Porchlight’s Dynamic Merrily We Roll Along Puts Energy in Ever-Poignant Sondheim
In 1981, Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince collaborated with writer George Furth for a new musical based on a 1934 play, Merrily We Roll Along. The show was to be […]
Lisa Trifone is Managing Editor and a Film Critic at Third Coast Review. A Rotten Tomatoes approved critic, she is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association. Find more of Lisa's work at SomebodysMiracle.com
Screens Monthly: February
This month, you’d be forgiven if you spent your time at the movies catching up on Oscar nominations. With the 90th Academy Awards slated for March 4, there are dozens […]
Sunday Cinema Explores Jewish Influence on Music Around the World
Over three Sundays in February, the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership presents a film series that traverses the world exploring the connection between Judaism and music. From India […]
Film Review: Courage and Family Matter in Beautifully Animated The Breadwinner
Every year, after the Oscar nominations are announced, the dust settles and a few titles rise to the top as head-scratchers. How the heck did that get nominated for an Academy […]
Film Review: God’s Own Country Succeeds with Strength, Tenderness
About half an hour into God’s Own Country, the feature debut from Francis Lee that premiered at Sundance Film Festival last year and opens at the Gene Siskel Film Center […]
Small Cast Delivers Powerful Punch in Rivendell Theatre’s Cal in Camo
Rivendell Theater Ensemble is staging the midwest premiere of William Francis Hoffman’s Cal in Camo, a stark, sharp story of a woman struggling to bond with her newborn, the long-lost […]
Film Review: Hedy Lamarr Gets Her Due in Revealing Bombshell
Even if you’re not a fan of classic Hollywood cinema, you know the name Hedy Lamarr. According to IMDb, Lamarr has only 35 film credits, but among them are the […]
Theater Wit’s Flamingo & Decatur Takes a Gamble and Doesn’t Quite Break Even
Flamingo & Decatur, the world-premiere play by Todd Taylor now on through February 18 at Theater Wit in the Belmont Theater District, is a bit of a cross-country sort of […]
Siskel Film Center Kicks off 2018 with Slate of Docs in Stranger Than Fiction Series
When Siskel Film Center re-opens tomorrow, they’re doing it with all guns blazing. The arthouse cinema on State Street took a month off at the end of the year to […]
Screens Monthly: January
With the new year comes the coldest temperatures in Chicago since…well, since last winter, probably. In what’s traditionally a month for throw-away movie openings (too late to qualify for an […]
Lyric Opera’s Turandot is a Lavish, Impressive Production of Puccini’s Final Opera
At the pre-show lecture in advance of Monday’s performance of Turandot at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, WFMT’s Carl Grapentine observed that, in the end, Puccini’s final opera—about a cold, unloving […]
Chicago Film Critics Honor Best Films of The Year; Lady Bird Nabs Top Honor
To the National Board of Review, it’s The Post. To the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, it’s Call Me By Your Name. In Boston, Phantom Thread. ‘Tis the season of […]