Review: An Epic, Ambitious Never Look Away Comes Up Short
For those of us who pay attention to this sort of thing, this year’s contenders for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film are collectively the strongest group of […]
Lisa Trifone is Managing Editor and a Film Critic at Third Coast Review. A Rotten Tomatoes approved critic, she is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association. Find more of Lisa's work at SomebodysMiracle.com
Review: A Stilted Storyline Saved by Strong Performances in Asghar Farhadi’s Everybody Knows
What’s most striking about writer/director Asghar Farhadi’s (A Separation, The Salesman) new film, Everybody Knows, even with strong performances and its setting in lush Spanish wine country taken into account, is […]
Review: Harrowing, Heartfelt Stories in the Short Docs Up for Oscar
If you’re looking for a pick-me-up at the movies this weekend, checking out the Oscar Nominated Documentary Short Films may not be the way to go. A powerful, haunting slate […]
Review: A Fully Formed Female Character Study in Broken Nose Theatre’s Girl in the Red Corner
Before I knew anything about Girl in the Red Corner, on stage in an upstairs studio at the Den Theatre in Wicker Park, I thought it might be about communism, a […]
Review: Satire and Terror Make for Quite the Pair in Velvet Buzzsaw
Like many die-hard film fans, I was sad to miss Sundance Film Festival this year. It marks the start of a new year of films we’ll be talking about through […]
Review: Some of Chicago’s Best on Stage in Porchlight’s A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
The longer I write theater reviews, the more familiar I find myself becoming—at least via playbills—with the talent overflowing from Chicago’s stages. What’s more, I figured it would only be […]
Review: Discovery, and What Could Have Been, in Court Theatre’s Photograph 51
Once this awful cold snap breaks (because let’s be honest, we’re all hibernating until then), there’s a show on the south side that’s worth seeking out: Photograph 51 is a play by […]
Review: A Young Woman Rises to the Occasion in Powerful On Her Shoulders
Following an attack by the Taliban while on her way to school, Malala Yousafzai became a global advocate for peace, equality and education. Her name is known around the world, thanks […]
Review: A Woman of Means and the Women She Loves in I Know My Own Heart
Perhaps best known as the writer behind 2015’s Room, the film that won Brie Larson a Best Actress Oscar, Emma Donoghue has been producing plays, short stories, novels and more […]
Review: Windy City Playhouse Stages Another Must-See with Noises Off
Last year, Windy City Playhouse, the storefront theater company on West Irving Park Road on the north side, debuted a production so impressive they’ve recently launched a new venue in […]
Review: Filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski Follows Oscar Winner With Cold War, Another Work of Art
Cold War is the latest film from Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski, follow-up to his Oscar-winning drama Ida. Like that deeply intimate story of a young nun discovering the truth of […]
Review: El Angel Chronicles a Charming, Disturbing Killer in 1970s Argentina
True crime stories are big business. Since the success of the blockbuster podcast Serial, seemingly every producer, writer and director in any medium is looking for the next big crime […]