When I was younger, and I was first cutting my teeth on shooters, the two most acceptable enemy types were Nazis and zombies. It wasn’t controversial back then to […]

[soliloquy id=”66532″] When Mikaela Straus appeared, a vision in red Jordan 23 jersey, the sold-out Riviera crowd was ecstatic—and out of breath, after several moments of cheer-screaming to friend of […]

Alabaster is a city in northern Alabama (a suburb of Birmingham actually). It’s also a soft stone, a form of gypsum, that’s translucent, easily carved and often used for decorative […]

The Lyric Opera of Chicago first presented Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in 1955 (it made its world premiere in 1904); the version on stage there now (through March 8) is a revival […]

It used to be unusual to have glimpses of important historical events depicted in video games. When history is depicted, it’s more often through grand strategy war games—and you can […]

Mutant Year Zero was a sleeper hit when it arrived at the end of 2018. It was a critical success, and I was eagerly anticipating the next release from developer […]

Bug starts out like a Sam Shepard play. Two lost souls in a seedy Oklahoma motel room. Fools for love. Agnes (Carrie Coon) is a waitress who’s dreading her ex-husband’s […]

Later this month, a new film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma will open in cinemas, starring Anya Taylor-Joy (Thoroughbreds, “Peaky Blinders”) as the titular matchmaker with questionable, if endearing, motives. […]

This is a film that wants so desperately for us to believe it’s edgy and twisted that it forgets to actually be edgy and twisted. This is not to say […]

Broadway in Chicago is showcasing the 25th anniversary show of Riverdance at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. Riverdance opened its anniversary production with an emotional montage of the show’s worldwide tours and […]

At last weekend’s Sox Fest, Goose Island announced a collaboration beer, Sox Golden Ale, for the upcoming 2020 baseball season. The brewery promises an “easy-drinking, refreshing, golden ale” with “balanced […]

Though it grapples with a distinctly American scandal—that of the #MeToo movement in the movie industry—Kitty Green’s The Assistant comes off as surprisingly European in its observational, detail-oriented approach. As […]