The Moviegoer: One of them years (already) - Chicago Reader
The Moviegoer is the diary of a local film buff, collecting the best of what Chicago’s independent and underground film scene has to offer.
The Moviegoer is the diary of a local film buff, collecting the best of what Chicago’s independent and underground film scene has to offer.
Egg, all over my face. Because as of this writing, I am ten films behind on my resolution to see, on average, one movie per day in theaters. Note the “on average” part—so my goal for this new month is to get back on track. What can I say, I’m ambitious. (Now if only I could apply even the intent of such dedication to working out. . . .)
To be fair, last month was quality over quantity, as many of the films I saw were long, between the Settle In and Worlds of Wiseman series at the Gene Siskel Film Center. (Many of Frederick Wiseman’s films are close to or more than three hours, if not longer.) I loved my time with the Wiseman films; there’s a hypnotic quality to them that isn’t so much tuning out as really tuning in, focusing on things that you might have otherwise either overlooked or not thought about at all. And as chaos reigns, Wiseman shows there is calmness to be found in order, as he details various institutions and their labyrinthine inner workings.
Wiseman has made two fiction films: A Couple (2022) and The Last Letter (2002), the latter of which I wrote about for Cine-File last week. I continue thinking about the film several days later; it features only French actress Catherine Samie, reciting an extended monologue in the form of a letter from a woman—a Russian Jewish doctor living in a Ukrainian ghetto during World War II—to her son, proclaiming it to be her last as she awaits certain death in the concentration camps.
At just over an hour long, it builds steadily, going through a range of emotions with limited inflection on the part of Samie. But as she neared the end of the letter, and of her life, I felt inside me what I can imagine is only a fraction of what one might feel, might have felt, in such a scenario. It’s something I’ve been feeling in general lately, a kind of impending doom that on its face seems similar to that which is occurring in The Last Letter.
A still from The Great Dictator (1940) Credit: The Criterion CollectionI also watched, at home, Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (1940)—are you sensing a theme? I don’t know if I’m finding comfort in these texts or if they’re making me depressed by the idea that even as we evolve as humans, we can still devolve as a society. Have we learned nothing from all the great art made during times of turmoil and terror? Chaplin’s iconic speech at the end of the film is only too relevant nowadays. But maybe it never stopped being relevant. Maybe nothing will ever change.
With all this and some personal things going on this week, I needed something light, so I managed to get out to see One of Them Days (2025). It was very cute; Keke Palmer and SZA have incredible presences by themselves and out-of-this-world chemistry together. If only life were like a buddy comedy.
Until next time, moviegoers.
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