RECOMMENDED The 1970s television life of Charles Nelson Reilly, primarily on “The Match Game” and “The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson” (as well as “Lidsville”), lingers in memory of anyone old enough, playing a snarky, fey quipster, yet a life as an opera and Tony-nominated theater director accompanied this role (and a recurring bit on “The X-Files”). A long life can have many diversions and digressions, and in “The Life of Reilly,” directed by Barry Poltermann and Frank Anderson, an October 2004 recording of his one-man show about his real life, small in scale, but large in detail, from hair-raising stories about his awful mother (“Eugene O’Neill would never get near this family”) to a television executive telling him early on, “They don’t let queers on television.” (Reilly’s epic summa: “A short meeting.”) A genuine raconteur as well as a large presence, Reilly devoted much of his life to teaching, but his poignant and oft-hilarious stories show that a life lived well is the best revenge. (Ray Pride) “The Life Of Reilly” opens Friday at Facets.
Chicago Salvation: Life, Movies And Uptown's Hurricane Billy A maker of hard-to categorize films, William Friedkin forged a career in his own way, fueled by arrogance, boastfulness, bravado, confidence, self-assurance and moral questioning, a Chicago working-class autodidact who grew up poor in Uptown.
Seeing The Elephant: A Review Of Babylon The boisterous, brawling yet melancholy "Babylon," is a variation on film history, but more drawing for drama. It's gaudy and mean, celebratory and sorrowful.
Heart: A Review of Soul The real world is soulful, too, in Pixar's bountiful life of the mind.
