Chicago Critics Film Festival – Day Two Report

The Chicago Critics Film Festival Runs May 17th – 23rd. Stephen Tronicek is covering the event for We Are Movie Geeeks

There’s nothing like watching a new film that’s very good. There’s nothing like sitting in the audience of an old one and experiencing it with new eyes. Saturday’s shows provided just that, a survey of the new but also the old.

The day started out with not a screening but rather me moving into my mom’s college roommate’s house for a night. All I can do is thank them and wonder how any of this happened. But after a short ride on the el and a short walk to the theater, I found myself back and ready to go.

The first show of the day was Wild Rose, directed by Tom Harper. A charming little comedy about Rose Lynn Harper’s dream of becoming a country music star, Wild Rose features what may end up being one of the best performances of the year. Jesse Buckley, who already astonished in last year’s Beast brings all of herself to Rose and comes out startlingly naturalistic.

After this, everyone convened to the lobby, where I had one of the stalest pretzels I’d ever eaten. Not that I’m complaining, I needed to eat something that wasn’t popcorn and I didn’t have the time to grab anything else before the shorts program started.

Which, of course, brings us to Shorts Program #1. The best new film I saw all day came from this group of very well curated short films, though all of them had their particular strengths. Scott Calchino’s “Everything You Wanted to Know About Sudden Birth (but were afraid to ask),” provides a hysterical snapshot into the oddity and history of a beautiful instruction video. “Crude Oil” (Christopher Good) was brilliantly edited. “Squirrel,” (Alex Kavutskiy) made for some of the funniest moments of the day. “Dunya’s Day,” (Raed Alsemari) has great, stark, cinematography that brings out the strengths of its performers. “The Phantom 52,” (Geoff Marslett) harnesses theme in a way that none of the other films did. “The Line Birds Cannot See,” (Amy Bench) made for the most powerful film. “Sweet Steel,” (Will Goss) captured a deep sadness and “Guaxuma” (Nara Normande) showed up fully formed as a tear-inducing send up to a friend but also a harnessing of empathy in a way seldom seen beyond Chantal Ackerman.

After a short Q&A, the directors of these films and myself gathered in the Music Box Theater’s Lounge area, where I managed to learn quite a bit about everyone, as well as get a few laughs. The funniest was a conversation between two of the directors and myself about how they couldn’t grow full beards and how they were surprised a 19-year-old from St. Louis had come out to the festival. Well, I did and I think more people should.

Next up was Brittany Runs a Marathon, written and directed by Paul Down Colaizzo, about Brittany (Jillian Bell), an overweight woman who uses running to better her life. To keep things short, if this is marketed correctly, this could be this year’s The Big Sick. It’s a comedy that’s actually scripted and directed and it is infinitely better for that. The cast is all around perfect, including Jillian Bell’s nuanced starring performance.

After that was Alien and an interview with Tom Skerritt. This is something that only the Chicago Critics Film Festival could provide for us. A near full theater all sat in tense silence as a beautiful (if a bit damaged) 35mm Criterion print of Ridley Scott’s monumental classic played before us. It occurs to me watching it now, how underrated the most recent Alien adjacent films are. They explore the similar thematic territory and both act as swiftly and brutally as the original.

Skerritt’s words were magnificent. He talked out Ridley Scott simply want to, “scare the hell out of the audience.” He talked about learning from “Bob” Altman and Hal Ashby that spontaneous filmmaking is often the best filmmaking. To hear those words passing through the theater was an exhilarating experience, but also a sobering one. Our idols of days past are simply human and they go about making films the same way that we do.

Speaking of idols, finally, the night ended with Danny Boyle’s Yesterday, a film that was “programmed blind,” or without any of the review board watching it before it was allowed into the festival. Following the story of Jack Malik (Himesh Patel), a young down on his luck singer who suddenly finds success when he becomes the only person in the world who can remember The Beatles, Yesterday stumbles a bit in its analysis of The Beatles’ mythos but manages to be a superficially entertaining feature. Boyle directs with comforting ease but the script by Richard Curtis yet again reduces his female characters to rewards and is a bit thematically confused. What’s a bit disappointing is the fact that Yesterday doesn’t bother exploring the actual cultural effects of The Beatles, nor their individual flaws as people, something all the idealizing could have used. That being said, my lizard brain loved it.

Day Two of the festival was chock full of good films and proved to be just as entertaining as the first. On to Day three, where things start to get really exciting.