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Review: Longlegs Chronicles a Decades-Long Connection between Killer and Investigator, Relying Too Much on Genre Tropes
Writer/director Osgood Perkins has gotten quite the reputation as a horror filmmaker when it’s never truly seemed to be his goal to scare people. His objective with film like The Blackcoat’s Daughter and I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House seems more to be to get under people’s skin and make them uncomfortable or anxious and less outright terrified. His latest work, Longlegs, is being touted as flat-out horror tale about the unique relationship FBI Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) has had with a serial killer who calls himself Longlegs (Nicolas Cage in pale makeup and a weird voice) over many decades—from the 1970s, when she was a little girl (Lauren Acala) living with her single mother (Alicia Witt), until the “present day” of the 1990s (which is firmly established by the abundance of Bill Clinton photos on every wall in government buildings).
Events: Togetherness Through Tacos at Rogers Park Taco Crawl
Rogers Park is very much a vibe. A vibe that consists of neighbors who know each other's names and always say hello, a global community, and of course really great taquerias. Next week on July 18 in RP, the Rogers Park Business Association (RPBA) is hosting their annual Taco Crawl along Clark Street. From 3 to 6pm, you can skip out on your last few hours of work and your dinner plans for a tour de taco including churros, margs, and even free ice cream.
Review: Raw and Emotional Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Haven Chicago
This is a love letter. To Stephen Trask's brilliant music and lyrics and John Cameron Mitchell's searing wit. To one of the best musicals to ever come out of New York's downtown theater scene. And to Haven Chicago, which ends its 11-year run as a local theater company with a raucous, rousing and thoroughly rock-and-roll production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, now running at the Den Theater through August 4.
Review: Ewan McGregor Stars as a Son Losing His Grip on Reality in Mother, Couch, an Odd, Confusing Family Drama
This is a goofy-ass movie, where making sense is perhaps the third most important thing to writer/director Niclas Larsson, making his feature debut with Mother, Couch. The premise is simple at first. Two grown half-brothers, David (Ewan McGregor) and Gruffudd (Rhys Ifans), find themselves in a furniture store with their elderly mother (Ellen Burstyn), who decides to simply not get up from one of the display couches. As a result, David agrees to stay at the store overnight with their mom and try to figure out what is going on with her. The young shopkeep, Bella (Taylor Russell), seems okay with this and even decides to keep David company during this ordeal, but things only get more chaotic and confusing.
Review: Fly Me to the Moon Stars Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson in NASA Moon Landing as America’s Marketing Campaign
Blending comedy, drama and a touch of historical fiction, director Greg Berlanti (Love, Simon and the showrunner of the CW’s Arrow-verse) sends us skyward with Fly Me to the Moon, a handsome, stylish and often quite funny work that uses the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing as the backdrop and antics, political intrigue, and a love story between two of the most appealing actors working today.
Review: Goodman Theatre’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Needs Pruning
The new and eagerly awaited production of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil at Goodman Theatre fails to present a unified story and collapses under its own weight of plot and character. After two-and-a-half hours of Midnight, I can only conclude that it fails as theater. Thirty years...
Review: June Zero Offers Nuanced, Thoughtful Answers to Difficult Questions and Complicated Histories
Set in 1961 Israel—specifically when the verdict and sentencing of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, the chief architect of the Holocaust, was announced—June Zero offers three different perspectives of the key historical event while also asking divisive questions about legacy, remembrance, and the beginnings of the “never forget” mindset. The movie uses specific examples and stories to get at broader issues of who and what should and should not be commemorated, as well as taking control of one’s own story and deciding whether you wish to share it with the world or not.
Review: Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person Is Part Teen Coming-of-Age Drama, Part Vampire Lore
Sometimes when you can’t watch a French movie, a French-Canadian movie works just as nicely. Case in point: this sweet dark comedy about a “teen” vampire (she’s actually 68) named Sasha (the charming Lilas-Rose Cantin, giving off young Winona Ryder vibes), living in Quebec. Sasha is a disappointment to her parents (Steve Laplante and Sophie Cadieux) because she has such compassion for humans that she can’t stomach the thought of killing one, even if it means she won’t be able to feed (her fangs haven’t even sprouted yet). Her mother supplies the family by stealing from blood banks, but realizing this trend could last hundreds of years, Sasha’s parents kick her out and cut off her supply, hoping this will force her to finally start hunting amongst the living. Sasha eventually goes to live with her older cousin and fierce human predator Denise (Noémie O’Farrell), but even that doesn’t get Sasha to change her tune.
Review: Kill Is a Thrilling, Impressive Action Movie on a Train, Not Your Typical Bollywood Fare
Shorter than most films we see from India (by about an hour), the blood-soaked actioner Kill concerns two army commandos taking time off after a big mission. One of them, Amrit (Lakshya), discovers that the woman he loves, Tulika (Tanya Maniktala) has been engaged against her will, and the two make a plan to derail the marriage by eloping against her family’s wishes. Tulika and her family (including her father, who owns the transportation company that operates the rail lines) board a train for New Delhi en route to the wedding, when a gang of something like 60 bandits takes over the train, makes their presence known and begins looting the pockets of all the passengers. But when the criminals discover that Tulika’s father is on board, they decide to turn their mission into a kidnapping. Little do they know that Amrit is also aboard this train, and he plans to take down the knife-wielding thieves no matter how much blood he loses in the process.
Review: Eddie Murphy Heads Back to California in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, a Nostalgia-Heavy Cop Comedy
I sometimes feel guilty about coming down on a film that hits all the nostalgia buttons and makes people feel good about the things they enjoyed growing up. But with movies like Top Gun: Maverick or Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the filmmaker's primary goal seems to be reminding you of what came before rather than crafting an original story with familiar characters, and that feels cynical and desperate. Perhaps the worst of these offenders is Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, which kicks off with a reprise of “The Heat Is On” and manages to toss in several more songs from previous BHC movies in the first hour, as well as the Axel F theme (in various iterations) throughout the entire movie.
Review: Ti West Concludes Horror Trilogy with MaXXXine, an Ensemble Piece Led by Mia Goth
Rounding out his horror trilogy, writer/director/editor Ti West (X, Pearl) brings us MaXXXine, following up on the adventures of adult film star Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) six years after that farm house massacre that was X. Set in 1985, the film finds Maxine in a place in her life where she’s looking to make the transition into mainstream Hollywood films, and as the film opens, she finds herself in her first audition for just such a movie, the horror sequel Puritan II. Her audition captures the attention of the film’s director Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki), who recognizes Maxine’s drive but makes it clear that she needs to eliminate all distractions from her life in order to be a part of her film.
Review: Grant Park Orchestra Continues to Delight With Contemporary Works and a Tchaikovsky Classic
Returning to Jay Pritzker Pavilion from a weekend next door at Harris Theater, on Wednesday evening Ludovic Morlot led the Grant Park Orchestra in a delightful follow-up to last week’s excellent concert. Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers joined them for a program of contemporary works and a classical chestnut. The program will be repeated tonight—Friday, July 5.
Preview: The Underground Society for Music Portrays a World Where Music Is Banned
“The Underground Society for Music is a play with music about a group of musicians fighting to keep their artform alive. In spite of constant threats from government actors to stop for the greater good, they remain determined to succeed.”. That’s how a new Chicago play is described by its...
Dear Cinnamon: Yes, and Adopt a Pet
Dear Cinnamon is our monthly column based on the idea that all of life's questions can be answered by art, because, after all, art is the spice of life. To submit your own anonymous questions, fill out this form. Dear Cinnamon, I thought it was just winter hibernation, but I...
Review: Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron Fail the RomCom Spark Test in Otherwise Charming, Clever A Family Affair
It would seem the romcom is having a moment. Not that it's ever really gone away, of course. But in the post-Nancy Meyers era (she's still very much alive, just not releasing films like she used to), no one has quite been able to crack the code on contemporary, light-hearted American romance in the movies. Many have tried, many—save perhaps the recent The Idea of You—have failed.
Review: A Unique Take on Vampire Lore, The Vourdalak is an Unsettling Watch and Welcome Addition to the Genre
Adapted from an Aleksei K. Tolstoy novella that predates Bram Stroker’s Dracula by more than 50 years, director/co-writer Adrien Beau’s The Vourdalak is an 18th century vampire story that remains unpredictable (and therefore entirely tension-filled) because it rarely adheres to the familiar vampire tropes. By keeping us guessing, the bloodsucking, purely evil creatures are able to be more manipulative and open about their schemes, while still having certain weaknesses that strong-willed humans can exploit.
Review: Set Almost Entirely Inside a Taxi, Daddio Is an Enjoyable Ride with Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn
Sometimes the simplest idea is the most effective. Case in point: the feature debut from writer/director Christy Hall, Daddio, about two people in a New York City yellow taxi swapping stories and unburdening themselves of many of the hurdles life has thrown in their path. Dakota Johnson plays a character known only (and unfortunately) as Girlie, returning from her home state of Oklahoma where she visited her somewhat estranged sister and stirred up a wave of emotions in the process. Upon arriving at JFK Airport, she hops in a cab driven by Clark (Sean Penn), a chatterbox of a cabbie who seems genuinely curious about her life, and thanks to a few traffic jams on their way to her apartment, they have time to dig into all manner of topics and life experiences.
Review: Grant Park Festival Offers an Evening of Bliss
Following a stormy day filled with ominous clouds, a surprisingly blissful evening offered the perfect setting for a blissful performance by the Grant Park Orchestra on Wednesday evening. French conductor Ludovic Morlot led a program that spanned three centuries at Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. The ambiance on this...
Review: Yorgos Lanthimos Follows Oscar-Winning Poor Things with a Challenge in Well-Cast Anthology Kinds of Kindness
For those who have been on the journey with Yorgos Lanthimos since films like Alps and Dogtooth (and yes, even his early English-language days of The Lobster and Killing of a Sacred Deer), his latest work, Kinds of Kindness, will likely not seem that shocking or inaccessible. But for those who only jumped onboard for his more recent works, such as The Favourite and the Oscar-winning Poor Things, Kindness may leave you cold, repulsed, and even confused—all of which are the sweet spots that Lanthimos has existed in for much of his career. Following Poor Things so quickly with Kinds of Kindness feels like a deliberate attempt to draw in those who responded favorably to the former and dump cold water on their heads, with a nearly three-hour running time and three barely connected stories, each of which uses the same group of actors playing different parts.
Review: A Quiet Place: Day One Offers a Tense, Emotional Glimpse into the Start of an Alien Onslaught
Less a terrifying thrill ride and more of an introspective examination of emotional extremes, the prequel story A Quiet Place: Day One shifts the action of the first two films from remote locations (as well as away from the Abbott family) to the heart of Manhattan, where (as we’re told in an opening title card) the decibel level on a normal day is equivalent to a person screaming. This is particularly problematic when you’re dealing with sightless aliens with impenetrable armor plating and incredibly sharp hearing that are in the early stages of killing off most of the human population.
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