Switch to the mobile version of this page.

- Username
- View Profile
- Edit Profile
- Log Out
- Log in
- Create Account

The Chicago Reader

Articles

Loading...

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Mar 31, 2021
Recommended
Into the Mist takes you back in time to 1927

A virtual speakeasy has echoes of the past and resonances for today.
- By Kerry Reid
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Into the Mist, Studio 5, Steve Rashid, Béa Rashid, Daniel Rashid, Robert Rashid, Jay Lee, Ching Ling Foo, Bret Harte, Chicago Cellar Boys, Roya Naldi, Larry Schanker, Bill Bryson, Buster Keaton, Mia Weinberger, Reilly Anspaugh, Mardra Thomas, Reggie Thomas, Kim Davis, Dana, Recommended

Film, Movie Tuesday Aug 27, 2019
Movie Tuesday: Happy 90th anniversary, Music Box Theatre

Five films that put theaters at the center of the action.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Movie Tuesday, Music Box Theatre, Music Box Films, Pawel Pawlikowski, Terence Davies, Jacques Nolot, Buster Keaton, Giuseppe Tornatore, Joe Dante, Tsai Ming-liang, Brillante Mendoza, Music Box

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Dec 12, 2018
Recommended
A lot goes right in The Play That Goes Wrong

But it's the set that steals the show.
- By Jack Helbig
- Tags: Theater Review, The Play That Goes Wrong, Broadway in Chicago, Oriental Theatre, Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields, Mischief Theatre, Buster Keaton, Recommended

Blogs, Bleader Oct 18, 2018
Peter Bogdanovich explains why Buster Keaton still matters

The director discusses his new documentary The Great Buster showing this weekend at the Chicago International Film Festival.
- By Andrea Gronvall
- Tags: Film, Things I Love, Comedy, Chicago International Film Festival, CIFF, Peter Bogdanovich, Buster Keaton, The Great Buster, The Other Side of the Wind, Orson Welles, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead, silent movies, movie comedy, Cohen Media Group

Film, Movie Feature Oct 9, 2018
The Chicago International Film Festival returns, this time with more experiments and work by female directors

It lacks some of the buzzier movies from the international festival circuit, but there’s still plenty worth seeing. Our critics weigh in on 24 offerings.
- Tags: Movie Feature, Chicago International Film Festival 2018, CIFF 2018, Melika Bass, Deborah Stratman, At War, Stéphane Brizé, Becoming Astrid, Astrid Lindgren, Pernille Fischer Christensen, Alba August, Maria Bonnevie, Henrik Rafaelsen, Before the Frost, Jesper Christensen, Clara Rosager, Magnus Krepper, Michael Noer, Jesper Fink, Ben is Back, Lucas Hedges, Julia Roberts, Peter Hedges, Courtney B. Vance, Kathryn Newton, City That Sold America, Core of the World, Natalya Meshchaninova, Diane, Kent Jones, Mary Kay Place, Dreamaway, Marouan Omara, Johanna Domke, Echo, Yoram Toledano, Yaël Abecassis, Amikam Kovner, Assaf Snir, Etruscan Smile, José Luis Sampedro, Brian Cox, Mihal Brezis, Oded Binnun, Facing the Wind, Meritxell Colell Aparicio, Mónica García, Concha Canal, Friedkin Uncut, William Friedkin, Francesco Zippel, Good Girls, Alejandra Márquez Abella, Claudio Ramirez Castelli, Annai Ramos, Great Buster, Buster Keaton, Peter Bogdanovich, Hard Paint, Filipe Matzembacher, Marcio Reolon, In the Aisles, Franz Rakowski, Thomas Stuber, Non-Fiction, Olivier Assayas, Guillaume Canet, Juliette Binoche, Vincent Macaigne, Christa Théret, Rafiki, Wanuri Kahiu, Retablo, Junior Bejar, Amiel Cayo, Alvaro Delgado Aparicio, Sofia, Meryem Benm’Barek, Too Late to Die Young, Dominga Sotomayor, Transit, Roman Bondarchuk, Wolkenbruch’s Wondrous Journey Into the Arms of a Shiksa, Joel Basman, Thomas Meyer, Michael Steiner

Blogs, Bleader Apr 27, 2018
Video
A Scene at the Sea is an early masterpiece from Takeshi Kitano

The Chicago Film Society presents a rare 35-millimeter screening of the Japanese director's 1991 drama, a simple, tender story of love, friendship, and surfing.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Film, Foreign, Takeshi Kitano, A Scene at the Sea, Music Box Theatre, Chicago Film Society, Violent Cop, Boiling Point, Sonatine, Fireworks, Kikujiro, Achilles and the Tortoise, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, shomin-geki, Buster Keaton, Oasis, Lee Chang-dong, Video

Film, Fall Preview Sep 2, 2016
Renée Baker on the challenges of scoring silent race films

This fall the musician will provide live accompaniment to two mid-1920s pictures.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Fall Preview, University of Chicago Film Studies Center, Alloy Orchestra, Varieté, Emil Jannings, Silent Film Society of Chicago, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Jay Warren, Renée Baker, Chicago Modern Orchestra Project, Oscar Micheaux, Body and Soul, The Flying Ace, Chicago Sinfonietta, Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Mantra Blue Free Orchestra, Don DiNicola, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Paul Robeson, Norman Studios, Richard E. Norman, Indiana University, Within Our Gates, The Symbol of the Unconquered, Ku Klux Klan, D.W. Griffith, silent cinema, silent film accompaniment

Blogs, Bleader Oct 9, 2015
Video
Life on Mars, plus more new reviews and notable screenings

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Film, Opening, Ridley Scott, The Martian, Matt Damon, Yakuza Apocalypse, Takashi Miike, Big Stone Gap, Ashley Judd, Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead, National Lampoon, The Fool movie, Freeheld, Julianne Moore, He Named Me Malala, Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Peace Prize, Labyrinth of Lies, Pan movie, Hugh Jackman, Rooney Mara, Spring Night Summer Night, Leo McCarey, The Awful Truth, Buster Keaton, Battling Butler, Dennis Scott, George Roy Hill, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Anthony Mann, Men in War, Luis Bunuel, Los Olvidados, Fred Camper, Eric Rohmer, Pauline at the Beach, Archie Mayo, The Petrified Forest, Gordon Parks, Shaft, Ingmar Bergman, Smiles of a Summer Night, Becoming Ourselves: How Immigrant Women Transformed Their World, Global Girls Film Fest, Heart Like a Hand Grenade, Green Day, American Idiot, Agnes Varda, The Gleaners and I, Cleo From 5 to 7, The Beaches of Agnes, Video

Blogs, Bleader Jul 24, 2015
Video
Agnes Le Roux is gone, but the teen sex comedy is back—plus more new reviews and notable screenings

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Opening, Film, Andre Techine, In the Name of My Daughter, Agnes Le Roux, Alleluia movie, Lonely Hearts Killers, Ant-Man, Court movie, (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies, Irrational Man, Woody Allen, Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Pixels, Southpaw, Jake Gyllenhaal, Spencer Parsons: The Dream Is Always the Same, Unexpected movie, Kris Swanberg, Orson Welles, Chimes at Midnight, Harold Ramis, Ghostbusters, Guy Hamilton, Goldfinger, Hiroshima Mon Amour, Orson Welles, Mr. Arkadin, Buster Keaton, The Navigator, Silent Summer Film Festival, Stanley Kubrick, Spartacus, Terror in the Aisles, Christopher Lee, Horror of Dracula, The Wicker Man, Raw Meat, Chicago Onscreen, Change the Reel!, Video

Film, Movie Review Jun 17, 2015
Recommended
Money changes everything in Andrew Bujalski's Results

But a bigger budget doesn't diminish the director's talent.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Movie Review, Andrew Bujalski, Results, Buster Keaton, The Navigator, If I Had a Million, W.C. Fields, Alison Skipworth, Born Yesterday, Welcome to Me, Kristen Wiig, Funny Ha Ha, Mutual Appreciation, Computer Chess, Kevin Corrigan, Cobie Smulders, Guy Pearce, Giovanni Ribisi, Recommended

Film, Movie Sidebar Apr 15, 2015
Our guide to the 2015 Chicago International Movies & Music Festival

New documentaries focus on Devo, Morphine, the Mekons, the Residents, and more
- Tags: Movie Sidebar, Chicago International Movies & Music Festival, Sara Ranganathan, Dominic Johnson, New Millennium Orchestra, Buster Keaton, Seven Chances, Marc Ribot, Josef von Sternberg, Docks of New York, Chandeliers, Feherlofia, Sones de Mexico, Sergei Eisenstein, Que Viva Mexico!, Sierra Leone's Refugee All-Stars, DJ Sneak, Mark Farina, Derrick Carter, Hank Shocklee, 1st Ward, Metro, Yakuza, the Gunshy, Local H, Clearance, John Primer, Liam Hayes, Ne-Hi, Spike Lee, Absolute Beginners, Basically, Johnny Moped, Danny Says, Don't Think I've Forgotten, Dave Davies: Kinkdom Come, Ray Davies: Imaginary Man, East Nashville Tonight, 808: The Movie, Hardcore DEVO Live!, Jaco, Morphine: Journey of Dreams, Never Release My Fist, Revenge of the Mekons, Shake the Dust, Teenage Ghost Punk, Theory of Obscurity: A Film About

Blogs, Bleader Apr 10, 2015
Video
Our reviews of the Chicago Latino Film Festival and the rest of what's screening this week

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Opening, Film, Chicago Latino Film Festival, River East 21, Beloved Sisters, Friedrich Schiller, Cheatin', Bill Plympton, Bosnia in Our Hearts, Chicago Festival of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film, Desert Dancer, Footloose, Marfa Girl, Larry, Peter Davis, Hearts and Minds, University of Chicago Social Sciences Research Building, Buster Keaton, Sherlock Jr., Music Box, Drew Hunt, Stanley Kubrick, Spartacus, University of Chicago Doc Films, Michael Powell, Tales of Hoffman, Orson Welles, Touch of Evil, Frederick Wiseman Welfare, Dennis Clancy, Chasing Red, Showplace ICON, Tommy Heffron, Roots & Culture, Brock Riebe, Nightingale Cinema Chicago, Marisa Olson, film festivals, movies, Video

Blogs, Bleader Feb 15, 2015
Buster Keaton's five best films

Highlights from the filmography of Buster Keaton
- By Drew Hunt
- Tags: Weekly Top Five, Film, Silent Film Society of Chicago, Buster Keaton, the Cameraman, Jay Warren, St. Cantius Catholic Church, College, Seven Chances, Steamboat Bill Jr., Sherlock Jr., the General

Blogs, Bleader Feb 13, 2015
Video
Spike Lee drinks Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, plus more new reviews and notable screenings

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Opening, Film, Spike Lee, Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, Bill Gunn, Ganja & Hess, Manuscripts Don't Burn, Mohammad Rasoulof, Iron Island, Fifty Shades of Grey, Love Hunter, Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine, Seventh Son, Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Timbuktu, Abderrahmane Sissako, Bamako, Today movie, White Rabbit, Young Bodies Heal Quickly, Jean-Luc Godard, Alphaville, Two or Three Things I Know About Her, Gene Siskel Film Center, Buster Keaton, The Cameraman, Saint John Cantius Church, Jay Warren, Michael Curtiz, Casablanca, Music Box, Don Siegel, Escape From Alcatraz, University of Chicago Doc Films, Agnes Varda, The Gleaners and I, Alain Resnais, Hiroshima Mon Amour, Alfred Hitchcock, North by Northwest, Rob Reiner, The Princess Bride, Music Box, Alex Cox, Sid and Nancy, Greg Kot, Jim DeRogatis, Sound Opinions, Marcel Carne, The Adultress, Emile Zola, Therese Raquin, Facets Cinematheque, Chicago Opera Theater, Jennifer Reeder, Museum of Contemporary Art, Remembering Harold Washington, White Scripts and Black Supermen, Chatham 14, Black History Month, movies, Video

Blogs, Bleader Feb 18, 2014
Video
An interview with silent-film accompanist David Drazin (part one)

A career musician explains what led him to accompany silent films.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Things I Love, Film, Music, David Drazin, silent films, Buster Keaton, Blackhawk Films, The Mark of Zorro, piano accompanist, Cinevent, Gene Siskel Film Center, School of the Art Institute, Aelita: Queen of Mars, Metropolis, Jim Dempsey, Video

Blogs, Bleader Dec 13, 2013
The Navigator, Funny Face, and other Reader-recommended movies to watch online this week

Some recommended movies from Old Movies to Watch Now, in which Reader film capsules guide what you should watch online.
- By Reader staff
- Tags: Old Movies to Watch Now, Film, The Navigator, Buster Keaton, Dave Kehr, F for Fake, Orson Welles, Funny Face, Stanley Donen, One Two Three, Billy Wilder, Being John Malkovich, Spike Jonze, Her, The Gold Rush, And Everything Is Going Fine, Steven Soderberg, Spaulding Gra

Blogs, Bleader Oct 12, 2013
Reader's Agenda Sat 10/12: Radiolab: Apocalyptical, The General, and 12 Weeks of Quimbus

What's on the Reader's Agenda for Saturday, October 12
- By Jillian Sandler
- Tags: Do This, Arts, Chicago Theatre, Robert Krulwich, Jad Abumrad, Radiolab, Kurt Braunohler, Buster Keaton, The General, Music Box, Silent Saturdays, 12 Weeks of Quimbus, Quimby's Bookstore, Caseen Gaines, A Christmas Story: Behind the Scenes of a Holiday Classic, Ian Petrella

Blogs, Bleader Oct 11, 2013
Audio Video
The Chicago International Film Festival, and the rest of this week's movies

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Opening, Film, James Gray, Two Lovers, We Own the Night, Chicago Theater, Joaquin Phoenix, The Immigrant, Dario Argento, John McNaughton, Tsai Ming-liang, The Massacre, Patio Theater Chicago, A.C.O.D., Adam Scott, Captain Phillips, Tom Hanks, Ghost Anthology: A History of Argentine Experimental Film, The Summit, We Are What We Are, When Comedy Went to School, Tim Burton, Beetlejuice, Logan Theater Chicago, Arthur Penn, Bonnie and Clyde, Gene Siskel Film Center, Jean Renoir, Boudu Saved From Drowning, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Dust in the Wind, Buster Keaton, The General, D.W. Griffith Intolerance, Music Box Chicago, Olivier Assayas, Irma Vep, Wes Craven, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Darren Aronofsky Pi, The Royal Tenenbaums, John Malman, John Ford: Poet in the Desert, John Ford Film Festival, film festivals, movies, Audio, Video

Film, Movie Review Sep 18, 2013
Video
A fish-out-of-water comedy that’s just Godunov

The Family features Robert De Niro parodying not just his past films but Americans abroad.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Movie Review, witness protection program, My Blue Heaven, Sister Act, The Family, Luc Besson, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dianna Agron, John D'Leo, Boris Godunov, Looney Tunes, mafia, The Heat, Identity Thief, We're the Millers, Grown Ups 2, The Hangover Part III, The Lone Range, R.I.P.D., Despicable Me 2, Monsters University, The Croods, Buster Keaton, Mack Sennet, Frank Tashlin, Jerry Lewis, Joe Dante, Sam Raimi, the Coen brothers, Tommy Lee Jones, No Country for Old Men, Bruno Dumont, Video

Blogs, Bleader Aug 29, 2013
Wrestling With My Father: The best four and a half minutes you'll spend at the movies this weekend

A review of a short experimental video screening as part of the Nightingale's Charles Fairbanks program on Saturday night
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: On Video, Midwestern Defensiveness, Film, Comedy, Charles Fairbanks, The Nightingale, experimental video, experimental film, film comedy, We're the Millers, The World's End, Andy Warhol, Lewis Klahr, Joseph Cornell, Owen Land, Pioneers, Wrestling With My Father, Buster Keaton, silent comedy, high school wrestling, Robert Nelson

Blogs, Bleader Aug 21, 2013
All-American bullshitting with writer-director David Gordon Green (part two)

The director of Prince Avalanche expounds on his creative process, what makes him laugh, and the influence of Super Mario Brothers on his new film.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Film, Comedy, David Gordon Green, interview, The Sitter, Prince Avalanche, Jonah Hill, Undertow, Snow Angels, All the Real Girls, Your Highness, Morse code, Howard Hawks, Paul Rudd, Emile Hirsch, Craig Zobel, Judd Apatow, Super Mario Brothers, Buster Keaton

Best of Chicago, Arts & Culture Jun 20, 2013
Critics' Picks
Best Film Retrospective

"Pierre Etaix: The Lost Laugh"
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Arts & Culture, Best of Chicago 2013, Jacqueline Stewart, Northwestern University, L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema, Gene Siskel Film Center, Pierre Etaix, Jacques Tati, The Suitor, Yoyo, Le Grand Amour, Buster Keaton, Jerry Lewis, Criterion Collection, Critics' Picks

Blogs, Bleader May 9, 2013
See Yasujiro Ozu's final silent film this Saturday

An Inn in Tokyo (1935) screens as part of the Music Box Theatre's Second Saturday Silent Cinema series
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Do This, Foreign, Film, Music Box Theatre, Second Saturday Silent Cinema, Yasujiro Ozu, An Inn in Tokyo, Passing Fancy, Kihachi, Sakamoto Takeshi, silent cinema, silent comedy, Japanese cinema, Donald Richie, A Hundred Years of Japanese Film, A Story of Floating Weeds, I Was Born But..., benshi, Roger Ebert, Manny Farber, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton

Blogs, Bleader Mar 1, 2013
Video
Chan-wook Park, Abbas Kiarostami, and the rest of this week's movies

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Opening, Film, European Union Film Festival, Like Someone in Love, Abbas Kiarostami, Pavilion movie, Tim Sutton, Stoker movie, Chan-wook Park, Bless Me Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya, Jack the Giant Slayer, Bryan Singer, X-Men, Phantom Ed Harris, A Place at the Table, Snitch movie, Dwayne Johnson, Zhang Yimou Hero, (University of Chicago Doc Films, Don Siegel, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Logan Theater Chicago, Alain Resnais, Last Year at Marienbad, Buster Keaton, Steamboat Bill Jr., Chicago Irish Film Festival, River East 21, Society for Arts, Chicago Underground Film Festival, film festivals, movies, Video

Blogs, Bleader Nov 29, 2012
The last word (in movies, anyway) on consumerism

George Romero's Dawn of the Dead remains the best movie on the subject
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Consumerism Week, Film, Consumerism Week, Variations on a Theme, George Romero, Dawn of the Dead, zombies, apocalypse, planned obsolescence, The Navigator, Buster Keaton

1 2 next »

Issue Cover

Browse by Issue

Other Searches