1 Taipei Story (Siskel, May) Lovingly restored edition of the 1985 second feature of gone-too-soon Taiwanese master Edward Yang (“Yi Yi”), starring Hou Hsiao-hsien (who co-wrote and co-financed) as a washed-up baseball player who can’t reconcile himself to working for his family or with fidelity to his pop-star girlfriend.
2 Two By Tarkovsky: “Stalker” & “Solaris” (Music Box, May 26-29) 4K digital restorations of two of the most esteemed of the Russian master’s seven features. The great, ambiguous, irradiated allegory “Stalker” should be a dank delight, dusted off for the big screen.
3 Eight Features by Lina Wertmüller (Siskel, May) Swept away by an unusual destiny on taste across decades in our usual art-house: restored versions of the superheated work of the prodigiously controversial Italian melodramatist.
4 The Lovers (Opens May 12) The latest by deadpan-comic writer-director Azazel Jacobs (“Momma’s Man,” “GoodTimesKid,” “Doll & Em”) brings Debra Winger back to the screen in tandem with ace actor Tracy Letts as a long-married couple who bring fire back to their bed by cheating on their other lovers with each other.
5 A Quiet Passion (Music Box, opens May 19) Gifted Liverpudlian auteur Terence Davies’ eighth feature imagines a life of Emily Dickinson, with Cynthia Nixon at her finest as the painted poet. Artful frame and gesture and sound and light adorn each ache.
Film Top 5: April 2020 Traversing the landscapes of high studio filmmaking; Lisboa; Kyiv; in the footsteps of adventurer Bruce Chatwin and in the mind of a troubled young nurse.
Film Top 5: September 2020 Charlie Kaufman thinks, once more, as always, of ending it all; whimsitician Miranda July returns; Chicago Latino Film Festival goes virtual; Gerard Butler may or may not save the planet from a comet; and "Tenet" promises to time-invert over Labor Day in non-pandemic hotspot localities.
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