The 46th Chicago International Film Festival continues through Thursday, October 21, at River East 21, 322 E. Illinois. Unless otherwise noted, tickets are $13 ($10 for students, seniors, or Cinema/Chicago members) or $5 for matinees Monday through Friday until 5 PM. Passes are $110 (ten admissions) and $210 (20 admissions). Tickets can be purchased in person at Cinema/Chicago, 30 E. Adams, suite 800, Monday through Friday from 10 AM to 6 PM; and at River East 21 from noon until the last screening has begun. Tickets can also be purchased by phone or online through Ticketmaster (800-982-2787 or ticketmaster.com) or Cinema/Chicago (312-332-3456; passes only at chicagofilmfestival.com).
Carancho A disbarred attorney (Ricardo Darin of The Secret in Their Eyes) and a drug-addicted medic (Martina Gusman) get in over their heads in the underbelly of Buenos Aires. Director Pablo Trapero filters the bleakness and inevitability of a cynical film noir (think Robert Siodmak’s Criss Cross or Christmas Holiday) through a utilitarian style that emphasizes the nuanced acting. Aside from a few startlingly violent shots, Trapero’s long takes are unshowy, allowing the excellent leads to deepen roles that are little more than genre types. Unambitious but not slight, this is the kind of genre filmmaking that once defined American cinema; needless to say, a film like this probably couldn’t be made here nowadays. In Spanish with subtitles. 107 min. —Ignatiy Vishnevetsky Sat 10/16, 9:30 PM, and Tue 10/19, 6 PM.
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Hereafter Epic filmmaking is not Clint Eastwood’s thing: his masterpieces have all been small-scale dramas with profound moral implications (Unforgiven, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby), while his more ambitious projects (Flags of Our Fathers, Invictus) can seem like anonymous Oscar bait. One couldn’t ask for a more epic subject than the afterlife, and this jumbo drama weaves together three different stories from as many continents, but it lacks the toughness of Eastwood’s best work. The movie does begin with an astounding special effects sequence: a British TV reporter (Cecile de France) visiting a South Asian beachfront community is engulfed by a devastating tsunami. The second story line, set in San Francisco, is held aloft by Matt Damon’s moody performance as a reluctant psychic. The third, about a British orphan searching for his dead twin, succumbs to sentimentality, and screenwriter Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon) labors mightily to land all three protagonists in the same frame by the end. PG-13, 129 min. —J.R. Jones Thu 10/14, 6:15 PM. De France is scheduled to attend the screening.
Tony & Janina’s American Wedding Tony and Janina Wasilewski were model immigrants: hardworking, law-abiding, and beaming with freshly minted patriotism for the U.S. Then Janina, who came to Illinois claiming refugee status during Poland’s communist regime, was abruptly deported in 2007, taking the couple’s six-year-old son back home with her. Coproduced by Chicago’s venerable Kartemquin Films, this moving documentary uses the Wasilewskis’ plight as a window onto our absurdly byzantine and arbitrary immigration controls, which tear apart hundreds of thousands of comparably blameless families every year. Director Ruth Leitman deftly balances heartbreaking drama and muckraking journalism. In English and subtitled Polish. 81 min. —Cliff Doerksen Sun 10/17, 2:15 PM. Leitman and Tony Wasilewski are scheduled to attend the screening.
