Review: O Say Does That Grant Park Orchestra Yet Play
In past years, the Grant Park Music Festival’s Independence Day Salute came a few weeks into its outdoor season. While rich in nostalgia and patriotic sentiment, the concert had become […]
Art on the Street: Get Over to Halsted for Hello, Helios, an Homage to the Sun in Greektown
Chicago is known for its public art and you usually find it in high-traffic areas like Michigan Avenue or on Loop office building plazas. But this summer, we suggest you […]
Review: Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation Parallels the Lives and Work of Two American Literary Icons
Though 13 years apart in age, mid-century American writers Truman Capote and (the elder) Tennessee Williams were longtime contemporaries, often friends and sometimes rivals. Both gay men in the midst […]
Review: I Carry You With Me Charts a Decades-Long Love Story in Dreamy Jewel Tones
Filmmaker Heidi Ewing is best known as one half of Loki Films; with her co-director Rachel Grady, the two have helmed some of the most interesting and human-centered documentaries of […]
Review: A Celebration of Music, Culture and Black Joy in Summer of Soul
Editor’s Note: this review was first posted as part of Third Coast Review’s Sundance Film Festival coverage. Starting my 2021 Sundance Film Festival off exactly how I needed to: with […]
Review: Part 1 of R.L. Stine’s Fear Street Film Adaptations Brings Scares, but Not Much New in the Teen Horror Genre
Based on the Fear Street books by R.L. Stine (although not a direct adaptation of any one of them) and adapted by first-time feature directors Leigh Janiak and Phil Graziadei, […]
Review: The Forever Purge Concludes a Brutal Series on a Relevant, Prescient and Terrifying Note
The fifth and supposedly final Purge movie, The Forever Purge begins not with the annual, 12-hour violent crime spree that is the focal point of this series but with a […]
Review: A Time-Traveling, Alien Invasion Action Flick, The Tomorrow War Is Good for an Evening In with the Sound Up
The Tomorrow War is the latest sci-fi action film in which the time-travel math doesn’t quite add up (which didn’t keep me from enjoying the film, I’m just saying). Chris Pratt […]
Review: Dodge Prodigious Purple Projectiles in Arcade Classic Mushihimesama
There are some games that can be described as, or describe themselves as “bullet hell” but I haven’t played a game that matched that description quite as much as Mushihimesama, […]
The Complete (Chicago) Beer Course: Hefeweizen
When COVID-19 closed taprooms and cancelled festivals, I looked for ways to still engage with Chicago’s craft beer scene. I therefore decided to finally work my way through The Complete Beer […]
Preview: Red, White and Blue Return for the Grant Park Music Festival
The Grant Park Music Festival opens its 2021 season with flag-waving flair at 6:30 tonight, with the first of two presentations of its long-popular Independence Day Salute. The second concert […]
Review: Netflix Animated Feature America: The Motion Picture Pokes Boisterous Fun at America’s Founding
It’s safe to say, I don’t believe your high school history classes taught you the version of the Revolutionary War that is presented in the animated action movie America: The […]