World's most famous singing chipmunk to visit Elk Grove
The world's most famous singing chipmunk, Alvin, will make an exclusive five-day visit to greet fans when he comes to the Elk Grove Cinema, 1050 Elk Grove Town Center, Elk Grove Village, from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 30, through Sunday, Jan. 3.
Alvin can currently be seen in "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" playing at local theaters. (Check the showtimes in the Daily Herald's movie ads on Pages 24 and 25.) Visit classiccinemas.com for more information.
Time for crime
If seasonal kindness, charity and goodwill toward men are getting monotonous for you this week, Chicago's Music Box Theatre presents a tribute to the French Crime Wave, a series of eight French thrillers exemplifying a less-than-rosy look at human nature.
Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1947 drama "Quai des Orfèvres" (the French version of Scotland Yard) starts up the series at 11:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 26-27, at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave., Chicago. Tickets cost $7.25.
Of course, if crime tales aren't your thing, you can catch a restored print of the French comedy classic "Mr. Hulot's Holiday" starting today at the Music Box, too.
Go to musicboxtheatre.com for a full listing of movies and tickets.
Reel Life review: 'A Single Man'
American fashion and fragrance designer Tom Ford's impressive directorial debut, "A Single Man," is a contemplative, raw and highly involving drama about an aging gay college professor contemplating suicide following the tragic death of his younger lover.
Colin Firth plays the professor, 52-year-old George Falconer, a Brit relocated to America along with his former lover and now next-door neighbor, Charley (Julianne Moore), his muse, sounding board and nurse during moments of crisis, such as the night George receives word that his lover, Jim (Matthew Goode) has been killed in a car wreck.
Based on Christopher Isherwood's novel, Ford's "Single Man" is a disciplined first-person story that never ventures beyond George's field of experience and knowledge.
Firth provides a stellar performance as George, inviting us to share his sorrow and disconnect from the universe without alienating us with self-pity. This is Firth's finest screen performance to date, and his pairing with Moore's equally lost and searching soul mate sets the screen ablaze with moments of stinging honesty and movie acting at its highest plateau.
Ford loves symbolism, and "Single Man" threatens to buckle under the weight of his distractingly artsy add-ons. Nonetheless, this is an exceptional debut by Ford, who understands the important role of sensory details in relationships (smell, touch and taste), and smoothly integrates them into the fabric of his movie.
"A Single Man" opens today at the Century Centre Cinema in Chicago. It will expand to additional theaters later. Rated R for sexual situations. 99 minutes.
Reel Life review: 'Crazy Heart'
Excuse me for being cynical, but could Jeff Bridges' role in Scott Cooper's drama "Crazy Heart" beg any harder for an acting award?
Seriously, Bridges' character, a washed-up, aging country-western singing star, is a perfect combination of qualities that work like award catnip for critics and Oscar voters.
Bridges plays Bad Blake, an alcoholic singer whose better days have been pickled in whiskey. Now eking out an existence playing at bowling alleys and shopping malls, Bad gets a shot at redemption when he meets an up-and-coming journalist named Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal) with a 4-year-old son and a mending heart.
Robert Duvall brings his expected bag of good-old-boy ticks and drawls as Wayne, Bad's friend and chief support mechanism.
Actor/writer/producer Cooper's directorial debut understands that "Crazy Heart" (based on Thomas Cobb's novel) is all about being Bad, and lets an unbridled Bridges deliver the goods, including singing his own songs supplied by Stephen Bruton and T Bone Burnett.
Bridges, already America's greatest underappreciated actor, breathes humanity and pain into every frame of Cooper's drama, polished off with Barry Markowitz's jaw-droppingly beautiful camerawork.
"Crazy Heart" opens today at the Century Centre in Chicago and the Evanston CineArts 6. It expands to the suburbs Friday, Jan. 15. Rated R for language and sexual situations. 111 minutes.