I’m taking a break from the Chicago International Film Festival today after stuffing in six movies over the past two days … this on top of my three film in-and-out of the festival lineup on Sunday. Nine movies in three days is a lot. Nine movies in three days plus all the CTA rides in between, plus F45 classes, plus unfamiliar restaurants and cafes and some scheduling with other people is all too much for me.

Actually, the worst part of the film festival experience to me is waiting in the lines and sitting in theaters before the screenings, being forced to listen to the various loud-and-opining film bros share their points of view on the films. I swear these guys have developed a tonal quality meant to speak to no one in particular, but fill a room as if they were holding court on their cinematic genius. You would think that these would be my people in some sense, fellow movie lovers, but no, I hate them.

Why do I hate them? Because they can’t stop going on and on about how certain movies were too long and the specific aspects of the story that “didn’t need to be there.” First of all, the runtime of every movie is available in multiple places, including the ordering system and on their favorite tool, Letterboxd, so they know very well in advance that these movies are going to surpass the magic 120 minute length that sets off their “too long” detectors. So if the movie was too long for them, that’s on them for showing up in the first place. Second, most of the critiques I’ve heard are just flat out wrong. Parts they find unnecessary, I’ve found essential. Sometimes you just have to build a story, an atmosphere and a cast of characters. That could lead to an 800 page novel or a 160 minute film. You know this before you begin, so shut up about it.

Anyway, enough trashing my fellow human beings, onto the movies. The three movies I saw on Monday I rate in the good to very good category. Cannes Special Jury Prize winner “The Dreamed Adventure” I went into with very low expectations. This is a movie that was criticized widely at Cannes for its length and slow pace — but it worked for me. It didn’t waste time on boring pastoral shots, it just stuffed in lots of conversations that helped build this Bulgarian community seemingly overrun by organized crime. Completely original characters, a fascinating view of Bulgaria’s social changes, and just enough mystery kept me engaged throughout.

I also give thumbs up for “The Diary of a Chambermaid” by Romanian director, Radu Jude. Having just seen the Romanian themed “Fjord” and still reading the Mircea Cartarescu novel “Blinding” right now, I’m steeped in Romanian culture at the moment. This one also takes place in Bordeaux, so there’s another interesting European culture clash … and in this case, the movie is also really funny. It ends abruptly, which felt strange, but an effective film with some powerful moments.

A couple months ago I saw a movie called “The Blue Heron” which made me wonder if “Aftersun” is becoming a genre. That argument gained some steam with the third movie of the day, entitled “Everytime.” This one was shot by Gregory Oke, also the cinematographer of “Aftersun” and it was a striking meditation on grief that took a dramatic turn toward the surreal in its final act. The director Sandra Wollner was on hand for a discussion after the film, which added to my enjoyment of the experience. It’s a movie I’ll revisit when it is more widely released.

So, a three for three day is something to be appreciated and not taken for granted. I kept that in mind on Tuesday, where the results were more uneven. The first film of the day, “Far from the Trees” was beautifully shot and had tremendous sound design. When it did little more than travel the Peruvian countryside, I soaked it in like I would a nature documentary. But there was a story attached to it, something having to do with an aging family in Mexico the protagonist could not get home to in time before someone (I think her grandmother) passed away … it was both slow moving and confusing to me. Beautiful, dull movies are fairly common at film festivals and I’m glad I saw this one. But it wasn’t a memorable experience.

The middle film of the day — “The Spiral” — was memorable to me just because I hated it so much. The director was also on hand for this screening and I had to exit quickly at its completion because I couldn’t stomach hearing an audience kiss up to him. This was another in a new genre of European films that centers on rich people experiencing a series of gruesome setbacks and tragedies for comedic effect. We get subjected to a lot of fat shaming along the way, an attempted suicide attempt, and plenty of random unpleasantness. If I wasn’t stuck in a middle seat in the auditorium, I likely would have walked out halfway. Just not my type of film, I can’t enjoy watching human suffering.

Fortunately, the day ended on a high note: Andrey Zvyagintsev’s sublime crime procedural/Russian social commentary “Minotaur.” This movie won the Gran Prix, second place prize at Cannes this year, and I found it just as riveting as Zvyagintsev’s brilliant “Leviathan” from 2014. The movie works as an update on “Crime and Punishment,” with the rich and powerful of the Putin era getting away with everything, and the rest of the culture forced to suffer with the consequences. An exile from Russia for the past decade, Zvyagintsev nearly died during the COVID era from an unknown illness, so it’s great to see him working again. This movie will stick with me for a very long time and I look forward to examining it in closer detail.

So, I have nothing to complain about regarding the recent movies I’ve seen. Four of the best movies of 2026 have come in this stretch: Possible Love, You Can See Everything, Fjord and Minotaur. Still to come in the festival, I’m hoping to get a ticket to All of a Sudden, which I hope is in the best of the fest lineup on Sunday. Otherwise I’ll have to wait until late November to see the movie I’ve been most looking forward to — even though it’s more than three hours in length. For a true Ryusuke Hamaguchi fan like me, that’s nothing — his film “Happy Hour” is more than five hours and was a wonderful companion a few years back on a flight from Australia to Vancouver.

I have also bought a ticket for “Fatherland,” Pawel Pawlikowski’s film about Thomas Mann, next Wednesday at the Music Box (after the festival.) Pawlikowski will be in attendance for a post screening Q&A, so I look forward to that. He is a master, by the way, of the shortish film … and this one also clocks in at about 1 hour, 20 minutes.

After all of these lengthy epics, I will enjoy it, and I doubt anyone at the screening will complain of the length.