1 The Battle of Algiers (Music Box, opens October 14) This restoration of Gillo Pontecorvo’s brutal, brillant 196 examination of the mechanics of terrorism and counterterrorism is a tense crack thriller and one of the greats at observing both sides of conflict. Its vital vérité could be taken for newsreel footage.
2 The Devils (Music Box, September 26) The Northwest Chicago Film Society presents a 35mm print of Ken Russell’s”The Devils.” Sacrilege!
3 Arrival (Opens November 11) Denis Villeneuve (“Incendies,” “Prisoners,” “Sicario”) directs Eric Heisserer’s adaptation of Ted Chiang’s vital short story “Story of Your Life,” with Amy Adams as a linguist brought in to approach newly landed aliens. Shot by Bradford Young (“Selma,” “Pariah,” “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”).
4 Snowden (Opens September 16) Oliver Stone turns seventy the day after “Snowden” opens: can his true-life romance-espionage thriller about whistleblower-expat Edward Snowden bear the incendiary cinematic power of earlier pictures like “JFK” and “Born on the Fourth of July”?
5 The Birth of A Nation (Opens October 7) Co-writer-director-producer-star Nate Parker’s Sundance sensation grows beyond a conversation about a slave rebellion to the different question of trusting the artist beyond his own actions now that Parker’s own past is under scrutiny.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
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.
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