Review: City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago at the MCA
The exhibition City in a Garden: Art and Activism in Chicago is currently on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA). The show is an archive, a meditation, […]
Review: Palomar Ensemble Offers Wide Variety at the CheckOut
Continuing the CheckOut’s Opening Festival, the Palomar Ensemble performed an interesting program before a nearly full audience on Wednesday evening. Founded by Access Contemporary Music, the CheckOut is a new […]
Review: Paul Thomas Anderson Delivers a Great Action Pic in Timely, Insightful Adaptation One Battle After Another
In any other action movie, the emphasis on a revolutionary would be on his/her glory days of radical acts, like blowing up buildings, freeing political prisoners, etc. But in writer/director […]
Review: Nonagenarian June Squibb Is a Leading Lady in Scarlett Johansson’s Directorial Debut Eleanor the Great
June Squibb is having a moment. At 95 years old and with an acting resume that dates back to the mid-1980s, the longtime character actor is finally becoming a leading […]
Dispatch: Two Thrillers from Fantastic Fest Put Groups of Men, Young and Older, to the Test
Beast of War Shockingly enough, there are still a few fresh takes on the killer shark story, and the Australian film Beast of War gives us one of the stronger […]
Review: Black Oak Ensemble Brings A Musical Dimension to Studs Terkel’s Working
The opening festival of the CheckOut continues, featuring a diverse array of Chicago composers, musicians, and those who have documented the inner life of the citizens who live in this […]
Review: Orion Ensemble Offers Music of Mozart, Brahms, and Huydts at Pianoforte Studios
The Orion Ensemble continued their 33rd season in a charming way at Pianoforte Studios in the South Loop on Monday night. Comprised of the quartet formed by clarinetist Katheryne Pirtle, […]
Interview: Chapter and Multiverse: Christopher Hawkins’ I Contain Multitudes
When I last spoke with author Christopher Hawkins, he was writing about monsters and a deadly rain that threatened to tear a house and family apart. More recently, Hawkins wrote […]
Review: How Did the Plays of Shakespeare Survive for Four Centuries? The Book of Will by Promethean Theatre Tells the Story
Lauren Gunderson’s 2017 play, The Book of Will, is a Shakespearean tale that takes place after the Bard dies. It would have been a tragedy if the King’s Men had […]
Fantastic Fest Review: A Struggling Family Faces Wild Animals and Their Own Demons in Coyotes
The latest from director Colin Minihan (Grave Encounters, What Keeps You Alive) is the brisk, sometimes truly scary Coyotes, which finds ways to be funny and gross, as well as […]
Review: The Boromeo Quartet Demonstrate Beethoven’s Immortality at Guarneri Hall
On Thursday and Friday evenings, the Boromeo Quartet brought to Guarneri Hall an innovative performance of the music that, in my humble opinion, is the greatest ever written: the late […]
Review: Burning Passion and Untamed Hearts in New Production of Carmen by Joffrey Ballet
There are not many names that bring such vivid memories as Carmen. Georges Bizet’s scandalous and groundbreaking opera marked the beginning of a movement in opera that emphasized realism. The […]