The Tribune’s wrap-up of the Chicago International Film Festival schedule, by Tribune movie critic Michael Wilmington and the movie reviewing staff, appears each day. – indicates a personal appearance by the director or star.
Pick of the day
– “Shopgirl” (star)(star)1/2 (Anand Tucker, U.S.) The glittering loneliness of Los Angeles has rarely been captured by a more expressive face that the one belonging to Claire Danes. The actress plays glove saleswoman and sometime artist Mirabelle to Steve Martin’s wealthy older suitor and Jason Schwartzman’s younger geeky one. Based on Martin’s charming novella, the film feels overscaled and a little off — but Danes hits every note in the score with piercing clarity. 6:30 p.m. Tue., AMC River East 21 — Michael Phillips
A few more
“The Consequences of Love” (star)(star)(star)1/2 (Paolo Sorrentino, Italy). A mysterious and secretive man, living in strange indolence at a Swiss luxury hotel, finds himself wrenched out of his shell during a romance with the hotel’s free-spirit bartender. The consequences are dangerous, the story engrossing, the ending blood-chilling. A big hit at Cannes, this elegant mystery-romance has a polish and stylistic confidence surprising for a director making only his second film; Sorrentino is one of the finds of this fest. (In Italian, with English subtitles.) 6:15 p.m. Tue., Landmark. — M.W.
– “Protocols of Zion” (star)1/2(Marc Levin, U.S.) Levin’s documentary sets out to explore why/how some people hold Jews responsible for Sept. 11, but ends up trying to cover the entire history of anti-Semitism and asking a much more general question: Why does the world still hate the Jews? For the answer, Levin talks to his checklist of Jew-haters: Muslim community leaders, skinheads and African-American men in jail. A worthy topic to explore, but Levin meanders and treads on old territory. 7 p.m. Tues., Landmark). — Allison Benedikt.
– “Kissing on the Mouth” (star)(star)(star) (Joe Swanberg, U.S.). An unvarnished, unprotected look at sex in the city — among a quartet of sexually active or wishful post-collegiates — that almost makes up in audacity what it lacks in conventional polish. Using a documentary style and some uninhibited roommates and lovers, Swanberg closely examines what Preston Sturges used to call “Topic A” — though he never quite makes it to “Z.” Written and directed, with some New Wave zest, by Chicagoan Swanberg and his all-Chicago cast. 8:30 p.m. Tue., AMC.) — M.W.
“TransAmerica” (star)1/2 (Duncan Tucker, U.S.). Felicity Huffman (of “Desperate Housewives”) does a brave turn in the role of a transsexual Bree, who, right in the midst of the hectic process of changing from man to woman, takes a break to reunite with his/her long-lost son, a druggie/bisexual hustler, and drive him back to Los Angeles, in the midst of mounting gender confusion and predictably colorful characters. Compassionate but seedy. One of the weirder road movies ever but not one of the better ones. 9:15 p.m. Tues., Landmark — M.W.
