Just when you thought Jean-Luc Godard couldn’t create any more friction—between sight and sound, between words and feeling—he’s decided to pit your left eye against your right eye with his first 3-D opus Goodbye to Language. Ben Sachs has a four-star review of the French filmmaker’s latest, screening for three weeks at Gene Siskel Film Center. We’ve also got new reviews of American Sniper, Clint Eastwood’s movie about the legendary Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, and Two Days, One Night, the latest assault on predatory capitalism by Belgian brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardennes.
Check out our new capsule reviews of: Blackhat, a cybercrime thrller from director Michael Mann (Heat, Collateral, The Insider); The Decent One, a documentary profile drawn from the private letters, diaries, and photos of the high-ranking Nazi Heinrich Himmler; A Fuller Life, an intimate portrait of the maverick Hollywood director Samuel Fuller; If You Don’t, I Will, the latest pairing of Emmanuelle Devos and Mathieu Amalric; A Most Violent Year, an excellent crime drama from J.C. Chandor (Margin Call, All Is Lost) starring Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis); Still Alice, which fetched Julianne Moore a Golden Globe for her performance as a woman fighting early Alzheimer’s; and Taken 3, with Liam Neeson bellying up to the bar for another glass of action and angst.
Best bets for repertory: Federico Fellini’s Il Bidone (1955), Wednesday at University of Chicago Doc Films; Frank Capra’s The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933), Saturday and Sunday morning at Music Box; Godard’s Contempt (1963), Saturday and Tuesday, and Vivre sa Vie (1962), Saturday and Thursday, at Film Center; Andre de Toth’s House of Wax (1953), screening in 3-D on Saturday and Tuesday at Film Center; Robert Bresson’s A Man Escaped (1956), next Thursday at Doc Films; Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Friday and Sunday at Doc; and Dusan Makavejev’s WR: Mysteries of the Organism (1971), Sunday at Doc.
Procrastinators of the world, unite! Yeah, we can do it later, I guess. But take note: there’s still time for you to catch three critics’ darlings from 2014: Force Majeure, Gone Girl, and The Overnighters.
