Your Chicago Curated Weekend: 1/12 and Beyond
It’s a brand new year! Let’s kick off the second full weekend of 2023 with some fun events! While the start of the year is always a little slow, there […]
Review: Gentle and Moving, Broker Creates Something Beautiful from Broken Characters and Risky Subject Matter
The themes and subject matter covered in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest drama, a moving, gentle story of chosen family, desperate connection and generational trauma, are not easily navigated. And in lesser […]
Review: Nicolas Cage Stars in Thinly Written, Slightly Charming Western The Old Way
Admittedly, I’m a sucker for a Western, even if it’s a half-assed attempt at one using all the tropes that the genre has at its disposal. But at some point, […]
Review: Though Hanks’ Best Performance in a Down Year for the Actor, A Man Called Otto Still Feels Phoned In
On paper, this film actually makes sense, even if it might not work out in the end. Actor Tom Hanks and his wife, actor/musician Rita Wilson, were watching the 2015, […]
Review: Robot-Doll Thriller M3GAN is Also Surprisingly Smart and Funny
The only big gripe I have about the new evil-robot thriller M3GAN is that there isn’t a single second of this movie where we don’t know that at some point […]
Review: Bald Sisters at Steppenwolf Is a Story of Cambodian Immigrants Searching for Identity
I suspect that for Cambodians and Cambodian Americans, the racist and genocidal history of the Khmer Rouge is a stain on their history just as slavery, racism and the Civil […]
2022 in Review: A Lit Retrospective
What was 2022 like in the world of Chicago, Illinois, and Midwest letters? I’ve asked the Lit section writers to share their favorite reviews and stories of the past year. […]
Your Chicago Curated Weekend: 1/5 and Beyond
It’s a brand new year! Let’s kick off the first full weekend of 2023 with some fun events! While the start of the year is always a little slow, there […]
Review: Women Talking Offers an Essential, Often Surprising Perspective on Gender and Power in Any Society
Shot by cinematographer Luc Montpellier in muted tones that almost make the film look like it was shot in black-and-white and then tinted to match the mood of each moment, […]
Review: A Poe-like Mystery Swirls at the Center of the Moody, Gripping The Pale Blue Eye
Trying to discern Netflix’s release strategy on any given film is about as productive an exercise as shoveling your sidewalk while it’s still snowing. You’ll never really get anywhere, and […]
2022 in Review: Our Favorite Theater Productions of the Year
This isn’t a “best theater of the year” list. As we’ve noted about past lists, we don’t see everything. Most of our writers are freelancers, business owners or employed with […]
2022 in Review: Best Narrative Films of the Year
It’s the last Friday of the year, so it’s time to reveal my Best of the Year list. As always, I was able to squeeze in about 10-12 additional films […]