'Tree of Life' wins 4 Chicago Film Critics Awards

WLS radio hosts Richard Roeper and Roe Conn will host the 23rd annual Chicago Film Critics Awards on Saturday, Jan. 7, at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place in Chicago.

Roeper has also been a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association since appearing in the syndicated movie review show “Ebert & Roeper.” Roe has been a talk show personality on WLS since 1989.

The Chicago Film Critics Awards will start at 6 p.m. Tiered tickets are on sale between $137 and $316 and can be purchased at www.ticketmaster.com.

At press time, we don't know which already announced winners of the competitive awards will be coming to the Windy City to collect their crystal CFCA trophies, redesigned this year by the Crystal Cave in Wilmette.

But, three honorary award recipients have confirmed they'll be here in person: James Earl Jones, recipient of the Oscar Micheaux Award; Chicago actor Dennis Farina, recipient of the Commitment to Chicago Award; and writer/actor/producer Jason Segel, recipient of the new Commedia Extraordinaire Award for contributions to the art of film comedy.

(The Oscar Micheaux Award is named in honor of Illinois-born Micheaux, a black writer, producer and director who operated his own independent studio that straddled the silent and talkie eras of film.)

Terrence Malick's “The Tree of Life,” a visual poem that whisks viewers from the beginning of creation to 1950s Texas, won four major awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Jessica Chastain) and Best Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki).

Chicago actor Michael Shannon, won Best Actor as a man tormented by apocalyptic visions of disaster in the drama “Take Shelter.”

Michelle Williams won the Best Actress award for her stunning turn as Marilyn Monroe in “My Week with Marilyn.”

The violent neo-noir “Drive” won Supporting Actor for comedian Albert Brooks and Original Score for composer Cliff Martinez.

The indie drama “Martha Marcy May Marlene” won Most Promising Performer (Elizabeth Olsen) and Most Promising Filmmaker (Sean Durkin). “The Artist” won Original Screenplay while “Moneyball” won Adapted Screenplay.

The Iranian drama “A Separation” won Foreign-Language Film. “Rango” won Best Animated Film. “The Interrupters” won Best Documentary.

Go to chicagofilmcritics.org.

We know jack, Jack!

Join me and film historian Raymond Benson as Dann & Raymond's Movie Club rings in the new year by presenting the films of Jack Nicholson. Clips from “The Little Shop of Horrors,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,” “A Few Good Men,” “As Good As It Gets,” plus 12 other films. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 5, at the Schaumburg Township District Library, 130 S. Roselle Road, Schaumburg. Free admission! (Bring your own chewing gum.) Go to schaumburglibrary.org or call (847) 985-4000 for details.

Start '12 upside down

It's become an annual tradition for Chicago's popular Music Box Theatre to present the original “Poseidon Adventure” on New Year's Eve because that's when a giant rogue wave turns Captain Leslie Nielsen's ship upside down in the middle of the ocean, leaving poor Gene Hackman to lead the all-star cast up to the bottom of the boat.

Now, if the Music Box owners could just figure out a way to turn the theater upside down at just the right moment ...

Go to musicboxtheatre.com for tickets and info.

Ÿ Daily Herald film critic Dann Gire's column runs Fridays in Time out!