Celebrating a decade of critically acclaimed film

The Chicago Critics Film Festival returns to the Music Box Theatre for its tenth anniversary.

By MAXWELL RABB

Finding the time to see every movie on your watch list is a bold—often stressful—commitment. Luckily, Chicago film lovers will get the chance to mark off a massive chunk of their movie lists at the tenth annual Chicago Critics Film Festival (CCFF). The festival, curated entirely by members of the Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA), will feature a weeklong schedule of the most anticipated films of the year. Programmed by a team of local critics, the festival aims to champion the year’s best movies, but more importantly, intends to bring those movies to Chicago first.

“The event was launched because of the sense that Chicago film fans were reading about major works from events like Sundance and Toronto without the chance to actually see the films,” says Brian Tallerico, president of the CFCA and coproducer of the film festival. “We wanted to change that.”

Unlike other film festivals, the CCFF is the only festival exclusively curated by critics. Composed of recent festival favorites and not-yet-distributed films by both new and renowned directors, the festival is devoted to facilitating a space where Chicagoland residents can experience the most exciting films of the year for an a ordable price. Most notably, Tallerico hopes that CCFF will encourage people to return to the theater rather than rely on streaming services, invigorating the local film scene.

“Especially after the last few years, we want to bring people back to the movies; we want audiences to recapture that amazing feeling of seeing a great film on the big screen,” Tallerico says. “We want Chicagoans to be proud of our film scene and be a part of the conversation on these movies from the start.”

The festival’s introductory lineup features seven films, including the premiere of Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener and the 40th-anniversary screening of The Right Stuff , presented in 35mm. This year’s festival will also show Chicago-based filmmaker Linh Tran’s Waiting for the Light to Change, an emotional drama interrogating loyalty and attraction between the protagonist Amy, her best friend, and her best friend’s boyfriend.

Other titles include Birth/Rebirth, a modern female-driven horror film directed by Laura Moss; Brother, Clement Virgo’s film on Toron-

Coinciding with the festival, the CFCA partnered with Rotten Tomatoes to launch the Emerging Critics Program. The educational initiative provides two emerging film critics in the Chicagoland area with editorial mentorship, festival access, and a $2,500 stipend. The grant is devoted to fostering an interest in film criticism among students and young writers working to start their careers. The winners of the grant will be awarded before this year’s festival and will be given the opportunity to pitch stories about the festival’s lineup to Rotten Tomatoes.

Since its inception, the CCFF has grown from its inaugural three-day event in 2013 into a momentous weeklong film celebration, and the CFCA has continued to promote the importance of film criticism and the local film scene.

“I am just so proud of what this team has done,” says Erik Childress, founder and coproducer of the CCFF. “All of them [are] close friends who did not hesitate given the opportunity to participate, and for it to succeed as it has for ten years—I have never been prouder of anything in my life. The full lineup just keeps getting better every year thanks to the many filmmakers and partners who have understood and appreciated the value of what we do.” v

NOW PLAYING R Country Gold

It’s a little late in the day for a Garth Brooks parody, but Mickey Reece’s Country Gold is fully aware of its own obsolescence. Garth analog Troyal Brux (Reece) has it all—hit records, a perfect family, and a bland, imperturbable self-regard. When country legend George Jones (Ben Hall) asks for a meeting in Nashville, Troyal assumes it’ll be a chance for the mutual admiration of greats—a passing of the torch. George, though, is a craggy, weather-beaten vortex of bitter decadence. Will he tempt Troyal to stray from his good ol’ boy faith and rectitude?

The fame-corrupts-the-innocent plot is an elaborate send-up, as is just about everything in the film, which hovers somewhere between a surreal Christopher Guest mockumentary and Hal Hartley’s deadpan irony. The black-and-white cinematography is as stark as George’s self-pity (“I don’t have a conscience! I’m just a pipe for fluids to pass through!”) or Troyal’s moral crossroads. George is planning to get himself cryogenically frozen. He tells stories about killing a man for the mob and performing a sting for the FBI in between getting a hand job and snorting large amounts of illicit substances. The music that would be the point in a less arch film is studiously avoided; the one fully realized country song is belted out not by the stars, but by Troyal’s unborn fetus, serenading its umbilical cord in the womb.

The film is in it for the giggles in part. But it also enjoys giving country music’s authenticity fetish a solid kick in its big dumb hat. A new movie in which someone very like the almost forgotten Garth Brooks worries about his legacy can’t help but skewer and perhaps celebrate the carny mythic hick hype of both C&W and America. The George Jones up onscreen is as fake as the gold shitkicker boots supposedly worn by John Fogerty. Only Troyal’s impenetrable, tedious, and maybe noble self-deception rings true. —NOAH BERLATSKY 84 min. Limited release in theaters; Alamo Wrigleyville; streaming on Fandor

R Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves goes all in on charisma. The Chris Pine-led adaption of the pen-and-paper fantasy progenitor is a joke-a-minute campaign of quips, jabs, and cheeky one-liners. The most obvious comparison is the rebooted Jumanji films, which also synergized another nostalgic property with a cast of riffing celebrities. Thankfully, Dungeons rolls more 20s than ones with its jokes, landing with more laughs than groans. The comedy goes beyond snark, with a handful of creative gags including a standout sequence in a graveyard.

Unfortunately, the film’s tunnel vision on humor makes everything else a dump stat. The plot involves Pine and his barbarian partner (Michelle Rodriguez) assembling a team of fantasy misfits to pull off a magical heist. It aims to be high fantasy Ocean’s Eleven (2001), an incredible idea that gets lost in played-out plot beats and a third act that drags like an indecisive dungeon master. References to the wider lore of Dungeons & Dragons are made regularly, but Dungeons fails to build any unique sense of place beyond generic fantasy like, say, The Lord of the Rings. The film has some great editing moments that add a fun layer to its action-heavy scenes, but they’re weighed down by boring at best, baffling at worst visuals.

The action is still great throughout, with a few high points that see Pine and company working through an obstacle in a way not too dissimilar to a game party talking through a solution on the tabletop. Like Jumanji, Dungeons is a consistently fun time. Pine and Regé-Jean Page, who takes up the sword of the group’s paladin, do a lot of the heavy li ing. None of the cast holds a fireball to Hugh Grant, however, who owns every second of his goo all performance as one of the film’s villains. Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves may be a dice roll in a few ways, but critical hits save it from being skippable. —JONAH NINK PG-13, 134 min. Wide release in theaters

Inside

An art thief breaks into a New York City penthouse and is unable to get back out. What follows are days or maybe weeks of alternating between desperate efforts to leave, philosophical wallowing, and clumsy attempts to create some sort of altar/site-specific art installation from the shattered fixtures and objects of the wrecked domicile.

Willem Dafoe is a national treasure who has littered his long career with fearless, groundbreaking roles. He’s the only living human we see aside from building employees and residents viewed via closed-circuit camera or in the thief’s hallucinations and dreams. I’d say Dafoe could make a dramatic reading of a phone book compelling, but I have no clue why he wanted to be involved with this movie.

Perhaps as an ultra high-end escape room experience this might be exciting to try, but as a viewer watching from the outside, it’s excruciatingly dull. Filmed in the sleek icy style of a luxury car ad, it is just about as emotionally involved as one. There’s some pretentious mumbo-jumbo about how art is the only thing that’s truly eternal, but this movie is hardly art. It’s more like proof of a dying society. Toward the end, the Romans built vomitoria—if they’d had digital cameras, this could have been one of the results. —DMITRY SAMAROV R, 105 min. Wide release in theaters

RJohn Wick 4

You would think that by John Wick 4 the franchise would be tired and out of tricks—and you would be dead wrong. Directed by Chad Stahelski, this is the best installment in the series, delivering outstanding fight choreography showing every punch, slice, and shot; heart-pounding action in Osaka, New York, and Paris; and outrageous characters, infusing the film with just enough humor to make it riotously fun.

Keanu Reeves is back as man-of-few-words John Wick, fighting to clear his name. Donnie Yen has a substantial role as Caine, an old friend of John’s hired to kill him—possibly the best blind ninja assassin since Rutger Hauer in Blind Fury (1989). This is a fantastic role for Yen, allowing him to show off his humor and audacious martial arts. Winston (Ian McShane), the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne), and Charon (Lance Reddick) all return to support John’s mission, which as usual involves killing countless people in increasingly audacious ways.

The film introduces fan favorites like the always intense Clancy Brown as Harbinger, a representative of the Table, the shadow organization overseeing this world of assassins; screen legend Hiroyuki Sanada as Shimazu, who runs the Continental Hotel in Okinawa; Rina Sawayama as his daughter Akira (equally badass); Shamier Anderson as Tracker, a freelance assassin who travels with his dog (because you need a dog); and Bill Skarsgård as Marquis, the requisite baddie. If you’re a John Wick fan, you’re already going to see this, and I guarantee you will not be disappointed. —JOSH FLANDERS R, 169 min. Wide release in theaters

Shazam! Fury of the Gods

The follow-up to 2019’s original, Shazam! Fury of the Gods continues the story of the now teenage Billy Batson (Asher Angel) who by uttering the magic word “shazam” transforms himself into an adult superhero (Zachary Levi) with the unsurprisingly matching moniker.

The first iteration contained some intriguing comedic explorations into what it means to have near-limitless power with a limited maturity level, and it seems like the creative team used up all their thoughts on it in the first go-round.

Structurally, the Batson character is edging into adulthood, and there seems to be less and less of the original charm le to work with. The script is all over the place and overly dense with characters and minor subplots, leading inevitably to a tired final set piece which the rest of the film seems solely focused on getting us to. The finale is entertaining enough, but unfortunately, the path that gets us there has little to offer. The cast is almost as packed as the narrative is, with the talents of several great actors (Helen Mirren in particular) being put to unfortunately mediocre use.

It’s ultimately a tired formula for superhero movies, and by sticking to it, Shazam! Fury of the Gods loses the whimsy and freshness of the original film. —ADAM MULLINS-KHATIB PG-13, 130 min. Wide release in theaters v