Movie Roundup

By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 26, 2009 3:20PM

Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone

• Screening now through Thursday at the Music Box is a movie about 100% better than Transformers. Not that that's too hard to conceive, but Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone has enough subwoofer-blasting action sequences to please any giant robot fan. A reboot of the mid-90's anime sensation, it centers around the threatened destruction of futuristic city Toyko-3 (and humanity itself) by mysterious aliens known as Angels. Only mopey but brilliant emo kid Shinji has the piloting skills to save the day. Plot and character take a backseat to strikingly rendered architectural and mechanical details.
• The 26th Annual Chicago International Children's Film Festival ends next weekend but there are still dozens of films left to catch. And best of all, screenings are held at locations all over Chicago Take a look at the schedule, pry your small fry away from Disney crap and go see something different!
• Loud, stupid, fast ... but also fun. Paul Bartel's Death Race 2000 is the original cheerfully vulgar road rage comedy and it gets a nice 35mm screening this Thursday night at Doc Films in Hyde Park. Sylvester Stallone pumps a machine gun and David Carradine plays a champion racer named Frankenstein. That's all you need to know, really.
• A movie we absolutely loved when we saw it last year at the Landmark Century gets a one night only encore on November 3 when the Midwest Independent Film Festival presents The Pool. It's a sensuous yet naturalistic story set in Goa, India. We could blather on about how haunting the film is even a year later. But we won't. Editor Barry Poltermann and composers Didier Lepiae and Joe Wong will be in attendance for a post-screening discussion with the audience. Buy your ticket now; this one will sell out.
• Lest we neglect the spooky season that's upon us, here's a must-see: the classic silent film The Golem accompanied live by five-person ensemble Fulcrum Point performing an original score by Betty Olivero. It's a proto-Frankenstein tale that also offers a look at a vanished world of Jewish culture. And it's free. Seats will be available on first-come basis. The show is November 6, 7 pm at the Chicago Cultural Center.