Limited runs and special events:
— Adler Planetarium – (312) 322-0548: SonicVision – Open-ended run
— Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E Randolph, (312) 744-6630: 'Tearing Mother Apart: the Films of Arturo Ripstein and Paz Alicia Garciadiego' - May 6
— Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State Street, (312) 846-2800: Gender at the Edge: Three Films by Michele Mahoney 1995-2003 – Midwestern Hospitality, Acrobats And Sword-Swallowers, and The Undergrad –Apr. 22. A Day On The Force – Documentary 'celebration of the Chicago Force Professional Women's Tackle football team.' Directed by Ronit Bezalel and others. – Apr. 30 and May 2
— Horticultural Hall (Lake Geneva) – (262) 740-BPFF: Black Point Film Festival - Apr. 21-25
— Music Box, 3733 N. Southport, (773) 871-6604: Midnight movies: Hedwig and the Angry Inch – Apr. 30, May 1
— Navy Pier IMAX Theatre, (312) 595-5MAX (5629): Nascar: The IMAX Experience 3D, Ocean Wonderland 3D
— 20th Anniversary Chicago Latino Film Festival: 20th Anniversary Chicago Latino Film Festival: thru April 28. Festival screening take place in Chicago at the Biograph Theater (2433 N. Lincoln Ave.), 3 Penny Cinema (2424 N. Lincoln Ave.), Facets Multimedia (1517 W. Fullerton) and a variety of community centers and universities in the area. The complete film schedule will be available at www.latinoculturalcenter.org, (312) 409-1757.
In Theaters
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (Miramax) – After the sensational set-up of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Kill Bill: Vol. 2 answers practically every question (such as how Elle lost her eye), raises a few new ones (such as what did The Bride see in Bill) and even leaves the door wide open for Vol. 3. After exacting violent revenge on former assassin-squad associates Vernita Green/Copperhead (Vivica A. Fox) and O-Ren Ishii/Cottonmouth (Lucy Liu), The Bride/Black Mamba (Uma Thurman), who survived her wedding rehearsal massacre, sets her sites on Elle/California Mountain Snake (the eye-patch wearing Daryl Hannah), Bill's brother Budd/Sidewinder (Michael Madsen), and of course, her ex-lover and the father of her child, Bill (David Carradine). Anticipating her arrival, the resourceful and ruthless Budd turns the tables on The Bride, buries her alive and stands to make a million dollars with the sale of The Bride's priceless Hanzo sword to Elle. Nothing goes as planned and The Bride uses her training at the hands of beard-stroking master Pai Mei (Gordon Liu), which we learn of in an extended flashback, to escape almost certain death and continue on her quest. Meanwhile, Elle plays her own evil trick on Budd, and soon the two femme fatales have a face-off that rivals anything that has preceded it. The Bride's confrontation with Bill also includes a reunion with the daughter that she never met, born while she was in a coma, and results in something of a Tarantino version of a happy ending. The summation brings together Tarantino's various influences (Westerns, martial arts movies), and while it could be trimmed by about 30 minutes, this sequel is a voluminously satisfying, shocking, and unforgettable. (B+)
Young Adam (Sony Pictures Classics) – While working on a barge in post World War II Scotland, a series of events occur which force Joe (Ewan McGregor) to reconsider the meaningless of his life up until that time. The movie opens with a shot of Joe and his boss Les (Peter Mullan) discovering a woman's dead body floating near where the barge is docked. As the movie unfolds, we learn, through a series of flashbacks, that the dead woman, Cathy (Emily Mortimer), had a connection to Joe. While this story within a story takes place, Joe begins a torrid sexual affair with Les's sullen wife Ella (longtime friend and supporter of the LGBT community Tilda Swinton), who becomes infused with light and lust as the sexually daring duo becomes more brazen. But Joe's considerable lack of morals in regards to his relationship with Cathy soon surfaces in his relationship with Ella and he once again finds himself at a crossroads. The sexually graphic nature of this movie, including a full-frontal nude shot of McGregor, has forced it to be slapped with an NC-17 rating. Why it is perfectly acceptable to see a completely naked female body and a completely naked male body (with a flaccid penis) causes the MPAA to bite its nails and lash out, is beyond me. (B)
On DVD:
Dirty Pretty Things (Miramax Home Entertainment) - Stephen Frears, director of gay-themed films My Beautiful Laundrette and Prick Up Your Ears, as well as The Grifters and High Fidelity, returns to the gritty side of London life that he has captured on film so well in the past for this disturbing, yet rewarding, movie about 'the people you don't see.' Juan (Sergi Lopez), called Sneaky by his employees, is the sleazy manager of The Baltic Hotel. Many of the people employed in the hotel are illegal immigrants, two of whom include Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a doctor in his native Nigeria, who now drives a cab during the day and works the hotel's front desk at night, and Senay (Audrey Tautou), a devout Muslim, who left Turkey so that she wouldn't have to be like her mother, working as a hotel maid. After discovering a human heart in one of the hotel toilets, Okwe learns that Juan has employed a butcher of a surgeon so that he can sell his illegal employees' kidneys in exchange for passports, work visas and new identities. Upon ascertaining that Okwe is a doctor, and uncovering the mysterious reasons for his departure from his homeland, Juan tries to pressure him into performing the surgeries so that he may also afford a new identity. The movie's title, a reference to the 'dirty things' that take place in a hotel at night, and the way it is made 'pretty' for the newly arrived guests, is also a metaphor for the things that people living in less fortunate economic circumstances will do to stay alive. The DVD includes a behind-the-scenes special and director Stephen Frears's feature commentary. (A-)
The Magdalene Sisters (Miramax Home Entertainment) - Based on actual events that occurred in convents run by the Magdalene order of nuns across Ireland, The Magdalene Sisters is a stunningly well-acted dramatization. Though set in the early 1960s, writer and director Peter Mullan has crafted a near-Dickensian world. Three women—Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff), who was raped by a cousin at a family wedding; Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone), an orphan who has a reputation for harmlessly flirting with boys; and Rose (Dorothy Duffy), who has a baby out of wedlock—are abandoned by their families and caretakers and sent to live with the Sisters and work in the Magdalene laundries. They are deprived of their rights to see anyone, and Rose has her name taken from her by the embittered, tight-fisted, physically and psychologically abusive Sister Bridget (Geraldine McEwan), and becomes Patricia because there is already a Rose. The women are basically brainwashed into subservience. One young woman, the kind, but slightly mentally handicapped Crispina, is a particular target of abuse. There are also hints of the lesbianism, which we see when a pair of nuns rate the women's breasts and pubic areas following a group shower. Harrowing and moving, The Magdalene Sisters resounds like an answered prayer. The DVD includes 'Sex In A Cold Climate,' an 'acclaimed original expose'.' (A-)
On TV:
here! Pay-Per-View—showing in April: The Trip, Under One Roof, Coming Out Party Sundance—The Monkey's Mask – Apr. 27, Water Drops on Burning Rocks - Apr. 27
