For something so acerbically observant of its time and place (mid-sixties Romania under the shadow of Ceausescu's spreading wings), Lucian Pintilie's The Reenactment seems way ahead of its time. The tale of two teenagers involved in a drunken brawl and sentenced by a magistrate to re-enact their crime for for an educational film on the dangers of alcohol is told in a style that presages the mockumentary features that made Christopher Guest a cult legend, won The Office every accolade critics were legally permitted to dispense and has now occupied the very heart of mainstream American comedy in Modern Family. more ›

This is part of Chicagoist's coverage of the Chicago International Film Festival. Most films on the subject of divorce eagerly present simple, straightforward reasons for the dissolution of a marriage. He works too much. She’s frigid. He can’t keep his hands off the ladies (or she can’t stay away from other guys.) The stress of childlessness is too much. And so on. But Radu Muntean, director and co-writer of Tuesday, After Christmas, knows that offering such reasons is too easy--in effect they're simply lies we tell ourselves as talismans against the uncertainties of sustaining relationships. “If only Couple A hadn’t done X, Y, or Z,” the thinking goes, “they’d still be together.” But real life isn’t like that. more ›

This is part of Chicagoist's continuing coverage of the 45th Chicago International Film Festival. more ›