As filmmaking challenges go, a movie with the resplendent Julianne Moore at its center, where the camera is as enamored with her as we are, is not exactly a difficult hurdle to […]
Review: Julianne Moore is Perfect Imperfection in Gloria Bell
Lisa Trifone
Siskel Film Center’s EUFF Week 2: Variety of Selections Include Documentaries, Musicals
Week two of Gene Siskel Film Center’s European Union Film Festival sees more documentaries make their way into the schedule of 60 films from 28 countries, as themes from immigration to politics […]
Review: Despite Impressive Visuals, Ruben Brandt, Collector Misses the Mark
The widely acclaimed Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse received praise for a lot of very valid reasons: inclusive representation, excellent writing, a stellar voice cast, and more. Most noteworthy, and likely one of the […]
Review: A Gut-Check For Our Time in Classic An Inspector Calls at Chicago Shakes
Without ever brandishing so much as a pistol or pocketknife, upheaval and conflict are at the center of J.B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls, a play that lays out in no uncertain terms the […]
Review: Lyric’s La Traviata Offers Familiarity Through First-Rate Performances
As operas go, La Traviata is perhaps among the best known. Giuseppe Verdi’s adaptation (with a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave) of a play that itself was based on a novel by Alexandre Dumas […]
Review: An Epic, Ambitious Never Look Away Comes Up Short
For those of us who pay attention to this sort of thing, this year’s contenders for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film are collectively the strongest group of nominees in […]
Review: A Stilted Storyline Saved by Strong Performances in Asghar Farhadi’s Everybody Knows
What’s most striking about writer/director Asghar Farhadi’s (A Separation, The Salesman) new film, Everybody Knows, even with strong performances and its setting in lush Spanish wine country taken into account, is the language […]
Review: Harrowing, Heartfelt Stories in the Short Docs Up for Oscar
If you’re looking for a pick-me-up at the movies this weekend, checking out the Oscar Nominated Documentary Short Films may not be the way to go. A powerful, haunting slate of five […]
Review: A Fully Formed Female Character Study in Broken Nose Theatre’s Girl in the Red Corner
Before I knew anything about Girl in the Red Corner, on stage in an upstairs studio at the Den Theatre in Wicker Park, I thought it might be about communism, a female spy […]
Review: Satire and Terror Make for Quite the Pair in Velvet Buzzsaw
Like many die-hard film fans, I was sad to miss Sundance Film Festival this year. It marks the start of a new year of films we’ll be talking about through to next […]
Review: Some of Chicago’s Best on Stage in Porchlight’s A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
The longer I write theater reviews, the more familiar I find myself becoming—at least via playbills—with the talent overflowing from Chicago’s stages. What’s more, I figured it would only be a matter […]
Review: Discovery, and What Could Have Been, in Court Theatre’s Photograph 51
Once this awful cold snap breaks (because let’s be honest, we’re all hibernating until then), there’s a show on the south side that’s worth seeking out: Photograph 51 is a play by Anna Ziegler […]
