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A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of immersing myself—almost entirely—in what has become one of my favorite cinematic events of the year: The Chicago Critics Film Festival . This was its 12th edition, and yeah... I was there for six of the seven glorious days. I saw 13 feature films (some incredible, some not so much) and enjoyed two blocks of terrific shorts, all while soaking in the magic that only the Music Box Theatre  on Southport can provide. Now, for those of y

With the release of the new version of The Wedding Banquet —a remake of Ang Lee ’s wonderful 1993 comedy—I got to thinking about remakes. Specifically, the rare remake that not only justifies its existence, but actually improves  on the original. It doesn’t happen often. In fact, it’s a pretty short list. But when it does happen, it’s worth celebrating. So, I decided to put together a list of 15 remakes that, in my opinion, are actually better than the original movies they we