Once again the Chicago International Film Festival is a hodgepodge of movies assembled with no discernible point of view. If you walked into a well-stocked bookstore and grabbed the first 130 titles in sight, you'd have a collection very much like it.
For anyone interested in keeping up with film, Chicago turns into New York City for six weeks every fall. The embarassment of riches is frustrating--and virtually guarantees that a lot of important work will get lost in the shuffle.
The Chicago International Film Festival is back for the 31st time, slipping a notch thanks to some questionable programming and the loss of a prime theater.