CCFF SPOTLIGHT
“A Different Side of Baltimore” | Dawn Porter, When A Witness Recants
Screening on Monday, May 4. at 6:30 p.m., at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, as part of the Chicago Critics Film Festival, When A Witness Recants from Dawn Porter serves as the festival’s Centerpiece screening.
“Stubborn Passion” | Zach Schnitzer, Loafers
Screening on Wednesday, May 6. at 7:00 p.m., at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, as part of the Chicago Critics Film Festival, Loafers from Zach Schnitzer is a film set a post-grad haze.
“Healing Ourselves” | Francesco Sossai, The Last One for the Road
Screening on Monday, May 4. at 4:15 p.m., at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, as part of the Chicago Critics Film Festival,The Last One for the Road from Francesco Sossai is a scruffy intergenerational odyssey.
“Stumbling Through the Jungle with a Machete” | Edd Benda and Stephen Helstad, Chili Finger
Screening on Saturday, May 5. at 7:00 p.m., at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, as part of the Chicago Critics Film Festival, Chili Finger, from Ed Benda and Stephen Holstad, is a chaotic black comedy with a decidedly Midwestern twist.
“A Tribute to Everyone’s Youth” | Nick Davis, You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution
A documentary about the legendary 1972 Toronto production of the musical about the life of Jesus, which launched many illustrious careers and ignited a comedy revolution, You Had to Be There screens Sunday, May 3, at 11:30 a.m. at the Chicago Critics Film Festival.
“My Spin on Outlaw Romance” | Adam Carter Rehmeier, Carolina Caroline
Acclaimed director Adam Carter Rehmeier’s romantic crime thriller, Carolina Carolina screens May 2 at 4:30 p.m. at the Music Box Theatre, as part of the Chicago Critics Film Festival.
“The Mysterious Desire to Play an Ingénue” | John Early, Maddie’s Secret
A pitch-perfect blend of satire, melodrama, daring tonal shifts and intimate performances, Maddie’s Secret—screening Sunday, May 3, at 4:15 p.m., at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, as part of the Chicago Critics Film Festival—marks a bold new voice in contemporary cinema.
“Mythologizing Airplanes” | Walter Thompson-Hernández, If I Go Will They Miss Me
Twelve-year-old Lil Ant transforms his working-class neighborhood beneath the LAX flight path into a living mythology, where family members become gods and the sky is crowded with endless departures. As he searches for connection with his god-like yet conflicted father, he finds support in his close-knit community that helps him reconcile myth and reality.
“Less Harsh, More Human” | Kent Jones, Late Fame
Screening Sunday, May 3, at 6:30 p.m. at the Music Box Theatre for the Chicago Critics Film Festival, Late Fame marks a thoughtful, witty second feature from Kent Jones (Diane).
“The Mixture of the Comic and the Uncomfortable” | Alberto Vázquez, Decorado
A darkly comedic odyssey through our era of social control, manufactured realities, and the quest for authentic human connection, Decorado screens Friday, May 1, at midnight, at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, as part of the Chicago Critics Film Festival, co-presented by Animation Adventures.
Meet the Critic: Erik Childress
In the Chicago Critics Film Festival’s new “Meet the Critic” series, we’re introducing our readers to some of the many talented members of our Chicago-area print, online and broadcast critics group, which celebrates the art of film and film criticism. In today’s feature, meet Erik Childress, who has been a film critic in Chicago for over 25 years.
Car Troubles and Hellish Roads in It Ends and Desert Road
Two directorial debuts at this year’s Chicago Critics Film Festival share an existential synergy in offering terrifying variations on the road trip movie.
Meet the Critic: Clint Worthington
In the Chicago Critics Film Festival’s new “Meet the Critic” series, we’re introducing our readers to some of the many talented members of our Chicago-area print, online and broadcast critics group. In today’s feature, meet Clint Worthington, the Assistant Editor at RogerEbert.com and a Senior Staff Writer for Consequence.
Meet the Critic: Collin Souter
In the Chicago Critics Film Festival’s new “Meet the Critic” series, we’re introducing our readers to some of the many talented members of our Chicago-area print, online and broadcast critics group, which celebrates the art of film and film criticism. In today’s feature, meet Collin Souter, who has been the curator and programmer of the short film programs for the Chicago Critics Film Festival since its inception in 2013.
“A Storyteller Until the Day I Die” | Shannon Triplett, Desert Road
Starring Kristine Froseth (Sharp Stick, Looking for Alaska), Desert Road is a taut and thought-provoking horror-thriller —and an uncommonly assured feature debut from writer-director Shannon Triplett. Screening Thursday, May 8, at 5:00 p.m. at the Music Box Theatre, part of closing night for the Chicago Critics Film Festival, it’s the kind of mind-expanding genre-film discovery that will leave you buzzing.
“All of Us, Together” | Dea Kulumbegashvili, April
Heightened by its haunting, sometimes spectral cinematography, by Arseni Khachaturan (Bones and All), and a brooding, minimalist soundscape, by experimental composer Matthew Herbert, Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April screens Tuesday, May 6, at 4:30 p.m., at the Music Box Theatre, as part of the Chicago Critics Film Festival.
“This Triangle of Lynchian Americana” | Elizabeth Rao, The Truck
Screening Sunday, May 4, as part of CFCA Shorts Program #2, “The Truck,” a short film by Elizabeth Rao, was inspired by the filmmaker’s experiences with power dynamics in small-town America — and by living between Missouri, Nashville, and Chicago, what she calls a “triangle of Lynchian Americana.”