Though the Academy Awards pitched a shutout to the Coen brothers' remake of a genuine classic Western, True Grit, it amassed critical plaudits as quickly as any genre title in recent memory (to the tune of a 95% Tomatometer score) and has earned nearly $170 million for Paramount to date. Today, we have some confirmation that Qentin Tarantino is apparently now making a spaghetti Western. Though the Western seems to be enjoying some slightly rehabilitated cachet, it is never again going to be a vital node in the cinematic organism, even as some blood gets pumped into it every few years or so in a spasm of revisionism. With that in mind, why not turn to perhaps the greatest revisionist Western of them all, Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man? more ›

Composer John Cage liked to quote a Zen saying: "If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, try it for eight, sixteen, thirty-two, and so on. Eventually one discovers that it's not boring at all but very interesting." Jim Jarmusch seems to have taken that as his modus operandi for his new movie, The Limits of Control, opening today at Piper's Alley. more ›

Squeezed in between Adrianne Curry and the newest Miss America (mmmm…), Terry Armour's column offered a sneak peek into movies that will be filming in Chicago in 2006. Armour predicts 2006 is going to be a slim year for film and television productions. He notes that Barbershop producers Bob Teitel and George Tillman’s My Ride With Gus is “in limbo.” But this is likely due to new projects both have in the works: an untitled... more ›

Even if Bill Murray wasn’t originally from the Chicago area, we’d still plan on seeing his latest collaboration with Jim Jarmusch, Broken Flowers, which hits Piper’s Alley and the AMC River East this weekend. Chicagoist has long believed that the way to tell the really compelling actors from the lousy ones is with The Phone Book Test. That is, if an actor is really good then listening to them read the phone book will still... more ›

The once mighty Wu-Tang Clan are, sadly, all starting to go their separate ways. RZA is now off scoring movies � like Tarantino�s Kill Bill � and, with cohort GZA, busy making cameo appearances with Bill Murray ("Bill Murray!") in Jim Jarmusch movies and on segments of Chappelle�s Show. Method Man can currently be seen on the silver screen - and alongside Tom Arnold - in Soul Plane and the small screen in Fox�s Method & Red. (The latter show will probably be canceled after a few episodes. Isn�t that Fox�s standard procedure with sitcoms these days?) Ol� Dirty Bastard is out of jail and on Jay-Z�s Roc-A-Fella label. Ghostface Killah, meanwhile � now just innocently known as Ghostface, probably to appeal to the kids � continues to forge on and actually make music. He�ll bring his powerful MC skillz � Chicagoist hereby promises to never write that word again � to the House of Blues tonight. Tickets are $22.
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There�s just too much good stuff going on this weekend to sit inside and enjoy the air-conditioning. And most of this good stuff is happening at two places: the Metro and the Music Box. So Chicagoist suggests you just camp out on the North Side for the next few days. Tonight, Metro has the MC5 reunion tour (with Lemonhead Evan Dando thrown in for good measure) and hyped young bands Franz Ferdinand tomorrow (in a sold-out show, sorry procrastinating hipsters) and the Secret Machines on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Music Box � as part of their great Weekend Matinee series � will show Jim Jarmusch�s wonderful Canterbury Tales-inspired Mystery Train on Saturday and Sunday, and play Wes Anderson�s droll, under-appreciated Bottle Rocket tonight and tomorrow at midnight. Trust us, with so much hip music and deadpan comedy, you�ll feel cool enough without your beloved A.C.
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Today finally sees the local release of Jim Jarmusch�s concept album on celluloid, Coffee and Cigarettes. A longtime Chicagoist favorite, Jarmusch has been making stylized, deadpan fish-out-of-water comedies for over twenty years now. (If you happen to have $40 still lying around � and what unemployed, blog-checking Chicagoan doesn�t? � do yourself a favor and buy Criterion�s DVD edition of his hilarious Down By Law.) This latest effort, eighteen years in the making, collects a number of shorts that capture people � and by �people,� we mean Iggy Pop or Roberto Benigni � just sitting around and enjoying the titular indulgences. Some of the sketches drag, mainly those in the middle starring non-famous people, but the good ones � namely those with pseudo-cousins Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan, married siblings Jack and Meg White, Bill Murray and Wu-Tang Clansmen RZA and GZA, and icons Bill Rice and Taylor Mead � really sizzle. It starts an exclusive engagement at the Music Box today. Chicagoist will be there, wondering why great movies open in our city weeks after playing to the philistines in New York and L.A. more ›