Duane Hopwood Tagged Articles at Cinematical

• Breakfast On Pluto - The Crying Game writer-director Neil Jordan never really does get into why Patrick “Kitten” Braden becomes a transvestite, but he does manage to save his film from being a rote and self-indulgent celebration of uniqueness when he bobs and then weaves a political cry (for Irish independence) into it. The criminally attractive Cillian Murphy plays Kitten a little too much like Mrs. Doubtfire, though he does sustain the character, and an incredible glam-packed soundtrack helps create an energetic sense of time and place.
• Deep Blue - While not as stunning as the likes of Winged Migration or March Of The Penguins, this BBC-produced nature film sure is pretty to look at. With a calming, minimalist narration by Pierce Brosnan (supplanting Michael Gambon's from the UK release) and a dreamy score by George Fenton, the underwater photography is stunning. The beast-on-beast violence is a bit intense, with one hapless sea lion meeting his end when two orcas play hacky-sack with his mangled corpse (in slow-motion, no less).

For eight years now, megacritic Roger Ebert has put together a festival featuring films he loves that he feels have been overlooked and neglected. What's great about the festival is that Ebert's status is such that people pay attention to it, and the attention he bestows on films simply by choosing them can have an impact. Featured at last year's festival, for example, were Murderball and Me and You and Everyone We Know, both of which received tremendous acclaim as the year wore on.

This year's slate of films is just as diverse as those of past festivals, and includes My Fair Lady (screening in 70mm!), The David Schwimmer-starrer Duane Hopwood (Ebert describes Schwimmer's performance as "brilliant", and the film as one of the best indie features he saw last year), Man Push Cart (which impressed Kim at Sundance), and Bad Santa. All of the films at the festival will be accompanied by appearances by personnel involved in the productions, from Bad Santa director Terry Zwigoff to John Malkovich, who plans to be on hand to discuss his work in 2002's Ripley's Game.

The festival runs from April 26 to April 30 (there are three and four screenings a day), with all screenings at The Virginia Theatre. Those of you in Chicago damn well better go.

[via GreenCine Daily]