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Blogs, Bleader, May 5, 2013
Weekly Top Five: Dream on—the American dream on film

Michael Bay's recent Pain & Gain inspires the latest Weekly Top Five.
- by Drew Hunt
- Tags: Weekly Top Five, Film, Michael Bay, Pain & Gain, American dream, El Norte, Gregory Nava, Thieves' Highway, Jules Dassin, Stroszek, Werner Herzog, California Dreamin', Cristian Nemescu, Hoop Dreams, Steve James, Frederick Marx, Peter Gilbert, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Ben Sachs

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Blogs, Bleader, May 3, 2013
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Feeling the burn, and the rest of this week's screenings

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- by J.R. Jones
- Tags: Opening, Film, Ben Sachs, Pain & Gain, Michael Bay, Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie, Persistence of Vision, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mira Nair, Mississippi Masala, The Namesake, The Big Wedding, Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Hava Nagila (The Movie), Iron Man 3, Robert Downey Jr., Kon Tiki, Thor Heyerdahl, My Afghanistan: Life in the Forbidden Zone, Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Lizzie Borden, Born in Flames, Gene Siskel Film Center, Haile Gerima, Bush Mama, Logan Center for the Arts, Stanley Donen, Funny Face, University of Chicago Doc Films, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather, Part II, John Cassavetes, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Patio Theater Chicago, Orson Welles, The Lady From Shanghai, Touch of Evil, Music Box Chicago, Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman, Detroit Threat Management, University of Chicago Film Studies Center, Beneath the Blindfold, Wellington Avenue Church of Christ, film festivals, movies, Video

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Blogs, Bleader, Apr 5, 2013
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How Roger Ebert encouraged me

A personal reminiscence about the late Chicago film critic
- by Ben Sachs
- Tags: RIP, Film, Roger Ebert, RIP, Ben Sachs, film criticism, Chicago

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Blogs, Bleader, Sep 28, 2012
Pathos in a shit storm

The most moving post from Moving Week, NSFW unless you can cry there
- by Kate Schmidt
- Tags: It's Complicated, Moving Week, Recycling Week, Moving Week, Ben Sachs, autism, laxatives, Variations on a Theme

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Blogs, Bleader, Sep 27, 2012
What's new again: E.A. Dupont's Variety

Revisiting the forgotten German expressionist melodrama, once a staple of film studies courses
- by Ben Sachs
- Tags: On Video, Film, Variety, E.A. Dupont, German expressionism, Emil Jannings, Warwick Ward, Lya De Putti, James Whale, Piccadilly, silent cinema, Karl Freund, The Kiss Before the Mirror, Waterloo Bridge, Facets Film School, Facets Multimedia, Ben Sachs

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Blogs, Bleader, Sep 14, 2012
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A four-star movie, and the rest of this week's screenings

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- by J.R. Jones
- Tags: Film, Ben Sachs, Tonight You're Mine, Maurice Pialat, We Won't Grow Old Together, Susan Morgan Cooper, Mulberry Child, Arbitrage movie, Richard Gere, The Cold Light of Day, Mabrouk El Mechri, JCVD, Henry Cavill, Bruce Willis, Sigourney Weaver, Family Portrait in Black and White, Honey movie, Magnificat: Films by Pat O'Neill, Mulberry Child, Polluting Paradise, Faith Akin, Head On, The Edge of Heaven, Side by Side, The Words, Bradley Cooper, Theresa Harris, Barbara Stanwyck, Baby Face, Alfred E. Green, Shirley Clarke, The Connection movie, Eran Riklis, The Human Resources Manager, Film Movement, Robert Aldrich, Kiss Me Deadly, Fred Camper, Jonathan Demme, Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense, David Byrne, Bettina Richards, Home Movies and the Avant-Garde, Cinema Borealis, Errol Magidson, The Making of a Documentary: Chicago's Only Castle, Terror in the Aisles 12, The Stuff movie, Larry Cohen, Frankenhooker, Patty Mullen, movies, Video

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Blogs, Bleader, Sep 5, 2012
Preparing for a Whale of a class

Announcing my six-week class on the versatile James Whale, director of Frankenstein, Show Boat, and much more
- by Ben Sachs
- Tags: Education, LGBT, Film, James Whale, Facets Multimedia, Beyond Frankenstein, One More River, Show Boat, Ben Sachs, The Kiss Before the Mirror, The Old Dark House, Waterloo Bridge, Universal Pictures, The Great Garrick, Remember Last Night?, Karl Freund, Facets Film School, 1930s cinema

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Blogs, Bleader, Aug 9, 2012
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Joe Dante's fully clothed orgy, and the rest of this week's screenings

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- by J.R. Jones
- Tags: Film, John Carpenter, Joe Dante, W.C. Fields, It's a Gift, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Steven Spielberg, Gremlins movie, Matinee movie, Small Soldiers, The Hole movie, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, The Movie Orgy, Ben Sachs, Ann Hui, A Simple Life, Facets Cinematheque, Ballplayer: Pelotero, The Bourne Legacy, Jeremy Renner, Matt Damon, The Campaign movie, Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Celeste and Jesse Forever, Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, The Curators of Dixon School, Hope Springs, Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Kumare movie, Vikram Gandhi, Searching for Sugar Man, Surviving Life (Theory and Practice), Jan Svankmajer, Unforgivable movie, Andre Techine, Wolf, Lotte Reiniger, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, Music Box, Dennis Scott, David Lynch, Blue Velvet, Landmark’s Century Centre, William Friedkin, s The French Connection, Paul Wegener, The Golem, University of Chicago Doc Films, Yasujiro Ozu, A Hen in the Wind, Portage theater, Northwest Chicago Film Society, Charles Chaplin, Monsieur Verdoux, Flashback Weekend, The Thing movie, The Exorcist, Linda Blair, film festivals, movies, Video

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Blogs, Bleader, Jul 12, 2012
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A Burning Hot Summer screens, with air conditioning

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- by J.R. Jones
- Tags: Film, Steven Soderbergh, Ben Sachs, Soderbergh, Che, The Informant!, The Girlfriend Experience, Contagion, Haywire, Magic Mike, A Burning Hot Summer, Philippe Garrel, Devotional Cinema, Nathaniel Dorsky, Elena movie, Andrey Zvyagintsev, The Return movie, How to Grow a Band, Chris Thile, The Jesus Trip, Neil Young Journeys, Jonathan Demme, Pom Poko, Studio Ghibli, Isao Takahata, Grave of the Fireflies, My Neighbors the Yamadas, Savages movie, Oliver Stone, Take This Waltz, Sarah Polley, Lewis Milestone, All Quiet on the Western Front, Edgar G. Ulmer, The Black Cat, Samuel Fuller, House of Bamboo, Robert Ryan, Billy Wilder, Kiss Me Stupid, G.W. Pabst, Pandora's Box, Dennis Scott, Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away, K-Town Film Festival, Better Boys' Foundation, American Revolution 2, The Chicago Maternity Center Story, Video

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Blogs, Bleader, Jun 25, 2012
Hitting the books with writer-director Alex Ross Perry

An interview with the writer-director of the independent comedy The Color Wheel
- by Ben Sachs
- Tags: Books, Film, Alex Ross Perry, The Color Wheel, Philip Roth, Sabbath's Theater, Portnoy's Complaint, My Life as a Man, The Professor of Desire, Sabbath's Theater, Zuckerman Bound, literary adaptation, independent filmmaking, Sean Price Williams, Kim's Video, Ben Sachs, Facets Multimedia, When She Was Good, Jerry Lewis, Jewish humor, Thomas Pynchon, Norman Mailer, The Plot Against Harry

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Blogs, Bleader, Jun 22, 2012
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Onion City experimental festival, now in progress

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- by J.R. Jones
- Tags: Film, Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, Gene Siskel Film Center, Columbia College Ludington Building, Ben Sachs, Alex Ross Perry, The Color Wheel, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Facets Cinematheque, Bel Ami, Twilight movie, Robert Pattison, Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci, Kristin Scott Thomas, The Cat Returns, Studio Ghibli, Dark Horse Todd Solondz, Happiness Todd Solondz, Kill Daddy Goodnight, Natural Selection movie, Payback Jennifer Baichwal, Margaret Atwood, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, The Woman in the Fifth, Pawel Pawlikowski, My Summer of Love, Ethan Hawke, Julien Temple, Earth Girls Are Easy, University of Chicago Doc Films, Dennis Hopper, Easy Rider, Stanley Kubrick, Full Metal Jacket, Pritzker Military Library, Martin Scorsese, The Last Waltz, Landmark's Century Centre, John Ford, The Searchers, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Billy Wilder, Sunset Boulevard, Music Box, film festivals, movies, Video

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Blogs, Bleader, Jun 18, 2012
Another side of Fritz Lang: Western Union (1941)

Revisiting the great German director's second American western
- by Ben Sachs
- Tags: On Video, Film, Fritz Lang, Western Union, You and Me, Ben Sachs, Randolph Scott, Robert Young, Thomas Pynchon, telegraphs, Morse code

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Michael Bay's recent Pain & Gain inspires the latest Weekly Top Five.

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New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue

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A personal reminiscence about the late Chicago film critic

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Tim Heidecker makes his dramatic debut in this indie feature by the director of New Jerusalem.

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New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue

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New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue.

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New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue.

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A rundown of Chicago film screenings for the week of January 4

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New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue

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New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue

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New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue

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The most moving post from Moving Week, NSFW unless you can cry there

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Revisiting the forgotten German expressionist melodrama, once a staple of film studies courses

Tools

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue

Tools

Announcing my six-week class on the versatile James Whale, director of Frankenstein, Show Boat, and much more

Tools

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue

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New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue

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An interview with the writer-director of the independent comedy The Color Wheel

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New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue

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Revisiting the great German director's second American western