Critics Go 'Cuckoo' in Chicago, 'Sing Sing' together, then 'Sleep'
Chicago Critics Film Festival Day 1 [5/4/2024]
Greetings from the Chicago Critics Film Festival! This week I will be watching most of the CCFF lineup and sending some fresh out of the theater thoughts to my Substack Subscriber Chat. Check it out down below to get my reactions as they happen and comment your thoughts!
But just in case you’ve missed them, here are my thoughts so far for each movie yet covered.
Sing Sing
Starting off the festival with Sing Sing is a great move. The film advocates for art in a crowd pleasing way, spotlighting how creating these fantastic lies can unveil inner truths. Colman Domingo plays an incarcerated man alongside a cast (mostly playing themselves) of charming toothless inmates. Every single actor does great work showcasing the range of emotions art can bring out ourselves.
But the movie lacks teeth. It's a wafer-thin sentimental paint by numbers unwilling to dig deep enough into its characters to make something matter. It's lovely of course, but by it's ending you think it's an advertisement for the treatment rather than a true exploration. The final scenes of brotherhood may as well have a feminine voice reminding us to ask our doctors if artistic exploration is right for us. The filmmakers seem uninterested in bad people, but rather highlight the trauma and healing of their position. Even the viewpoint that the system is an unjust one doesn't go very far, and gets cut off by a feel-good ending. 2.5/5
Cuckoo
Cuckoo may have been a breaking point for me in terms of sanity. Ditching a grip on reality for a camera and plot so fast you can barely keep up with, Cuckoo reels in an audience with it's knowing camp and frightens is with how little we understand. The setup alone has complex enough dynamics for a good drama without the horror. A seventeen year old young woman (Hunter Schafer) feels like her father has been more focused on his new wife and young daughter than herself. When the whole family arrives at a resort with a curious curator, she slowly unravels just how valid her feelings are.
To talk too many specifics would spoil the silly thrills, but it is safe to say Cuckoo keeps you guessing until its near end, even if it does so by dropping plot points and intentionally leaving things unexplained. If you like your horror flicks to feel like rabbit holes, you're in the right place. 3/5
Sleep
The midnight screening of Sleep wiped me out so badly that I forgot to write my review before crashing into bed. The horror here is marriage as a couple tackles what appears to be the husband’s battle with a sleepwalking disorder. His unconscious body causes chaos until the couple's minds start to snap.
Listeners of my podcast might know that I can be a sucker for a good marriage story. Sleep doesn't express a typical "men and women are so different" approach. Rather their exploration of marriage centers on the pain and exhaustion of tethering yourself to another person, in sickness and in health. As someone whose significant other struggles with mental illness, this hits especially close to home for me, solidifying this rather simple thrill ride as, for better or worse, my favorite film of the festival thus far. 3/5