With the availability of inexpensive equipment, younger filmmakers have been looking for a way around the old ways of getting films seen. When Columbia, Missouri-based Todd Sklar’s self-distributed “Box Elder” played Siskel this spring, I nominated it to be the first “mumblebumstumblecore” comedy, a variation on both “Slacker” and Preston Sturges’ “Sullivan’s Travel.” A cockeyed caravan of post-collegiate misbehaviors, it promises much for future endeavors, and plays again Thursday November 13, with Sklar and and actors Alex Rennie, Brian Sturgill and James Ponsoldt appearing. The current endeavor, entitled “Slacker Bliss!” by Siskel, is a DIY tour by bus that’s hitting cities across the country, with three more titles. Christopher Jaymes’ “In Memory of My Father” stars Eric Michael Cole, Judy Greer and Matt Keeslar in a comedy about a movie mogul’s deathbed becoming the center of rapacious behavior for all concerned. Jaymes and Jeremy Sisto will appear Friday. JJ Lask’s “On the Road with Judas” stars Aaron Ruell and Kevin Corrigan in a multifaceted road movie; Lask and Corrigan will appear Saturday. And on Sunday, Robert Byington’s “RSO,” aka “Registered Sex Offender,” is a bracing black comedy, the central character of which is a just-paroled sex offender who may just be beyond redemption. It’s a fecund jaw-dropper, with roles for directors Andrew Bujalski, Richard Linklater and Caveh Zahedi. Byington and actors Kristen Tucker and Kevin Corrigan will appear. DIY not? (Ray Pride)
Can’t-Miss Film Events (Fall Arts Preview 2023) Chicago's film festival institutions are hardly autumnal: The Chicago International Film Festival turns fifty-nine; Chicago Underground is thirty this year; and Reeling? Forty-one. Tuck into 130 years of tasty institutional memory this fall.
