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In this week’s long review I look at two fine political dramas: Steve McQueen’s debut film, Hunger, about the 1981 prison hunger strike of IRA member Bobby Sands, and Tim Disney’s American Violet, about a poor single mother in Texas who’s wrongly charged in a drug sweep and sues the powerful DA for civil rights violations. And you can’t go wrong with Sugar, the new baseball drama by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson), also opening today.
This week brings some choice repertory picks: Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt at Block Cinema, Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles and Charlie Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux at Film Center, Howard Hawks’s Only Angels Have Wings at Doc Films, and Otto Preminger’s Where the Sidewalk Ends at Northbrook Public Library.
