Week 2 of the 34th Chicago International Film Festival isn’t as strong as Week 1, but there are still gems to be scooped up. And there is still the anticipation of the great films scheduled for the fest’s climax next week: Ingmar Bergman’s “In the Presence of a Clown,” the Brazilian “Central Station” and Theo Angelopoulos’ Greek Cannes Grand Prize-winner “Eternity and a Day.”
Among the weekend highlights: From Taiwan, Tsai Ming-liang’s weird end-of-the-century romance “The Hole”; from the U.S., Todd Solondz’ much-praised, controversial (and, for me, slightly over-rated) deconstructing suburbia tale “Happiness”; from Italy, a new Nanni Moretti comedy, “Aprile”; and, from Great Britain, “Waking Ned Devine,” a new picture by new writer-director Kirk Jones, on death and lottery tickets, that catches much of the spirit of the old ’50s Ealing comedies.
This weekend also brings, much sooner than usual, the announcement of this year’s jury competition winners, in a special awards show at 6 p.m. Sunday at the Claudia Cassidy Theater of the Chicago Cultural Center (77 E. Randolph St.). Presenters of the various Gold and Silver Hugos will include Jeremy Piven, Lara Flynn Boyle (of “Happiness”) and this year’s jury members Michele Reis and our favorite Dracula, Christopher Lee.
These capsule reviews are for films, listed in chronological order, showing Friday through Sunday in the festival, which runs through next Thursday. Check the daily Tempo section for reviews on films showing Monday through Thursday (a complete schedule is on the Internet at metromix.com). Unless otherwise noted, films will screen at The Music Box Theatre (MB), 3733 N. Southport Ave., and Loews Cineplex Theaters (LC), 600 N. Michigan Ave.
For tickets and information, call the festival’s 24-hour hotline: 312-332-FILM.
FRIDAY
– “Foxy Brown” (star) (star) 1/2 (Jack Hill; U.S.; 1974). Pam Grier is the whole show in this violent blaxploitationer about a revenge-crazed nurse — a movie that obviously inspired Quentin Tarantino a bit in “Jackie Brown.” Grier is scheduled to appear. 4:45 p.m., LC — Michael Wilmington
– “The Freelancers” (star) (star) (star) 1/2 (Denis Dercourt; France). A mismatched pickup group of youthful chamber musicians hastily assembled for a New Year’s Eve church concert rehearsal, bicker and finally come together. Very knowing, thoroughly enjoyable film about the world of classical music, scored, written and directed by Dercourt, a professional classical musician. And it shows. 4:45 p.m. (also 2:30 p.m. Saturday), LC — M.W.
– “Living Out Loud”‘ (star) (star) (star) (Richard LaGravenese; U.S.). LaGravenese, a screenwriter best known for his insightful book adaptations (“The Bridges of Madison County,” “A Little Princess”), furthers his reputation for thoughtfulness with his directoral debut, a modest, mature romance involving a doctor’s abandoned wife (Holly Hunter) and a divorced, debt-ridden elevator operator (Danny DeVito). Hunter is wonderful, Queen Latifah makes a strong impression as a warm blues singer, and the movie eschews formula for plot developments that mostly ring true — though the story’s tendency to drift may leave you feeling like it doesn’t get very far. 7 p.m., LC — Mark Caro
– “Xiu Xiu — The Sent Down Girl” (star) (star) 1/2 (Joan Chen; China/U.S.). Poignant, well-acted study of the relationship between a Chinese city girl, who becomes trapped in a Chinese/Tibetan horse country assignment during the Cultural Revolution, and the gentle/violent Tibetan horse trader she works with. The directorial debut of actress Joan Chen (“Twin Peaks”). A sometimes annihilatingly emotional melodrama. 7 p.m., MB (also 2:15 p.m. Sunday, LC) — M.W.
– “Two-Lane Blacktop” (star) (star) (star) (star) (Monte Hellman; U.S.; 1971). A great road movie, written by Rudy Wurlitzer and only slightly marred by the comatose lead performance of singer James Taylor. He’s the charismatic hippie driver who, with sidekick Dennis Wilson, takes on a motormouth GTO driver (Warren Oates, at his summit) in an angst-ridden cross-country outlaw race. Hellman is scheduled to appear. 7 p.m., MB — M.W.
– “My Son the Fanatic” (star) (star) (star) 1/2 (Udayan Prasad; Great Britain). A magnificent performance by Indian actor Om Puri as an immigrant Pakistani cab driver bewildered by his teenage son’s nationalist orthodoxy, and clever dialogue by Hanif Kureishi (“My Beautiful Laundrette”) highlight this first-rate comedy-drama. In many ways, Kureishi’s best script. 7:15 p.m., LC — M.W. ( (star) (star) (star) Patrick Z. McGavin)
– “Serial Lover” (star) (star) (star) (James Huth; France). Wild, baroque, almost manic dark comedy about a chic but indecisive Parisian who invites her three lovers to dinner together in an attempt to choose between them — and ends up with a wild party, suspicious cops, a hundred guests and a real bloodbath on her hands. A comedy of murders done with the high, wry, wired-up energy of the early Coen brothers. 9:15 p.m., LC (also 7 p.m. Sunday, MB) — M.W.
– “Spring in My Hometown” (star) (star) 1/2 (Kwangmo Lee; South Korea) A sometimes confusing but lyrical childhood memoir of a boy growing up in South Korea during the Korean-American war. Part coming-of-age story, part ideological analysis, the film shows the stinging lessons he learns as his family and the rest of the villagers prostitute themselves to the American soldiers. 9:15 p.m., LC — Monica Eng
– “Waking Ned Devine” (star) (star) (star) (Kirk Jones; Great Britain). A surprisingly successful return to the wistfully hilarious wistful hilarity of the old Ealing comedies (“Tight Little Island”), this delightful rural Irish comedy gives us a whole village trying to cash in on the winning lottery ticket of a villager who expired at the news of his good fortune. The often-inspired Ian Bannen is the plot’s mastermind. 9:15 p.m. (also 7 p.m. Sunday), LC — M.W.
– “Six Ways to Sunday” (star) (star) 1/2 (Adam Bernstein; U.S.). Some rough edges, but this offbeat story about a disturbed young Ohio man who joins the local Jewish mafia in part to escape the clutches of his sicko mother (Deborah Harry of “Blondie” fame), has a lot going for it, including some bizarre psychological turns and a bevy of strong performances by the relatively unknown cast. 9:30 p.m. (also 4:30 p.m. Sunday), LC — John Petrakis
– “Blue Moon” (star) (star) (Ko I-cheng; Taiwan). This off-kilter love triangle tale involving a quiet young woman and her two self-important suitors seeks the tone of a comic “Jules and Jim” but comes closer to “Three’s Company.” The gimmick: The five episodes that explore the romantic dilemma can be shown in any order, which means that there are 120 versions to dislike. The festival will present four of them. 9:30 p.m. (also 3:15 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. Sunday, and 8:30 p.m. Oct. 21), MB — J.P.
SATURDAY
– “Return With Honor” (star) (star) 1/2 (Freida Lee Mock, Terry Sanders; U.S.). From the director of “Maya Lin: A Strong, Clear Vision” (the documentary that infamously beat out “Hoop Dreams” for the Oscar), a sincere, sympathetic, but disappointingly unimaginative look at the American POW’s, imprisoned in the “Hanoi Hilton” during the Vietnam War. 2:15 p.m. (also 4:30 p.m. Sunday), LC — M.W.
– “Lace” (star) (star) (Inas Al Degheidy; Egypt). Is it sex comedy? Soap opera? Social diatribe? Feminist critique? Or all of the above? A bold comedy about two childhood galpals — one a lawyer from a rich family, the other a singer/actress from a poor one — who both wind up married to the same bigamous, and soon exhausted, police officer. Very crude and too obvious melodrama and humor, but once the menage a trois gets cooking, the movie has something. 2:15 p.m. (also 6:15 p.m. Oct. 19), LC — M.W.
– “The Outskirts” (star) (star) 1/2 (Peter Lutsik; Russia). It’s easy to see why this dark, slow, bloody film about post-Soviet peasants taking revenge on the corrupt nouveau riche met with acclaim in Russia, but, despite a glorious final scene, its pacing, in-references and shadowy expressionistic lighting make it a bit harder to appreciate overseas. Still, a must-see for students of the sentiments and economy of today’s Russia. 2:30 p.m., LC — M.E.
– “The Freelancers” (star) (star) (star) 1/2 (see review under Friday listing) 2:30 p.m., LC — M.W.
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– “Gone With the Train” (star) (star) (Igor Sterk; Slovenia). An almost wordless, sepia-colored tale of a quirky young man who leaves home to look for adventure riding the train. As the camera moves from car to car, we get fleeting glimpses of Slovenian life but nothing that rises far above the level of a music video or soda pop commercial. Looks more like Eastern European TV fare than film festival material. 2:45 p.m, MB (also 9 p.m. Oct. 19, LC) — M.E.
– “The Stowaway” (star) (star) (Ben van Lieshout; Netherlands). A visually attractive though dramatically predictable story about a poverty-stricken Uzbekistan villager who flees his bleak surroundings with hopes of landing in New York, though he winds up in Rotterdam, where he falls for a kind, gentle woman who comes to his aid. It’s pleasant and life-affirming, though it lacks any dramatic variety. 4:30 p.m., LC — P.Z.M.
– “The Hole” (star) (star) (star) 1/2 (Tsai Ming-Liang; Taiwan). Set in a polluted, dry, epidemic-ridden future, a week from century’s end: A Kafkaesque love story, interspersed with campy musical numbers, in which vertical apartment neighbors woo each other through a slowly expanding hole in their ceiling/floor. Tsai’s best and one of his strangest. 4:45 p.m. (also 8:45 p.m. Oct. 19), LC — M.W.
– “Stuart Bliss” (star) (star) 1/2 (Neil Grieve; U.S.). Another of 1998’s many paranoid futuristic TV comedies. This time a hard-working corporate clone succumbs to a millennial nightmare, convinced that the world’s end is imminent and conspiracies are everywhere. An absurdist fantasy, slight but with an admirably sustained mood. 4:45 p.m. (also 8:45 p.m. Sunday), LC — M.W.
– “Sweet Degeneration” (star) (star) (star) (Lin Cheng-sheng; Taiwan). An eerie tale of forbidden love, involving a brother and sister whose youthful incestuous relationship haunts them for years. She gets involved in a crummy marriage; he joins the army. When he returns, they both realize the passion is still dangerously alive. Moody, and at times, sublime. 6:30 p.m. (also 9 p.m. Sunday), LC — J.P.
– “Chances or Coincidences” (star) (star) (Claude Lelouch; France/Canada). Lelouch’s polished though sentimental film moves through a succession of visually stunning locations (Venice, Montreal, Acapulco, Turkey) as themes of fate and opportunity are refracted through a beautiful, self-contained dancer named Myrian (well-played by Alessandra Martines). The film begins promisingly with Lelouch’s handling of the sensual possibilities of the dance sequences, but an appalling tragedy in the middle seems manipulative and perverse. 6:30 p.m., MB (also 6:30 p.m. Oct. 19, LC) — P.Z.M.
– “Park Day” (star) (star) (Sterling Macer Jr.; U.S.). Locally shot in Springfield by home towner Macer, this interesting but shallow ensemble drama traces the legacy of racism (and a few “Beloved”-style curses) in small-town America during life crises and an annual barbecue. 6:45 p.m., LC (also 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Chatham 14, 210 W. 87th St., 773-487-1625) — M.W.
– “The Theory of Flight” (star) 1/2 (Paul Greengrass; Great Britain). Playing handicapped characters can bring out the best in actors, but that’s not the case with Helena Bonham Carter’s look-at-me turn here as a cranky but lovable wheelchair-bound woman with a degenerative neuromuscular disorder. The plot involves her spatting with and winning over her flighty assigned helper (Kenneth Branagh) and enlisting him to help her lose her virginity before she dies. As icky as it sounds. 7 p.m. (also 4:30 p.m. Sunday), LC — M.C.
– “The Falling” (star) 1/2 (Raul Sanchez Inglis; Canada). This first feature by the co-writer of “Crash” is too cliche-ridden and derivative to be believed, as we witness the gradual disintegration of two separate relationships from three points-of-view, leading up to a most unsatisfactory ending. The sex scenes are stylishly shot and much of the lighting is impressive, but at the core is a banal tale badly told. 8:45 p.m., MB — J.P.
– “Left Luggage” (star) (star) (star) (Jeroen Krabbe; Netherlands). The Jewish identity and Holocaust issues are sympathetically explored in this strikingly photographed family drama about a free-thinking young philosophy student and her battle with her more traditional father in 1970 Antwerp. With Maximilian Schell, Isabella Rossellini and Topol. Krabbe’s directorial debut: stylish and exciting, if over-obvious. 9 p.m. (also 6:45 p.m. Oct. 21), LC — M.W.
– “Down in the Delta” (star) (star) (Maya Angelou; U.S.). Poet-author Angelou’s directorial debut (she didn’t write it) plays like a TV movie about a hard-drinking, drug-using mother (Alfre Woodard) whose problems miraculously disappear when she moves her two children from a Chicago housing project (filmed in Toronto) to her uncle’s house in the Mississippi Delta (Toronto again). A decent social message about keeping a family together served up with lots of corn. 9 p.m., LC — M.C.
– “Happiness” (star) (star) (star) 1/2 (Todd Solondz; U.S.). One of the most talked-about non-competition movies at Cannes: Solondz’s shattering follow-up to “Welcome to the Dollhouse.” A dark portrait of the sexual mores of America’s middle class, centering on an alternate world of obscene phone callers, killers, pedophile rapists, predators and hapless romantics. 9:15 p.m., MB — M.W.
SUNDAY
– “Xiu Xiu — The Sent Down Girl” (star) (star) 1/2 (see review under Friday listing) 2:15 p.m., LC — M.W.
– “Aprile” (star) (star) (star) 1/2 (Nanni Moretti; Italy). Another diary film from the great leftist comic Moretti: A witty, needling, rapt account of modern Italy, the movies and the birth of Moretti’s first child (with real-life wife and mother Silvia Nono as herself). The focus: Moretti’s shifting desire to film either a documentary on Italian politics, his own life or a musical comedy about a Trotskyite pastry chef. 2:30 p.m., LC (also 6:45 p.m. Oct. 20, MB) — M.W.
– “Blue Moon” (star) (star) (see review under Friday listing) 3:15 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. (also 8:30 p.m. Oct. 21), MB — J.P.
– “Park Day” (star) (star) (see review under Saturday listing) 3:30 p.m., Chatham 14, 210 W. 87th St., 773-487-1625 — M.W.
– “Six Ways to Sunday” (star) (star) 1/2 (see review under Friday listing) 4:30 p.m., LC — J.P.
– “The Theory of Flight” (star) 1/2 (see review under Saturday listing) 4:30 p.m., LC — M.C.
– “Return With Honor” (star) (star) 1/2 (see review under Saturday listing). 4:30 p.m., LC — M.W.
– “Waking Ned Devine” (star) (star) (star) (see review under Friday listing) 7 p.m., LC — M.W.
– “Serial Lover” (star) (star) (star) (see review under Friday listing) 7 p.m., MB — M.W.
– “Stuart Bliss” (star) (star) 1/2 (see review under Saturday listing) 8:45 p.m., LC — M.W.
– “Sweet Degeneration” (star) (star) (star) (see review under Saturday listing) 9 p.m., LC — J.P.
CHICAGO FILM FEST FACTS
What: The 34th Chicago International Film Festival
When: Daily through Oct. 22
Where: Loews Cineplex Theaters, 600 N. Michigan Ave. (312-255-9340); The Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave. (312-871-6604); Loews Cineplex Chatham 14, 210 W. 87th St. (773-487-1625)
Special tribute, Career Achievement Award: Pam Grier (Friday, Chicago Cultural Center)
Closing Night film: “Central Station” (Brazil), 8:30 p.m. Oct. 22, Music Box Theatre
Special tribute, Lifetime Achievement Award: John Travolta (Oct. 24, Chicago Hilton & Towers)
Single-ticket prices: weekday matinees (Monday-Friday before 5 p.m.), $3; weekend matinees (Saturday-Sunday before 2 p.m.), $4; Mondays-Thursdays 5 p.m. or later, $8.50 ($7 members); Fridays 5 p.m. or later, and Saturdays-Sundays 2 p.m. or later, $9.50 ($8 members); (special group rates and passes available through the festival office or Ticketmaster, 312-902-1500)
Festival Office: 32 W. Randolph St., Suite 600 (312-425-9400)
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Festival 24-hour hotline: 312-332-FILM
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.chicago.ddbn.comfilmfest
— Heather M. Lajewski