Chicago Critics Film Festival 2022 welcomes major Chicago premieres | Festivals and awards

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FRIDAY 13 MAY

19:00: “CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH”

Fresh out of college and without a clear life path ahead, 22-year-old Andrew is stuck at home with his family in New Jersey. But if there’s one thing that belongs on his non-existent resume, it’s how to get a party started, giving him the perfect job of motivating dancing at the bar and bat mitzvahs for his younger brother’s classmates. When Andrew becomes friends with a local mother, Domino, and her daughter, Lola, he finally discovers a future he desires – even though it may not be his own. Cooper Raiff writes, directs and plays alongside Dakota Johnson, Brad Garrett, Leslie Mann and newcomers Vanessa Burghardt and Evan Assante in this tale of unconventional love filled with emotional honesty.

Questions and answers with author / director / star Cooper Raiff to follow the screening.

Also plays on Friday: “Watcher” and “Speak No Evil”

SATURDAY 14 MAY

19:00: “TO LESLIE”

Leslie is a single mother from West Texas who struggles to support her son when she wins the lottery and a chance at a good life. But a few years later, the money is gone and Leslie is alone, living hard and fast on the bottom of a bottle while running from the world of heartache she left behind. With her charm of escaping and nowhere to go, Leslie returns home. Unwelcome and unwanted by those she offended, it is Sweeney, a lone motel attendant, who takes a chance when no one else wants. With his support, Leslie comes face to face with the consequences of her actions, a life of regret and a new chance to create a good life for her and her son.

Questions and answers with director Michael Morris to follow the screening.

Also playing on Saturday: “Shorts Program 1”, “A Love Song”, “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On”, Emily the Criminal, and “Bram Stokers Dracula”

SUNDAY 15 MAY

16:30: “BENEDITION”

The film is written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Terence Davies and explores the turbulent life of the poet Siegfried Sassoon from World War I (Jack Lowden). The author and soldier was a complex man who survived the horrors of the fighting in World War I and was decorated for his bravery, but who became a vocal critic of the government’s continuation of the war when he returned from service. His poetry was inspired by his experiences on the Western Front, and he became one of the leading war poets of the time. Worshiped by members of the aristocracy as well as stars of London’s literary and stage world, he initiated affairs with several men as he tried to come to terms with his homosexuality. At the same time, broken by the horrors of war, he made his life journey a quest for salvation, trying to find it within the conformity of marriage and religion.