Robert Altman biographer Patrick McGilligan called
Corn's-A-Poppin' (1955) "one of the worst movies ever made"; Kian Bergstrom of
Cine-File declares, "I love no musical in the world more than [
Corn's-A-Poppin']." You can decide for yourself on Monday when Music Box presents the Chicago premiere of a new restoration of the movie, which Altman cowrote when he was still cranking out 16-millimeter industrials in Kansas City. Our feature story on the restoration project is
here, along with recommended reviews for
Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case, a documentary about the Chinese dissident;
The Illumination, Krzysztof Zanussi's 1973 drama about a physics student in search of enlightenment;
The Rover, an Australian thriller starring Guy Pearce and directed by David Michod (
Animal Kingdom); and
To Kill This Love, a 1972 Polish drama screening at Gene Siskel Film Center as part of the ongoing series Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema.
Check out the issue for new reviews of:
Blumenthal, a comedy about a neurotic upper-class Jewish family in New York City;
Brave Miss World, which profiles human-rights activist and former beauty queen Linor Abargil;
Half of a Yellow Sun, a drama set amid the Nigerian Civil War and starring Thandie Newton and Chiwetel Ejiofor;
Jersey Boys, Clint Eastwood's screen adaptation of the beloved boomer-nostalgia musical;
Lucky Them, starring Toni Colette as a Seattle rock journalist whose boss persuades her to track down a legendary singer-songwriter;
The Pin, a Canadian drama about two Jewish teens hiding out in a barn during the Nazi occupation of Lithuania; and
Think Like a Man Too, a sequel to the hit 2012 romantic comedy.
And don't forget these special events: Music Box presents the
Chicago Jewish Film Festival (including
Blumenthal and
The Pin, above), through Sunday (with repeat screenings of some films next weekend at Century 12 and CineArts 6 in Evanston); Facets Cinematheque presents the
Facets Indigenous Film Festival: Brazil, Friday through Sunday; Northwest Chicago Film Society hosts
New Adventures in 28mm at Northwestern University Annie May Swift Hall next Wednesday; and Nightingale screens Kevin B. Lee's
Transformers: The Premake tonight at 8 PM.
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