Quietly moving 'O'Horten' at Music Box
A quietly moving story about quietly moving on. Norwegian filmmaker Bent Hamer's art house offering "O'Horten" is less interested in plot than in the moody visuals surrounding the retirement of a 67-year-old train engineer named Odd Horten (Bard Owe). Hamer's serio-comic character study follows the single Horten through his transition in quasi-silent movie mode, with his experiences taking on increasingly surrealistic tones. In Norwegian with subtitles. Rated PG-13 for nudity. 90 minutes.
Location: At the Music Box, 3733 N. Southport Ave., Chicago.
'Goodbye Solo'
The After Hours Film Society presents Ramin Bahrani's third feature. A Senegalese taxi driver named Solo (Souleymane Sy Savane) operates in Winston-Salem, N.C. A discussion follows the film. Admission is $5 for members, $9 for the general public. Go to afterhoursfilmsociety.com or call (630) 534-4528. Rated R for language. 91 minutes.
Location: 7:30 p.m. at the Tivoli Theater, 5021 Highland Ave., Downers Grove.
No 'Dealer'
This would have been a review of Alex Rivera's sci-fi drama "Sleep Dealer," except that the distributor sent me a "screener" with a huge logo permanently embedded on the lower left of the screen, a running time-stamp on the upper right and the warning "PROPERTY OF MAYA ENTERTAINMENT. DO NOT DUPLICATE" across the middle. No doubt this discourages piracy. It also destroys the movie for any serious critic by mutilating Rivera's visuals. The story involves "virtual" laborers who work in the U.S. without actually being there. Rated PG-13 for violence and sexual situations. 90 minutes.
At the Century Centre, Chicago.