On the surface, there’s nothing terribly objectionable about the idea to make a film centered on the villain of Disney’s classic animated feature One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Cruella De Vil is—despite her […]
Spoon River America: Edgar Lee Masters and the Myth of the American Small Town By Jason Stacy University of Illinois Press It’s ironic that Spoon River Anthology—perhaps the most famous book about […]
Because my maternal grandfather was in the Navy during World War II, he was naturally drawn to the early novels of the late Tom Clancy, whose spy thrillers are often soaked in […]
Four Chicagoans—and one cute and persistent dog—joined together in the Chicago Humanities Festival panel “Youth Leading Change” to discuss grief, collective action, hope, and radical love. The panel began in silence, a […]
In many ways, Kaouther Ben Hania’s Oscar-nominated The Man Who Sold His Skin defies categorization. Set within a very recent timeline during which Syria’s war-torn cities purged millions of refugees into Europe […]
Though the Oscars ceremony celebrating films released in 2020 was pushed back to late April, 2021 due to the pandemic, everything else about the annual Academy Awards is much the same as […]
Author, journalist, and academic Walter Isaacson and WBEZ’s chief content officer Steve Edwards were brought together virtually to speak to the Chicago Humanities Festival about Isaacson’s new biography The Code Breaker: Jennifer […]
Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates brought a technology-infused optimism to the Chicago Humanities Festival panel in which he and actors Dax Shepard and Monica Padman, discussed Gates’ new book, How to […]
Note: Gina Barreca, the editor of Fast Funny Women, and Chicagoan Nicole Hollander will read from the collection of 75 essays of flash nonfiction in a Zoom event at 7 pm on […]
The latest from writer/director John Swab (Run with the Hunted), Body Brokers opens with a statement about the Affordable Care Act made in the law that health insurance companies must cover drug […]
Although it has been a while since I’ve revisited the 1945 David Lean adaptation of Noël Coward’s play Blithe Spirit, I’ve always counted it as one of my favorite early works by […]
Based on the novel of the same name by Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger (directed by Ramin Bahrani, who adapted the script with Adiga) is a dark and cynical send-up of the […]
