2024 in Review: Best Narrative Films of the Year
2024 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 about a dozen additional films […]
2024 in Review: Best Documentary Films of the Year
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 […]
Review: Cedille Records Gets Vocal in a Fabulous Way
In 2024 Chicago’s Cedille Records released several CDs featuring vocal music, continuing a trend from 2023. Several include world premier recordings of works by Chicago composers. Others resurrect long-ignored songs […]
Best of 2024: The Third Coast Review Lit Section
The Third Coast Review Lit section has continued to grow in its coverage of the city and region’s ongoing literary scene. Below, several of TCR’s Lit writers share their favorite […]
Essay: Todd Haynes’ Carol Is a Holiday Classic with Midwest Roots
Warning: This article contains spoilers for the film Carol (2015). Carol unfolds like a memory. The vision of 1950s America mutes and blurs the pastel colors we associate with the […]
Review: Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu Is a Dark, Tension-Filled Journey into Violent Obsession
For those keeping score, Dracula was basically the entire reason I got into horror movies specifically and then into film in general. But that Dracula (the 1931 Universal version, starring […]
Review: Timothée Chalamet Is Exceptional in A Complete Unknown About Bob Dylan’s Early Years
The title of the skillfully made Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, is appropriate, because it traces the short road Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) took from traditional folk singer (performing mostly […]
Review: Music Theater Works’ Legally Blonde the Musical Features Standout Vocalists
It’s the top of the second act. Fans of the musical will recognize the familiar bop of “Whipped into Shape” start to play from the stellar orchestra. This is the […]
Review: The Berlin Diaries at Open Space Arts Explores a Search for Family History in Pre-War Berlin
Playwright Andrea Stolowitz’s extended Jewish family lived in Berlin in the 1930s during the rise of the Nazi party; they emigrated to New York City in 1939. Stolowitz’s parents believed […]
Review: Ghosts in the Shadow Box—Manual Cinema’s A Christmas Carol
Has there ever been a more frequently adapted story than Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol? From Reginald Owen and Alastair Sim down to George C. Scott, Albert Finney, Patrick […]
Review: In its Third Installment, Sonic the Hedgehog Finds a Worthy New Villain Voiced by Keanu Reeves
I was dreading this third installment in the Sonic the Hedgehog video game adaptation franchise, so imagine my utter shock and bewilderment when I made it to the end of […]
Review: See a Double-Barreled Wonder in Wrightwood 659’s Current Exhibits
Review by Mitchell Oldham. Social consciousnesss is at the core of Wrightwood 659’s approach to the art it chooses to display. Since its debut in 2018, the private non-commercial gallery has […]