RECOMMENDED
Fine whine. Three couples and a couple of singletons who never saw “The Big Chill” congregate on New Year’s Eve to remember what was and mess with what might be in Joseph Infantolino’s low-budget but accomplished pansexual relationship roundelay “Helena from the Wedding.” Newlyweds Alex (Lee Tergesen) and Alice (Melanie Lynskey) invite their fortyish friends to their snowbound cabin in the woods; the writing is sharp and performances engaging as the characters’ weaknesses are revealed. The intimacies add up to bittersweet goodness. With Gillian Jacobs, Dagmara Dominczyk, Paul Fitzgerald, Dominic Fumusa, Jessica Hecht, Corey Stoll. 89m. (Ray Pride)
“Helena From The Wedding” opens Saturday at Siskel.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine.
His multimedia history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” will be published soon. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram as Ghost Signs Chicago. More photography on Instagram.
