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Chicago – The evolution of the “local filmmaker” always seems to be defined through where that person resides. In his work, writer/director Jack C. Newell appears to not be measured by time, place or even as based in Chicago, but as a filmmaker of artistic vision with a universal basis in love. His film from 2021, “Monuments,” has a screening at Chicago’s historic Music Box Theatre on June 7th and 11th, 2025. Click Monuments for tickets and details.

’Monuments,’ Written and Directed by Jack C. Newell (inset)

Photo credit: Row House Films

Rating: 4.5/5.0

“Monuments” is a comedy about grief with a dash of hopeless romance and a sprinkling of adventure, this melange is a quintessential indie road movie, featuring expansive cinematography and an unexpected musical score by the acclaimed Takénobu. Filmed on location partly in Chicago, “Monuments” brings together an eclectic cast led by David Sullivan and Marguerite Moreau as a...

Across his near-40-year career, David Koepp has delivered several iconic adaptations of genre properties, the most notable being that of the Jurassic Park franchise, co-writing the original with author Michael Crichton, writing the sequel and returning for the upcoming Jurassic World Rebirth. But situated among his more popular works in the '90s and early 2000s is what's still one of his most thrilling and underrated efforts with Stir of Echoes, which also marked his second time in the director's chair.

Stir of Echoes follows Tom Witzky, portrayed by Kevin Bacon, who begins experiencing unsettling visions after being hypnotized by his sister-in-law. As these spectral occurrences intensify, Tom finds himself drawn into unraveling the mystery surrounding a girl's ghost.

Release Date  September 10, 1999Rating  RRuntime  99 minutesGenres  Mystery, Thriller, HorrorCast  Rosario Varela, James Andelin, Chalon Williams, Conor O'Farrell, Zachary David Cope, Stephen Eugene Walker, Lisa Lewis, Larry Neumann Jr., Mary Kay Cook,...

Chicago – In 1987, one of the oddest incidents in broadcast history took place in Chicago, when a local news sports segment and an episode of “Dr. Who” on PBS was interrupted by a bizarre video sequence featuring a man in a Max Headroom mask. This infamous event was the inspiration for the new film “Broadcast Signal Intrusion” – directed by Jacob Gentry – which was release to theaters and through Video-On-Demand on October 22nd, 2021, after playing at the 57th Chicago International Film Festival.

Director Jacob Gentry of ‘Broadcast Signal Intrusion’

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

“Broadcast Signal Intrusion“ reframes the Max Headroom event as a thriller narrative, in which James (Harry Shum Jr.) becomes obsessed about the interruptions, looking for messages within them that could reveal some secrets. Kelley Mack portrays Alice, who James brings into his obsession. The script by Phil Drinkwater and Tim Woodall and the...

Chicago – In 1987, one of the oddest incidents in broadcast history took place in Chicago, when a local news sports segment and an episode of “Dr. Who” on PBS was interrupted by a bizarre video sequence featuring a man in a Max Headroom mask. This infamous event was the inspiration for the new film “Broadcast Signal Intrusion,” which was release to theaters and through Video-On-Demand on October 22nd, 2021, after playing at the 57th Chicago International Film Festival.

Harry Shum Jr. of ‘Broadcast Signal Intrusion’

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

“Broadcast Signal Intrusion“ reframes the Max Headroom event as a thriller narrative, in which James (Harry Shum Jr.) becomes obsessed about the interruptions, looking for messages within them that could reveal some secrets. Kelley Mack portrays Alice, who James brings into his obsession. The script by Phil Drinkwater and Tim Woodall and the direction of Jacob Gentry...

Chicago – The evolution of the “local filmmaker” always seems to be defined through where that person is. Jack C. Newell appears to not be measured by time and place, but as a filmmaker of artistic vision with a basis in love. His latest film, “Monuments,” opens June 4th, 2021, through the Gene Siskel Film Center virtual cinema.

Written and directed by Newell, “Monuments” is a comedy about grief with a dash of hopeless romance and a sprinkling of adventure, this melange is a quintessential indie road movie, featuring expansive cinematography and an unexpected musical score by acclaimed Takénobu. Filmed on location partly in Chicago, “Monuments” brings together an eclectic cast led by David Sullivan and Marguerite Moreau as a devoted couple whose love cannot be diminished by death. The family of Moreau’s character has other plans, and the comic element of the film comes from that conflict.

’Monuments,’ Written and Directed by Jack C.

The new thriller "Broadcast Signal Intrusion", directed by Jacob Gentry, stars Anthony E. Cabral, Richard Cotovsky and Jeff Dlugoleckim releasing March 21, 2021: 

"...while logging tapes of decades-old TV broadcasts, video archivist 'James' discovers a surreal and disturbing clip that he believes is the product of a mysterious broadcast signal hacking. His discovery takes a sinister turn when he tracks down similar broadcast intrusions that send him on an obsessive mission. Now James must confront two very real possibilities: that the videos may be clues to a crime beyond all comprehension and that whoever was behind them may be very aware that James is coming uncomfortably close to the truth..."

Click the images to enlarge....

It’s tricky to pull off the kind of cryptic mystery labyrinth that “Broadcast Signal Intrusion” attempts, and Jacob Gentry’s film only works to a point — whatever point at which the viewer decides this thriller’s elusive menace is just too vague to generate sufficient urgency or suspense. As long as the promise outweighs the frustrating lack of payoff, however, it’s an intriguing and atmospheric puzzle, with “Glee” star Harry Shum Jr. chasing down a possible link between the titular phenomenon and his wife’s disappearance. The SXSW-premiering feature will be a viable item for home format sales; theatrical prospects are slimmer.

James (Shum) is an Av tech geek in 1999 Chicago, working the graveyard shift in a basement archive, logging old TV broadcast videos for posterity. It’s a solitary job that complements the loner lifestyle he had since his dancer wife Hannah disappeared three years ago. Now,...

Chicago – In founding and being an artistic director of a theater company for over 30 years, Richard Cotovsky of Mary-Arrchie Co. has a few stories to tell. In Part Two of an interview with the “Godfather of Chicago Storefront Theater” Cotovsky talks about the annual Abbie Hoffman Died for our Sins Festival, and the various acts of producing memorable stage productions.

Rich Cotovsky is a lifelong Chicagoan, growing up and currently living in the Rogers Park neighborhood. He was a founding member of Mary-Arrchie Co. – an amalgamation of parent’s names from one of his early acting students – and has served as its Artistic Director since it began in 1986. His award-winning theatre company has served up gritty and memorable productions for 30 years, but their current show, “American Buffalo” – which features Cotovsky in a lead role – will be their final show. The building that houses the space the company has had since the late 1980s,...

Chicago – The legacy of the classic Chicago storefront theater has been celebrated at the Mary-Arrchie Theater Company for over 30 years, so for their final piece of stage craft they’re going out with a proper and gritty production bang, “American Buffalo,” by David Mamet.

Play Rating: 4.0/5.0

Set in Chicago in the bad old 1970s, the play has the feel of a storefront production, because it appropriately takes place inside a store. Playwright Mamet’s Chicago-accented take on losers looking for the big score is perfectly suited for Mary-Arrchie Founder Richard Cotovsky, and his stage cohorts Stephen Walker and Rudy Galvan. They take Mamet’s f**k-you-dialogue-rhythms and formulates a atmosphere of dread and sadness. The intimate setting lends an in-your-face experience, and is delivered with majesty by the three players.

Don (Richard Cotovsky, background) and Teach (Stephen Walker) in ‘American Buffalo’

Photo credit: MaryArrchie.com

Don (Richard Cotovsky) runs a...

Chicago – The final curtain is coming for the theatre company known as “Mary-Arrchie.” The Northside Chicago Angel Island playhouse is opening its final production, “American Buffalo” by David Mamet, on January 28, 2016. It also features the company’s founder, Richard Cotovsky, the “Godfather of Storefront Theater.”

Rich Cotovsky is a lifelong Chicagoan, growing up and currently living in the Rogers Park neighborhood. He was a founding member of Mary-Arrchie – an amalgamation of parent’s names from one of his early acting students – and has served as its Artistic Director since it began in 1986. His award-winning theatre company has served up gritty and memorable productions for 30 years, but “American Buffalo” will be their final show. The building that houses the space the company has had since the late 1980s, the Angel Island theatre at the Broadway/Sheridan intersection, is slated to be torn down later this year. After 30 years and over 100 productions,...

Chicago – The epic Russian novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “Crime and Punishment,” gets a condensing by Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company, as the morality in the book is rendered into a palatable 95 minute stage version, directed by theatre founder and Artistic Director Richard Cotovsky.

Play Rating: 3.5/5.0

The artful stagecraft, done on an appropriately claustrophobic space, brings to life the ethical dilemmas that the novel has expressed for close to 150 years. The story of an intellect who imagines himself the arbiter of right-and-wrong, as practiced through murder, still resonates through our code of society. There are only three actors in this version, with two playing multiple characters, enhanced by effective production, lighting and scenic dexterity that weaves together the past, present and dual symbolism of the story.

Maureen Yasko, Ed Porter (Center) and Jack McCabe in Mary-Arrchie Theatre’s ‘Crime and Punishment’

Photo credit: Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company

In this stage play adaptation written by Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus,...

Chicago – The characters of “Superior Donuts” – as brilliantly interpreted by the cast in this production at the Mary-Arrchie Theatre – feel as though they’ve stepped from a Chicago neighborhood and began to perform their lives in the theater.

Play Rating: 4.0/5.0

This is an authentic Chicago play about a fictional donut diner in the neighborhood of Uptown, in a play written by Tracy Letts (”August: Osage County”) and originally performed by local icon Steppenwolf Theatre in 2008. The Mary-Arrchie company, a couple of miles from where the play is set, brings the story home in an setting so intimate that there’s a tendency to want to sit at the counter and order a sinker. Each of the actors communicate their honesty by natural characterizations, to an extent where they create them right at the moment.

Richard Cotovsky (Arthur) and Preston Tate Jr. (Franco) in ‘Superior Donuts’

Photo credit: MaryArrchie.com

Arthur...