Review: Love and Acceptance Star in Kokandy Productions’ Head Over Heels

By Guest Author Katie Priest Kokandy Productions’ Chicago premiere of Head Over Heels opened last weekend to a full house, just six months after the conclusion of its Broadway run. […]

Guest Author /

From Patriotism to Protest: Grant Park Festival’s All-American Weekend

The Grant Park Music Festival continued its tradition of touring the American songbook for thousands attending its annual July 4th concert at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. It […]

Bob Benenson /

Review: An American Literary Treasure Tells Her Story in Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am

Except for a brief period in my pre-teens when I thought it wasn’t “cool,” I’ve always been an avid reader. I was practically raised in the library, and to this […]

Lisa Trifone /
Ophelia

Review: A Woman’s Worldview Takes Center Stage in Ophelia

Sometimes a familiar story needs a fresh twist, even if that story is arguably one of the most famous in all of William Shakespeare’s lexicon, Hamlet. Directed by Claire McCarthy […]

Steve Prokopy /
Midsommar

Review: Foreign Tension, Scary Familiarity in Sun-Drenched Midsommar

Back in January 2018, I attended the world premiere of writer-director Ari Aster’s debut feature Hereditary at the Sundance Film Festival, and I predicted that it was an early candidate […]

Steve Prokopy /
Spider-Man Far From Home

Review: Spider-Man: Far From Home is a Fitting, Fantastic Epilogue

Before we dive into this (and as if you don’t already know), it’s rather imperative that you see Avengers: Endgame before even thinking about stepping foot into a theater for […]

Steve Prokopy /

Review: Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled is a Deftly Handled Update on a Classic

I have to admit that I never got around to Crash Team Racing (CTR) on the PlayStation. I liked kart racing games, but being a Nintendo fan (which I still […]

Antal Bokor /

Review: Brandi Carlile’s Proud Return to Chicago

Brandi Carlile had built a devoted following since she emerged from the Seattle music scene in 2005, with emotion-driven lyrics and a powerful voice that is a little bit folk, […]

Bob Benenson /

Elizabeth Warren at Chicago Town Hall: “We Need Power Elsewhere in the System”

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren brought her stump speech to a packed town hall at the Auditorium Theatre on Friday night, calling out big money in politics, corruption in […]

Aaron Cynic /

The Field Museum’s Fantastic Bug Encounters is a Surreal Journey Through the World of Insects

Summertime in the city means it’s time for big things–music festivals, street fairs, parades, baseball and blockbuster exhibits on Museum Campus. Something big always seems to crop up just when […]

Marielle Bokor /
Wild Rose

Review: Country Music Hopeful Hits All the Right Notes in Wild Rose

In a genre that seems to be quite of the moment, count Wild Rose as the latest entry into films about female musicians searching for themselves, stardom, love…and sometimes all […]

Lisa Trifone /
Yesterday

Review: Beatles-centric Yesterday Is Ever So Slightly Off Key

The hardest reviews to write are the ones for greatly anticipated movies that ultimately fall short of expectations. Such is the case with Yesterday, a film that, based on its […]

Lisa Trifone /