The Chicago International Film Festival is now in progress at River East 21 and other local venues. Check out our feature on Rebecca Parrish, whose feature documentary debut Radical Grace screens at this year’s fest, and our festival roundup, with capsule reviews of two dozen features through Thursday, October 29 (including Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Assassin, Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan, Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years, Thomas McCarthy’s Spotlight, and Michael Moore’s Where to Invade Next).
More new stuff screening this week: The Animation Show of Shows at Gene Siskel Film Center, with new work by Don Hertzfeldt (Everything Will Be OK); Beasts of No Nation, Cary Fukunaga’s drama about a child soldier, with Idris Elba as his commander; The Big Broadcast, a 1932 musical comedy with Bing Crosby, Cab Calloway, the Mills Brothers, and George Burns and Gracie Allen; Bridge of Spies, Steven Spielberg’s fascinating cold war drama starring Tom Hanks; Crimson Peak, the latest gothic horror film from Guillermo del Toro; Her Sister’s Secret, a little-seen gem from low-rent auteur Edgar G. Ulmer; and Steve Jobs, starring Michael Fassbender as the monomaniacal tech guru.
Best bets for repertory: Wim Wenders’s Buena Vista Social Club (1999), Friday and Saturday at Gene Siskel Film Center; Brian De Palma’s Carrie (1976), midnight Friday and Saturday at Music Box; Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974), Thursday at Northwestern University Block Museum of Art; Martin Scorsese’s Hugo (2011), Sunday at the Chicago International Film Festival; William Wyler’s Jezebel (1938), Sunday at University of Chicago Doc Films; The Last Picture Show (1971), Friday and Sunday at Doc; Elaine May’s A New Leaf (1971), Wednesday at Northeastern Illinois University Auditorium; The Quay Brothers in 35mm, including a documentary on the brothers by Christopher Nolan, at Music Box; and Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal (1957), Wednesday at Doc, and early short films by Wim Wenders at Film Center.
Don’t forget these special events: on Saturday morning, Chicago Film Archives and Northwest Chicago Film Society host an open screening of celluloid home movies at the Chicago History Museum; at noon on Saturday, Terror in the Aisles kicks off its annual 24-hour horror marathon, The Massacre, at the Patio; and on Tuesday the Music Box welcomes author Naomi Klein for a screening of the documentary This Changes Everything, based on her book.
