This week Ben Sachs reviews Captive, a “faith-based” drama about an Atlanta meth head (Kate Mara) who finds the strength to kick her habit after she’s taken hostage by an escaped convict (David Oyelowo). And we’ve got new reviews of: The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, a documentary about the black-power radicals; A Brilliant Young Mind, a British drama about young math prodigies, starring Sally Hawkins and Eddie Marsan; Goodnight Mommy, an Austrian horror movie about malevolent twins who decide that their mother is an impostor; The Intern, with Anne Hathaway as a millennial overachiever and Robert De Niro as the retiree who becomes her office intern; On Broadway, with Joey McIntyre of New Kids on the Block as a carpenter who decides he wants to become a star; Sicario, a brutal thriller about the drug cartels, starring Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, and Benicio Del Toro; Stonewall, a drama set during the 1969 riots in Greenwich Village that catalyzed the gay-rights movement; and Wildlike, an indie drama about a 14-year-old runaway who’s befriended by a solitary hiker (Bruce Greenwood).
Best bets for repertory: Eric Rohmer’s The Aviator’s Wife (1981), Monday at University of Chicago Doc Films; Ridley Scott’s “final cut” of Blade Runner (1982), next Thursday at Doc; the silent version of Chicago (1927), Wednesday for free admission at Northbrook Public Library, with live piano accompaniment by David Drazin; Bob Rafelson’s Five Easy Pieces (1970), next Thursday at Northwestern University Block Museum of Art; Alfred Hitchcock’s I Confess (1953), Friday and Tuesday at Film Center, the latter screening with a lecture by Fred Camper; Jean-Luc Godard’s A Married Woman (1964), daily at Film Center; Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan (1990), Saturday through Monday at Film Center with a Skype appearance by Stillman on Saturday; Ingmar Bergman’s Monika (1953), Wednesday at Doc, and Gordon Parks’s
World of Piri Thomas (1968), plus two more of his shorts, Thursday at Doc.
A gaggle of special events this week: Bathtub Songs: And Other Extracurricular Activities, Wednesday at Hideout; Killa (The Fort) on opening night of the Chicago South Asian Film Festival, Thursday at Showplace ICON; The Damned: Don’t You Wish That We Were Dead, Sunday and Monday at the Vic; Dancing & Drowning: Animations From Kate Raney & Jeremy Bessoff, Saturday at Chicago Filmmakers; In Search of the Black Knight on Friday and Kinosonik on Sunday at Black Cinema House; Manhattan Short Film Festival at the Wilmette theater; and, kicking off the Film Center’s “Conversations at the Edge” fall series on Thursday, Wayne Boyer and Larry Janiak: Camera and Line.
