Last month, Rob posted an update of the former Bank of America Cinema's transformation into the Northwest Chicago Film Society. We wanted to remind you that the reconstituted organization's screenings begin tomorrow night with a screening of Douglas Sirk's Written on the Wind at the Portage Theater. The film is about alcoholic playboy and oil tycoon scion Kyle Hadley (Robert Stack) who marries Lucy Moore (Lauren Bacall). But Hadley's poor but hard-working best friend, Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson) also pines for Lucy. Meanwhile, Kyle's sister Marylee (Dorothy Malone) is a cat on a hot tin roof who wants to scratch Mitch's post. more ›

You can't keep a good film series down. Bank of America Cinema (a.k.a. LaSalle Bank Cinema) may be gone forever from its former home at 4901 W. Irving Park Rd. (Rumor has it the building will be razed to make way for an Aldi). But it's re-inventing itself as the Northwest Chicago Film Society. A new series launches February 16, in its new home around the corner at the Portage Theater. more ›

Last Saturday night we headed out into the wind-driven sleet and caught the westbound Irving Park bus. At Cicero/Milwaukee we disembarked. Having some time to kill, we had dinner at Hong Kong Loo and then did some window shopping around the corner at Sears. And then, at 7:30, we walked over to 4901 West Irving Park Road to catch Mickey One, the second-to-last screening at the Bank of America Cinema, where movies have been shown since 1972. more ›

The programmers at Bank of America Cinema sent out an update on their facebook page last week once again confirming Time Out Chicago's reports that their current run at the Portage Park theater will end after the December 18 screening of Babes in Toyland. more ›

Only days after the official end of one film-related Chicago institution, we find ourselves on the brink of another. Time Out Chicago reports that the plug will be pulled on the Bank of America Cinema after the completion of its announced schedule on December 18. more ›

$5 ($3 if you're a kid) for a short subject, usually a chapter of a vintage serial, and a feature-length movie: who needs the multiplex anyway? Operated by cinephiles as a non-profit labor of love, Bank of America Cinema at 4901 W. Irving Park presents a stellar lineup of classics and rarities every Saturday night at 7:30pm. This weekend the main attraction is Howard Hughes' notorious "sex Western" The Outlaw, starring Walter Huston, Thomas Mitchell, and Jane Russell's cleavage. The theater has just announced the remainder of their schedule through December, and it's overstuffed with gems. more ›

• Steven Soderbergh's new film Che rolls into town tomorrow with an exclusive engagement at the Landmark Century. Starring Benicio Del Toro as the revolutionary leader, it was shot digitally by Soderbergh himself, under his usual pseudonym Peter Andrews. The "roadshow" version of the film, 263 minutes long plus an intermission, will screen twice daily (1:30pm and 7:15pm). Epic! So is the film "an immersion in the frontline existence of its subject's life" or "utterly lazy"? Check back here on Monday, when I'll be duking it out with fellow Chicagoist Samantha Abernethy in a point/counterpoint post.
• If epic Westerns are more your thing (or if you want a fresh look at someone Tarantino's been ripping off all these years) then you won't want to miss the Music Box's week-long Sergio Leone series. Once Upon A Time in the West, which has one of the all-time coolest opening sequences in movie history, will be shown in a restored 35mm print. Also featured is the Clint Eastwood "Man With No Name" Trilogy: A Fistful of Dollars; For a Few Dollars More; and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. These movies were all specifically designed for widescreen and sport chill-inducing Ennio Morricone soundtracks. Solid.
• Bank of America Cinema and its programmer Mike Phillips launched its new season earlier this month, an ambitious and playful series titled "Hollywood A-Z." The first title was The Awful Truth, which was followed by The Black Book. Get the idea? This Saturday's feature is the rarely-seen comedic drama Claudia from 1943, starring Dorothy McGuire. The epic series will conclude with the June 27th screening of Zoo in Budapest. Bank of America Cinema is at 4901 W. Irving Park Rd.; screenings are every Saturday at 8pm.

Taquerias in Chicago are so prevalent that if you can't find one, you aren't trying. Even though the good ones tend to stand out like oases in a desert, some fly just underneath the radar of the recognition they deserve. more ›

Every Saturday night you'll find the second-floor auditorium of the Bank of America on West Irving Park Road in Portage Park packed with movie lovers. They come there to see a wide-ranging program of classics, rarities and good old-fashioned popcorn movies. The weekly screenings have now been going strong for over thirty years. A hardcore base of regulars keep coming back year after year despite the encroachment of cable TV, home video and the multiplex. more ›

-- The DVD release of local indie short film You Can't Outrun Bullets is being celebrated tonight at 7:30 with a party at Strawdog Theater, 3829 N. Broadway. Stalker paranoia, fate and chance collide on a dark night when Alan bumps into a stranger at a bar, a stranger he's convinced has been following him. It's director Tim Bruns' fifth short film. It'll be shown every 30 minutes until 10:30, with snacks and a cash bar. Tickets are $10; cash only at the door. more ›