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‘Definitely, Maybe’ Borrows From Successful Romantic Comedies, Adds Fresh Hook
CHICAGO– The makers of “Love Actually” and “Notting Hill” know how to do romantic comedy that doesn’t somehow fall into the trap of a formulaic chick flick like “27 Dresses”. “Definitely, Maybe,” which...
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Blueberries Meet Luscious Taste Buds in ‘My Blueberry Nights’ With Jude Law,...
CHICAGO– We see sensual close-up shots of blueberry pie overflow with aqueducts of vanilla ice cream in Wong Kar-Wai’s opening sequence of “My Blueberry Nights”. This dreamy scene sets the tone of the...
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Rachel Weisz Anchors Melodrama of ‘The Whistleblower’
Rating: 3.5/5.0CHICAGO– Rachel Weisz elevates the harrowing true story of “The Whistleblower,” a pull-no-punches drama about a disturbing international conspiracy to cover up a sex trafficking ring...
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Not Much to Build Upon in Vague ‘Dream House’
Rating: 2.5/5.0CHICAGO– Mixing three actors with great reputations – Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts – with Jim Sheridan, a six time Oscar nominated director, would assume to yield some...
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Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston Bare Their Souls in ‘The Deep Blue Sea’
Rating: 3.5/5.0CHICAGO– Terence Davies’ “The Deep Blue Sea” has been earning raves around the world for its dramatic portrayal of doomed love. Personally, I found the film more inert than engaging but...
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Jeremy Renner Propels Clever ‘The Bourne Legacy’
Rating: 3.5/5.0CHICAGO– Tony Gilroy’s world of double crosses, super spies, and covert government programs returns in the writer/director’s clever expansion of the world he created as the writer of...
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Story Dims Visionary ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’
Rating: 3.5/5.0CHICAGO– “Oz the Great and Powerful” is a great and powerful visual and 3D experience. It expands the landscape of what cinema can produce in a visceral and evolutionary way. But a great...
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Elegant, Delicate Emotions Are Forged in ‘Youth’
Rating: 5.0/5.0CHICAGO– When a film tries to be philosophical, it easily can devolve into heavy handedness. But the exception is the latest from writer/director Paolo Sorrentino, the richly presented...
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Strong Cast Turns on ‘The Light Between Oceans’
Rating: 3.0/5.0CHICAGO– In the early 1970s, “Love Story” was all the rage, with its catchphrase “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Just as sudsy, and with its own catchphrase, is “The Light...
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Strange Story of ‘Disobedience’ is Constant Distraction
Rating: 3.0/5.0CHICAGO– The director Sebastían Lelio is no stranger to oddball human stories. His 2017 film, “A Fantastic Woman” – the Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film – was a one-of-a-kind...
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A Hilarious Combination of Crass and Class in ‘The Favourite’
Rating: 4.5/5.0CHICAGO– Looking through auteur Yorgos Lanthimos’ filmography, you’ll recognize a style that combines both visual beauty and narrative absurdism. The Lanthimos effect, or Lanthimo-nium...
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Fists of Feminism! On-Air Review of ‘Black Widow’
Rating: 3.5/5.0CHICAGO– Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on July 8th, 2021, reviewing the latest film in the...
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