Limited runs and special events:
39th Chicago International Film Festival – (312) 332-FILM: @ Landmark Century Center Cinema, 2828 N Clark and @ Music Box Theater, 3733 N. Southport - Oct. 15-16
Shattered Glass (Lions Gate), the impressive directorial debut of screenwriter Billy Ray, has an unusual distinction among the movies being shown at the film festival. Several of the lead and supporting cast members have starred in movies in which they have either played a gay character or the main character has been gay. Based on an article in Vanity Fair, which exposed young and rising journalist, and Highland Park High School graduate, Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen), a staff writer at the New Republic and contributing writer to Rolling Stone, Harper's and others, as having concocted a majority of his pieces, Shattered Glass is a depiction of the levels to which someone will go when they are under undue amounts of familial pressure and how trust can be irreparably damaged. The sexually ambiguous Glass is even taken for gay and tells the story of finding himself on the corner of 18th and T, in Washington, D.C., with a man's tongue halfway down his throat. The cast includes Peter Sarsgaard (Boys Don't Cry) as Glass's New Republic co-worker and subsequent editor Chuck Lane; Hank Azaria (The Birdcage) as Glass's former New Republic editor Michael Kelly; Steve Zahn (Happy, Texas, The Object of My Affection) as Adam Penenberg, a writer at Forbes Digital, who initially uncovers the discrepancies in Glass's work; and Chloe Sevigny (Party Monster, Boys Don't Cry, If These Walls Could Talk 2), Melanie Lynskey (Heavenly Creatures, But I'm A Cheerleader), and Luke Kirby (Mambo Italiano, Lost and Delirious), as fellow New Republic staff writers and editors who fall under Glass's spell. (Oct. 16 at the Music Box)
@ Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph, (312) 744-6630: 'International Dinner & a Movie' – The Third Man – Nov. 18 (cuisine by Kasia's Deli); 39 Steps – Jan. 20 (cuisine by Bob Chinn's Crabhouse); Home Movie – Mar. 23 (cuisine by Polo Café & Catering); Vengo – May 18 (cuisine by Los Dos Laredos) ; Con Un Punal En El Corazon: Gay Eros in the Land of Machos film series – Que Te Ha Dado Esa Mujer (What Has That Woman Done To You?) – Oct. 23
@ Facets Multi-Media, 1517 W. Fullerton, (800) 532-2387: Chicago International Children's Film Festival – Oct. 23 – Nov. 2
@ Ferguson Theater/Columbia College, 600 S. Michigan Ave., (312) 344-7812 (event info only): Con Un Punal En El Corazon: Gay Eros in the Land of Machos film series – Y Tu Mama Tambien – Oct. 30
@ Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, (312) 846-2600: Theater series featuring the 1973 adaptations of plays into movies: Galileo – Oct. 20; The Maids – Oct. 24, 27, 28; The Man In The Glass Booth – Oct. 24, 27; The Iceman Cometh – Oct. 25, 29, Nov. 5; In Celebration – Oct. 26, 28, 30; The Party's Over – Political documentary hosted by Philip Seymour Hoffman, featuring Susan Sarandon and others – Oct. 15 & 16; In The Mirror of Maya Deren – Oct. 31, Nov. 1-6; Nina Simone, Love Sorceress – Oct. 31, Nov. 3; The Films of Maya Deren – Nov. 3, 5; 21 Grams, Sean Penn, Naomi Watts – Nov. 6
@ Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State, (312) 747-4050: The Deer Hunter – Oct. 18; Regret To Inform – Oct. 25
@ Lewis University, One University Parkway, Romeoville, (815) 836-5291: Latino Film Festival – American Me – Oct. 15
In theaters:
Mambo Italiano (I D P): Mambo Italiano, like both My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Kissing Jessica Stein, started out as a theater piece, so comparisons are inevitable. Also, the whole ethnic shtick makes association unavoidable. Still, there are plenty of reasons to like and recommend Mambo Italiano. Cute and closeted 27-year-old Angelo (Luke Kirby) still lives at home with his parents Gino (Paul Sorvino) and Maria (Ginette Reno) and his sister Anna (Claudia Ferri). A phone call to a gay helpline gives Angelo the courage he needs to come out to his parents, but not before he fills the viewer in on some details of his past. One of the most significant details is Nino (Peter Miller), a childhood best friend who abandoned Angelo at a critical time in their youth in favor of the macho bullies who tormented him. Years later, after Angelo moved out of his parents home and into an apartment that is burglarized, the childhood friends are reunited as Nino is now a police officer assigned to the case. Past insults are forgotten and the two old friends are once again thick as thieves. On a camping trip, the pair discovers they have more in common than they thought, including a mutual sexual attraction. At a pivotal point in their relationship, Nino rejects the idea, and eventually Angelo, returning home to the comfort of his mother Lina (Mary Walsh) and then into the arms of a woman named Pina (Sophie Lorain). Angelo does what he can to get on with his life. At turns laugh-out-loud funny and bittersweet, Mambo teaches the audience some new dance steps, and offers an entertaining refresher course in other, more familiar moves. (B)
Mystic River (Warner Brothers) – A traumatic and terrible childhood event, involving an abduction and sexual molestation, still clouds the lives of three estranged friends in a blue-collar Boston neighborhood in director Clint Eastwood's heavy-handed film adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel. As children, while writing their names in wet cement, Jimmy, Sean and Dave are caught by two men posing as police officers. The men persuade Dave to get into their car so that they could drive him home and tell his mother what he did. In reality, the two men are pedophiles who abduct Dave, keep him in a cellar and molest him for four days. Twenty-five years later and Jimmy (Sean Penn), Sean (Kevin Bacon) and Dave (Tim Robbins) are grown men with families. Jimmy runs a neighborhood store and Katie (Emmy Rossum), his 19-year-old daughter from his first marriage, works there. When Katie turns up missing, Jimmy has an uneasy feeling. At the same time, Sean, a police officer with the Massachusetts State Police, is investigating the discovery of a blood-stained car in the same neighborhood which turns out to be Katie's, and moments later her dead body is discovered. Meanwhile, Dave, who never fully recovered from his childhood ordeal, comes home at 3 in the morning on the night of Katie's murder, with someone else's blood on his hands, which causes his unstable wife Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden) to become more than a little suspicious. As mysteries go, Mystic River is deep with suspense, but Eastwood's redundant direction and his overpowering score (he's a composer too), often interfere with storytelling. Still, Penn, Robbins and Bacon turn in career-high performances. (B)
On TV:
here! Pay-Per-View (now available): Sordid Lives; Food Of Love; Circuit; The Brotherhood (airdate: Oct. 31); Voodoo Academy; When Boys Fly (coming soon); The Business of Fancy Dancing (coming soon)
Sundance Channel (check local listings for times) – E Minha Cara / That's My Face - Oct. 25, 30; Priest – Oct. 21; The Sum of Us – Oct. 17, 22, 25; The Adventures of Sebastian Cole – Oct. 15, 23, 28; Fire - Oct. 25, 30; My Beautiful Laundrette – Oct. 22, 28; Get Real – Oct. 16, 19, 22, 28; Aimee & Jaguar – Oct. 19, 24, 30; 'Shorts Out Loud 4': Sleeping Beauties, Stuck, An Early Frost (Gelee precoce), lesbianfilm, Beautiful… – Oct. 19
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