Home Entertainment Guide: October 2021
Note: There will be a special horror-themed edition of the guide next week that focuses on the many recent genre Blu-ray releases, including “Escape Room: Tournament of Champions,” “Old,” “The…
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HBO’s Succession Season 3 Sees Kendall Secede, Series Succeed in Exceeding Expectations
Toxic, powerful families have been the stuff great dramas are made of since before Aristotle wrote Poetics. Never in human history has there been a shortage of stories to choose…
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CIFF 2021: Oscar Micheaux—The Superhero of Black Cinema, Punch 9 for Harold Washington, Love Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter
Filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington and celebrity chef Charlie Trotter have three things in common. For one, they all hail from the great state of Illinois. For…
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Halloween Kills
My feeling about David Gordon Green’s reboot of “Halloween” in 2018 was that the talented director fundamentally misunderstood what worked about the John Carpenter original, draining the project of actual…
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Trouble Don’t Last Always: Timuel Black (1918-2021)
I am so sad to report that iconic historian Timuel Black passed away yesterday, October 13th, just two months shy of his 103rd birthday. I extend my deepest sympathy to…
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An Inside Look: Mr. Soul! to Stream Live Sunday, October 17th
This Sunday, October 17th, at 5pm Pacific/ 7pm Central, Greenlight Women and HBO Max will present a virtual panel discussion and filmmaker grant award presentation, “An Inside Look: Mr. Soul!” The event…
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Amazon’s I Know What You Did Last Summer Fails its Premise
Everything old is new again. There’s a “Scream” trailer gaining buzz; “Halloween Kills” opens today in theaters and drops tomorrow on Peacock; there’s a “Chucky” TV show now! Given the…
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Chicago Humanities Festival 2021 Highlights Include Jazz Vocalist Tammy McCann
Among the many unmissable events held throughout the 2021 Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF), which kicked off on September 25th and runs through Thursday, December 9th (click here for the full list…
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A Lucky Film Buff: Leonard Maltin Reflects on His Life
It could be argued that Leonard Maltin’s Starstruck: My Unlikely Road to Hollywood is mistitled. Unlikely? Where else but Hollywood for the New York-born, New Jersey-raised lifelong film fan, self-described…
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Operation Hyacinth
“Operation Hyacinth” is set sometime between 1985 and 1987, when the titular secret police action was enforced. Cops were tasked with tracking down known or perceived homosexuals, entering them into…
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