Wrapping Up the 2025 Chicago Film Festival
With this year’s 61st edition of the Chicago International Film Festival in the books, I’ve completed my screenings for 2025. Here’s what I screened and what I thought.
This Week in Movies with Meaning
Reviews of "A Big Bold Beautiful Journey" and "Peacock," as well as a film festival wrap-up, are all in the latest Movies with Meaning post on the web site of The Good Media Network.
‘Peacock’ seeks the nature of the self and our existence
In this age of increasingly untrustworthy AI, rampant fake news and unabashedly self-serving social media, it’s becoming ever more difficult for many of us to distinguish what’s “real” and what isn’t these days, almost as if we’re stuck in a frightening new Orwellian paradigm. That’s significant, not only for how we perceive existence, but even in terms of how we experience and respond to it. In fact, these circumstances might even be looked upon as a metaphysical or existential nightmare. But how do we cope with such circumstances?
Wrapping Up Reeling 2025
The 43rd annual edition of Chicago’s Reeling International LGBTQ+ Film Festival is now in the books. I managed to catch 10 films during the festival’s 10-day run. Here’s my take on what I watched and what I thought.
Celebrating the Inner Rebel on The Cinema Scribe
Tune in for the latest Cinema Scribe segment on Bring Me 2 Life Radio, beginning Tuesday September 23.
‘We Were Dangerous’ celebrates the inner rebel
At the risk of gross oversimplification, nearly all of the world’s residents can be divided into two camps – those who are only too willing to comply with society’s dictates to keep from rocking the boat and those who insist on being themselves, no matter what, even if that means ruffling some feathers and flaunting their uncontainable individuality. Unfortunately, those who fall into the latter camp are often met with staunch opposition, frequently including efforts aimed at stifling their actions, beliefs and behavior, even for the slightest of deviations from conventional expectations.
This Week in Movies with Meaning
Reviews of "Can I Get a Witness?", "Watch the Skies" and "How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies," as well as a special announcement, are all in the latest Movies with Meaning post on the web site of The Good Media Network.
‘How to Make Millions’ puts life into perspective
There are things in life more important than money, but sometimes we lose sight of that, unwittingly allowing our perspectives to become seriously skewed. Unfortunately, this usually happens most often when family-related considerations are involved. And those flawed perceptions, in turn, can become even further distorted when money is tied up with those familial matters, particularly when inheritance concerns loom. Such is the case for a Chinese-Thai family facing the prospects of what will happen to the assets of its terminally ill matriarch.
This Week in Movies with Meaning
Reviews of "Turtles," "The Life of Chuck" and "The Ballad of Wallis Island" are all in the latest Movies with Meaning post on the web site of The Good Media Network.
Same-sex Partnerships on The Cinema Scribe
Tune in for the latest Cinema Scribe segment on Bring Me 2 Life Radio, beginning Tuesday June 24.