Xavier Dolan’s Tom at the Farm, which screened here last September as part of Reeling: The Chicago LGBT International Film Festival, returns to Chicago for a weeklong run at Gene Siskel Film Center; like Dolan’s lauded debut feature, I Killed My Mother, and Cannes prizewinner Mommy, it’s about a mother who can’t let go. Our review is here. Also this week, Ben Sachs looks at Tokyo Tribe, the latest arty gore fest from Japanese director Sion Sono.
Check out our new capsule reviews of: The Diary of a Teenage Girl, a big-screen adaptation of Phoebe Gloeckner’s acclaimed graphic novel; Fantastic Four, more horseshit from the pages of Marvel Comics; The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer’s sequel to his superb human-rights documentary The Act of Killing; The Man From U.N.C.L.E., adapted from the 60s spy series by Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Sherlock Holmes); Phoenix, a suspense drama set in postwar Germany from director Christian Petzold (Jerichow); Prince, a drama from the Netherlands about a mixed-race kid taken under the wing of a psychopathic thug; The Prophet, an animated film based on the Kahlil Gibran book, with segments by Tomm Moore, Bill Plympton, Nina Paley, and others; Tango Negro: The African Roots of Tango, which traces the Latino art form back to its African birthplace; and White Water, a children’s drama about a black boy in Alabama during the waning days of legal segregation, screening as part of the Black Harvest Film Festival at Film Center.
Best bets for repertory: Anthony Mann’s Bend of the River (1952), Wednesday at Northeastern Illinois University Fine Arts Auditorium; Otto Preminger’s Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965), Saturday and Thursday at Film Center; Alfred Hitchcock’s Family Plot (1976), Saturday at University of Chicago Doc Films; Grandma’s Boy (1922) with Harold Lloyd, next Thursday at the Pickwick in Park Ridge as part of the Silent Summer Film Festival; George Miller’s The Road Warrior (1981), midnight Friday and Saturday at Landmark’s Century Centre; Orson Welles’s Mr. Arkadin (1955), with matinees Saturday and Sunday at Music Box; and Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954), Wednesday at Northbrook Public Library.
