PICK OF THE DAY
“Summercamp!” (star)(star)(star)
(Bradley Beesley and Sarah Price, U.S.; 1:25)
Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes sweet and always engaging, this documentary about a summer at the Swift Nature Camp in Minong, Wis., is a rustic gem. Apart from kids (mostly) enjoying summer camp standards (canoeing, crafts, archery, fishing, etc.), the filmmakers get the inside scoop on what the campers and counselors are really thinking. From “who likes whom” tales of burgeoning love to the heart-wrenching reason one young girl is obsessed with finding a chickadee songbird to counselors concerned by the numbers of campers on meds for ADD, ADHD or depression, the young people really strike a chord. One of the young camp counselors offers moments of funny exasperation, for example, after nine weeks of being available to campers 24/7: “Yeah … I dunno … if I come back to work at a camp, it’ll probably be this one, because the kids are great … but, God, they’re here forever.” But the film, like so many summers, passes too quickly. 2 p.m. Sun., AMC; noon Oct. 15, AMC.
— Michael Esposito
OTHER CHOICES
“A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints” (star)(star)(star)1/2
(Dito Montiel, U.S.; 1:38)
Simmering violence, drug abuse, aggressive sexuality and supreme dysfunction were facts of life for Dito and his friends growing up in Astoria, Queens. Not that they saw it that way. Wandering the streets, the young Dito (Shia La Boeuf, playing the memoirist turned screenwriter) pronounces, “This is heaven.” The movie intersperses flashbacks from 1986 with the present, when Dito returns home after 15 years to confront his dying father. Robert Downey Jr. plays the adult Dito, Chazz Palminteri his tortured father and Dianne Wiest his mother. The real revelation is Channing Tatum, whose turn as doomed tough guy Antonio is brooding, physically commanding and dangerous, recalling Brando at his peak. 5 p.m. Sun., LM.
— Jessica Reaves
“Steel City” (star)(star)(star)
More Top Picks Adapters
(Brian Jun, U.S.; 1:35)
This directorial debut has its share of clunky plot points and familiar angsty-young-man dynamics, but Illinois native Jun casts a perceptive, uncondescending eye on life in a Downstate blue-collar town. Tom Guiry does a sympathetic simmer as PJ, who’s in various levels of conflict. 8 p.m. Sun., AMC; 6:15 p.m. Tue., LM; 3:30 p.m. Thu., AMC.
— Mark Caro
“Thicker Than Water” (star)(star)(star)
(Arni Olafur Asgeirsson, Iceland; 1:30)
It’s like modern-day Ibsen, from the land due west of Ibsen’s Norway. With his wife (Margret Vilhjalmsdottir) about to give birth to their second child, a Reykjavik optometrist (Hilmar Jonsson) learns that he is not the biological father of their 10-year-old son. A well-ordered life suddenly tailspins. Well acted by all. 5 p.m. Sun., AMC.
— Michael Phillips
“Syndromes and a Century” (star)(star)1/2
(Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/Austria/France; 1:45)
A trippy, leisurely slice of two kinds of lives in Thailand — the first half set in a rural hospital, the second in a Bangkok one. The loose story line for the first half revolves around the work and romantic life of a young doctor, who treats monks having nightmares about breaking the legs of chickens (but really is trying to score sleeping pills). The scene, with a male doctor and from a different perspective, is essentially repeated in the second, city half. But plot is almost beside the point here — Weerasethakul’s stationary camera puts us at a certain objective distance, and he maintains a peaceful pace throughout. Two scenes, one a long bossa nova performance and the other a longer close-up of a tube sucking in smoke set to an ambient soundtrack, serve as invitations, or warnings, for this film. 6:15 p.m. Sat., LM; 7 p.m. Sun., LM; 4:30 p.m. Fri., LM.
— Scott L. Powers
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Screenings for the 42nd Chicago International Film Festival are held at AMC River East 21 (AMC), 322 Illinois St.; Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema (LM), 2828 N. Clark St.; and Thorne Auditorium, on Northwestern University’s Chicago campus (THN), 375 E. Chicago Ave.
For ticket information, contact Ticketmaster at 312-902-1500 or the Festival hotline at 312-332-FILM. For a complete schedule, visit www. chicagofilmfestival. com.