In this week’s issue Ben Sachs has four stars for Andre Techine’s In the Name of My Daughter, which explores the wild life and mysterious disappearance of French casino heiress Agnes Le Roux. But Drew Hunt can’t get it up for Staten Island Summer, a lame attempt to resurrect the 80s teen sex comedy.
Check out our new capsule reviews for: Alleluia, a French shocker based on the exploits of the notorious Lonely Hearts Killers; Ant-Man, the latest superhero adventure from Marvel Studios; Court, an Indian drama about a political agitator standing trial for abetting a worker’s suicide; (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies, a documentary about why people prevaricate; Irrational Man, a Woody Allen drama starring Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone; Pixels, a children’s adventure in which aliens take the form of vintage video game characters in their quest to conquer the earth; Southpaw, with Jake Gyllenhaal as a light-heavyweight boxing champ who loses everything; Spencer Parsons: The Dream Is Always the Same, a program of shorts by the Northwestern University professor; and Unexpected, a fine indie drama by local writer-director Kris Swanberg.
Best bets for repertory: Orson Welles’s Chimes at Midnight (1966), Saturday and Sunday morning at Music Box; Harold Ramis’s Ghostbusters (1984), midnight Friday and Saturday at Music Box; Guy Hamilton’s Goldfinger (1964), midnight Friday and Saturday at Landmark’s Century Centre; Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), Friday, Monday, and Wednesday at Gene Siskel Film Center; Orson Welles’s Mr. Arkadin (1955), Friday at University of Chicago Doc Films; Buster Keaton’s The Navigator (1924), next Thursday at the Pickwick in Park Ridge as part of the Silent Summer Film Festival; and Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus (1960), Saturday and Tuesday at Film Center. Last but not least, Terror in the Aisles pays tribute to the late Christopher Lee on Saturday with a triple bill at the Patio: Horror of Dracula (1958), The Wicker Man (1973), and Raw Meat (1973).
Every year the city sponsors free outdoor screenings at area parks, and though most of them are the usual Hollywood crowd-pleasers, there’s also a local film component, “Chicago Onscreen,” that you might want to check out. This week offers two such programs: Change the Reel!, Sunday at Russell Square Park, and Chicago Thumbnails, Sunday at Union Park.
