Review: The Color Purple Is As Powerful and Moving As Ever
Every now and then, when I’m feeling particularly down, I’ll queue up this segment from the 2016 Tony Awards: a performance from the 2015 revival of The Color Purple featuring […]
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: The Torture and Triumph of Teenagedom in Wonderfully Inspiring Eighth Grade
When I was in eighth grade (many moons ago), the internet barely existed, let alone social media. The idea of everyone having their own handheld computer that connected them to […]
Review: The King Will Have You Rethinking A Legend, and Perhaps Democracy Itself
Eugene Jarecki is a documentary filmmaker who’s never been afraid to go there, to ask the hard questions and investigate from every angle. His 2005 film Why We Fight, about America’s seemingly insatiable need […]
Review: For Summer Fun at the Movies, Mamma Mia! Sequel is a Sure Thing
Let’s get this out of the way up front: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, like its predecessor (and smash hit, currently sitting at $144M worldwide gross), is silly from start […]
Review: Stacy Keach As Aging Ernest Hemingway in Goodman Theatre’s Pamplona
As the Goodman Theatre opens Pamplona, a one-man show starring Stacy Keach as an aging, rambling Ernest Hemingway, the production’s primary claim to fame may be its rough road to […]
Review: Steppenwolf’s Lightweight The Roommate Aims for Laughs Over Depth
Search the Chicago theater listings far and wide this summer and you will find very few productions with two 50-something women at the center of the production, if any (and […]
Review: Chicago Shakespeare Theater Captures the Magic in Peter Pan–A Musical Adventure
—Last month, I was at Chicago Shakespeare Theater to see Macbeth, a brooding, dark tale produced at the Yard, their newest and most versatile stage. Co-directed by Teller (of Penn […]
Screens Monthly: July 2018
July has just begun and Chicago is already a couple heatwaves deep into this summer. If you’re jonesing for better A/C than your third-floor walk-up can muster, knock out a […]
June at Midwest Independent Film Festival: The Charming, Musical Saints Rest
The first Tuesday of every month is a special night for Chicago film fans. Where a typical film festival presents all its selections in a truncated timeline—a long weekend or […]
Review: Saoirse Ronan Revisits Ian McEwan’s Lush, Repressed World in On Chesil Beach
Saoirse Ronan arrived in Joe Wright’s 2007 adaptation of Ian McEwan’s heartbreaking novel Atonement. Now, she returns a decade later to a McEwan work in On Chesil Beach, adapted for the screen […]
Review: Paul Schrader’s First Reformed Is Combustible, Captivating
I’ve been watching a lot of movies for a long time, and yet I’d be the first to admit I have a lot to learn about the movies. I went […]
Review: Disobedience Thoughtfully Channels the Necessity of Rebellion
On the heels of a well-deserved Oscar win (Best Foreign Language Film for last year’s A Fantastic Woman), Sebastián Lelio returns to theaters this week with Disobedience, a story of love and loss […]