Thankfully, real life often just 'like a movie'

"Like a movie."

That's how a West Chicago woman described the scene when escaped fugitive Robert Maday's carjacked automobile raced past her in a desperate attempt to escape pursuing police cars last week.

"Like a movie."

That's also how many New Yorkers described the nightmare scenes of 9/11 eight years ago.

"Like a movie."

In fact, a great many witnesses to calamities and violence often fall back on this simile, which has, at least in press circles, become somewhat predictable. Like when reporters ask people to describe the psycho killers revealed to be living next door to them, and they all say the same thing:

"He was quiet and kept to himself."

It's actually a compliment to the film industry that people compare real disasters and violence to movie scenes. Filmmakers spend lots of money and time and effort so their movies project the look and feel of real life.

So when people witness a frightening real event, it looks just like a reel event, which was designed to look exactly like - you guessed it - a real event.

I am personally thankful that most Americans have such a limited vocabulary when it comes to conjuring up analogies to awful occurrences.

We don't get many descriptions out of Iraq that compare devastation wrought by improvised explosive devices as "like a movie."

We don't get many descriptions out of other countries where death and destruction by suicide bombers is "like a movie."

In America, when something terrible or scary happens, our best reference - indeed, our only reference - is a motion picture where the violence and horror are nothing more than created fictions.

That can't be a bad thing.

I received an e-mail from veteran character actor J.K. Simmons, who's been on a roll as the one-handed teacher in "Jennifer's Body," the factory manager in "Extract" and Zach Gilford's dad in "Post Grad." (He might reprise his role as newspaper editor J.J. Jameson in 2011's "Spider-Man 4.")

"I got a couple of really positive reviews online for my work in 'The Men Who Stare at Goats,'" Simmons writes. "I guess those 'critics' didn't notice that I'm not in the movie. Ahh. Showbiz."

The Noble Fool Theatricals Youth Ensemble will perform to pump up the crowd before the local premiere of "Fame" 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. today at the Charlestowne 18 Cinema Theatre, 3740 E. Main St., St. Charles. Extra bonus: A Noble Fool instructor will teach "Fame" dances.

Not to be outdone, the Elk Grove High School Grenadettes will perform at the Elk Grove Theatre, 1050 Elk Grove Town Center, Elk Grove Village, to pump up another crowd before the 7:15 p.m. today showing of "Fame."

More than 50 entries will compete for cash prizes during the very first Elgin Short Film Fest Saturday at the Hemmens Cultural Center, 45 Symphony Way, Elgin. WGN's Dean Richards, broadcast's hardest-working entertainment reporter, serves as master of ceremonies. Tickets cost $5. Go to hemmens.org/filmfest for details.

Illinois native Karen Allen appears in person for fans of her biggest hit, "Raiders of the Lost Ark," screening at 7 and 10 p.m. today and Saturday at Ted Bulthaup's brand-spanking-new Hollywood Palms Cinema at 352 S. Route 59, Naperville.

Sunday, Allen will also appear at 5 and 8 p.m. "Raiders" screenings at Bulthaup's nearby Hollywood Blvd. theater, 1001 W. 75th St., Woodridge.

Speaking of Karen Allen, she'll also be part of the closing night attractions at the second annual Naperville Independent Film Festival on Saturday around 7:45 p.m. in the exquisitely detailed Mayan auditorium at the Hollywood Palms theater. Chicago film critic Roger Ebert will join Allen after his book signing from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Call (630) 514-4204 or go to naperfilmfest.org for details.

Join me and film historian/novelist Raymond Benson as we discuss "On the Banned Wagon: Cinema's Forbidden Films," a look at the most censored movies in history. Clips from "The Miracle," "Carnal Knowledge," "The Last Temptation of Christ," "The Life of Brian," "Birth of a Nation" and 10 others. It's part of Dann & Raymond's Movie Club, 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Schaumburg Township District Library, 130 S. Roselle Road, Schaumburg. Call (847) 985-4000 or go to stdl.org. Best of all, free admission!

Mini-review: "The Providence Effect"

Rollin Binzer's doc "The Providence Effect" blows a big, slurpy kiss to Chicago's impressive Providence St. Mel school, which has sent 100 percent of its African-American graduates on to colleges, including Ivy League ones.

As a recruiting film, "Effect" couldn't be more effusive in its admiration of the West Side school, its faculty and its founder, Paul Adams III, who bought the building from the Catholic Archdiocese and heroically created a model independent school from scratch.

As a work of journalism, "Effect" is a one-sided report that puts an admitted elite school above critical examination. What happens to all the undesirable students (gangbangers and kids with no support systems) filtered out of Providence?

How does it profit America when successful college graduates are still mugged and carjacked by the hopeless have-nots abandoned by Providence's every-child-left behind-but-the-good-ones philosophy?

"Providence Effect" opens today at selected theaters, including the Century Centre in Chicago and Skokie's Village Crossing. (PG) 92 minutes.

Min-review: "Disgrace."

In Steve Jacobs' cinematic version of J.M. Coetzee's novel "Disgrace," former Chicago actor John Malkovich effects a slightly sinister South African accent that sounds way too much like Count Dracula as a college lit professor.

He plays David Lurie, an unrepentant white who uses his academic position to have sex with a vulnerable student of mixed heritage.

Forced out by a scandal, he goes to live with his daughter Lucy (standout Jessica Haines) in her rustic homestead, where she falls victim to a less genteel form of sexual assault by three black men.

Steve Arnold's elegant cinematography fills every frame with a still photographer's eye for composition and balance, but Jacobs' drama about the dark side of the male sex drive overdoses on dog symbolism and meandering pacing.

"Disgrace" opens today at the Pipers Alley in Chicago. Not rated; for mature audiences. 120 minutes.

Mini-review: "Paris"

"That's Paris," says Pierre, a dancer with a bummer heart. "Nobody's happy!"

Cedric Klapisch's valentine to the City of Lights is an infrequently beguiling, mostly dull, social and cultural lattice of characters, among them a middle-aged history professor (Fabrice Luchini) who sex-texts his pretty student (Melanie Laurent), a dancer (Romain Duris) awaiting a heart transplant, his single mother sister (Juliette Binoche) who moves in to take care of him, and other characters flitting around them in subplots of varying amounts of interest.

It's very French. Also in French with subtitles. "Paris" opens today at the Century Centre in Chicago. Rated R for language and sexual references. 130 minutes.