Jane Campion hasn’t made a feature film since 2009’s exceptional Bright Star, an ethereal and heartbreaking tale of poet John Keats and the woman he loved in the final years of his life. […]
Is it possible for a film to be both deeply profound and startlingly campy at the same time? Paul Verhoeven appears to be on a quest to find out, as Benedetta, a […]
When it premiered at Chicago’s American Theater Company in 2014, Stephen Karam’s one-act play The Humans was already something special. Positive reviews and a warm audience reception propelled the production on from there […]
Editor’s Note: this is a reprint of a review originally published during the 2021 Sundance Film Festival Boasting a population of more than one billion people, India is a complex and complicated […]
Chicago has long been a proving ground for new stage productions bound for Broadway, and the shows that head east from here go on to varying degrees of success on the Great […]
It’s not entirely clear when (or if) Lin-Manuel Miranda sleeps, but really, that’s his personal business. In his very productive waking hours, Miranda has seemingly not stopped creating since moving on from […]
The Magic Flute, a German opera by Mozart, first premiered in Vienna in 1791; Mozart himself conducted the orchestra that night. In the more than 200 years since, the show has undoubtedly […]
More than one generation grew up with the booming yet warm voice of Julia Child talking them through the steps to roasting a chicken or perfecting a hollandaise on her long-running cooking […]
Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín is one of the most compelling artists currently working in the medium. His career is grounded in social and political commentary, from 2012’s No, about an ad exec navigating […]
If nothing else, Kenneth Branagh is a productive filmmaker. Of the 20-odd films he’s directed (many of which he’s also written) over the last few decades, some of them have even been […]
Marking actor Rebecca Hall’s filmmaking debut (Christine, Vicky Christina Barcelona, The Prestige), Passing is a nuanced rumination on colorism, friendship, marriage and the expectations put on ourselves and projected onto others. Based on the 1929 novel […]
As the Chicago International Film Festival heads into its second (and final) weekend, there’s still plenty worth exploring at cinemas across the city. From high-profile early screenings of films like Spencer and Julia to […]
