If you’re new to attending a film festival, you’re probably going to be a bit overwhelmed by the selection. Whether you plan to catch a single film or twenty, here’s five tips to help you navigate the celluloid seas (who are we kidding, everything’s going to be digital) and make the absolute most of your […]
The Focus Pull’s CIFF 2013 Coverage presents: 2013 Best of the Fest With the 49th Chicago International Film Festival coming to a close, we’ve ran out of chances to catch the independent and foreign films that will define the next year of cinema. Each year, some of my very favorite art-house films turn out to have […]
Celebrated Iranian New Wave auteur Jafar Panahi was once traveling the world with his films and collaborating with fellow Iranian paragon Abbas Kiarostami. Those days were ended in 2010, when Panahi was infamously arrested. In a shocking ruling, his films were declared “propaganda used against the Islamic Republic” – he was sentenced to six years […]
Out-of-work husband and father Craig (Pat Healy) sulks in a bar after being fired on the same day he received an eviction notice. As he shrugs off the cost of a few beers (what’s it matter compared to the $4,500 in unpaid rent?), Craig bumps into Vince (Ethan Embry) – an old high school buddy […]
Romanian black comedy “Domestic” follows the daily squabbles of three families living in the same apartment block. While the casual observer may think the frequent arguing coming from their rooms is all about the people that live there, closer examination reveals that it is in fact the animals in their lives, both pets and livestock, […]
When the young and attractive Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps) arrives at a remote lakeside beach somewhere in France, it’s with certain familiarity. Franck comes to the beach every day during the summer to swim in the lake, lounge on the sand, and sneak off into the woods to have sex with anonymous men. Franck’s everyday schedule […]
In “The German Doctor,” notorious Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele seeks refuge at a Patagonian hotel after fleeing Europe in the mid 1940’s. Mengele (Àlex Brendemühl) uses his money and medical knowledge to charm the hotel’s owners, the pregnant Eva (Natalia Oreiro) and husband Enzo (Diego Peretti), after becoming interested in their under-developed 12-year-old daughter […]
Sandwiched into one of the smaller theaters at the 49th Chicago International Film Festival, “The Notebook” quietly became one of the best treats of the fest. Despite being part of the Main Competition at the festival and Hungary’s submission to the 86th Annual Academy Awards, János Szász’s World War II drama received little of the buzz […]
