2025 is finally over, so it’s time to reveal my Best Narrative Films of the Year list. As always, I was able to squeeze in a couple dozen additional films […]

As I do every year, I separate documentaries into their own Best of the Year list, not because I feel they should be judged any differently than narrative films, but […]

During 2025 our theater team wrote almost 200 articles for our Stages page, which included opera, dance, comedy, magic, children’s theater and the occasional interview and theater book review. That […]

F. Baez – The trace

For over half a decade, fans of Chicago indie institution Twin Peaks have been treated to radio silence rather than radio-friendly garage rock jams. The last we heard from the […]

Founded as a progressive funky little fundraiser orchestra in 1994, Pink Martini is currently touring with a lively holiday concert called All-Stars: A Season of Stars, which stopped at the Auditorium […]

“There are many ways to do the work in this moment,” Women & Children First Co-Owner Lynn Mooney said by way of introducing prolific novelist and poet Margaret Atwood at […]

As Americans, most of us are suckers for stories about underdogs or comebacks or rising up from great adversity to triumph in the end, and certainly, the debut solo film […]

It’s no secret that Hugh Jackman is a, forgive me, jack of all trades. The man can do it all, from super-hero to Broadway star. He’s a man’s man who’s […]

It’s a shame that more American audiences don’t seek out international cinema when it makes its way to US movie theaters; it was always a struggle for films with subtitles […]

Chicago’s Cedille Records has completed another year of releasing enjoyable and, in some cases, astonishing compact discs in 2025. In recent years, vocal music has been the highlight. While vocal […]

When I first met Craig Brewer, it was after a very early screening of his third feature film, 2006’s Black Snake Moan (maybe three months before its official release date). […]