‘The Killer,’ Michael Shannon’s directorial debut ‘Eric LaRue,’ other movies announced for Chicago International Film Fest
CHICAGO — It’s not all death and dying, in various keys of seriousness.
But the latest batch of titles announced for next month’s Chicago International Film Festival (Oct. 11-22) features Michael Fassbender in director David Fincher’s hitman lark “The Killer,” a graphic novel adaptation filmed partially in Chicago; “The Zone of Interest,” director Jonathan Glazer’s drama (based on a novel) about Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss’s family life in the shadow of genocidal slaughter; and “Eric LaRue,” the directorial debut of Michael Shannon, in which playwright and screenwriter Brett Neveu depicts the aftermath of a fatal school shooting in an insinuating portrait of a town on the edge.
Judy Greer, recently seen in Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s “Another Marriage,” leads a cast including Shannon and Neveu’s longtime Chicago theater cohorts Tracy Letts and Kate Arrington. They play warring pastors struggling for control of the spiritual loyalty of Greer’s character, the mother of the title character in “Eric LaRue.” Shannon will introduce the screening; his own A Red Orchid Theatre of Chicago staged Neveu’s play in 2002.
The 59th edition of CIFF features “Saltburn” in the centerpiece slot. It’s the newest film from “Promising Young Woman” Oscar winner Emerald Fennell, a “beautifully wicked tale of privilege and desire” starring Barry Keoghan (”The Banshees of Inisherin”).
This year’s top prize winner at the Cannes Film Festival, director Justine Triet’s thriller “Anatomy of a Fall,” will screen as part of the Women in Film lineup.
Director George C. Wolfe’s civil rights-era biopic “Rustin,” in which Colman Domingo portrays the March on Washington architect Bayard Rustin, will screen as part of the Black Perspectives slate.
Writer-director Minhal Baig’s “We Grown Now,” set in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing project, opens the festival Oct. 11. Dozens more titles will be confirmed in the coming weeks. This year’s festival home base is the AMC NewCity 14 (not the AMC River East 21), along with venues including the Music Box Theatre; the Gene Siskel Film Center; the Chicago History Museum; the Hamilton Park Cultural Center; Harrison Park; the Logan Center for the Arts; and the Museum of Contemporary Art.
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Tickets and more information at www.chicagofilmfestival.com.
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