Reel life: 'Ferris' turns 30 with screenings
<h3 class="briefHead">Critics notebook:</h3>
• Celebrate the 30th anniversary of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" when it returns to more than 650 movie theaters May 15 and May 18 as part of TCM's "Big Screen Classics" series.
Through May 16, Groupon presents the Official Ferris Bueller's Experience sweepstakes. The grand prize is a weekend trip for two to the Windy City from July 15 to 17, with hotel accommodations, a luxury sports car rental, tickets to the Willis Tower Skydeck and a baseball game and the Chicago Art Institute, plus other goodies. Go to groupon.com/ferris for details.
• The fourth annual Chicago Critics Film Festival opens Friday, May 20, for seven days of independent movies gleaned from around the nation's best cinema festivals.
Elk Grove Village resident and board member of the Chicago Film Critics Association Erik Childress is the founder of the not-for-profit festival to be shown at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave., Chicago. Go to chicagocriticsfilmfestival.com for tickets and schedules.
What makes the Critics Fest and the people who attend it different from others? Comedian/filmmaker Bobcat Goldthwait explains it in less than 55 seconds at bit.ly/1UQPNDO.