Dann Gire
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Movie review: Disney's visually enticing 'Nutcracker' lacks dramatic crunchNov 01, 2018 6:00 am - “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” - ★ ★ ½ Walt Disney's music-filled early holiday gift, “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms,” feels like a big-budget, large-studio s...
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Movie review: Horror film 'Monster Party' shocking - and awe-ful funnyNov 01, 2018 6:00 am - "Monster Party" - ★ ★ ★ Do you really want to know how horribly comic this horror movie can get? A sleazy guy gives one of those slow, sarcastic claps to young Iris (Vir...
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Robert Forster talks acting on his first Chicago film in 50 yearsOct 26, 2018 5:33 am - Fifty years ago, Robert Forster wrote a page of Chicago's cinematic history as a journalist in Haskell Wexler's classic 1968 Democratic National Convention drama "Medium...
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Suburban grandparents' battle with Alzheimer's inspires filmmaker's 'What They Had'Oct 26, 2018 5:00 am - While continually revising the screenplay to her first feature film “What They Had,” former Hinsdale resident Elizabeth Chomko kept hearing the words of a college profes...
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Movie review: Jonah Hill's 'Mid90s' a nostalgic, authentic coming-of-age dramaOct 24, 2018 12:45 pm - “Mid90s” - ★ ★ ★ Jonah Hill's directorial debut “Mid90s” presents a nostalgic, coming-of-age drama about five L.A. skateboarding punks searching for a plot. They never f...
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Movie review: Suspense-challenged 'Halloween' horror sequel no match for the originalOct 17, 2018 11:00 am - “Halloween” - ★ ★ Forty years after John Carpenter's seminal, low-budget 1978 horror tale “Halloween” assaulted moviegoers, I experienced a weird form of PTSD (Post Trau...
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Movie review: Ryan Gosling is stellar in Damien Chazelle's tightly coiled space biopic 'First Man'Oct 10, 2018 11:00 am - “First Man” - ★ ★ ★ ½ The sounds of silence make lots of noise in Damien Chazelle's surprising, anti-epic, historical drama “First Man,” a tightly coiled study of the f...
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Movie review: Bradley Cooper makes impressive directing debut in raw, relevant 'Star is Born'Oct 03, 2018 10:00 am - “A Star is Born” - ★ ★ ★ ★ We first see Bradley Cooper as sun-fried, literally red-necked rock 'n' roll superstar Jackson Maine performing before a stadium teeming with...
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Movie review: Sweet guide dog documentary a definite 'Pick of the Litter'Sep 27, 2018 6:00 am - "Pick of the Litter" - ★ ★ ★ ½ You think all those adorable online videos of puppies can't be topped for cuteness? Watch the beginning of "Pick of the Litter" as five f...
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Flawed 'Smallfoot' steps up with push for acceptance and integritySep 25, 2018 11:00 pm - "Smallfoot" - ★ ★ ½ "It's not just about tearing down old ideas," a character in "Smallfoot" says. "It's about finding new ones!" The ideas in Warner Animation Group's m...