Marilyn Ferdinand, Kalvin Henley, J.R. Jones, Gabe Klinger, Michael Glover Smith, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky