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Bag of Rice

by Alissa Simon

In recent years Iranian filmmakers have found international success at festivals with works such as The White Balloon and Children of Heaven, moral tales about children with a mission to accomplish. This has inspired other Iranian directors to attempt to reproduce what they see as a winning formula, resulting in a plethora of films with […]

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29th Chicago International Film Festival: The Week’s Worth

by Zbigniew Banas, Meredith Brody, Peter Brunette, Patricia Erens, Patrick Z. McGavin, David Overbey, Dan Pearson, Gerald Peary, Reece Pendleton, Berenice Reynaud, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Barbara Scharres, Alissa Simon and Bill Stamets

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8 Rudy A worthy addition to the “faith, grit, and hard work conquers all” genre that includes Rocky and Hoosiers (which was directed by David Anspaugh and written by Angelo Pizzo, the same team that created Rudy). This is a surprisingly involving, deceptively straightforward story of an average–maybe less-than-average–guy who dreams of going […]

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More of the 25th Chicago International Film Festival

by Zbigniew Banas, Meredith Brodie, Don Druker, Monica Eng, Andrew Horton, Dave Kehr, Patrick Z. McGavin, Al Milgrom, David Overbey, Gerald Peary, Berenice Reynaud, Nancy Robinson, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Barbara Scharres, Ronnie Scheib, Alissa Simon and John Steve

The 25th Chicago International Film Festival moves into its second full week with a fair number of worthwhile films, including what are probably the two best parts of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Decalogue (the grim A Short Film About Killing and the exquisite A Short Film About Love), Maurizio Nichetti’s hilarious The Icicle Thief, several retrospective items, […]