American Blues Theater Offers “Classes  for Masses” in Music, Theater and More

American Blues Theater is offering “Classes for the Masses” with small classes taught by ensemble members in various arts and cultural practices. You’ll receive four hours of coaching or consulting […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Lit,

Review: Troublemakers Chronicles the Power of Social Activism in Chicago

Troublemakers: Chicago Freedom Struggles through the Lens of Art Shay By Erik S. Gellman University of Chicago Press In Troublemakers: Chicago Freedom Struggles through the Lens of Art Shay, historian […]

Thomas Wawzenek /

Review: Playing with Visual Illusions in Superliminal

The tagline for puzzle game Superliminal is “Perception is reality.” A more accurate summation would be perspective is reality. The indie from Pillow Castle Games plays on how your perspective […]

Dan Santaromita /

Preview: New Demo For Wacky Switchboard Puzzle Game Cold Calling Out Now

When you want to play some different, something unique, your first choice should always be an indie game; and I’m really racking my brain to think of a game similar […]

James Brod /
We Are Little Zombies

Review: Colorful We Are Little Zombies Finds the Existential Optimism in Despair and Grief

In some other timeline, we’re out enjoying a real Chicago summer, complete with street fairs and beach days and rooftop drinks and yes, summer blockbuster movies. Instead, this summer will […]

Lisa Trifone /
Ai Weiwei Yours Truly

Review: Human Rights on a Grand (and Personal) Scale in Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly

This is a guest post by Chloe Fourte. Director, producer and art curator Cheryl Haines takes on human rights and the far-reaching powers of free expression in her documentary, Ai […]

Guest Author /
The Tobacconist

Review: The Tobacconist Can’t Decide What Kind of Film To Be, Falls Short at Both

As premises go, The Tobacconist has an interesting one: a young man moves to Vienna to apprentice in a tobacco shop, only to become friendly with one of the store’s […]

Lisa Trifone /
Relic

Review: The Women of Relic Drive a Moody, Brooding Thriller

What haunts in Relic, the debut feature film written and directed by Natalie Erika James, is something sinister, but also something essentially unseen and, therefore, all the more terrifying. A horror […]

Lisa Trifone /

Interview: A Summery Delight, Soul Honey Records Debuts The Family Barbecue

One of my favorite musicians of all time, Nile Rodgers, has a quote that couldn’t be more applicable to our worldly situation. What do great artists do when they see […]

Michael Kocourek /
Olympia

Review: Olympia Lets the Actor, Teacher, Grandmother Olympia Dukakis Be Her Creative, Passionate Self

Like most of you, I’m guessing my exposure to the work of the supreme actor Olympia Dukakis began with her Oscar-winning turn in Moonstruck (which came out around the same […]

Steve Prokopy /
Guest Of Honor

Review: A Father-Daughter Relationship on the Mend in Messy, Muddled Guest of Honour

There was a time when writer/director Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica) was one of the most interesting filmmakers out of Canada and a talent whose works were worthy of […]

Steve Prokopy /
The Old Guard

Review: The Old Guard Is a Grown-Up Action Flick with a Ferocious Kick

First published in 2017, the highly popular Image comic series (and later graphic novel) The Old Guard concerns a small group (meaning four) of immortal warriors who live in secret, […]

Steve Prokopy /