Chicago Critics Film Fest: 3 Flicks Worth The Hype
By Joel Wicklund in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 9, 2015 3:05PM
Heading into its third year, the Chicago Critics Film Festival has become a nice addition to the city's busy cultural calendar. Presented by the Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA), the weeklong event offers a healthy mix of movies already getting buzz on the festival circuit, lesser-known features championed by CFCA members and the occasional revival.
The festival has released a partial lineup for its upcoming installment May 1-7 at the Music Box Theatre, and it includes works by some prominent indie artists with devoted followings. Here are three that seem especially noteworthy.
Call Me Lucky: Bobcat Goldthwait, the former shrill-voiced stand-up and puppet personality, has slowly and steadily emerged as a respected filmmaker specializing in dark comedies like Shakes the Clown, World's Greatest Dad and God Bless America. Last year he was a special guest at the Chicago Critics Film Festival, showing an expanded genre palette with his found-footage horror flick, Willow Creek. Goldthwait's reach extends into the documentary realm with his latest film, a portrait of stand-up comedian Barry Crimmins, who became an activist against the sexual abuse of children after coming to terms with his own past as a victim. The feedback for this movie has been quite positive since it showed at the most recent Sundance Film Festival.
Digging for Fire: Love him or hate him, Joe Swanberg isn't going away. At 33, the Chicago-based writer/director/actor has made more features (along with several shorts) than many filmmakers tally well into old age. With the sleeper success of 2013's Drinking Buddies, he also moved up from micro-budgeted fringe cinema to a slightly more mainstream (though still very low-budgeted) arena, working with better-known actors. His latest work follows that trend with a truly star-studded indie cast. Drinking Buddies alumni Anna Kendrick, Jake Johnson and Ron Livingston are joined by Sam Rockwell, Orlando Bloom, Rosemarie DeWitt, Melanie Lynskey, Brie Larson, Sam Elliott, Jane Adams, Jenny Slate and Judith Light in a tale of a troubled marriage.
The End of the Tour: For this reader, the mainly rapturous reviews of David Foster Wallace's 1996 novel Infinite Jest felt a bit like a case of "The Emperor's New Clothes," the book's daunting length and ambition hiding an unsatisfying, rambling and tedious work. Still, I'm looking forward to this drama about a journalist's encounters with the late author during a book tour. Jason Segel's performance as Wallace has been received well in early showings, but mainly I'm interested because director James Ponsoldt made such a strong impression with his last film, The Spectacular Now.
Visit the Chicago Critics Film Festival website for news on upcoming additions to the schedule, advance festival pass sales and other information.