Here are capsule reviews for films (listed in chronological order) that critics were able to view in advance for Thursday’s festival lineup. The Friday section will add more capsule reviews for films showing Friday through Sunday (a complete schedule is on the Internet at metromix.com). Check next week’s Tempo for capsule reviews of films showing Monday through closing night, Oct. 19. Film screenings will take place at Loews Cineplex Theatres (abbreviated as Loews), 600 N. Michigan Ave.; Music Box Theatre (Music Box), 3733 N. Southport Ave.; and University of Chicago DOC Films at the Max Palevsky Cinema (DOC), 1212 E. 59th St.
For tickets and other information, call the festival’s 24-hour hot line: 312-332-3456 .
– “A Paradise Under the Stars” (star)(star) 1/2 (Gerardo Chijona; Cuba). Lurid comic melodrama set in the world of Havana cabaret shows and night life, all about a complex tangle of increasingly daffy sexual, familial and show-biz relations. The musical numbers are fun, amusingly lurid and glittery; the actors are talented and energetic. But the movie doesn’t quite make it to camp — or to the Carmen Miranda-Pedro Almodovar trash style it obviously wants. Spanish; subtitled. (4:15 & 8:50 p.m., Loews; also 9:45 p.m. Friday, Music Box). — Michael Wilmington
– “Minerva’s Quest” (star)(star) 1/2 (Oscar Blancarte; Mexico). Likable, well-shot tale of an embittered and selfish would-be Mexican novelist who keeps flashing back to her half-magical childhood; there we see her abusive fisherman father, her charming but irresponsible uncle — and the mermaid fantasies and dark secrets buried back there. There’s a shine to this one, though you have to approach it with some sympathy for childhood trauma stories. Spanish; subtitled. (6 p.m., Loews; also 1 & 3:45 p.m. Saturday, Loews) — M.W.
– “The Captive” (star)(star)(star) (Chantal Akerman; France-Belgium). Akerman has always had a flair for offbeat erotica, and this sexual thriller, inspired by Marcel Proust’s “La Prisoniere,” is her most accessible movie in quite a while. In a way, it’s a more graphic version of “The Collector,” crossed with “Last Tango in Paris.” In it, an obsessive, wealthy young man kidnaps a gay-leaning female beauty and they engage in elaborate sex games in his Parisian digs. Akerman’s sometimes maddeningly austere style is well-suited to heavily sexual subjects; this movie has an eerie, rapt fascination. French; subtitled. (6:30 p.m., Loews; also 3:30 p.m. Friday, Loews, and 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Music Box) — M.W.
– “You Can Count on Me” (star)(star)(star) (Kenneth Lonergan; U.S.). Fine acting from the entire cast and intelligent, sympathetic writing grace this well-done small-town comedy-drama about a single mother (Laura Linney), her young son, her footloose brother and her uptight but susceptible boss (a very funny Matthew Broderick). The movie sometimes wistfully suggests “Five Easy Pieces” told from the viewpoint of Jack Nicholson’s family. Writer-director Lonergan (“Analyze This”) has a feel for small-town languor and eccentricity, and his movie is full of nice moments — though you may wonder why it shared the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. (6:30 p.m., Loews) — M.W.
– “Legacy” (star)(star)(star) 1/2 (Tod Lending; U.S.). A terrific documentary, shot in Chicago over five years, about the ways a single black family living in the projects responds to the shooting death of one of its most beloved members. The film is inspiring and insightful, as we witness how the various members of the family try to cope and escape (school, work, drugs), all the while operating in the shadowy memory of the one who couldn’t get away. A real find. (7 p.m., DOC) — John Petrakis
– “Play Dirty” (star)(star)(star) 1/2 (Andre De Toth; United Kingdom, 1968). One of the most deeply cynical and grimly exciting of all World War II adventure films: Michael Caine, at his ’60s best, leads a group of hardened criminals into a commando mission in the North African campaign. A British variation on “The Dirty Dozen,” which was released the same year, from the man who directed “Ramrod,” “Pitfall,” “Springfield Rifle” and (uncredited) the desert train battle sequence in “Lawrence of Arabia.” A neglected gem. Part of the Critic’s Choice series; presented by “New City’s” Sergio Mims. (7 p.m., Loews) — M.W.
– “Family Pack” (star)(star) (Chris Vander Stappen; Belgium). Set against the Apollo moon landing of 1969, a young bohemian woman and medical school drop-out living in Montreal returns to Brussels to notify her mother she has fallen in love with another woman, but the family mistakenly believes she has arrived to begin her practice and marry. A variation of the mistaken-identity story, filled with reversals and social departures, the movie never quite finds a confident focus or rhythm. French; subtitled. (8:30 p.m., Loews) — Patrick Z. McGavin
– “The Debt” (star)(star) 1/2 (Krzysztof Krauze; Poland). Gritty, violent crime saga — based on fact — about a couple of over-ambitious crooks who try to make a big score and get in way over their heads with the Warsaw mob. Around the edges of the action, there’s an interesting portrayal of contemporary Eastern Europe in painful transition, from Marxism to Mafia. Polish; subtitled. (9 p.m., Loews; also 3:45 & 6:30 p.m. Friday, Loews) — M.W.
– “Happy End” (star)(star) (Jung Ji-woo; South Korea). This curious film begins by showing, in graphic detail, how a young wife has resumed an affair with her first lover, leaving her unemployed husband and baby daughter at home. But instead of pursuing this involving character study of conflict and need, the movie turns into an over-the-top revenger’s tragedy, complete with gore and groans. Big mistake. Korean; subtitled. (9:15 p.m., Music Box) — J.P.
– “Gaea Girls” (star)(star) (Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams; United Kingdom). A BBC-made documentary exploring the deeply ritualized, intensely rigorous training of a group of young Japanese women learning the art, stagecraft and physical daring of professional wrestling. Given the Japanese obsession with propriety and restraint, the work begins promisingly, an intriguing investigation of transgressive gender study, violence, sexuality and competition, but the directors neither fully penetrate the surface nor successfully individuate their subjects. Japanese; subtitled. (M.W.: (star) 1/2) (9:30 p.m., Loews; also 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Music Box) — P.Z.M.
