Recapping the 2025 Chicago Critics Film Festival

It’s now been over two weeks since the 2025 Chicago Critics Film Festival (CCFF) wrapped up, which means I’ve either been diligently reflecting on the experience for the past two weeks or it’s taken me over a week to find some time to write up my thoughts on this goofy blog. You be the judge. Regardless, I've finally managed to pull together my thoughts on this year's festival, both from the film perspective and regarding the overall experience.

This was my third year attending CCFF, and all three years I've been very impressed with the festival and excited to attend again the following year. It remains a low-stress and convenient film festival with a great selection of movies. The Music Box is an excellent venue, the staff and the Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) members are all friendly and helpful, and the schedule allows you to, in theory, see everything (although you may be quite tired by the end). Film festival passholders receive a badge which gets you access to all the screenings and includes a handy-dandy guide to every screening (see below).

I’m not going to get into detailed reviews for everything that I saw, because I don’t think anyone wants to take the time to read all of that, and I usually think it’s best to go into most movies as blind as possible, so I don’t want to inadvertently give away minor spoilers to movies coming out in the next few months. I’ll just say that I think everything programmed at this festival is worth checking out. Sure, there are some titles I liked more than others, but this festival is programmed by critics who have dedicated their life to discerning “good” films from “bad”, and at least someone on the programming team found something worthwhile in everything that played. I’ll link the full lineup here. For this wrap-up post, I want to focus more on the experience as a whole and look at some of the themes of the festival, rather than just what films I liked or didn’t like.

The great Dennis Scott provides live organ music throughout the festival.

I did the math and I made it to 22 out of a possible 25 screenings during the 7-day festival. My apologies to Best Wishes for All and Mr. K, who were victims of midnight screenings that were just a little too late for me, and 40 Acres, which was a victim of my Sunday night dinner at the Blue Bayou running a little longer than I anticipated. I hope to catch up with those 3 films sometime later this year. Still, making it to 88% of the festival means I definitely got my money’s worth out of it, and I saw a lot of really interesting under-the-radar titles that I'll be encouraging folks to see in the coming months.

The CFCA festival programming team is honored right before the final screening.

When it comes to the films themselves, I tried to find some themes to tie movies together and create some sort of overarching summary of what the film selection was like at this year's festival. Granted, the vast majority of these themes are coincidental - I'm pretty sure the focus is far more heavily rooted in playing films that the CFCA likes rather than developing some sort of overarching theme. Still, it's fun to look for some connections among everything that played the festival, and it allows me an opportunity to provide some brief tidbits about some of the titles without fully revealing too much information.

Themes:

Laughing while crying:

The very first scene we saw at the 2025 CCFF was the opening of The Baltimorons, in which a very drunk man bungles his own suicide attempt, played for laughs. It immediately set a darkly comedic tone for the festival and that scene stuck in my mind throughout the whole week. Titles like The Baltimorons, Twinless, Friendship, Sorry, Baby, and Charlie Chaplin’s classic The Great Dictator all have some dark, traumatic moments to them, but also find themselves aiming for laughter more often than not. With the exception of the incredibly bleak April, this year’s lineup mostly avoided succumbing to the darkness and saw everyone trying to find some way to add light to their lives, whether it be the filmmakers or the characters in the films themselves.

CFCA president Brian Tallerico hosts a Q&A with The Baltimorons director Jay Duplass and stars Liz Larsen and Michael Strassner

Passing the familial torch:

You could probably say darn near any collection of films - especially on the indie circuit - have some connection to family, but it felt like intergenerational family dramas really took center stage at this year's CCFF. Whether the connection was between twin brothers and their dying father in Brother Verses Brother, a son and his mother with dementia in Familiar Touch, the unique father-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship of A Little Prayer, the brother-sister dynamic in the short film Strangers in the Same Shirt, the real-life familial connections in Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted, or even a man’s bond with his dog in OBEX, family was front and center throughout the festival.

Yes, and…

The Baltimorons, despite being mostly scripted, is a film deeply rooted in the improv world. Brother Verses Brother takes that idea and leans into it even further, by crafting a semi-autobiographical tale throughout San Francisco in a single shot, where everyone has to roll with whatever punches are on the screen. While nothing else is coming to mind that specifically touches on the improv world, the willingness to just keep rolling and pivoting around the curveballs life throws at you showed up for characters in Sorry, Baby, Sister Midnight, and most notably the very thesis behind documentarian Charlie Shackleton’s Zodiac Killer Project.

Seeing double:

This wasn’t just a theme for this festival - it’s a theme for movies in 2025. The amount of double roles for actors we’ve been seeing is nuts, including Sinners, Mickey 17, Another Simple Favor, The Alto Knights (allegedly - haven’t seen it yet), and quite possibly some others. You can add Dylan O’Brien in Twinless to that list when it comes out in September - and that was a particularly interesting movie to play right after Brother Verses Brother, a film made by and starring a pair of actual real-life twins, Ari and Ethan Gold. Would have loved for a Q&A with them after Twinless - I saw Ari walking around the theater before the movie started so I’m thinking he maybe stuck around?

The line to see Twinless w/ Dylan O'Brien and James Sweeney was so long it extended onto Waveland Ave.

The end of the road… or is it?

This was a very specific pairing between two horror/thriller movies that even the festival programmers acknowledged was a bizarre coincidence. It Ends features a road that doesn’t end, despite characters desperately wishing it would. Desert Road is the exact opposite - the road seemingly keeps traveling back to the same place, and our main character desperately hopes it will keep going on beyond that spot. Both films are well worth checking out and have a lot of interesting ideas that transcend their limited budgets.

Ahead of its time? Right here, right now? Why not both?

Much of this post has been dedicated to the new titles, and rightfully so, but it would be wrong to leave out the two anniversary screenings of the festival, Strange Days and The Great Dictator. Seeing Strange Days on a Saturday night with a pretty full house was not just the highlight of the festival for me but will almost certainly be the best theatrical experience I’ll have all year. Seeing and hearing the Music Box switch from theater to concert venue the minute Juliette Lewis yells the word “been” during her performance of PJ Harvey’s “Hardly Wait” truly felt transcendent.

During Peter Sobczynski’s introduction to the film, he asked how many people had never seen the film before, and a hefty percentage of the theater raised their hand, including the woman sitting next to me. I told her I’d be curious to hear her thoughts after the movie ended, and she told me she thought it was “ahead of its time” as she got out of her seat during the credits. Many others including myself have also shared that opinion - that a lot of its key themes surrounding both corruption and violence in the police force but also an over-reliance on technology to connect to the world emotionally feel almost prophetic watching it 30 years later. And yet there’s no doubt that Strange Days was responding to both of those ideas already in the 1990s. I don’t think anyone would mistake Strange Days for a new movie - it's very distinctively made in the '90s, and it’s a film that feels of its era. In other words, it’s both ahead of its time and also firmly existing in the moment, or “right here, right now” if I may quote Angela Bassett (via Fatboy Slim). It’s relevance is one of the reasons it has perhaps managed to transcend fellow 1995 techno-thrillers like The Net, Hackers, and Johnny Mnemonic in the mind of its massive cult following.

The Great Dictator is on a different end of the spectrum but is operating on a singular wavelength. There’s zero doubt as to who Charlie Chaplin is satirizing. It’s a bold and daring response to Nazi Germany that was made in 1940 for a 1940 audience to laugh and also take action right here, right now. And yet I don’t think I need to elaborate as to why the CFCA thought it would be a relevant film to program in the United States of America circa 2025. If history truly is repeating itself, we at least have Chaplin’s contribution to the film world 85 years ago to try to laugh through it all once again.

To tie this into a newer film at the festival, there was a Japanese film called Happyend that, despite being a completely different type of film, has a similar “very near future” setting as Strange Days. I’m going to go out on a limb and say the themes of xenophobia and the technological surveillance state will still resonate with audiences further into the future than the “near future” shown in the film. 

Guests and Q&A's:

My understanding is that there were more guests at this years CCFF than at any other that came before, which made the Q&A's feel just as essential to the festival as the films themselves. I think there were special guests every night, including a couple surprises that were not on the initial list (like Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney for Twinless and the Gold brothers for Brother Verses Brother). The end results were lots of fun discussions and insight into the process of the films we had just watched, and also an extremely tight window to grab food between screenings.

I was considering taking notes during some of the Q&As and then completely forgot to do that, so I don't have tons of details about what was said. I do remember learning that it only costs $45 for a street filming permit in Baltimore, Dylan O'Brien has no interest in playing Jesus, It Ends director Alex Ullom was originally a computer science major and made several r/WallStreetBets memes, Northwestern alum Eva Victor enjoyed walking around the campus while high, and a pivotal scene involving abortion in A Little Prayer was shot the day Roe v. Wade was overturned (yikes!). The Fantasy Life Q&A is also where I finally figured out where I knew Matthew Shear from - he's in Mistress America! Every time I saw his photo before then he had looked so familiar that I almost wondered I knew him in real life.

Steve Prokopy moderates a Q&A with A Little Prayer actress Jane Levy and director Angus MacLachlan

As a whole, I think I prefer Q&A's of older films (like the ones I recently attended at Ebertfest) since there's more time for reflection and for sharing interesting behind-the-scenes anecdotes rather than really trying to dig into what your film's about (and promote the hell out of it), but all of these Q&A's were well moderated and had fantastic guests who were very appreciative of being there and sharing their work with an excited audience in Chicago.

In Praise of the Short Film Programs:

I haven't gone into much detail on the shorts, and I probably should, because I thought this year's pair of short film programs was the strongest I had seen in my three years at CCFF. Kudos goes out to Collin Souter, who puts together two programs of shorts that are not just an interesting collection of short films but a well-structured collection that plays like an album. Rather than having a block by genre (documentary, animated, horror, etc.) like many festivals do, all different types of shorts are weaved together into a beautiful concoction. Some of my favorite titles from this year's festival include Strangers in the Same Shirt (dir. Chase Johnson), Living Reality (dir. Philip Thompson), We Were the Scenery (dir. Christopher Radcliff), Whitch (dir. Hoku Uchiyama), and Paradise Man (ii) (dir. Jordan Michael Blake). In general, shorts tend to get the short (hehe) end of the stick in discussions compared to features, so I definitely wanted to highlight some here and encourage everyone to seek these out if you have the opportunity to see them.

Food and Drink:

In between films, I try my best to frequent some of the local spots near the theater to grab some grub. This is often one of the most challenging aspects of attending CCFF, as the windows between films usually aren't long enough to accommodate a full sit-down meal at a restaurant. Hence, my approach is typically to order takeout online before the film starts and pick it up after the film, then find some place outside to have an impromptu picnic and enjoy my meal. This can go awry if it's raining, but usually works out fairly well. The entire Southport corridor has tons of great options, ranging from pizza to sushi to empanadas to sandwiches and everything in between. One of the restaurants right across from the Music Box, the Blue Bayou Bar & Grill, just reopened and partnered with the festival such that all attendees could receive 10% off their order. It was a nice gesture that I hope led to lots of business over the week - I myself enjoyed some shrimp and grits alongside a beer one evening.

Some photos of food from the week, including Coalfire Pizza (upper left), Little Goat Diner (upper right), Blue Bayou (lower left) and Southport Grocery and Cafe (lower right)

Something else that was new this year was a mixer sponsored by Rotten Tomatoes, which included free food from Bumbu Roux, a local Indonesian-Caribbean food truck. Rotten Tomatoes has long been a sponsor of CCFF, including sponsoring the Audience Award for best film, developed from filmgoers rating each film they see. (There is an online component to this too, but I have always just voted with the paper ballot you receive prior to each film screening). This mixer took place after the screening of Sorry, Baby on Monday evening and was a nice new addition to the festival program, even if I didn't spend a ton of time there as I wanted to catch the next screening. It's definitely something I hope they do again in the future.

The "I Love You, Man" cocktail - I promise it's at least ten times better than it sounds.

Regarding drinks, it's always fun to try the specialty cocktails at the Music Box Lounge, which are recipes made specifically for the films being screened that week or month. This time, I tried the "I Love You, Man" in honor of the film Friendship. It was too fascinating of a concoction to pass up - aperol, malort, lemon juice and agave nectar, with a Pabst Blue Ribbon poured on top. It may not sound particularly appetizing, but I'll be darned if it isn't pretty good. The bitterness of the spirits combined with the sour of the lemon and the sweetness of the agave created a balanced flavor profile, and the beer, much to my surprise, blended in perfectly. I liked it so much I had a second one later on in the week.

A quick candid of the Music Box Lounge (my apologies to anyone pictured in this photo)

On the last day of the festival, all passholders are invited to a VIP after-party with cake and a free drink, which allows for mingling with critics, press members, and fellow passholders to discuss some of your highlights of the festival. The cake was quite tasty and included a fresh strawberry filling, and the pieces were absolutely massive (I probably should not have eaten the entire slice!). This event always seems like a nice thank you to everyone who attended the festival and made it possible. 

My half-eaten slice of cake during the closing night party

Transportation and Dogs:

Often the most stressful part of the festival is the late night transportation back home (or in my case, back to my friend's apartment where I was spending the week). The late-night CTA trips often have the potential to be full of chaos, but thankfully everything went pretty smoothly for me and awkward encounters with strangers were kept to a minimum.

Everyone's favorite Red Line stop... right?

Highlights from the Red and Brown Lines during this year's festival included a kid desperately trying to give people fake IDs despite him being the youngest person in the car, a woman wearing an umbrella costume (yes - she was dressed as an umbrella) for an art project, and hearing drunk fans recap a wild and painful Cubs game in which the Cubs gave up 9 (!) runs in extra innings against the Giants. Overall, it was pretty standard stuff, and nothing reached the level of the navigation assistance I provided last year to a couple of very drunk people from Minnesota who got screwed over by their Uber and had to try to navigate the Red Line all by themselves (they thanked me profusely and assured me they would guide me around Minneapolis next time I'm there - and I intend to hold them to that promise some day).

Aside from the train conversations, something else I was keeping track of was the number of dogs I saw walking around Lakeview. It seems like it's a requirement that at least 1 out of every 3 people living in Lakeview have to have a dog, and I counted upwards of 80 dogs on walks throughout my minimal time outside during the festival. I considered keeping track of the number of emergency vehicles I saw in the city as well, but I lost track (although I'm pretty sure the number was well into double digits).

Some Final Thoughts:

CCFF 2025, much like my experiences in 2024 and 2023, remains an extremely inviting film festival for fans of independent cinema. I applaud the effort of the CFCA to put on a festival like this (something I'm sure most critics associations wouldn't even consider doing) and, despite being programmed by critics, it's a festival for the general public that's far removed from the pretension surrounding many of the bigger-name festivals out there. The lineup was full of many good and great films from a wide variety of genres.

I'm not sure any individual screening got as crowded as Past Lives in 2023, but the festival as a whole seemed well-attended. I think the number of special guests likely helped to put butts in seats, alongside the great Music Box venue. The inclusion of the Rotten Tomatoes mixer was a welcome addition, and I thought the lines for entering the theater seemed better organized this year (it was clearly marked outside and stated during each screening where festival passholders and general audience members respectively should line up for each film). While we weren't allowed to leave bags in the theater between screenings like last year, I had no problem dealing with that minor inconvenience. The restored theater seats now include cupholders, which was a welcome addition for bringing drinks and water from the lounge into the theater without juggling them in your hands in the dark throughout the movie. The audience for the most part was very respectful as well - you of course have the Music Box "hyenas" that laugh at every minuscule attempt at a joke during comedies which can sometimes get mildly annoying, but there were never any issue with cell phones or smart watches "that turn on for no goddamn reason" (Steve Prokopy, 2025) and people never seemed to leave a major mess in the theater for employees to clean up.

I'm already eager to see what titles will show up next year. I don't think the CFCA is planning on stopping this festival anytime soon, not after their two most successful years of all time. I'd encourage everyone in the Chicago area to keep an eye out for next year's schedule (it's almost always the first weekend and week of May) and try to catch a film or two that piques your interest. It's a great way to support one of the best festivals out there and to get a sneak preview of something you can share with your friends throughout the year.

And with that, I'll close the book on CCFF 2025. Please check back again soon for more film updates and recommendations from yours truly :)

My complete ticket collection from the 2025 Chicago Critics Film Festival