A neglected Chicago filmmaker gets his due, and the rest of this week's screenings

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Friday, January 18, 2013

Opening / Film A neglected Chicago filmmaker gets his due, and the rest of this week's screenings

Posted by Ben Sachs on 01.18.13 at 07:27 AM

From Phil Karlson's Gunman's Walk

In this week's issue, Drew Hunt writes at length about the 1958 western Gunman's Walk and its director, the underrated B-movie maverick (and Chicago native) Phil Karlson. Hunt explores the themes of antiracism and antiviolence in Karlson's 50s films, arguing that the filmmaker should be considered, pace Andrew Sarris, a subject for further research. Gunman's Walk screens on Monday at 7:30 PM at the Portage theater; it's just one of many great revivals in town this week. The embarrassment of riches includes the continuing Jean Rouch retrospective at the Gene Siskel Film Center (up this Sunday afternoon: Moi, un Noir and The Lion Hunters), All About Eve at the Music Box on Saturday and Sunday morning, and author Walter Mosley introducing the film adaptation of his Devil in a Blue Dress at the Cultural Center tonight at 7 PM. And it's a hell of a week at Doc Films, with the Coen brothers' Raising Arizona on Friday, David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis on Saturday and Sunday, Jacques Tourneur's Out of the Past on Monday, Louis Malle's Zazie in the Metro on Tuesday, Wong Kar-wai's Days of Being Wild on Wednesday, and Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble With Harry on Thursday.

As for new releases, this week we have reviews of: Bel Borba Aqui, a portrait of a prolific Brazilian street artist; A Haunted House, Marlon Wayans's send-up of the Paranormal Activity franchise; In Bed With Ulysses, an essay-film about James Joyce's most respected novel; La Rafle, a Holocaust drama from France; Luv, a Baltimore-set crime drama starring Common as a repentant ex-thug; Sexy Baby, a documentary about how women perceive their sexuality in the Internet age; and West of Memphis, director Amy Berg's epic chronicle of the case of the West Memphis Three, the Arkansas teens convicted on shaky evidence for the 1993 murders of three eight-year-old boys. If you only have time to see one of these, make it West of Memphis. Berg (Deliver Us From Evil) has created a work of nonfiction that unfolds like a great novel, displaying a stronger grasp of character than many narrative filmmakers.