Pawel Pawlikowski’s commanding spiritual drama Ida opens this week at Music Box, distributed in the U.S. by the local outfit Music Box Films; congrats to them for landing one of the best movies of the year. Also in this week’s issue, Ben Sachs considers the mise-en-scene of the new Godzilla movie, and we have recommended reviews of The Cold Lands, a fine indie drama about a teenager who sets out on his own after his mother dies; The Immigrant, an Ellis Island story from writer-director James Gray (Two Lovers); and Pharaoh, a Polish drama from the 60s, set in ancient Egypt, that screens at Gene Siskel Film Center as part of the ongoing survey of Polish cinema curated by Martin Scorsese.
So what else are you looking for? Blended, the latest Adam Sandler-Drew Barrymore matchup? Eroica, that Polish black comedy about men in a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp? Fed Up, the new documentary about the U.S. obesity epidemic, produced by Laurie David (An Inconvenient Truth) and narrated by Katie Couric? God’s Pocket, one of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last films, adapted from a Pete Dexter novel? Ilo Ilo, the Singaporean drama about a bratty kid and his maid that won the Camera d’Or at Cannes? Jellyfish Eyes, the kids’ fantasy by Japanese visual artist Takashi Murakami, showing at Museum of Contemporary Art in a sold-out screening? Yeah, we’ve got those.
Best bets for repertory: Adam McKay’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), Friday and Saturday at the Logan; Giorgos Lanthimos’s Dogtooth (2009), next Thursday at University of Chicago Doc Films; Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) in a Monday matinee at the Logan; the original Godzilla (1954), daily at Music Box; Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), Saturday and Sunday morning at Music Box; Ernst Lubitsch’s The Shop Around the Corner (1940), Sunday at Doc; Andrew Stanton’s WALL-E (2008), Friday through Sunday at Doc; and Alain Resnais’s You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet (2012), next Thursday at Doc.
If you don’t like any of these options, you can bring your own film to Chicago Filmmakers’ open screening on Saturday. And don’t forget local musician Tatsu Aoki, presenting experimental films and live musical performance on Friday at Logan Center for the Arts.
