Writer/Director Daniel Clarke brought a 77-minute history of the rise and fall of the Schwinn Bicycle Company,”No Hands: The Wild Ride of the Schwinn Bicycle Company” to the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival. It was a truly interesting and informative look at a company that was once one of the greatest companies in the United States.
MEMORY LANE
It’s a bittersweet look at one’s childhood if you ever owned a Schwinn. Mine was green and white. Neighbor Ricky Towlerton insisted on giving it a spin when it was brand-new, fell, and knocked the front tire out of alignment (also banging up my basket carrier.) From then on my Schwinn always “leaned right.” You had to steer it to the left to head straight. This was Ricky’s legacy to me, its rightful owner, she said ruefully. Another lesson from Schwinn about staying on top of things, delivered too late.
COMPANY HISTORY
Schwinn Bicycle Company was founded by Ignaz Schwinn (1860–1948) of Hamburg, Germany, in Chicago in 1895. In the 20th century Schwinn became the dominant manufacturer of American bicycles. “This film is a love letter to bicycles and their widespread impact on our culture,” said Daniel Clarke. “It’s a story about childhood, freedom, innovation, industry, and the inevitability of change. The emotional response from our early screenings has been incredible, and we’re excited for more people to see it.”
62nd CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Fastback Stingray by Schwinn. (Photo by Keith Ladzinski).
The documentary had its Midwestern Premiere at 6 p.m. on August 24, 2026, at the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival and screened again at 3 p.m. on Sunday. Its Southern California premiere was October 18th at the Newport Beach Film Festival. It has sold out festival screening dates from Boulder International Film Festival to Woods Hole Film Festival to Mill Valley Film Festival.
CREATIVE TEAM
No Hands: The Wild Ride of the Schwinn Bicycle Company comes from the filmmakers behind The LEGO Brickumentary (narrated by Jason Bateman) and Loopers: The Caddie’s Long Walk (narrated by Bill Murray). Emmy-award winner Carl Cramer wrote and edited a massive amount of information, which goes back to the turn-of-the-century love affair with bicycles, before Ford’s affordable Model-T stole some of the bicycle’s popularity. The documentary is the debut feature of Unfeatured Films.
Unfeatured Films is an independent film studio founded by filmmaker and creative agency veteran Daniel Clarke, with a mission to expand the boundaries of nonfiction storytelling, Unfeatured highlights the unseen, embraces the unconventional, and makes the unexpected. The studio develops culturally-relevant, character-driven films with a distinct point of view.
TALKING HEADS
Bicyclist/narrator Lance Armstrong.
The documentary feature spans Schwinn’s history, from the iconic Sting-Ray to its influence on BMX and mountain biking. Fans, collectors, and cycling pioneers – including Trek Bicycle President John Burke, mountain biking pioneers Gary Fisher, Joe Breeze and Charlie Kelly, and Richard Schwinn, great-grandson of co-founder Ignaz Schwinn – recount how the brand changed cycling forever while navigating the pressures of American manufacturing, family drama, fads and business forces.
CHICAGO
Ignaz Schwinn’s original location in Chicago was at Peoria and Lake Street and the initial seed money to start the company was $1,200. A contract with Sears to provide bicycles for as little as $18 put the company on an upward trajectory which resulted in Schwinn selling one of every four bikes in the U.S. in its heyday and ranking alongside Coca Cola and Disney as a brand. Four generations of Schwinns came up through the ranks to run the company. Initially, the men running things were visionaries and, often, engineers. That did not remain true to the end of the company, alas. In the 1930s, a Schwinn could be bought for $35 and came with a lifetime guarantee. Said Charlie Kelly, “Schwinn missed their window. They had too many lawyers and not enough engineers.”
50s & 60s
Schwinn AeroCycle.
In the fifties and sixties the company established a network of dealers and mechanics, in partnership with George Garner’s Cyclerv, which held the #1 spot in sales for 17 years. The Stingray bicycle, which came out in 1966, was visionary. Said one admirer, ‘It was almost like somebody had dropped some LSD “ into the imagination of Schwinn’s then-leaders. The company had to put on three shifts working 24/7, turning out one million bikes, to keep up with demand.
THE SEVENTIES
In the mid-seventies came the reversal of the Industrial Revolution in the United States. Parts suppliers left the U.S. There was little government oversight of this departure. The ability to make things in the U.S. caused those trying to manufacture products to lose out to places where it was less expensive, like Japan, China and Taiwan [in the case of bicycles]. The Schwinn brand began to tarnish under price pressure. The quality of later Schwinn models was perhaps compromised in an effort to keep the price point around $300. From its Chicago roots, the company’s last manufacturing plant was in Greenville, Mississippi.
ONLY 1% OF COMPANIES SURVIVE 100 YEARS
My husband worked for Deere & Company (established 1836) for forty years. Its slogan: “Nothing runs like a Deere.” Deere has managed, so far, to stay abreast of trends and the marketplace, without compromising quality, but there have been many challenges like those faced by Schwinn. Deere was not saddled with a dictate that its leader should be of the John Deere family lineage (primo-geniture). That is suggested as one explanation for the failure of more recent leaders—who were not engineers—to cope. The last Schwinn to lead the company declined to participate in the documentary. His brother, who ran the bicycle-maker off-shoot Waterford Precision with his son Tucker for 30 years, went out of business during the filming of this documentary, 130 years after Ignaz Schwinn began Schwinn (Abracadabra bought what was left of the company in 2025.)
From innovative advertising that featured A-list movie stars on a Schwinn (50s & 60s) to Captain Kangaroo hawking the brand, failure to stay relevant and on top of such trends as Motocross and Fat Tire bikes hurt Schwinn, say the experts.
EULOGY
Remarks like, “Schwinn missed the train” or “It was pretty shocking that Schwinn couldn’t get this right” to “I guess they just missed it” led to October 7, 1992 after 97 years- Schwinn’s final day of operation. The company was $75 million in debt and was losing $1 million dollars a month.
CONCLUSION
Lance Armstrong. (2009 Tour Down Under).
“No Hands is a nostalgic look back at a century of Americana, tracing the rise and fall of the iconic Schwinn Bicycle Company while opening into a larger story about childhood, cycling and American culture.”
Lance Armstrong was featured prominently as narrator, which took me back some, given Armstrong’s own rise and fall. Mostly, I felt a great deal of sadness when onscreen commentators uttered truths like, “We can’t make stuff any more, and that is a real tragedy.”
The documentary is a cautionary tale for us as a nation and a wonderful example of investigative journalism. It is well worth watching—especially if you ever owned a Schwinn bicycle.
Danny Boyle directs a fast-paced insightful film, “Ink,” based on the 2007 play “Ink,” written by James Graham. The plot traces the rise of Rupert Murdoch and the downfall of professional journalism. It documents the coarsening of the culture and gives us a look backward at the forces that would combine and conspire to give us Donald J.Trump. As a Journalism major on a full ride Ferner/Hearst Scholarship at the University of Iowa near the 1969 starting point of this film I remember the pre-Murdoch days . It helps that I remember what journalism used to be and can rue the changes that have occurred.
CAST
Jack O’Connell as Larry Lamb and Guy Pearce as Rupert Murdoch absolutely nail their roles and the dramatic tension they create is riveting. This Netflix feature is more the story of Murdoch’s accomplice, Larry Lamb, well-played by Jack O’Connell (“Unbreakable”). Think of it as focusing on Steve Miller rather than Donald J. Trump. Claire Foy has a great supporting role as Jules Davies, who joins O’Connell and his band of upstarts at “The Sun.” Jules Davies was a composite character whose original model was Eve Pollard, the first woman in journalism to design an entire page for the upstart “Sun” newspaper who went on to a substantial career with other papers.
CLAIRE FOY
Claire Dall (Sun Girl in “Ink:).
There’s a line in the James Graham screenplay where Claire Foy’s character (Jules Davies) says, “It’s like choosing to watch someone walk into the fire.” She’s commenting on the downward spiral that she is part of, culminating in the publication of nude shots of nubile young girls (Sun Girl is Claire Dall.) Jules quits soon after that remark, abandoning her principled stand against misogyny.
INK Q&A at TIFF 2026 | Danny Boyle, Jack O’Connell & Guy Pearce
byu/JDOExists inoscarrace
“DAILY MIRROR” EDITOR
The actor playing Hugh Cudlipp, head of the “Daily Mirror” in the film, is Bertie Carvel, who played the lead role of Rupert Murdoch in the play version of “Ink.” He won a Laurence Olivier as Best Supporting Actor for his performance, (his second such award. Cudlipp gets a great scene at a journalism awards dinner where he takes the children’s nursery rhyme “Mary Had A Little Lamb” and uses it quite effectively to belitte the brash newspaper upstart that “The Sun” represents. He feels secure that his industry leader paper has nothing to fear from the low-brow, crass upstart “The Sun.”
But low-brow crass upstarts unite behind the “Sun” as it pushes the envelope of previously acceptable journalistic standards and norms, just as a large contingent of followers bordering on zealots (wasn’t it Hillary who dubbed them “a basket of deplorables”?) elevated a brash upstart to most powerful man in the world In each case, the world can see how THAT turned out!
CAST
Jack O’Connell (“Unbroken) .
Jack O’Connell (“Unbroken,” 2014) as Larry Lamb and Guy Pearce (“Memento,” 2000; “The Brutalist,” 2024) anchor the outstanding cast. The supporting performance of Claire Foy as Jules Davies is also pivotal.
The dramatic climax of the film occurs in 1969, when Muriel McKay (Lucy Russell), the wife of Murdoch ex-Executive Alick McKay (Jonathan Hyde), was kidnapped by people who thought she was Murdoch’s wife Anna. The moral question of whether or not to publish the details of Muriel’s kidnapping shows us the lengths the ambitious duo will go to to achieve their goal of surpassing the “Daily Mirror” in circulation. Should the “Sun” publish a letter that Muriel’s husband, Hugh, receives from Muriel in captivity? The pro and con discussion hinges on whether the publication of details about the kidnapping could lead to finding Muriel and rescuing her, or whether it is grossly capitalizing on her plight to sell papers. As one line from the script puts it, “Just because you can make something public doesn’t mean you should.”
Scotland Yard weighs in: “We are embarrassed that the publicity has compromised the investigation.” They tell Larry Lamb that there hasn’t been a kidnapping of this sort in 800 years. Does the hard-charging Murdoch agree with his hand-picked editor, Larry Lamb, that it is hypocritical to publish articles about others, from the Queen on down, that are sensational and will, therefore, attract readers, but not try to use their forum to rescue Muriel?
DEBATE
It is with debates like that one that the philosophical underpinnings of the film’s message emerges. Trying to improve the success of the news business is one thing. Is appealing to the lowest common denominator a good thing for society? The script quotes the boss man, “If it sells, just do it, but I’m not going to like it,” which seems to somewhat absolve Murdoch from blame. Or does it? Ultimately, as the paper goes further and further into tabloid territory, this truth is stated: “You’re not the first to peddle this shit. You’re just the first to not care about the consequences.”
MUSIC
The soundtrack for the film, which David Pemberton scored and Iain Croke sound supervised, is upbeat, fast-paced and features everything from the real theme song from David Frost’s interview show to “War.” Boyle said during a TIFF interview that he always shares a playlist with his editor (Fin Oates), something which he learned from observing Martin Scorsese’s films. The pacing and excellent cinematography from Alvin H. Kuchler, Director of Photography, contribute mightily to the overall effect of the film and, of course, there are headlines and front pages of actual papers of the time.
A.I.
There was a flap at TIFF when an audience member objected to the use of A.I. shots (30 seconds of rats), which Boyle defended, saying, “We tried to be very responsible.” He noted that the A.I. was not used to replace any human actors. The director also defended the reality of A.I. in the industry in VFX usage, going forward.
CONCLUSION
Guy Pearce and Jack O’Connelll in “Ink” at the 62nd Chicago Internationa Film Festival.
This was a movie that provided real food for thought. For me, a journalism major and current member of the (National and) Illinois Women’s Press Association it resonated. Remember when the “equal time” rule prevailed on network television? No? Well, it was a good idea that we should re-consider in the interests of national unity. For that matter, do you remember what a force network television used to be? Because I do.
While acknowledging that focusing on Lamb rather than Murdoch seems to be aiming the spotlight in the wrong direction, both men are seen as the architects of today’s scourge of “alternative facts.” Whether Murdoch seems a tad less eager to wallow in the mud isn’t the point. The point is that, like the man Murdoch’s Fox network helped elevate to the presidency, each man cared mostly about the cash. Norms. Scruples. Manners. Etiquette. All were simply stodgy terms to be ignored. The Mark Zuckerberg mantra “Move fast and break things” was articulated in 2009. It now seems to be U.S. national policy.
RELEASE DATES
“Ink” premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 2, 2026, and is scheduled for a staggered global rollout in select theaters and on Netflix over the coming months: It will be released in select cinemas on December 11th, 2026, followed by its streaming debut on Netflix on January 8th, 2027.
Tony Gilroy (“Michael Clayton,” 2007) wrote and directed,”Behemoth,” which will certainly be garnering Oscar nominations come Academy Award season. The sound for this movie, about a professional cello player named Alex Serian is spectacular, with over fifty people working on the sound and music sections and nine top-notch composers providing the original score. It’s hard to see “Behemoth” not winning major Oscars in sound achievement, alone, and it has an interesting, complex sub-text to entertain as we listen.
PLOT
Pedro Pascal as Alex Serian in “Behemoth!” at the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival.
The synopsis for this closing film of the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival on Sunday, October 25th, reads this way: “A gifted cellist, Alex Serian (Pedro Pascal taking over from Oscar Isaac), returns home to Los Angeles after 20 years on the road. Music, which has been the constant, all-consuming river of his life, begins to carry Alex on an adventure that will change him forever. As he works on a series of film projects as a studio musician, the cues trigger flashbacks that tell us why he’s stayed away so long and why he’s really come back.”
The depiction of a womanizing musical savant is played brilliantly by Pedro Pascal. We see Alex Serian in a television clip performing for Johnny Carson at the age of six. Alex had a musically gifted father, Peter Serian (Hank Azaria), whose instrument was the French horn—although Peter was forced to settle for far less musical success than his gifted son. Mom Ginnie (JoBeth Williams) was a harpist.
Pedro Pascal and Will Arnett, who play brothers in “Behemoth!”, horsing around on the Red Carpet.
The Serian parents passed on great musical genes to their two sons, although Dad Peter cheated on Mom Ginnie and the marriage did not end well. The eager parents forced sons Alex and Andy (Will Arnett) to study music and to play competitive tennis.
I could really relate to helicopter parents pushing music on their talented children. It’s a very good thing to expose children to music. It’s only when it becomes the parents’ reach for fame or glory that it can go astray. Ginnie was a talented harpist and Alex’s brother’s disposing of her expensive harps without consulting Alex becomes a source of conflict, as does the decision about where Ginnie should be buried, since the marriage was not a happy one.
At least Alex seems to enjoy playing the cello, just as his Mom enjoyed playing the harp. (I got stuck with the accordion and the oboe. Trust me, it’s a whole different world from the world of orchestral strings.)
CAST
Pedro Pascal in BEHEMOTH! Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2026 Searchlight Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
One character who is particularly memorable and gives the movie its comic moments is a very good Olivia Wilde as Carol Spedding, the woman who just won’t take no for an answer. Wilde was so good in the role that a nomination for Best Supporting Actress could come her way.
The other major female lead, Eva Victor as violinist Nadia Hynes, has a different role to play in the film. For one thing, she—like perennial barmaid Diane Chambers Shelly Long on “Cheers”—is in a relationship with a man who seems to either have a fear of commitment or just hasn’t had time in his busy career to settle down. Whatever the reason, we get a glimpse of the dynamic between Eva and Alex. The fact that a wealthy billionaire (Matthew Lillard as Dennis Glenn) is ready, willing and able to dump Wife Number One (Alexa Swinton as Vinana Glenn) to make Eva his new bride breaks up her romance with Alex. When audiences see the house that Dennis Glenn occupies (filming was at Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills), Dennis Glenn’s appeal will become more evident.
MUSIC
One critic called the film “a thundering savvy tribute to the power of music.” With a daughter who once told me, “Music fills my soul” and went off to study at one of the three best schools for Music Business in the U.S. (Belmont in Nashville), worked for Taylor Swift, and is now married to a professional musician in Nashville, this film resonated. The daughter still says “music fills my soul.”
With a lengthy history of musical talent in my own family, I loved the music in this film. I’m marveling at what a great and unique idea it was to get nine of the greatest Hollywood composers currently working in the industry, form then into a group known as the Behemoth! Collective, and turn them loose on individual compositions meant to be played in a studio setting for fictional films. Why did no one think of this previously, since music is so integral to film and does so much to “carry” the movie?
This was a brilliant concept. It led to nine prestigious composers scoring one or more compositions, which are being played onscreen in “Behemoth!” There were 35 credits in the Music Department and 19 in Sound Design for the film. Nine composers contributed their original music to the movie, recording at Sony Pictures Scoring Stage, the Newman Scoring Stage at Fox, or at Los Angeles’ EastWest Studios.
Those nine were:
Henry Jackman (“X-Men: First Class,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” who wrote the first L.A. scoring session which plays over the full Chicago flashback. (Those of us watching the film in Chicago at the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival recognized that that studio was not Chicago’s Symphony Hall: way too modern.) The piece is “Spies Don’t Run;” it is supposedly the latest in a fictional “Spies Don’t Run” action/comedy franchise.
Michael Giacchino who composed the scores for “Up” and “Lost” wrote the “Happy & Slappy” tune for a fictional cartoon.
Alan Silvestri (“Back to the Future,” “Avengers: Endgame”) did “Open World,” a decoy title for a fictional production entitled “Behemoth!”
Brandon Roberts, IRL did the music for “Andor” (which was a “Star Wars” prequel spin-off Tony Gilroy worked on for Disney from 2022 to 2025) and “Thanksgiving.” He composed “Look Away Jones,” a theme for a fictional detective show of the 80s.
James Newton Howard– (“The Hunger Games,” “The Dark Knight,” “Pretty Woman,” “Michael Clayton”) – James Newton Howard received the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Score in 2008 for his work on The Dark Knight and has received 9 Oscar nominations. I remember his presentation then. For “Behemoth” he wrote the piano finale, a childhood requiem, and composed the score for the inner film.
Michael Abels – (“Get Out,” “Us”) – Composed the cello practice session etudes.
Emily Bear – (“Moana 2,” a Grammy-award-winning pianist) – Emily wrote “Seasons of Glass,” a romantic love theme for a fictional romantic drama. She also co-wrote the end credit 1950’s track “Make Mine Salty.”
Nami Melumad – (“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” “Thor: Love & Thunder”)- Nami wrote the harp cues for “Tolerance Hill,” a fictional movie-scoring session.
Lukas Frank – (“East of Wall”) -Wrote the Serion Suite family theme and the original club song “Your God Is Sleeping.”
PEDRO PASCAL
When Oscar Isaac dropped out due to scheduling conflicts, Writer/Director Tony Gilroy had a meeting with Pedro Pascal that was described as “a pre-nup.” Asked about the part, Pascal described the extensive prep that went into becoming a virtuoso cellist. The method the two devised was the pathway into “all of the difficulty of technically learning how to play the cello convincingly.”
Pascal: “I would take it everywhere with me, on Tony’s recommendation. Every errand, to the gym, it just sort of lived with me. It was like putting myself into a relationship, and there was something kind of comforting about that.”
Gilroy described the “relationship” as, “It wasn’t a long-term relationship. It was more of a hinge date.”
Pascal mastered the ability to look like a real cellist, a huge achievement and vital to the role.
Director Tony Gilroy, Pedro Pascal, Eva Victor on Red Carpet for “Behemoth!” at the London Film Festival.
CONCLUSION:
The 62nd Chicago International Film Festival program describes this unique film this way: “A love letter to movie scoring and to the dizzying power music holds on our memories and imaginations.” If you want to be enveloped by lush orchestral sound and also follow an interesting, well-acted story, don’t miss “Behemoth” when it opens December 4th. If you’re reading this in Chicago, “Behemoth!” will close the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival at 5 p.m. at the Music Box Theater on Sunday, October 25th.
Martin McDonagh’s newest eccentric black comedy, Wild HorseNine, played the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival on Friday, September 16th. The pairing of John Malkovich (as Chris) and Sam Rockwell as Lee Chesterfield is comedy magic. The film opens wide November 6th, 2026.
In this look at the partnership between two veteran CIA hitmen I thought, immediately, that Christopher Walken could also have played Malkovich’s role and was surprised to learn that he was originally attached to the film, as was Mark Ruffalo. Both dropped out due to conflicts. These two in this buddy movie are as good as you will find in McDonagh’s other male buddy movies like “Seven Psychopaths” (2012), “In Bruges” (2008) or “The Banshees of Inisherin (2022).
PLOT
The basic plot is that Chris (Malkovich) is terminally ill with cancer at 72, after assassinating 68 victims in the CIA service of his country. Now, using morphine for the pain of his advancing cancer, and suffering from a bit of dementia, he personifies the old World War II saying, “Loose lips sink ships.” Chris is haphazardly telling the secrets of his many years killing people in the service of the U.S. Sam Rockwell’s character Lee keeps trying to cover for him or shut him up.
Their mutual boss, M.J. (Steve Buscemi), has told Lee to kill his partner to prevent Chris from revealing trade secrets. There is also a suspicion that Chris may have a rifle in his possession that was really used to kill JFK in November of 1963 (the grassy knoll front shooter). Before Chris shuffles off this mortal coil, the CIA wants all of Chris’s tape recordings, notes, and an oft-mentioned (and feared) proposed autobiography that would tell tales the government does not want told.
But Chris and Lee have worked together and Lee has become Chris’s only friend (8 kills for Lee versus 68 for Chris) and the directive from above to kill his buddy to shut him up is not going down well. Still, it is difficult to have your partner in crime give away all of the details of your latest crimes to random girls at the airport, so something has to be done. The place where it should be done, says Chris, is Easter Island, which, coincidentally and conveniently, is a direct flight from Santiago, Chile. (Much more convenient than the 14 flights it would take to fly to Venice, which Chris later decides he might prefer for his final denouement.)
EASTER ISLAND
The cinematography of the island, especially the aerial shots from Director of Photography Ben Davis are breathtaking. Add in the herds of wild horses that roam the island and the visuals for this film are gorgeous. The mysterious gigantic stone heads add to the mystique, although Chris says, “When you’ve seen one big head you’ve seen them all.”
WHY EASTER ISLAND?
The movie is set against the backdrop of the assassination of Salvador Allende in Chile on September 11, 1973. Since Chris has been involved in almost every notable assassination (Congo, Indonesia,Guatemala, the U.S.). Chris and Lee were just involved in taking out the first democratically elected Marxist President of a Latin American country, Salvador Allende, who was then replaced by General Augusto Pinochet, who was in power from 1973 to 1990. Chris is quite candid about the U.S. attempts to de-stabilize the government of Chile and Lee noted that it is a direct flight to get from Santiago, Chile to Rapa Nui (Easter Island).
.The film does not get too deep into the weeds about the thousands of left-leaning students, protesters and journalists in Chile who were killed or went missing and were presumed dead under Pinochet. It is worth noting that at least 14,000 students and activists were imprisoned at Estadio Chile, which is now named Victor Jara Stadium, in memory of the musician who was singled out for particularly brutal torture and treatment before being shot 44 times on September 16, 1973.
When Pinochet expanded the conversion of stadiums to concentration camp style torture destinations, between 20,000 and 40,000 more dissidents were tortured or killed at the outdoor Estadio Nacional, in addition to the 14,000 or so mistreated at what is now dubbed Victor Jara Stadium. The world forgets atrocities so quickly. Only the deaths of two Americans made much of a fuss in the United States.
SUB-PLOT
The potential rescue of young student Monica (Mariana di Girolamo), whom Chris spoke to at the airport along with her companion Alicia (Ailin Salas) is one of the plot threads that bind up what is, mostly, a series of absurd, eccentric blackly comic punch lines. Each man gets more than one good zinger. The exchanges make almost no sense when they are uttered. McDonagh received an Oscar nod for Best Original Screenplay in 2008 for “In Bruges” and this screenplay certainly is very original. [A few of my favorite exchanges will follow.]
It is clear that Chris would like to make amends before he dies, and the plot points involving young Monica point to that. Wrestling with one’s death is bound to produce moments of introspection. The line at film’s end sums up Chris’s thoughts: “All in all, I coulda’ killed a lot less people and I shoulda’ hung out with a few more horses.”
THEMES
When Chris says, “You get old, you start to question shit. Regret shit,” much of the movie’s plot is revealed. Chris seems daft when he tells two young girls at the airport in Santiago that he works for the CIA. Lee (Sam Rockwell) laughs the remark off, trying to cover for Chris’s indiscreet remarks, but Chris is a dying man. He is beyond listening to reason. If anything, Chris’s remarks become more specific and more detailed.
SYMBOLISM
The wild horses are symbolic of the rogue spirit that Chris has always embodied and which he is now living out in his final days on the planet. When he encounters one of his favorite horses, dead on the road, Chris says, “He made me a lot less scared of dying.” Moths and dinosaurs also appear in the script, as Chris wonders if there are dinosaurs in heaven. Proof that both actors get some good lines: Lee’s character gets to speculate about whether JFK “got shot by a diplodocus.” I am sure you won’t find many scripts that have a dwarf carrying a basketball included, almost as an avatar for the film.
PLOT POINT
Chris asks Lee to kill him on Easter Island (Rapa Nui), which Chris assumes won’t have much of a homicide unit, remote as it is. Lee is torn by the thought of killing his good friend. The look in Sam Rockwell’s eyes at that moment of truth was Oscar-worthy. While I enjoyed both portrayals and the badinage between them, Malkovich did not run semantic circles around the always-entertaining, often eccentrically-weird Rockwell.
Critics have predicted that Malkovich is headed for an Oscar nomination for his performance. Why not Rockwell’s Lee? Rockwell more than held his own in this bizarre-but-entertaining film. Is it simply because, as the dying central figure in the plot, Chris (not Charlie as he was mis-identified in one review) is The Main Man? I’d like to see Rockwell get equal consideration. I’d hate to see him become the relegated Tom Cruise support to Dustin Hoffman’s Rainman or Paul Newman’s Fast EddieFelsen. Not fun to always be the bridesmaid, never the bride.
MURDER/SUICIDE
Chris has laid down some ground rules for when Lee should kill him, which includes a code word that will indicate to Lee when Chris is ready to go. The code word Chris selects is “Arkansas.”
(Lee) “Can’t you shoot yourself in your own head? Why the fuck would anyone have a conversation about Arkansas?”
(Chris) “Nobody ever says the word, thinks about it, or would ever want to go there.”
Here are some other favorite lines, for me:
(Sam Rockwell to his wife, Marge (Parker Posey), regarding her infidelity with a man who once worked as a clown): “Not once did I say fuck a clown.”
MINOR CHARACTERS/RANDOM BITS
Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich in “Wild Horse Nine” at the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival.
Parker Posey, as Lee’s alcoholic wife, is pure comic gold. She is not used often enough or long enough in the film. When Lee asks, “How are the kids?” her response is pitch perfect, “Uh, Who cares?” Her performance as Victoria Ratliff in 8 episodes of “The White Lotus” TV mini-series put the veteran actress back on the radar. It has been good to have her there. She is perfect in this role.
Tom Waits makes a brief appearance as Chris’s brother Jim, whom he has not spoken to since the November, 1963, assassination of JFK, when Jim launched a potato at Chris setting off a decades-long silent feud. Now, facing his final curtain, Chris calls Jim up in his remote desert lair to say good-bye. Jim articulates a thought that could apply to the entire film: “It feels kind of random.”
Jim also uses the well-worn line “What goes around comes around.” Chris, musing on his career as a CIA hit-man, tells Jim that, “The country was already shit, we just didn’t know it.” Jim responds, “Well, we know it now.”
I’d like to add that, in the final Easter Island scenes with Malkovich, there is a bug (or an ant?) walking on Malkovich’s collar and shoulder. “Ohhhh,” I thought. “They should have used a moth!”
CONCLUSION
This one is going to be a crowd favorite when it hits theaters on November 6th. The absurd, satirical, random lines in the film are going to make you smile and the observations about the meddling that the United States has done in destabilizing the governments of other countries over the years comes at an ideal time. Although we live in bleak times in the United States, continuing to grapple with (and, hopefuly, at some point, improve?) our national identity is a good thing.
It’s very difficult to see our idealistic image of ourselves as a country, built with hard work and much expense over generations, slipping away, nationally and internationally. Without ever mentioning the current clown circus, McDonagh, using sardonic wit and interesting unusual circumstances, made a film that will confuse many, but will amuse many more. See it if you want to laugh during perilous times. More importantly, ponder the movie’s not-so-buried message(s).
The World Premiere of the Swedish film “Clementine Orange” in the New Directors’ Competition at the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival brought Swedish Writer/Director Lisa Forslund to the Windy City for showings on Saturday, October 17, and Sunday, October 18. The film was the second to show how “words and images can create a relationship long before two people ever share the same physical space.” “The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd,” another prison romance playing at the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival, also proved this truism.
The synopsis for “Clementine Orange” set up this plot: “a woman is catfished by her penpal lover, a prisoner on a 24-hour parole who isn’t who he claimed to be.” Angelica Demir (Gizen Kling Erdogan , “The Storm,” “The Playlist”) fell for the photos that John Ranta ,prisoner #2356, sent her, but when when they meet, John is a sweet nerdy type about whom her best friend Gabbi (Dilan Apak) says, “He looks like a child.” We see the couple strolling about the streets of Stockholm and there is a light-hearted sequence with John riding a bicycle and a puzzling one bizarre one where the duo discover a gigantic lizard (Betty) running loose in the apartment John shares with a brother who is out of town and has left the beast there unattended.
“Clementine Orange,” a directorial debut by Swedish director Lisa Forslund, which showed in the New Director’s competition on Saturday, October 17th at the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival.
Gizen Kling Erdogan as Angelica gives a nicely nuanced performance, especially as she silently sizes up the young nerdy type after just meeting him. She goes silent, but her expressions tell us what is going on in her head. Angelica will discover that John is kind, trustworthy, and devoted. “I’d never disappear” says John Ranta, well-played by Erik Enge (“Black Crab,” “A Life’s Work”). Those are qualities that have been in short supply in her dating life to this point and she articulates a fear of abandonment.
As the film opens, with shots of flowers and online sex talk, it is close to soft porn. The duo have not yet met, but the 24-hour leave is approaching. Both are looking forward to finally meeting, after exchanging enough personal information that Angelica actually tells Martin, the prison official who calls her to confirm that she is John’s outside contact, “We are in love.”
Many things are revealed during the couple’s 24-hours in Stockholm. Angelica admits, “I would never have dated someone like you.” John, who is serving a short sentence for dealing drugs online, is sexually less experienced. The couple decide to take it slow, which turns out to be a blessing in disguise.
The entire topic illustrates just how tough it is to find “the good guys” in today’s society. It makes me glad that I’m not someone who had to attempt to find the reliable, sweet, kind men amongst today’s online dating and hook-up portals, where appearance counts more than anything else and the odds of separating the dating wheat from the chaff become increasingly difficult. My daughter got married less than a month ago. She would attest to the difficulty of finding suitable life partners in a world that has become increasingly superficial.
The acting and writing in this one were excellent. The cinematography by Mija Rossi made me want to re-visit Sweden in summer. There is an original song by composer Dennis Egberth that is also very professionally done. The film simply underscores the truth of all those old maxims like, “You can’t judge a book by its cover.”
A well-written, well-acted, and nicely-done directing debut in the new directors’ competition from Sweden’s Lisa Forslund. I’m wondering if Clementine Orange is an allusion to the perfume that Angelica sprays on her correspondence to John. Regardless, the film is a sweet delight.
The 62nd Chicago International Film Festival opened at the Music Box Theater on October 14th with Jordan Firstman’s first feature film “Club Kid.” Firstman was awarded the Breakthrough Director prize. Firstman both wrote, directed and stars in the film as Peter Green, a Brooklyn gay party thrower/influencer whose own real-life friends people the film, giving the movie a feeling of authenticity.
Firstman was the reason both of my seatmates were present at Opening Night of CIFF. They were already familiar with Firstman from YouTube and the Internet. The comedian/actor sort of caught on during the pandemic, it seems, garnering some famous followers. I was familiar with “Search Party,” the series Firstman once worked on. “Rotting in the Sun” and “I Love L.A,” were previous Firstman acting outings. The 35-year-old Firstman’s first feature film was a slice of real life, shot in Brooklyn at real queer clubs.
PLOT
Jordan Firstman’s “Club Kid” opening film at the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival on October 14, 2026, at the Music Box Theater.
The story, written by, directed by, and starring Jordan Firstman as Peter Green, follows a hard-partying New York City club promoter.Peter’s hedonistic lifestyle is upended when he discovers he has a 10-year-old son from England named Arlo Baker (played by Reggie Absolom) from a past encounter. (Adam Sandler’s “Big Daddy” explored this cinematic ground in 1999.)
Arlo Baker, the look-alike ten-year-old son, is abandoned at Peter’s place, while Edison, a friend of his dead Mom’s takes off. It’s noteworthy that the children in films where this is a plot device are all already potty-trained, mobile and articulate—always a plus. The suicide death of Arlo’s mother is not discussed much as a consideration, although it brings a social worker into the plot who becomes Peter’s gay love interest. The ensemble cast also features Cara Delevingne as Sophie, Diego Calva as Oscar, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Edison, plus many real club night-life people including SaturnRisin9.
As Clint Worthington (Roger Ebert review) wrote, “Peter lives in a spacious, rent-controlled Brooklyn apartment (inherited from his dead Mom) with a freeloading twink from Azerbaijan named Nicky (Eldar Isgandarov) who promises he’ll start paying rent as soon as he can find a six-figure job as a philosopher.” That out-of-touch-with-reaI life POV seemed epidemic for the youth portrayed in Club Kid. If I may digress (and I may), today’s youth who say they want to grow up to be influencers remind me of the students I taught during the hey-day of “Miami Vice” (1984-1989) who said they wanted to grow up to be Crockett and Tubbs. It’s a reference that Firstman is too young to remember (born 1991); others older and unable to jump wildly for hours will probably get the point. Please send me 1% of the energy shown onscreen, but I need mine drug-free. I don’t want it to interfere with my Anastrazole, Lorazepam, Ursodiol and various OTC medications that my bad left knee requires.
IRL
Jordan Firstman in Chicago on October 14, 2026, receiving the Breakthrough Award on Opening Night of the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival.
I wondered if Peter is going to have a future story arc where he becomes as responsible as Oscar (Diego Calva), who once was a party animal but reformed and became a social worker. (A sequel?) Two questions: Late in the film when Peter tries going the same social worker route as Oscar and is asked about the classwork he is taking, he describes it as “boring.” Is that a good sign for future employment IRL when Peter completes his training—if he completes the training?
Secondly, is it possible to live like Peter (and Oscar) live in New York City on a social worker’s salary? Add in the trips to London and I don’t want to see Peter’s credit card bill. But don’t mind me; I lived on a teacher’s salary for 15 years. That has colored my rose-colored glasses.
This is, after all, an energetic, high-powered, fast-paced, hugely cinematic comedy with heart, so enjoy the suundtrack, the characterizations, the gorgeous cinematic scenes and the sequences like moving the piano. (Remniscent of an old “Friends” episode.) Go with the flow and enjoy!
FIRSTMAN AS PETER
Jordan Firstman, Writer/Director/Actor in “Club Kid” at the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival.
Firstman does a great job of portraying a profligate but hugely charismatic party boy who now has responsibilities and has to try to straighten up and fly right and attempt to parent the son he didn’t know he had. Perhaps putting the 10-year-old onstage as a D.J. in a club rife with drug use wasn’t the most well-thought out parenting plan. That leads to Child Services inquiries. Now there is a trans-Atlantic fight to London to try to secure custody of young Arlo, who is portrayed as a very mature, chill, savvy young man (and a good D.J.). Firstman displays his expert acting chops in a touching London courtroom scene. The film does have a killer soundtrack (Cristobal Tapia de Veer) and lots of heart.
Q&A
During the Q&A following the screening, Firstman said, “I think that a lot of the empathy in the movie comes from the fact that it had real people in it…The club is the place where we show off for ourselves and each other…I think the club, for gay people, should be monitored, but not let go of…I am the person at the party that tries to make you feel good, and directing my friends in it was (sometimes) difficult because of that.” Firstman compared his task as director to going in with a machete and “killing your darlings.” He added that “The film is earnest, but it can’t go too saccharine.”
Jordan Firstman on October 14, 2026, at the Music Box Theater in Chicago for opening night of the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival with his film “Club Kid.”
Firstman gave full credit to his two editors for maintaining the tone, Taylor Levy and Sofia Subercaseaux saying, “There’s a diligence and a heart that they shared and they checked each other.” He told a hilarious story about Sofia and Taylor disagreeing about the hand-waving scene(s) in the club and Sofia, in accented English, telling Taylor that the scenes had to go. Firstman also gave kudos to his Director of Photography, Adam Newport-Berra, saying, “I’m just constantly shocked at how good it looked.” In particular, he singled out one city view, shot from a rooftop far away, where the shot was (and is) exquisite saying, “Oh my God, thank you, Adam. It’s my favorite moment in the movie now.”
CONCLUSION
Its Writer/Director/Star Jordan Firstman said, of his first feature, “When I think about the movie now, I think it’s about how love can transform you and love can change you. Now, when I watch it, I think that, in a meta way, that’s what it has done for me. I’m changed in the process of making it.” A24 has announced an upcoming series of free showings of the film in 12 U.S.cities and the film will open at theaters on November 6th.
Writer/Director Tim Blake Nelson brings his film “The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd” to the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival, after its premiere in Toronto. The film promises to set off an overdue debate on the death penalty as state-sanctioned punishment. Versatile actor Scoot McNairy gives the performance of his career as Wilson Shedd and Amanda Seyfried expertly plays the creative writing instructor who is hired to work at Oklahoma’s largest maximum security prison and becomes involved in a relationship with the convicted murderer. Karen’s (Seyfried’s) life is bleak, leading to this summation, “We’ve done what we done and we have what we have.” Is Wilson Shedd a way out?
THE LOVE STORY
Writer/Director/Actor Tim Blake Nelson.
An accomplished actor and a classics scholar who has written five plays, Nelson spent a year and a half to two years writing the screenplay, but the project itself has been an obsession of his for a dozen years. It was only recently that funding for the indie film could be secured. In an interview, Nelson gave credit to Seyfried for helping facilitate the backing for this thought-provoking film that refuses to paint the criminal Wilson Shedd as one-dimensional.
There have been many films about the execution of prisoners on Death Row. “Clemency,” starring Alfre Woodard as the warden of a prison, who is wrestling with the concept of crime and appropriate punishment, played at the Chicago Film Festival in 2019 and was a powerful examination of some of the same issues as this film. But the story on the surface is about a couple—prisoner and prison worker— who fall in love through writing.
We learn that creative writing teacher Karen (Seyfried) needs money to support her elderly father in a nursing home, so she takes the job teaching creative writing to prisoners at the local prison. Her friend Gladys (an under-utilized Waughan) helps her get the job.
Some of the class members, like Vaughn (Craig Dane) and James (Tobias Segal) are probably just there to ogle the pretty blonde. But Wilson Shedd seems to have genuine feelings for his instructor. Or does he? Yes, he writes (via his journal) “Love will break us through,” but is he sincere or simply seeing an opportunity for escape? Wilson’s protestations of true love might collapse if put to the test.
Circumstances intervene to prevent the pair from ever truly being physically “together.” The poems of Emily Dickinson and the short stories of Flannery O’Connor are infused into the script. It appears that Karen—who is trapped in a loveless marriage with physically abusive husband Kenneth (Grant Harvey)—engages in the ill-fated relationship with the convict through appreciating the writing he does in her class. His writing to her is all that keeps her going, emotionally. She ultimately writes “Save me” to the prisoner. Wilson Shedd says, “I live in hell, which is where I should be.” The film does not play the usual “he’s innocent” card, however, but considers the factors that have led to his life of Hell on Earth.
THE DEBATE OVER FORGIVENESS
A Black family, the Lawsons, is depicted as the nearly perfect family, with vocally gifted children. Eric Blount plays George Lawson, the young boy, and his sister, Stacey Lawson, is portrayed by Xuri Selah. The parents (William Jackson Harper and Devyn Tyler) are ministers.
To me, the use of the Black family, (who fall into the hands of the escaped trio of prisoners because of a pet cat escaping from their van in the woods and running directly to Wilson Shedd), was a somewhat contrived round-about way of making sure that Wilson is not viewed as a supremely romantic hero. One review called the Black family’s presence in the plot “exploitative, but essential.” Their involvement seemed less natural to the film’s structure. It is worth mentioning that it is Wilson’s fellow escapee who is told to “take the kids for a walk” and mis-interprets the message. Wilson confronts the prisoner, asking him whether he is more evil or more stupid? A move to shift blame from the central character and the mastermind of the escape?
Wilson Shedd s guilty, In the course of the film, he murders at least eight people. The Black family must fall into Wilson’s hands in order to balance the sympathy for him that we feel after we see young Wilson as a squirrel hunter and learn of Wilson’s hard-luck life growing up in a suburb outside Tulsa ( Writer/Director Nelson’s hometown). Benjamin Brown portrays the young Wilson Shedd, seen shooting a poor squirrel over and over and over, while the animal, rather than fleeing, seems to adopt the attitude that he must suffer and endure whatever cruelty is meted out. The squirrel must go down fighting, and it does. The script says, “Part of the boy died, too, for the rest of his life.” It was a powerful metaphor. But, in this country at this time, will the presence of the scene be condemned as too “woke” and used to provide an excuse for inexcusable criminal behavior?
TIME: FLASHING FORWARD & BACKWARD
After 100 minutes dealing with the theme of Karen and Wilson falling in love via writing in the creative writing class journals, the physical abuse of Karen by her husband, forgiveness as a concept, and a true prison escape story that reminded of Patricia Arquette’s lead role in Showtime’s 2018 television miniseries (directed by Ben Stiller and co-starring Benicio del Toro and Paul Dano) “Escape at Dannemora,” we get to the real soul of the film: the death penalty and its use as a punishment.
After his appearance in “The Grey Zone” (2001) about the Holocaust, Tim Blake Nelson, Jewish by birth, said the film’s examination of how the Holocaust could have happened was “exactly the type of story to which we should gravitate in a responsible and sensitive way.” So is this film. “The Grey Zone” pointed out, as the New York Times put it, that while Hitler was evil, the genocide of a country working to establish efficient concentration camps designed to indiscriminately kill human beings required “the casual complicity of millions of others.” Much evil does. That thought is worth mentioning in a debate over the humanity of capital punishment.
Throughout the two hour and one minute movie there were flash forwards and looks back at Wilson Shedd’s childhood, a tough life that molded the child into the man. Some found this technique intrusive. I marveled that Nelson could pull it off as well as he did. It’s not easy to do sequencing of time well in a play, a novel or a screenplay. I did not see the jumping ahead and then looking back as a way to de-sensitize the audience or influence our judgment of the central character. I saw a talented filmmaker and Julliard graduate who has starred in and written entire plays and novels displaying mastery of his craft.
If I had a negative remark to make about the execution of the film it would be that the musical background was not melodic but very monotonous and clunky. At times it sounded like a novice piano player simply pounding on the keys. That detracted from the film, rather than enhancing it. The expert cinematography of Benoit Soler, however, more than offset the sound design.
THE EXECUTION SCENE
After relating a familiar story about a woman falling for a prisoner and helping him to escape, the authorities apprehend Wilson Shedd and the audience is subjected to one of the most grueling execution scenes in recent memory. I still remember Susan Hayward’s Oscar-winning gas chamber execution in the 1958 film “I Want to Live.” It burned its way into my then-young brain. I have never forgotten it.
We could turn to the more recent (1999) electrocution scene in “The Green Mile” and rewatch that five minutes of pure torture, but I’d rather not. Also in the “No seconds for me, please” category of execution-scenes-I-have- seen-but-don’t-want-to-see-again would be “Dead Man Walking” (1995, Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn), “The Life of David Gale” (2003, Kevin Spacey) or Charlize Theron’s Oscar-winning turn (2003’s “Monster.”) I do not want to see the last 40 minutes of this film again, but it is an important film because of the truth it treats so sensitively. I applaud Tim Blake Nelson for his decades-long quest to bring the story to the public forum for debate.
I did want to know if this execution scene was based on a real execution (it was) and whether it was accurately portrayed. The issues it raises are timely and important and deserve a public debate and full disclosure of issues that the authorities have sought to obscure following each botched execution attempt in more than one state.
The answer to whether this film is based on a real execution is yes.
The Oklahoma execution of Clayton Lockett on April 29, 2014, was thoroughly botched and was halted 43 minutes into the proceedings at McAlester Prison. Like the recent botched execution of Krista Pike in Nashville on September 30, 2026, this film brings to the forefront questions about the death penalty. If you approve of the death penalty for heinous crimes, it at least raises the issue of how well such executions are being carried out nationwide.
Recently the Trump administration announced plans to attempt to live stream an execution on December 3rd, by firing squad. Is this really a good idea? What IS the most humane way to kill an animal, in this case, a human being? Whether you think capital punishment is good or bad, a closer look at how effectively it is being carried out is warranted. Is capital punishment humane? Are we a nation of “barbarians at the gate,” as we were portrayed worldwide for many decades? Are we returning to that self-portrait voluntarily, when we embrace it with open arms complete with testosterone tests for our military and macho posturing? Note: no one, including Tim Blake Nelson, is suggesting that crime should not be punished and the debate over capital punishment has raged for generations.
As one death penalty opponent put it, “State-sanctioned death rarely provides the ‘closure’ it promotes.” I was in Nashville at the time of the failed execution there on September 30th. The words of Clayton Pike’s attorney, Dean Sanderford apply to the Nashville situation. After the execution of Clayton Lockett was called off 43 minutes in, at 6:40 p.m. on Tuesday, April 29th, his attorney said, “My God. They’re going to try to save this poor guy so they can kill him later.” That very statement could be made about Krista Pike. She is the only person to have survived two doses of pentobarbital during a botched execution. As of now, her future in prison is unclear, although the executions scheduled in Tennessee for the rest of the year have been canceled, resignations have occurred, and an investigation panel Is being appointed. Meanwhile, many details of “botched” executions are concealed from the public; they seem to continue to happen with increasing frequency. Shouldn’t we at least find out why?
“We have a fundamental standard in this country that even when the death penalty is justified, it must be carried out humanely,” said Jay Carney, President Obama’s press secretary, in regards to the execution of Clayton Lockett. “And I think everyone would recognize that this case fell short of that standard.” The 8th amendment to the Constitution forbids “cruel and unusual punishment.” The recent spate of botched executions brings home those concerns and the final scene in this film makes the problems impossible to ignore . In Tennessee, the mother of the victim was extremely upset that she had raised the funds to travel from Florida to Tennessee via a Go-Fund-Me campaign and she was not being served her pound of flesh. Her adamant demands for justice for her daughter (the victim of Krista Pike’s jealousy when Pike was 18) remain. She sounds like she will be suing the state for financial restitution, predicated on her unrequited desire for revenge.
It is a “China Syndrome” coincidence that Tim Blake Nelson’s film is seeking distribution in the immediate wake of Krista Pike’s failed execution, but it may help bring these facts regarding lethal injection deaths in general out into the open, especially since both Oklahoma and Tennessee have been far from transparent about what went wrong. For example,
- A spate of executions that have gone awry since states began experimenting with different drug combinations after being unable to obtain more standard lethal injection drugs.
- On Jan. 9, Michael Lee Wilson, who was convicted of murdering a convenience store clerk, declared he “felt his whole body burning” after Oklahoma administered a combination of pentobarbital, vecuronium bromide to stop respiration and potassium chloride to stop the heart.
- A week later, Dennis McGuire, who was sentenced to die for raping and killing a 22-year-old pregnant woman, thrashed and snorted before finally succumbing after about 25 minutes following Ohio’s use of a new lethal drug mix. McGuire’s family is now suing Hospira, a pharmaceutical company, for providing the state with execution drugs.
- Numerous states have passed laws as a way to protect drug suppliers from boycotts and other political backlash. As commercial pharmaceutical companies increasingly refuse to allow their products to be used in executions, states have turned to compounding pharmacies for their supply. These pharmacies, which mix drugs to order, are not regulated by the federal government.
Scoot McNairy as Wilson Shedd.
One line from the script, spoken by the warden who has witnessed 112 executions during her tenure: “It isn’t something you can choose to forget. It’s going to be with you always.” My father, then a deputy sheriff in Buchanan County, Iowa, was sent to Des Moines to witness a double hanging. I remember him recounting the horror of the moment, which made him physically ill. We see the “first-timer” in the room struggling. The indignity and horror of the execution protocol process in “The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd” will stay with me a long time. It is an important film and one that imparts valuable information to citizens, but if you are attending the showing on Saturday, October 17th in Chicago, be warned that the accurate portrayal of an execution is not for the faint of heart.
As one Toronto critic wrote, “The film is poised to become a touchstone in the ongoing American debate over the death penalty. In a political climate where capital punishment remains a polarizing issue, Nelson’s unflinching focus on the humanity of the guilty may prove to be the most provocative cinematic statement of the year.”
Circa’ 21 is embarking on its 50th season, having started in 1977 under the tutelage of Dennis Hitchcock, its Executive Producer and longtime President. Vice-President and Director of Audience Development is Brett Hitchcock.
Late-night writer that I am, I happened to be up working in the early morning hours writing a review of “Being Heumann” (from the Nashville Film Festival) when one of the leads of Circa’s current show, “Rock of Ages,” was interviewed (with others) on Channel 6’s interview show. After his appearance, I wanted to see Bear Manescalchi in the show to check out the charisma factor in “Rock of Ages.” Also, my dress wanted a second outing after I wore it as the Mother of the Bride on September 28th in Nashville. [ I was there for the 57th Nashville Film Festival, but it also was Stacey’s wedding day. ]
In Nashville, I listened to Premiere Hollywood Casting Director John Papsidera (printed in its entirety a few entries back on WeeklyWilson). Papsidera explained the current casting process in Hollywood.He has cast every Christopher Nolan film back to “Memento” (including “The Odyssey” and “Oppenheimer.”) When asked to give his best piece of advice to young actors, he said “Confidence.” [Check out his remarks if you’re an actor reading this.]
Bear Manescalchi, Hanna Marie Felver, and Chase Austin (L to R) of “Rock of Ages.”
The narrator of “Rock of Ages”—the character of Lonny Barnett, played by Bear Manescalchi—was one of those talking about the current Circa show. You could tell Bear had “it:”—call it confidence. Call it whatever you want—charisma? Papsidera couldn’t really define it well, either, referencing it as some sort of chemistry that comes through in the 600 or so videotapes he routinely views to cast one single role . To me, the Bear interview subject seemed to have that quality. So I set aside my “Being Heumann” work and listened to Bear’s pitch to come see “Rock of Ages” at Circa 21.
Bear mentioned the Flashdance Special, available only on Wednesday or Friday nights if you booked by Tuesday. It was a very good deal, [probably gone now.] I had not been in town for a Circa show in some time. PLUS I was looking for somewhere to wear the Mother of the Bride dress from my daughter’s September 28th wedding one additional time.
I’m gone to review the Chicago International Film Festival as of Sunday. I hadn’t been to a Circa show since “Menopause, the Musical.” It was time. If I were here year-round, I’d be a regular subscriber. I’m certainly in the age range. I am a regular subscriber to The Last Picture House, even though I am in Texas sitting out Midwestern winters.
Play prop, dropped on our ringside table at “Rock of Ages.”
In my defense, I spend much of my time watching films: HollyShorts (437 of them recently!), Nashville’s Film Festival in September, Chicago’s Film Festival in October, Sundance in the winter, SXSW in the spring, etc. Plus Texas in the winter.
Bear appeared on what used to be Paula Sands Live, which is now Quad City Live.When I saw this young man and the co-hosts talking about “Rock ofAges,” I decided I needed to wear my Mother-of-the-Bride dress one more time, and where would that be? Probably not while dragging myself around Chicago for movies between October 12th and October 25th. The three people on the show talked about their birth years: 1987 for two of them and 1985 for the third, meaning that the songs they are singing from the 80s are for those of us who are “mature.” (In my case, my first ‘live” concert was the Beatles in 1965 and my last was Bruno Mars on May 27th in Chicago, so draw your own conclusions.)
So, I promoted the idea of going to Circa to see Bear in action. All in the cast acquitted themselves well. The leads were Tate Milton as Drew Boley and Avery Gallagher as Sherrie Christian.There are many other truly great voices in the cast and, just as importantly, the food was very good. (I had the pork chop). All were reasonably priced. Somehow we ended up with a table for 6 that only had 4 (when one of our normal party bailed for cataract surgery). It was the best table in the house.
I hope the other couple (Hafners of the venerable tavern on Moline’s Avenue of the Cities) enjoyed the evening as much as I did. Our table was primo, the show was good, the food was even better, and the hardworking Bootleggers not only sang their fannies off, but also did a great job serving. We even made it home in time to see the end of the Iowa football game against Washington!
Cast members of “Rock of Ages” and me on October 9, 2026, at Circa ’21 Dinner Theater in Rock Island, Illinois.
Except for my need to visit the rest room seemingly every hour on the hour (courtesy of diabetes & old age), which is in the basement, things went off without a hitch. Fourteen steps, if you’re counting.Did not fall down,which was a major achievement. Remembered that the aisle can be tricky. Once watched a sweet young teenager we had taken to a play fall flat on her face while returning from the rest room, since she had not scoped out the strange top-of-the-aisle hidden V-level bump under-the-carpeting.
Three people I did not know complimented me on my September 28th wedding finery, which inspired this trip to Circa. (That and the Bear interview) [Thank you, anonymous Bootlegger and ladies in the rest room line!] And, since I remember having to try to “track” whether advertising worked for my Bettendorf Sylvan Learning Center #3301 and my Prometric Testing Center, the Channel 6 interview brought the event to the top of my consciousness.
The 2026 Circa season will be offering a “Salute to the Rat Pack & Friends” on New Year’s Eve 2026. If I weren’t enjoying much warmer weather in Austin, Texas, then, I’d be hitting that one. If you’re a Garth Brooks fan, you might consider the October 29th show.
Circa ’21 is one of only two dinner theaters in the country where the wait staff also perform a pre-show prelude. The lead actress this night(Sherri, played by Avery Gallagher of Philadelphia) was playing Sherrie for the second time. The lead actor (besides Bear the narrator), portraying Drew, is a recent graduate of Kansas State University who was making his Circa ’21 debut. The Black actress playing Momma had a powerhouse voice. With a voice like hers, I could see her doing well on shows like “The Voice” or “American Idol.” (Sorry about the lack of more information on this vocally talented troupe member; I was there to enjoy myself, not review, so I failed to take my reporter’s notebook. Take this as a recommendation rather than a classic review.)
With daughter Stacey Wilson Allison on her wedding day in Nashville, September 28, 2026..
Support Circa’ 21 as it heads into its 50th year. I had 2 businesses that almost made it to 20, so celebrating 50 is quite the legacy. Long may it rave.
My dress enjoyed its second chance to be worn in public, after the daughter’s wedding in Nashville on September 28th.(*Check out Wild Bill & the Bruisers on YouTube for film of my new son-in-law at work.)
“Being Heumann”was the closing film of the 57th Nashville Film Festival, the story of Judy Heumann (Ruth Madeley), the iconic mother of the disability movement. In 1977 Judy, who dubbed herself a “radical crip,” spearheaded the 28-day occupation of the San Francisco Federal Building. The film was the opening night film at the Toronto International Film Festival, closed Nashville, and will play in Chicago on Sunday, October 18th, at noon and on Wednesday, October 21st at 8 p.m. at the Chicago International Film Festival before it releases on November 13th, following a short appearance in select cinemas on November 6th, 2026.
APPLE ORIGINAL FILMS
The film is directed by Sian Heder and was written by Heder, Judith Heumann, and Kristen Joiner. At TIFF, the film was second runner-up for the People’s Choice Award, anchored by the strong performances of Ruth Madeley as Judy and Mark Ruffalo as Joseph Califano.
“Being Heumann” marks the second collaboration between Apple Original Films and Heder. The director previously directed the multi-Academy Award-winning film CODA, which made history as the first movie with a predominantly deaf cast to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
JOSEPH CALIFANO
Califano was the twelfth U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services from 1977 to 1979 under Jimmy Carter. Much of the film casts Califano, portrayed by Mark Ruffalo, as the bad guy, as he wrestled with the large cost ($2.4 billion) of implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act and delayed signing Proposition 504. With 36 million handicapped people in the United States, the cost of making curbs and buildings accessible if Califano signed 504 was likely to lead to Califano’s dismissal, since his relationship with President Clinton’s administration was not without friction.
The occupation of the San Francisco Federal Building was but one of 12 such occupations planned by Judy Heumann, but only the San Francisco sit-in endured. The difficulty of handicapped people sleeping in offices and on the floor, being fed by the Black Panthers and supported by unions like the machinists union, brought the fight for disabled Americans everywhere to the forefront. The rallying cry was “Sign 504” often followed by “sign or resign,” directed at Califano. . The TV newsman Evan White of KGO TV is well-played by Ryan O’Brien.
THE GOAL
As Judy Heumann articulated the group’s concerns, “We believed if we played by the rules we’d be included in the American dream. We have waited too long and been too patient.Nobody cares about us we’’re so easily ignored.” The determined woman in the wheelchair told her followers, “Stop feeling like you deserve to be invisible.”
Michael Patrick Thornton (Ed Roberts) tried to stick out the entire 28-day occupation in San Francisco but he, like many of the seriously disabled who participated, said, by way of explanation and excuse for leaving the building, “I sleep in an 800 pound iron lung.”
As one of the original occupiers put it,“We had shown ourselves and the country through network TV that we—the most hidden, impoverished, pitied group of people in the nation were capable of waging a deadly serious struggle that brought abut profound social change.For the first time, many of us felt proud of who we were”
CONCLUSION
“Being Heumann” at the 57th Nashville Film Festival was an object lesson in how slowly our Congress acts, just as the 57th Nashville Film Festival Award Winner for Documentary (4000 Days) was an agonizing slog through Congress towards what one hopes will be justice in the future for parents who lost their children because of fraternity hazing. “Being Humann” is a film that will resurface during awards season and resonate with audiences, as “Coda” did. It carried a hopeful message, conveyed well by authentically disabled actors and actresses, in a story that deserves to be told.
The Shudder feature “Breeder” written and directed by Alex Goyette was that welcome discovery: a horror movie with an original message that posed some interesting questions. I also liked the fact that it did not go overboard on the gore. From the same people that gave us “The Babadook,” that was perhaps not so surprising. It is Goyette’s feature debut with IFC and Shudder; “Breeder” is very good. The movie treated the entire subject of eugenics in a thought-provoking way.
So, what is eugenics, you may say?
Eugenics is the theory and practice of attempting to improve the genetic composition of a human population through selective breeding. Eugenics was described as scientifically discredited and a morally discredited theory.
Core Definition & Etymology
- Origin: The term was coined in 1883 by British explorer and statistician Sir Francis Galton, derived from Greek roots meaning “well born”.
- Premise: Early proponents believed that human traits—including intelligence, poverty, criminality, and mental illness—were entirely hereditary and could be controlled to “perfect” humankind.
“Breeder” LOG-LINE: “An eccentric poodle breeder lures a broke college student to her remote ranch with the promise of research funding. But, as he soon learns, there’s a catch.”
“Breeder” at the Nashville Film Festival from IFC and Shudder.
PATTI KOLB
The eccentric poodle breeder is portrayed by Dot-Marie Jones as Patti Kolb, a wounded woman whose lack of a loving attentive mother to give her the attention she craved has given her some serious psychological problems. Patti has taken poodle breeding all the way to the top of that game, but Mommy didn’t wait around to validate her daughter’s success. Dot-Marie Jones as a screwed-up matriarch with barely disguised homicidal tendencies gives Kathy Bates a run for her money. In all fairness, Jones is a three-time Emmy nominee from her days on “Glee” as Shannon Beiste back in 2010.
Now, Patti has adopted a bevy of daughters, researching the potential daughters to find the very best breeders in the bunch. She wants to create perfect people, mimicing her efforts to create perfect poodles. We meet her daughters Ainsley, Celeste, Yara, Angela, Cindy and Manon around the dining room table and one reassures the out-of-his-element Russell “We are not a cult.”
The most important members of the daughter group will be Ainsley (Tanaya Beatty), Yara (Lillian Doucet-Roche) and Manon (Isla Spencer). Ainsley has an I.Q. of 160 and is the daughter who gets closest to Russell.
Yara turns out to be a less-than-successful warden for poor Russell.
Manon is the smallest of the litter, who is not totally down with the program their “Chief” has laid out. When she disobeys, she is forced to wear a large black poodle head and sometimes physically carted from the room by her cowed sisters.
Patti is intent on breeding perfect human life, but she needs a male stud.
Will Russell go along with this plan, before, during or after? You’ll need to see the film when it releases to find out and then we can talk.
RUSSELL BURR
Russell has been working for four years on improving colonies of bees, using eugenics. He is deeply in debt to the tune of $200,000. When he pitches his impressive research, they fault him for dropping out of MIT to concentrate on the bees. This means that Russell does not have the PhD he needs to “sell” his work. Russell, too, has anxiety issues and a supportive fiancée who tries to talk him through various tough moments.
Daniel Doheny was impressive in bringing Russell to life as a character. Filmed in Canada, Doheny was named the Best Actor in a Canadian film for 2022’s “Drinkwater” by the Vancouver Film Critics ,and was Best Actor in 2024’s “Scared Shitless,” also from the Vancouver.
CREW
The cinematographer, Jaryl Lim, filmed the perfectly spooky production design of Skye Dyken, aided immeasurably by composer Hannah Parrott and, above all, by the great casting of Casting Directors Candice Elzinja and Thomas Sullivan. The acting in this one, dealing with a truly fascinating and debatable topic, was top-notch and the film was a true treat at the 57th Nashville Film Festival.