Crime

Undercover cops infiltrate FilmStruck this week

by Patrick Friel on April 10, 2018 at 6:00AM

T-Men This crisp 1948 thriller marked Anthony Mann's emergence from B movie obscurity, setting him on the path that would lead to his great westerns of the 50s. Filmed in the pseudodocumentary style made popular by Louis de Rochemont, it's the story of two Treasury Department investigators who go underground to smash a counterfeiting ring.

Nautical thrillers and mysteries set sail on FilmStruck this week

by Patrick Friel on March 27, 2018 at 6:00AM

Macao Josef von Sternerg attempted to re-create the ambience of his 1930s Paramount period for this 1952 RKO production; there's no way of knowing whether he succeeded or not, because the film was recut by producer Howard Hughes, with additional scenes directed by Nicholas Ray. Sternberg's personality survives; what's missing is the soul that might have turned the artifice and self-parody into poetry.

Thoroughbreds is a handsomely understated drama about awful people

by Ben Sachs on March 20, 2018 at 1:19PM

Thoroughbreds also marks the final role of the late Anton Yelchin, who delivers the film’s sole expressive performance. He plays Tim, a drug dealer and all-around fuck-up whom the girls attempt to blackmail into murdering the stepfather.

For years the whereabouts of Allen Ross were a mystery—and then the mystery was solved

by Aimee Levitt on February 7, 2018 at 9:00AM

Ross was one of the founders of Chicago Filmmakers and a documentarian with his own distinctive style. He was best known for The Grandfather Trilogy (1981), in which he spends time with his grandfather in rural South Carolina and then, in the third film, chronicles his funeral. "His stare was always a bit askew," wrote the Reader's longtime art critic Fred Camper, "which rescues and even ennobles imagery that might otherwise be mundane or sentimental; as far as I know, he has no successor, which makes that peculiar gaze his real legacy."

Going deep into the ‘Tylenol murders’ and the mind of the extortionist who claimed responsibility

by Aimee Levitt on February 2, 2018 at 9:00AM

The Reader's archive is vast and varied, going back to 1971. Every day in Archive Dive, we'll dig through and bring up some finds.

Here's why it's now illegal to impersonate a firefighter in the state of Illinois

by Aimee Levitt on January 29, 2018 at 8:00AM

The Reader's archive is vast and varied, going back to 1971. Every day in Archive Dive, we'll dig through and bring up some finds.

Jack Black is a delightful singing con man in The Polka King

by Ben Sachs on January 23, 2018 at 4:59PM

The Polka King’s satire feels a little stale after The Wolf of Wall Street and Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain, two recent (and more aggressive) comedies about the corruption of the American Dream. Yet it’s clear that satire is not what Forbes is after.

This was what it was like to live in Chicago in 2017

by Aimee Levitt on January 2, 2018 at 1:48PM

The alderman spoke, and then Glen Brooks, the police department's director of public engagement, spoke, and then John Warner, the organizer of neighborhood "positive loitering" events, spoke. They all said Trevillion's death had been a tragedy.

My Friend Dahmer is a portrait of the mass murderer as a young man

by Ben Sachs on November 14, 2017 at 1:21PM

At least the film is aware of its own exploitive methods; a major plot development concerns Dahmer's exploitation by a group of boys he meets in the high school band. These boys are fascinated by the socially maladroit Dahmer, who mostly keeps to himself but occasionally flips out around groups of people (making strange noises, pretending to have seizures, and getting into others' personal space).

This year's edition of Noir City: Chicago expands its focus

by Ben Sachs on August 25, 2017 at 1:11PM

While I'm glad to revisit these Matthau movies on a big screen, I'm even more excited to catch the rare 35-millimeter presentation of William Friedkin's The Brink’s Job (1978), which plays on Tuesday at 5 PM and 9:15 PM. More of a comedy than a suspense film, Brink's tells the true story of a heist on a New England armored car company in the 1950s.

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