Idiosyncratic, urgent, often lyrical voices have been coming out of Argentinean filmmaking in the past decade, all concerned to some degree with cracking the urban self-image and bourgeoisie façade of that country. To name only a few, there’s the late Fabien Bielinsky (“Nine Queens,” “The Aura,” now playing); bold young naïf Lisandro Alonso (“La Libertad,” 2001); “Los Muertos,” 2004, opening in January at Facets); Lucrecia Martel (“La Ciénaga,” 2001; “The Holy Girl,” 2004); Celina Murga (“Ana y los otros,” 2003) and Daniel Burman. The Jewish Buenos Aires-based writer-director’s “Lost Embrace” (2004) heralded a fresh perspective with a pleasingly literary mingling of comedy, sex and yearning, the sort of cannily measured mix of time, place and conflict, set in a recognizable contemporary city, that makes a certain familiar question even more irrelevant: “Why don’t people make movies like Woody Allen used to?” Burman’s “Family Law” (Derecho de familia) finds the 33-year-old exploring the relationships of fathers and sons for a third time, and the semi-autobiographical dramatic conflict between a young man entering the trade of his colorful father and what legacy he will leave his young son is mostly sunny. Understatement is Burman’s forte: he’s very good at it. 102m. (Ray Pride)
Talking Screens: A Week In Chicago Film, March 12-18, 2021 OPENERS How condensed do you want your Almodóvar? In thirty taut minutes, the Spanish writer-director burrows inside Jean Cocteau’s 1930 play, “The Human Voice,” with Tilda Swinton as his physical and psychological blade. Studio-confined during pandemic days, it’s brightly, boldly interior in every way. Music Box Theatre; shown with Almodóvar’s 1988 breakthrough, “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.”…
Talking Screens: A Week in Chicago Film, February 12-18, 2021 OPENERS The delay of the Oscars until April 25 was one of many changes in the movie industry in the past year; movies released in the U. S. through February 28 are deemed eligible if there was an intention to have released them theatrically. The standard-bearers opening this week include Shaka King's sleek Chicago-set marvel, "Judas & The Black Messiah,"…
Talking Screens: A Week in Chicago Film, February 19-25, 2021 OPENERS Searchlight Pictures' "Nomadland" expands its theater reach while debuting on Disney sibling Hulu; its reception from critics' groups continues, with nods last week from the Toronto circle (adding to a lengthy roster including the National Society of Film Critics, Boston and London) for best film, director Chloé Zhao and a flinty Frances McDormand. McDormand's Fern is on the road…
