Earlier this week, Fry the Coop owner Joe Fontana, took to Instagram to show customers how an upcoming Raising Cane’s could harm his business at 2404 N. Lincoln Avenue, just down the street from the busy Halsted, Lincoln, and Fullerton intersection.
“No hate to Raising Cane’s, buuuut we wish they weren’t opening right across the street,” Fry The Coop’s Instagram post reads.
The post brought out legions of fans to praise local chicken shops like Parson’s Chicken & Fish and Red Light Chicken. They also lauded Fry the Coop’s heat levels as the chain specializes in Nashville hot chicken fried in beef tallow.
Three weeks ago, Raising Cane’s plastered its coming soon signs outside the former home of DePaul’s White Elephant. The thrift store closed in 2012 after 93 years of operation, and the new restaurant at 2376 N. Lincoln Avenue could open in February or March. Raising Cane’s arrived in Chicago with a Rogers Park location that opened in 2018.
Fontana founded Fry the Coop in 2017 when he opened in suburban Oak Lawn. He opened in Lincoln Park in October 2023, joining a number of affordable restaurants geared at students at DePaul and nearby Lincoln Park High School. That includes Ghareeb Narwaz and Chipotle. When Fontana hears stories about high school students with short lunch periods sprinting to Fry the Coop, coming into the restaurants out of breath and sweating, so they can grab lunch and make it back to class in time, he’s happy.
But he says “it’s a bummer” that he’ll lose chicken tender business to Raising Cane’s, a national chain that can afford to undercut Fry the Coop’s pricing. A three-piece tender with fries at Raising Cane’s costs about $11, depending on location. At Fry the Coop, a similar combo costs $15. That’s a big difference for students, Fontana says.
Though Fontana is a big fan of rising tides — he notes neighborhood additions, like Parson’s Chicken & Fish, bring more foot traffic and customers to the area — sometimes there’s only room for so many chicken tender slingers. Raising Cane’s is aggressive in opening stores near college campuses. The original debuted near Louisana State University and the Rogers Park location is near Loyola University. Building that brand awareness at a young age is critical, Fontana notes. It even extends to high school students, he adds. Some schools allow advertisements inside their buildings, which helps deep-pocketed companies, like Raising Cane’s — the same company that paid actor Chevy Chase to reenact his Christmas Vacation movie role in the suburbs. There are more than 800 Raising Cane stores across 41 states.
There are eight Fry the Coops around Chicago. A ninth is set to open on October 29 at 274 S. Weber Road in Bolingbrook, near the McDonald’s spin-off, CosMc’s. Fontana has plans to open more, but the Villa Park native knows that the opportunities aren’t as robust as the competition’s. For example, Chick-fil-A just opened a location at Terminal 5 at O’Hare.
“I don’t think we have anybody really pounding on our door,” Fontana says.
Happy December, Polygon readers. Christmas movie season is here, and there are tons of new Christmas movies slated to come out over the next month.
This week, there are four in that category: the critically acclaimed The Holdovers, Eddie Murphy’s Candy Cane Lane, Netflix’s Family Switch, and the horror movie It’s a Wonderful Knife. But that’s not all that’s new this week: Carol director Todd Haynes has a buzzy new movie out on Netflix, there’s a second movie with musical numbers named Leo dropping on Netflix in as many weeks, and big franchise reboots Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and The Exorcist: Believer make their streaming platform debuts.
That’s only touching the surface — December is usually a busy time for new movies to watch at home, and this year is no different. Let’s dig into it.
New on Netflix
May December
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Photo: Francois Duhamel/Netflix
Genre: Drama Run time: 1h 57m Director: Todd Haynes Cast: Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Charles Melton
One of our great modern filmmakers is back with another thorny story — this about an actor (Natalie Portman) studying a woman (Julianne Moore) she is going to play in a film. The woman (based loosely on convicted sex offender Mary Kay Letourneau) is known for her scandalous relationship with her husband (Charles Melton), who she first met when he was a minor. Melton has already won multiple awards for his portrayal of the husband, and as it’s a Todd Haynes movie, you can expect a sumptuous, at times uncomfortable watch led by fantastic performances.
No, you are not seeing double. Yes, last week, Netflix premiered its “Adam Sandler as a talking lizard” animated musical Leo. This week, the Tamil box-office hit Leo, a remake of David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, lands on the platform.
Both Leos on Netflix prominently feature musical numbers, but they couldn’t be more different movies. In this one, a coffee shop owner and family man (Vijay) dispatches a group of killers at his business, making him an overnight sensation. This raises the interest of a gangster, who believes the man is his long-lost son.
Leo is the third movie in director Lokesh Kanagaraj’s LCU, after Kaithi and Vikram. There are a few repeat characters in this one, but neither of the previous movies are necessary to understand it (but they are both better, so I’d say they’re worth checking out).
Family Switch
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Photo: Elizabeth Morris/Netflix
Genre: Sci-fi family comedy Run time: 1h 41m Director: McG Cast: Jennifer Garner, Ed Helms, Emma Myers
It’s Freaky Friday, squared! From McG (Charlie’s Angels), this spin on the body-swap trope adds a dash of Christmas to the formula and has all four members of the principal family swap bodies.
American Symphony
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Netflix
Genre: Documentary Run time: 1h 44m Director: Matthew Heineman Cast: Jon Batiste, Suleika Jaouad
This documentary follows two artists in love facing a difficult situation: One, award-winning musician Jon Batiste, is writing a symphony, while his partner, bestselling author Suleika Jaouad, is being treated for cancer.
New on Disney Plus
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Where to watch: Available to stream on Disney Plus
Image: Lucasfilm
Genre: Action-adventure Run time: 2h 34m Director: James Mangold Cast: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen
Harrison Ford’s final outing as Indiana Jones sees the whip-wielding archaeologist adventurer embark on one last intrepid expedition with his estranged goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) as they race across the world in search of an ancient artifact before a Nazi rocket scientist (Mads Mikkelsen) gets his nefarious hands on it.
Mangold is a very fine director capable of helming solid crowd-pleasers (Ford v Ferrari, Walk the Line) and even breathing new life into the dying X-Men franchise with Logan. But Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny looks anonymous. Its visual style is drab in a way that drains the film of any personality. When Indiana Jones makes his way through boobytrapped caves in torchlight in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the contrast between the outside world and this creepy tomb evokes a singular wonder. But virtually every scene in darkness here is scantily lit and hard to see. And like many a modern blockbuster, Dial of Destiny leans on rapid cuts that heighten the pace of Indiana’s brawls with the Nazis, but the choreography is barely discernible.
Genre: Documentary Run time: 1h 41m Director: Steve James Cast: Tom Goodwin, Mickey O’Sullivan
Legendary documentarian Steve James (Hoop Dreams) turns his camera toward the story of Theodore Hall, a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project and gave information to the Soviets about the development of The Bomb. The documentary uses interview footage with Hall and his wife, as well as reenactments and archival footage.
New on Prime Video
Candy Cane Lane
Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video
Image: Prime Video
Genre: Christmas Run time: 1h 57m Director: Reginald Hudlin Cast: Eddie Murphy, Tracee Ellis Ross, Jillian Bell
It’s a very Eddie Murphy Christmas on Prime Video. He’s a man determined to win a Christmas home decoration contest, and he makes a deal with an elf (Jillian Bell) that has unforeseen consequences on his town.
Genre: Thriller Run time: 1h 43m Director: Alice Troughton Cast: Daryl McCormack, Richard E. Grant, Julie Delpy
A young writer (Daryl McCormack) agrees to tutor the son of his idol (Richard E. Grant). But all is not as it seems, as dark secrets threaten to tangle the writer in this family’s web.
Genre: Drama Run time: 1h 37m Director: Savanah Leaf Cast: Tia Nomore, Erika Alexander, Doechii
A pregnant single mother in the Bay Area hopes to reclaim her two children from foster care in this moving drama from first-time feature director Savanah Leaf. It’s one of the best movies of the year.
Genre: Horror Run time: 1h 51m Director: David Gordon Green Cast: Leslie Odom Jr., Ellen Burstyn, Ann Dowd
After a short theatrical run, David Gordon Green’s new entry in the Exorcist franchise arrives at home. It’s a bizarre twist on the franchise, per our review:
Up until this most recent movie, the title The Exorcist carried some weight. While its role as a representation of quality was up for debate, its mark as a sign of ambition was not. Since the original Exorcist, the series has provided some of American cinema’s best and most interesting artists with space to ruminate on faith and evil. Believer lacks the ambition that’s meant to define an Exorcist movie. This is the most profound statement the movie has to offer, seemingly by accident: If the result of moving past God is that everything in the world will feel as empty and pointless as The Exorcist: Believer, we should cling to faith forever.
New on Shudder
It’s a Wonderful Knife
Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder
Image: RLJE Films
Genre: Horror Run time: 1h 27m Director: Tyler MacIntyre Cast: Jane Widdop, Justin Long, Joel McHale
It’s a Wonderful Life meets the slasher genre in this Christmas movie about a girl who wishes she’d never been born, only to discover how many lives that would truly cost.
Genre: Comedy Run time: 1h 35m Director: Adele Lim Cast: Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu
What if someone took the 2017 comedy Girls Trip and combined it with the soul-searching drama of Return to Seoul? You might get something like Joy Ride, the new comedy about a four Chinese American friends who bond through their shared adventure to track down their birth mothers.
Genre: Comedy Run time: 1h 31m Director: Emma Seligman Cast: Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, Marshawn Lynch
Teen girl comedies are back in a big way, and Bottoms is a standout of this year’s crop. A trio of comedic powerhouses star in this movie about high school girls who start a fight club to try and impress the popular girls at school they have crushes on. Chaos ensues.
Bottoms is strongest when it fully indulges that satire. Part of the high school’s hype strategy for the big football game involves plastering the halls with heavily sexualized shirtless posters of the star quarterback. A classroom scene inexplicably involves one of the students standing in a cage. After a particularly climatic moment, a sad montage plays out, set to none other than Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated,” a needle drop so ridiculously 2000s that it transcends time and space.
Genre: Neo-noir crime thriller Run time: 1h 49m Director: Neil Jordan Cast: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange
Liam Neeson (Taken) plays Raymond Chandler’s iconic down-on-his-luck detective in a feature length adaptation of the 2014 Philip Marlowe novel The Black-Eyed Blonde by John Banville. Hired by a glamorous heiress (Diane Kruger) to ascertain the whereabouts of her ex-lover and bring them back, Marlowe quickly finds himself entrenched in an investigation that goes far deeper (and potentially far deadlier) than a lover’s quarrel.
New to rent
The Holdovers
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Focus Features
Genre: Comedy drama Run time: 2h 13m Director: Alexander Payne Cast: Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa
A strong late awards-season contender, The Holdovers has been beloved by every single person I’ve seen watch it. It’s about three people left at a New England boarding school for Christmas in 1970 — an uptight teacher (Paul Giamatti), the school’s head cook (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), and a sulking student (Dominic Sessa).
Freelance
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Relativity Media
Genre: Action comedy Run time: 1h 48m Director: Pierre Morel Cast: John Cena, Alison Brie, Juan Pablo Raba
Taken director Pierre Morel moves to a more comedic mode here, in this movie about a former Special Forces officer (John Cena) and a journalist (Alison Brie) who travel to a fictional country together to interview the nation’s dictator.
Genre: Supernatural horror thriller Run time: 1h 50m Director: Emma Tammi Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio
The massive hit video game series finally gets a horror movie adaptation, and Universal is going with the 2021 release model of simultaneous home and theatrical releases. Will it work for them? Only time will tell, but what it means for you is that you can watch a movie about the infamous, creepy pizza restaurant and its cursed animatronic animals either at home or in theaters.
The movie’s funniest line is unintentional, when Mike earnestly explains, “I’m having a hard time just processing everything that’s happened,” as if he’s working through a tough breakup rather than a series of increasingly bizarre animatronic attacks. He’s right, though. For a movie with such a simple, appealing premise, Five Nights at Freddy’s is a lot to process.
Cops have arrested the unhinged man wanted for brutally beating a 60-year-old woman with her own cane during a violent caught-on-camera clash at a Harlem subway station, police sources said.
Suspect Norton Blake, 43, was grabbed by police early Tuesday after he was spotted near the W. 116th St. 2/3 subway station in Harlem. He is currently being questioned, police said. Charges are pending.
His apprehension comes as the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau investigates the police response to the 3:15 a.m. attack Friday, a police source with knowledge of the case said Friday. Cops called to the station by an MTA token booth clerk grabbed Blake at the scene, but he was not taken into custody.
Cops received conflicting statements as to what sparked the attack between Blake and his victim, an NYPD source with knowledge of the case said.
During the initial investigation, cops decided to have Blake, who was acting erratic, hospitalized without charges, but it wasn’t immediately clear if he was ever taken to one, the source said.
A second source said Blake was released at the scene.
The vicitm, who is homeless, was exiting the southbound 2/3 platform when Blake, swung what appears to be a black umbrella at her, a video of the attack that went viral shows.
The woman fights back and swings her wooden cane at Blake, who hooks the cane with his umbrella, pulling his victim down to the ground.
He then picks up the cane and starts whipping the woman with it as she struggles to get up, according to the three-and-a-half-minute video.
Blake is recorded screaming at the woman as he repeatedly whacks her with the cane.
“Now you learn!” yelled Blake who appeared to be carrying several garbage bags during the assault. “I was trying to be a brother to you! I help you walk up the stairs and you just happen to fall down.”
The entire ordeal was caught on video by an MTA station agent, who reported the incident to police, but didn’t leave the booth to intervene during the duration of the video, even though they are now allowed to step out of the booth and interact with commuters.
Blake, who has nine arrests dating back to 2003, hits the older woman with the cane 54 times as she lay on the ground, the video shows. His pants start to fall down as he continues his merciless assault.
The woman tried her best to deflect the blows with her feet as she tried to stand up, but was hit repeatedly in the head and body, cops said.
When the woman finally grabbed hold of what was left of the cane, Blake took off his belt and started whipping her with it, the video shows.
EMS rushed the woman to Harlem Hospital, where she was treated for minor injuries.
It was not immediately clear if the pair knew each other prior to the attack, according to Kemper. The two started to argue after Blake tried to help his victim with carrying her belongings.
“He might have been helping her carry something up the stairs and something dropped,” Kemper said.
A straphanger nudged a fellow commuter awake to keep his phone from getting stolen aboard a Manhattan Q train — only to get whacked with a cane for his trouble — according to cops.
Police on Monday shared surveillance footage of the wheelchair-bound belligerent they say attacked the good Samaritan on June 17.
Cops are hunting this man wanted for attack the straphanger who tried to keep his phone from getting stolen. (DCPI)
The victim, 22, told police he was aboard a southbound Q train stopped at the Prince St. subway station at around 12:50 a.m. when he spotted his soon-to-be attacker dozing with his phone in his hands.
When the do-gooder nudged him awake, the sleepy straphanger struck him on the head with his cane, causing a nasty gash, according to cops.
Paramedics took the victim to Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital for treatment.
His attacker fled aboard his motorized wheelchair towards parts unknown, according to law enforcement.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS. All calls are confidential.
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