Now Showing Saturday, November 21, through Friday, November 27

Key: Critic's Choice, Recommended, New and Free

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul Rainer Werner Fassbinder takes Douglas Sirk's Hollywood melodrama All That Heaven Allows and pushes it over the brink: it becomes the story of a May-December … Gene Siskel Film Center

Amelia With any luck this biopic of Amelia Earhart will also vanish without a trace. Hilary Swank is sorely miscast as the legendary aviator, who disappeared … Highland Park

Astro Boy Osamu Tezuka’s groundbreaking 60s anime series gets a stylish CGI update in this sci-fi animation. A scientist (given voice by Nicolas Cage), distraught over the … Chatham 14, Ford City, Logan and Norridge

The Baader Meinhof Complex Part thriller, part social history, this tense 2008 drama traces the rise and fall of the Baader-Meinhof gang, a violent communist terror group whose track … Gene Siskel Film Center

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans Abel Ferrara's cult favorite Bad Lieutenant (1992) was a Scorsese-style exercise in macho histrionics and tortured Catholicism; this Werner Herzog drama plays more like a … Century 12 and CineArts 6, Landmark's Century Centre and River East 21

The Beaches of Agnes French filmmaker Agnes Varda returns to the guiding metaphor of The Gleaners and I (2000), her documentary about scavengers, though in this visually witty 2008 … Tivoli Theatre

La Belle Personne A comely, self-contained high school student (Lea Seydoux) transfers to a new school in Paris and is swiftly integrated into a clique of gorgeous, hyperarticulate … Facets Cinematheque

The Blind Side Based on the nonfiction book by Michael Lewis, this potent tearjerker tells the story of Michael Oher, a gigantic black teenager from impoverished West Memphis … 600 N. Michigan, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, Cicero ShowPlace 14, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Ford City, Gardens 1-6, Lake, Niles ShowPlace 12, Norridge, Pickwick Theatre, River East 21, Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings and Webster Place 11

Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day A low-budget Tarantino knockoff, The Boondock Saints (2000) flopped miserably in theaters but has since won a cult following on video—sustained, no doubt, by the … Century 12 and CineArts 6, City North 14, Crown Village 18 and River East 21

The Box For his third feature, Richard Kelly delivers neither a triumph (like his first, Donnie Darko) nor a travesty (like his second, Southland Tales) but a … Norridge

Capitalism: A Love Story Michael Moore catalogs some of the more grotesque outrages of the second Gilded Age: the predatory lending that led to the 2008 bank bailout, corporations … Landmark's Century Centre

A Christmas Carol Robert Zemeckis applies the 3-D motion-capture animation of Beowulf (2007) and The Polar Express (2004) to the well-worn Charles Dickens tale (19 screen adaptations and … 600 N. Michigan, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, Cicero ShowPlace 14, Crown Village 18, Ford City, Gardens 7-13, Norridge, Pickwick Theatre and Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings

A Christmas Carol 3D Robert Zemeckis applies the 3-D motion-capture animation of Beowulf (2007) and The Polar Express (2004) to the well-worn Charles Dickens tale (19 screen adaptations and … Century 12 and CineArts 6, Cicero ShowPlace 14, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Lake, Niles ShowPlace 12, River East 21, Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings and Webster Place 11

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs A lumpy stew of weak characterization, lame gags, ADD-afflicted storytelling, and dazzling visual invention, this computer-generated kid flick concerns a nerdy young inventor (voiced by … Logan

Coco Before Chanel Fashion is so consistently portrayed as a measure of money and status that one can easily forget it’s a means of personal expression, which may … Highland Park, Landmark's Century Centre and Wilmette Theatre

Collateral Transpiring over a ten-hour nocturnal stretch in diverse Los Angeles locations, this engaging crime thriller by Michael Mann often suggests a low-budget 40s noir blown … Univ. of Chicago Doc Films

Commercials & Experiments Shorts, commercials, and assorted experiments by Muppets creator Jim Henson, many of them predating Sesame Street. 90 min. Gene Siskel Film Center

Couples Retreat A more helpful title for this date movie would have been Couples, Retreat! Vince Vaughn and Malin Akerman play a husband and wife sucked into … 600 N. Michigan, Gardens 1-6, Niles ShowPlace 12, River East 21 and Webster Place 11

Cry-Baby John Waters's disappointing 1990 follow-up to Hairspray is another musical about Baltimore teenagers, this time about class warfare in 1954 rather than racial integration in … Delilah's

Dark Victory This is exactly what people mean when they refer to a “Bette Davis movie.” Ms. Davis stars as a spoiled Long Island socialite who, discovering … Music Box

Earth Days The history of our environmental undoing through the eyes of nine Americans whose work and actions launched the modern environmental movement.

An Education In London during the early 60s, a precocious 16-year-old schoolgirl (Carey Mulligan) is seduced by a middle-aged grifter (Peter Sarsgaard) so good at his game … Century 12 and CineArts 6, Landmark's Century Centre, Renaissance Place and River East 21

Fantastic Mr. Fox Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums) ventures into stop-motion animation with this adaptation of the children's book by Roald Dahl. With the voices of George … Lake and River East 21

The Fourth Kind Alaskan psychologist Milla Jovovich persuades fellow shrink Elias Koteas that most of their patients have been traumatized by extraterrestrial kidnappers, but local lawman Will Patton … 600 N. Michigan, Chatham 14, Cicero ShowPlace 14, Crown Village 18, Ford City, Norridge and River East 21

Funny People Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) takes some interesting chances in this messy but engaging comedy, which suggests he may yet mature (no, seriously) … Univ. of Chicago Doc Films

Gentlemen Broncos Nerdsploitation auteur Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite Nacho Libre) takes a witless whack at sci-fi fanboys. Affectless Benjamin (Michael Angarano), dispatched by his chirpy, adoring mom … Landmark's Century Centre

Good Hair Prompted by his young daughter’s innocent question—“Daddy, how come don’t I have good hair?”—comedian Chris Rock investigates the multibillion-dollar black hair-care industry, a topic that … Pipers Alley

The Great Muppet Caper During their late-70s heyday the Muppets won huge TV audiences with their corny puns and showbiz in-jokes, but stretched to feature length the formula loses … Gene Siskel Film Center

Hannah Free Lesbian icon Sharon Gless (Cagney & Lacey) stars as the title character, a tart-tongued, bedridden old woman who seethes at the indignities of old age … Gene Siskel Film Center

A Hard Day's Night In the Beatles' 1964 screen debut the four lovable adenoidal lads day-trip through a press party, a televised concert, and a helicopter ride to Wolverhampton. … Delilah's

I Know a Woman Like That Documentary maker Elaine Madsen profiles Eartha Kitt, Rita Moreno, Gloria Steinem, and other notable women who've remained active in old age. With Virginia Madsen (Sideways), … Beverly Arts Center

Inglourious Basterds Quentin Tarantino’s long-awaited action flick isn’t a World War II movie—it’s a movie about World War II movies and, by extension, how the Third Reich … Pipers Alley

Je T'Aime, Je T'Aime A science fiction story—a man is given a chance to relive one minute of his past in a not-quite-perfected time machine—serves as the basis for … Gene Siskel Film Center

La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman applies his famously organic storytelling style to the Paris Opera Ballet, and the result is a dance film like no other. … Music Box

Law Abiding Citizen Generally I don’t mind a little recreational fascism as long as it’s deep-fried in savory violent vengeance, but this overwrought mess gives vigilantism a bad … Chatham 14, Crown Village 18, Gardens 1-6, Niles ShowPlace 12 and River East 21

Lost Horizon With two sentimentalists as crafty as director Frank Capra and novelist James Hilton collaborating on a project, the results could hardly be anything less than … Univ. of Chicago Doc Films

Love on the Run Francois Truffaut took a few steps toward modernism with this very self-conscious experiment in narrative form (1979). It's not so much another episode in the … Univ. of Chicago Doc Films

The Men Who Stare at Goats Inspired by Jon Ronson's nonfiction book, this genial but ultimately plodding farce looks at the bizarre outer reaches of the U.S. army's psychological operations. A … Century 12 and CineArts 6, Crown Village 18, Davis, Gardens 7-13, Highland Park, Lake, New 400, Pickwick Theatre, River East 21 and Webster Place 11

The Messenger After being wounded in Iraq, a valorous but emotionally repressed soldier (Ben Foster) returns to the States, where the army, displaying all the irony of … Music Box and Renaissance Place

The Messenger After being wounded in Iraq, a valorous but emotionally repressed soldier (Ben Foster) returns to the States, where the army, displaying all the irony of … Music Box and Renaissance Place

The Muppet Movie Jim Henson's TV characters make their big-screen debut in this 1979 comedy, directed by James Frawley (The Monkees). G, 95 min. Gene Siskel Film Center

The Navajo Films Though truly experimental, these seven gems are rarely screened and have mostly gone unnoticed by the experimental film crowd. In 1966 anthropologist John Adair and … Univ. of Chicago Doc Films

New York, I Love You French producer Emmanuel Benbihy refines the concept of his anthology film Paris, Je T’Aime (2006) with this valentine to New York, using recurring characters and … Landmark's Century Centre

The Nightmare Before Christmas Tim Burton, working as a producer at Disney, employed stop-motion animation to flesh out a story he'd first dreamed up while working at the same … Music Box

Paranormal Activity Things go bump in the night for 99 minutes in this microbudget horror movie by Israeli immigrant Oren Peli. Harassed in their house by an … 600 N. Michigan, Chatham 14, Cicero ShowPlace 14, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Ford City, Logan, Niles ShowPlace 12, Norridge, River East 21 and Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings

Pirate Radio Loosely based on the story of Radio Caroline, one of England's offshore commercial radio stations that thrived in the mid-60s, this comedy by writer-director Richard … Century 12 and CineArts 6, Crown Village 18, Lake, River East 21 and Webster Place 11

Planet 51 In this digital animation, a NASA astronaut (visually reminiscent of Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear, and given voice by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) arrives on a … Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, Cicero ShowPlace 14, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Davis, Ford City, Gardens 7-13, Highland Park, New 400, Niles ShowPlace 12, Norridge, River East 21 and Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire With Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey as executive producers, this drama about an obese, illiterate black teen in Harlem practically guarantees some emotional uplift. But … Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, Cicero ShowPlace 14, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Ford City, Lake, Renaissance Place, River East 21 and Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings

Same Old Song Alain Resnais, probably the greatest living French filmmaker, has never made an indifferent or unadventurous film, and he's much more talented and innovative than Francois … Gene Siskel Film Center

A Serious Man After the unbridled misanthropy of Burn After Reading, Joel and Ethan Coen return to the more affectionate tone of their most endearing films (Fargo, The … Century 12 and CineArts 6, Landmark's Century Centre and Renaissance Place

Sing-a-Long Sound of Music Many critics trashed Robert Wise's 1965 screen version of The Sound of Music, but the musical's emotional openness and unguarded optimism honestly express the worldview … Music Box

Skin Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda, The Secret Life of Bees) stars in this provocative 2008 drama about Sandra Laing, whose case made headlines in the final … Landmark's Century Centre

The Stepfather Whereas the 1987 horror hit The Stepfather was top-notch drive-in fare, this perfunctory retread has a tame, made-for-TV feel, and not just because the humdrum … Ford City

Stop Making Sense Jonathan Demme's 1984 film of Talking Heads in concert is devoid of the usual rockumentary bull—no “candid” backstage interviews with stammering musicians, no cutaways to … Univ. of Chicago Doc Films

Tetro For his first original screenplay since The Conversation (1974), Francis Ford Coppola drew on memories of his parents, both classical musicians, and he invests the … Univ. of Chicago Doc Films

This Is It Michael Jackson rehearses for his ill-fated comeback tour in this behind-the-scenes documentary, culled from more than a hundred hours of personal work tapes. Sony is … 600 N. Michigan, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, City North 14, Ford City, Gardens 7-13, Niles ShowPlace 12, Norridge, River East 21 and Webster Place 11

2012 In accordance with the Mayan doomsday calendar, "mutated" neutrinos emanating from the sun trigger spectacular CGI disasters on earth that culminate in a global flood. … 600 N. Michigan, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, Cicero ShowPlace 14, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Davis, Ford City, Gardens 1-6, Gardens 7-13, Highland Park, Lake, New 400, Niles ShowPlace 12, Norridge, Pickwick Theatre, River East 21, Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings and Webster Place 11

The Twilight Saga: New Moon In the supernatural romance Twilight (2008), high school senior Bella (Kristen Stewart) and her 109-year-old vampire boyfriend, Edward (Robert Pattinson), maintained a love affair so … 600 N. Michigan, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, Cicero ShowPlace 14, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Davis, Ford City, Gardens 1-6, Gardens 7-13, Lake, New 400, Niles ShowPlace 12, Norridge, Pickwick Theatre, River East 21, Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings, Webster Place 11 and Wilmette Theatre

Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman Julius Shulman photographed modernist architecture from 1936 into the new century, especially the houses of Southern California, and some of his images have been called … Facets Cinematheque

Where the Wild Things Are For anyone who grew up with Maurice Sendak’s magical 1963 picture book, the idea of its slim story being pumped up into a live-action Hollywood … Century 12 and CineArts 6, Gardens 7-13, River East 21 and Webster Place 11

Zombieland Scattershot but sharp, this postapocalyptic road comedy gives Shaun of the Dead a run for its money. Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland, The Squid and the Whale) … Logan