Review: Deadly Days Is a Strategic Rogue-Lite to Sink Your Teeth Into
There is a certain irony to playing Deadly Days, standing against wave after wave of zombie hordes, only to mindlessly consume hours of your own day with the proverbial, “One […]
Dialogs: Two Screenwriters Talk About Their New Novels—Utopia Avenue and Antkind
It was just serendipity that the Chicago Humanities Festival scheduled two screenwriters with hot new novels two weeks in a row for their livestream show. Well, serendipity and the fact […]
Review: A Pre-Pandemic Fever Dream at the Local Dive Bar in Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
Something weird happens at the beginning of Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, but it’s so subtle, so smoothly incorporated that it’s nearly imperceptible. Following the opening credits (displayed in a throwback fashion […]
Review: Foreboding Melancholy and a Hint of Danger in Reimagined Carmilla
Last October during the Chicago International Film Festival (remember film festivals?), I saw two films within days of each other, and it struck me that they had similar haunting vibes […]
Review: Colonialism, Torture and Oppression in a Thought-Provoking Waiting for the Barbarians
Written by J.M. Coetzee (based on his novel) and directed by Ciro Guerra (Embrace of the Serpent), Waiting for the Barbarians is set in a rundown but peaceful North African […]
Review: Flannery Explores the Life, Work and Controversies of the Southern Gothic Writer
There has rarely been a time in literary history where the writings of Flannery O’Connor were not problematic to some. That being said, there also hasn’t been a time when […]
Review: An Exercise in Endurance, The Painted Bird Chronicles a Brutal Loss of Innocence
Who among us hasn’t wanted to watch the great Udo Kier pluck out another man’s eyeballs with a spoon in a jealous rage, shot in glorious black-and-white 35mm? I’m guessing […]
Chicago’s Physical Theater Festival Goes Virtual July 17-19
Plans for the 7th annual Physical Theater Festival were full steam ahead when the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic in March and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker […]
Book Review: Peace Talks, the Latest Installment of Dresden Files Holds Up, Even for Latecomers
Peace Talks By Jim Butcher Ace In the 16th installment of Chicago-based urban fantasy series The Dresden Files, wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden is tapped to work security for a treaty negotiation […]
Your #StaytheFHome Chicago Curated Weekend: 7/16 and Beyond
Chicago has been letting businesses reopen their doors for quite a while now. So if you’re going to a Drive-in (Like Chicago Drive In, Drive-in at Lincoln Yards Lot, ChiTown […]
The Complete (Chicago) Beer Course: Rauchbier
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 […]
Book Review: A Vibrant Novel about Random Life, Right after the Weather, by Carol Anshaw
Right after the Weather by Carol Anshaw Atria Books, 269 pages, $27 It’s one of those random moments in life. Cate, running late, drives into Neale’s alley, puts on her […]