Review: Trap Door’s The Ugly One Is a Brilliant and Delirious Take on the Construct of Beauty
I always get to shows early. I consider that to be a virtue and also very helpful in getting the vibe of a place. My early arrival habit paid off […]
Review: Mega Man Battle & Fighters Brings Two Neo Geo Pocket Color Games to the US for the First Time
I’ve been a bit of a sucker for the Neo Geo Pocket Color games releasing for the Nintendo Switch under SNK’s inititiative to bring those games to the more modern […]
Review: Made of Archival Footage, Riotsville, U.S.A. Harkens to Contemporary Times
This review was originally published in January 2022 for our Sundance Film Festival coverage. Built entirely from archival footage taken from both commercial broadcast television and material shot by the […]
Review: Don’t Worry Darling Has Plenty of Style, But Hardly Any Substance to Back It Up
If you have heard anything lately about Olivia Wilde’s sophomore feature film (after 2019’s coming-of-age comedy Booksmart), chances are it’s the on- and off-set drama surrounding the filmmaker and her […]
Review: In Blonde, a Narrow Script and Chaotic Filmmaking Reduce an American Icon to an Empty Vessel
Blonde, the new film by Andrew Dominik (Killing Them Softly, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), is a torturous 2 hours and 46 minutes long, most […]
Review: The Justice of Bunny King Channels Authenticity, Emotion and Even Anxiety in a Gripping Family Drama
In a work that is both unexpectedly raw and beautifully tender, director Gaysorn Thavat’s debut feature film, The Justice of Bunny King, follows the largely tragic life of its title […]
Review: Allison Janney Goes for the Action in Lou, A Movie With Its Fists (and Heart) in the Right Place
From director Anna Foerster (Underworld: Blood Wars, several episodes of “Westworld” and “Jessica Jones”) and producer J.J. Abrams comes Lou, the strangely complicated but somewhat thrilling movie about Hannah (Jurnee […]
Review: Rollerdrome Lives Up to the Hype
So I heard about Rollerdrome mostly through word-of-mouth after it came freestylin’ in, guns in hand. It boasts a unique combination of gameplay mechanics with a visual style special enough […]
Review: Family Bonds and Female Fortitude Shine in Medieval Coming-of-Age Dramedy Catherine, Called Birdy
A far cry from writer/director Lena Dunham’s other 2022 offering, Sharp Stick, her latest is an adaptation of the wildly popular book Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman, a coming-of-age […]
Review: In Sidney, a Singular Artist and Activist of Our Time Gets His Due
Aside from being a terrific, award-winning actor and a talented director (particularly of comedies), Sidney Poitier was a man in the right place at the right time. Or at least […]
Your Chicago Curated Weekend: 9/22 and Beyond
And that’s a wrap on summer! Some slightly cooler temps than the record highs we’ve been experiencing are coming, so time to layer up and enjoy Chicago in Fall. There […]
Review: Much More Than Sandwiches Are Being Served in Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s at Goodman Theatre
Clyde’s is a truck stop diner somewhere on the highway. We meet and learn the skills and stories of the four prep cooks, all of whom are ex-convicts, trying to […]