Brad Bernstein’s “Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story” is a delight on multiple levels, including reintroducing a still-living exemplar of twentieth-century graphic design to contemporary audiences. Known for writing and illustrating frightening books for children, Ungerer also excelled at drawing violence, sexual extremes and scatology, as well as pungent protest posters. The gifted, protean illustrator is also a champion talker, in multiple languages and often outright hilarious. Bernstein’s animated interludes are a worthy eyeful, and Ungerer is a generous earful. With Steven Heller, Maurice Sendak, Jules Feiffer. 98m. (Ray Pride)
“Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story” opens Friday 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.