The four new classes starting in March offer the chance to dive into the deep end of the cinema pool. more ›

From high-profile releases to film sales to schlock, we've got you covered. more ›

Starting Nov. 11, Facets Film School presents "Karloff: The Gentleman Monster," six weeks of Boris Karloff's prime screen roles. more ›

$5 gets you into the midnight screening as well as a pre-movie lecture, a selection of grindhouse and cult movie trailers, a post-screening discussion, and a packet of information about that evening's film. more ›

Netflix's 60% rate hike went over like a lead balloon. Unfortunately, CEO Reed Hastings doesn't quit while he's ahead. more ›

We've selected four recommendations over the weekend to get out and watch a film with the opportunity to talk about it afterwards. more ›

For those of you kvetching about Netflix's subscription increases, now is a great time to consider Chicago's own video-by-mail option. more ›

Film geeks' weakness for any movie which toys knowingly with its genre is well known. If it's "revisionist," we're probably going to try and convince you to see it. If one set of generic conventions gets mangled up with the those of another, we'll fall all over ourselves to map the mash-up. And if we learn to interpret the world fundamentally through the codes of genre, we end up... becoming Quentin Tarantino. more ›

A new cult movie just ended its "run" in New York, and we fervently hope that it'll be coming soon to a theater near us. Quote-unquote run because the movie in question, The Clock by Christian Marclay, is technically an art installation. It ran for a month at the Paula Cooper Gallery, drawing capacity crowds even during its round-the-clock weekend screenings. more ›

Taken from his home along with his wife and daughter, sentenced to prison for six years, and banned from filmmaking for 20 years, filmmaker Jafar Panahi is paying a price for free expression that most of us can only imagine. What exactly was so threatening about his movie that the Iranian government handed out such a stiff penalty? It's impossible to say, because the movie was not even half-way completed at the time of the filmmaker's arrest. more ›

In December Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasulov were sentenced by the Iranian government to six years in prison for the crime of "conspiring against the ruling system." The two Iranian filmmakers have also been banned from film-making for twenty years. Various online petitions and open letters have been circulating in support of their release, including one by fellow Iranian filmmaker Rafi Pitts. more ›

Even as we anticipate this year's CIFF (and keep your eyes peeled Wednesday morning for our take on the full schedule) some of the films featured in last year's festival are now trickling in theaters and on video. One of them, Air Doll, screens through Thursday at Facets. more ›

• We'd be amiss if we didn't urge you to catch an encore presentation of The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans at the Siskel this weekend. It screens once on Sunday and again Monday night. Seeing it last year was hands down one of the funnest times we've ever had at the movies, a guilty pleasure consciously overstuffed with so many cop movie clichés it's hilarious. The paring of filmmaker Werner Herzog's dry-as-dust humor and Nicholas Cage's unhinged performance is stuff that cult films are made of. Along with the iguana. When you go, keep your eyes peeled for a cameo by Michael Shannon.
• The 2010 Chaz and Roger Ebert Truer than Fiction Award-winner, 45365, screens this Saturday and Sunday at Facets. Named after the zip code for Sidney, Ohio, this documentary by brothers Bill and Turner Ross examines 21st-century small town America in ways that are both heartwarming and surprising. TimeOut London calls it "a dizzingly detailed, thoughtful, sympathetic but highly pragmatic celebration of the modern Midwest in all its beauty, complexity, stupidity and brilliance," and gives the movie its highest rating.
• Speaking of Mr. Ebert, in a recent blog post he confirms plans for a new TV show. He's a bit coy, writing, "I can't reveal details about the talks we're deeply involved in," but promises that "the Thumbs will return." Yes, Thumbs with a capital T.

Facets and the Chicago International Children's Film Festival (CICFF) are in search for several teens, ages 13-17, to serve as Facets Film Ambassadors and travel abroad as international film festival youth delegates. more ›

Sometimes a smorgasbord is the best way to consume information, so ... more ›

Don't kid yourself. Anyone who says summer is the best time of year in Chicago is a rotten liar. Autumn is matchless. Especially if you're a movie watcher. From now through Thanksgiving (when Hollywood's Holiday/Oscar assault begins in earnest) an embarrassment of cinematic variety is yours for the taking. Your stamina and your wallet's size are your only limitations. more ›

Ah, the shopping mall: food courts, chain stores, erstwhile home to zombie uprisings and Tiffany concerts (specifically "The Beautiful You: Celebrating The Good Life Shopping Mall Tour '87"). The first enclosed shopping center, Southdale Mall in Edina, Minnesota (shown above), opened in 1956. Since then they've spread to practically every corner of the globe. In fact the world's largest malls are now in Asia, dwarfing their North American ancestors. Aside from McDonald's perhaps no other American innovation has been so equally reviled and embraced. more ›

One of our very favorite pop culturists, for more than a decade Nathan Rabin has been head writer for The Onion A.V. Club. He's equally at home writing about Epic Movie or western swing, and you don't want to be on the receiving end of his wicked sarcasm when it's time to mete out a takedown. more ›

Every man, woman and child in the Chicago-area will probably either go see Public Enemies (and watch for our review tomorrow) or Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at the movies this weekend, but there are a ton of cinematic alternatives available. Because, you know, there's more to America than murderous gangsters and robots. Such as: more ›

One of the very best films we saw last year is getting an encore presentation this weekend at Facets. And if anything, Wendy and Lucy is more crucial now than when we saw it last October at CIFF. Its portrait of folks living on the margins of society, with tenuous means of support, feels more like a documentary than ever. more ›

Think of a film series as a mixtape that you listen to one song at a time, once a week. Each title enriches the previous ones, and experiencing them in sequence means a heightened appreciation for all of them. Two upcoming series offer a great chance to see some classic (and not-so-classic) movies in context. more ›

Thousands of DVDs for you to choose from can be sent straight to your mailbox with a few clicks of your mouse. Netflix is awesome. It's also a soulless corporate empire. Like binging at McDonald's, it simultaneously appears to fill a need while leaves you wanting. Surely there has to be something better out there. more ›

A whole lot more than just the Oscars comin' up. For instance: more ›

Beginning next Friday, Facets is hosting an unprecedented retrospective of films dealing with the roiling events of the late '60s. In fact there are so many amazing titles included in the lineup that it's a shame we have to settle for a summary. The epicenter of "40 Years After: Filming the '68 Revolution" is Chicago's 1968 Democratic National Convention, when thousands of protesters and police in riot gear clashed on Michigan Avenue. Several programs of vintage shorts by the likes of Kartemquin Films and Tom Pallazolo are featured as well as the crucial semifictional masterwork Medium Cool. It's the definitive look at Richard J. Daley's Chicago. If you haven't seen Medium Cool yet, you'd better be there on Thursday, August 28. more ›

Since retiring from the Reader earlier this year, Jonathan Rosenbaum has been as busy as ever. He's finishing up his film lecture series at the Siskel, which includes the upcoming screenings of Play Time, his all-time favorite movie. (For a great list, check out his Alternate Top 100 Films/Movies). And his website is now up and running. It's bulging with content dating back to 1987 and also features a Publications and Events section. more ›

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