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The Chicago Reader

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Columns & Opinion, Opinion Jan 31, 2020
Local arts reviews, like Oscar nominations, aren’t covering America

Coverage and awards send a disappointing—but not unexpected—message about whose stories really matter.
- By Coya Paz Brownrigg
- Tags: Opinion, #Oscarssowhite, Oscars, Academy Awards, arts criticism, theater review

Film, Movie Feature Jan 28, 2020
Short films, big messages

The Oscar-Nominated Documentary Short Films program explores the ties that bind amid tragedy and struggle.
- By Nina Li Coomes
- Tags: Movie Feature, Oscars, Academy Awards, short films, St. Louis Superman, Smriti Mundhra, Sami Khan, Walk, Run, Cha-cha, Laura Nix, Learning to Skateboard in A Warzone (If You're a Girl), Carol Dysinger, Elena Andreicheva, In the Absence, Yi Seung-Jun, Gary Byung-Seok Kam, Life Overtakes Me, John Haptas, Kristine Samuelson

Music, In Rotation Jan 22, 2020
Video
Courtney Mora from In Masks on an album to take you apart and put you back together

Plus: Maddie Rehayem from the Cell on the Church of Saint Dolly, Salem Collo-Julin from the Reader on an aberration with staying power from His Name Is Alive, and more
- By Salem Collo-Julin
- Tags: In Rotation, His Name Is Alive, Ft. Lake, Warren Defever, Lovetta Pippen, Everything Takes Forever, Eugene Thacker, Infinite Resignation, Academy Awards, Best Original Song, Theme From Shaft, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Gregorio Allegri, Miserere, Tallis Scholars, FKA Twigs, Magdalene, Thousand Eyes, Courtney Mora, In Masks, Maddie Rehayem, The Cell, Cellophone, Home With You, Underground Radio Directory, URD, Le Mellotron, Operator Radio, Sanyo MCD-Z1 Boombox CD Stereo Cassette & Recorder, boombox, Annie Lennox, Diva, Dolly Parton’s America, podcast, Yaz, You and Me Both, Alison Moyet, Vince Clarke, Korg Volca Beats, Esther Konkara, Tennessee Mountain Home, Jad Abumrad, Tennessee Mountain Trance, Video

Film, Movie Review May 10, 2018
Recommended
Like Juno, Diablo Cody's Tully is a tale of motherhood and waning youth

Charlize Theron stars as a woman rescued from postpartum depression by a new friend.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Movie Review, Tully movie, Jason Reitman, Diablo Cody, Academy Awards, Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper, Saturday Night Live, Bobcat Goldthwait, God Bless America, Young Adult, Ricki and the Flash, Juno, Ellen Page, Charlize Theron, J, Recommended

Blogs, Bleader Mar 9, 2018
Five must-see films about film

Five extraordinary films about film, by five extraordinary filmmakers.
- By Patrick Friel
- Tags: Film, Foreign, History, LGBT, On Video, Academy Awards, Agnès Varda, Oscars, Dorothy Malone, André S. Labarthe, Cinéastes de notre temps Cinéma, de notre temps, Criterion, YouTube, Colin Campbell, Colleen Moore, Little Orphant Annie, Music Box Theatre, Chicago Film Society, Lois Weber, Scandal Mongers, Sensation Seekers, Film Studies Center, Logan Center for the Arts, J.R. Jones, Gene Siskel Film Center, European Union Film Festival, Hitler's Hollywood, Filming "Othello", Orson Welles, Othello, Shakespeare, Micheal MacLiammoir, Iago, Hilton Edwards, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Rock Hudson's Home Movies, Mark Rappaport, The Scenic Route, Eric Farr, Histoire(s) du cinema, Jean-Luc Godard, Gaumont, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Andrei Tarkovsky, Chris Marker, Boris Godunov, The Last Bolshevik, Alexander Medvedkin, Los Angeles Plays Itself, Thom Andersen, Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer, Los Angeles

Blogs, Bleader Mar 5, 2018
The shape of the Shape of Water plagiarism lawsuit

The copyright infringement lawsuit against the Oscar-winning film claims clear access and critical similarities.
- By Deanna Isaacs
- Tags: Arts, Film, News, The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro, Daniel Kraus, Let Me Hear You Whisper, Paul Zindel, lawsuit, copyright infringement, Academy Awards, Marc Toberoff, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Macmillan Publishers, Janet Potter.

Film, Movie Review Jan 24, 2018
Video
Fatih Akin’s thriller In the Fade proves there’s nothing more dangerous than a person who’s lost everything

Diane Kruger gives a devastating performance as a woman whose family dies in a neo-Nazi terror attack.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Movie Review, Fatih Akin, In the Fade, Academy Awards, Numan Acar, Diane Kruger, Robert Bresson, AwardsCircuit.com, Head On Fatih Akin, Berlin film festival, Birol Ünel, Sibel Kekilli, Siir Eloglu, Aysel Iscan, Zwickau terror cell, National Socialist Underground, Der Spiegel, Henning Peker, neo-Nazi terror, suicide, German films, movies, Video

Blogs, Bleader Jan 23, 2018
Academy Awards 2018: The Oscar nominees

Reader reviews of the top films
- By Steve Heisler
- Tags: Arts, Film, Moviegoing, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Get Out, Jordan Peele, Daniel Kaluuya, Lady Bird, Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Greta Gerwig, The Shape of Water, Richard Jenkins, Guillermo del Toro, Sally Hawkins, Timothee Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan, The Post, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, I Tonya, Margot Robbie, Allison Janney, The Florida Project, Willem Dafoe, The Big Sick, Kumail Nanjiani, Darkest Hour, Gary Oldman, Mudbound, Mary J. Blige, Molly's Game, Coco, All the Money in the World, The Disaster Artist, James Franco, Roman J. Israel Esq., Denzel Washington, Stronger, Logan, First They Killed My Father, Beats Per Minute, A Fantastic Woman, Happy End, Foxtrot, The Square, In the Fade, movie reviews, film reviews, film criticism, Academy Awards, The Oscars

Blogs, Bleader Mar 3, 2017
Week in review: The Oscars disaster that was, and wasn't

The political rhetoric was real; some of the symbolism was perhaps less so.
- By Michael Miner
- Tags: Film, Media, News, Academy Awards, Viola Davis, John Kass, Chicago Tribune, Asghar Farhadi, Barry Jenkins, "Moonlight, " Oscar, Robin Roberts. PricewaterhouseCooper, Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, "La La Land, " Meryl Streep, Hugh Laurie, Golden Globes

Blogs, Bleader Feb 27, 2017
Video
‘Gary from Chicago’ was the ‘biggest star inside the 2017 Oscars,’ and other news

Also, CPD top cop Eddie Johnson is frustrated with Springfield for failing to stiffen punishments for repeat gun offenders.
- By Kate Shepherd
- Tags: News, Did You Read __________?, Film, Chicago, Academy Awards, Oscars, Hollywood, movies, Denzel Washington, Nicole Kidman, Jimmy Kimmel, Eddie Johnson, gun violence, criminal justice, Kwame Raoul, Elgie Sims Jr., Illinois General Assembly, Springfield, Chicago Police Department, Donald Trump, Trump International Hotel and Tower, LGBTQ issues, transgender issues, Chicago Public Schools, budget cuts, Chicago Fire, NBC, Video

Film, Movie Review Feb 9, 2017
Oscar-nominated short films arrive in Chicago this week

Reader critics consider the year’s animated, documentary, and live-action nominees.
- Tags: Movie Review, Oscar Nominated Short Films 2017, Alan Barillaro, Piper film, Pixar Animation Studios, Finding Dory, Robert Valley, Pear Cider and Cigarettes, Theodore Ushev, Blind Vaysha, National Film Board of Canada, Georgi Gospodinov, Syrian civil war, 4.1 Miles, Daphne Matziaraki, Marcel Mettelsiefen, Watani: My Homeland, Orlando von Einsiedel, The White Helmets, Khaled Khateeb, Juanjo Giménez Peña, Timecode, Aske Bang, Silent Nights, Timo von Gunten, La Femme et la TGV, Jane Birkin, Ennemis Interieurs, Selim Aazzazi, Kristóf Deák’s, Sing, short films, Academy Awards

Blogs, Bleader Mar 1, 2016
LA Times reporters scrounge passes from their bosses to cover the Oscars

Michael Ferro nabbed passes usually reserved for the paper's entertainment reporters.
- By Michael Miner
- Tags: Film, Media, News, Academy Awards, Michael Ferro, Los Angeles Times, Ken Doctor, Politico, Davan Maharaj, Tribune Publishing

Blogs, Bleader Feb 26, 2016
Watch the Oscars at Logan Theatre, see typographic art at Typeforce, and more things to do in Chicago this weekend

Table Top Shakespeare, the Randolph Street Market, and more happenings from February 26-28.
- By Brianna Wellen
- Tags: Arts, Do This, Typeforce, Co-Prosperity Sphere, To Heed Nature's Call, Living Room Gallery, After Dark, Van Gogh's Bedrooms, Art Institute Chicago, Table Top Shakespeare, Museum of Contemporary Art, Polar Beer Festival, Rock Bottom Brewery, Randolph Street Market, Plumbers Hall, Oscars, Logan Theatre, Academy Awards, Oscar party

Blogs, Bleader Feb 11, 2016
After 40 years, Black History Month’s abolition is overdue

Stop presenting American history as if it were white history with a few black cameos.
- By Kate Schmidt
- Tags: News, The Contrarian, Black History Month, Chris Rock, Oscars, Academy Awards, Civil Rights Act, Civil War, David Blight, Frederick Douglass, American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era, Charlotte Forten, Thomas Picketty, Capital in the 21st Century, Negro History Week, Stacy Swimp, Lorraine Touissant, Orange Is the New Black, Essence, Carter G. Woodson, Gerald Ford, #AmericanHistorySoWhite, #Oscarssowhite

News & Politics, Feature Feb 4, 2015
Losing Vivian Maier

John Maloof and Jeffrey Goldstein turned their caches of negatives by the late street photographer and "North Shore nanny" into full-time jobs. Now the government wants in.
- By Deanna Isaacs
- Tags: Feature, John Maloof, Finding Vivian Maier, Academy Awards, Vivian Maier, Charlie Siskel, Jeffrey Goldstein, Stephen Bulger Gallery, The Vivian Maier Mystery, Chicago History Museum, David Deal, Cook County, David Epstein, Colleen Chinlund, David Deal, Robert Martwick, Patio Theater

Blogs, Bleader Jan 31, 2014
Video
Oscar shorts out the wazoo, and the rest of this week's screenings

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Film, Landmark's Century Centre, Academy Awards, The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2014: Animated, The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2014: Live Cation, The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2014: Documentary, Music Box, Hirokazu Kore-edu, Like Father Like Son, Ben Sachs, Chicago International Film Festival, Fire in the Blood, I Am Breathing, I Frankenstein, Aaron Eckhart, Jobriath A.D., Labor Day, Jason Reitman, Up in the Air, Josh Brolin, Kate Winslet, Wong Kar-wai, As Tears Go By, Days of Being Wild, Gene Siskel Film Center, Terry Gilliam Brazil, Michelangelo Antonioni, L'Avventura, University of Chicago Doc Films, David Lean, Lawrence of Arabia, Northbrook Public Library, Paul Strand, Leo Hurwitz, Native Land, Block Museum of Art, John Cassavetes Shadows, George Cukor, Sylvia Scarlett, Jia Zhang-ke, A Touch of Sin, Crispin Glover, It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine, White Light Cinema, Harun Farocki, University of Chicago Film Studies Center, Has the Film Already Started?, movies, Video

Film, Movie Review Jan 29, 2014
Recommended
Why can't grown-up animations catch a break on Oscar night?

The nominated short films screen this week at Landmark's Century Centre.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Movie Review, The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2014: Animated, Academy Awards, Music Box, Landmark's Century Centre, DreamWorks Animation, The Croods, Universal, Despicable Me 2, Disney, Frozen, Michel Gondry, Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy, Terence Nance, An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, Don Hertzfeldt, Bill Plympton, Simon Pegg, Timothy Spall, Sally Hawkins, Get a Horse!, Mickey Mouse, Room on the Broom, Shuhei Morita's Possessions, Daniel Sousa, Feral, Rhode Island School of Design, Mr. Hublot, Laurent Witz, Stephane Halleux, The Secret of Kells, Persepolis, Howl's Moving Castle, Up, Ratatouille, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, The Lost Thing, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, Recommended

Blogs, Bleader Feb 24, 2013
Reader's Agenda Sun 2/24: Oscar Experience: Chicago, 70mm Film Festival, and The Motherfucker With the Hat

What's on the Reader's Agenda for Sunday, February 24, 2013.
- By Janey Lee
- Tags: Do This, Arts, Academy Awards, Hollywood, Oscar Experience: Chicago, Oscar viewing parties, Gene Siskel Film Center, 70mm Film Festival, Music Box Theatre, Playtime, Jacques Tati, Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master, Steppenwolf Theatre, The Motherfucker With the Hat

Blogs, Bleader Feb 21, 2013
Oscar-nominated documentary shorts: the Inocente project

A review of the short documentary by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Art House, Arts, Film, Visual Art, Academy Awards, Sean Fine, Andrea Nix Fine, Inocente documentary, A Reason to Survive, Redemption documentary, movies

Blogs, Bleader Feb 18, 2013
Video
Oscar-nominated documentary shorts: a close shave in Mondays at Racine

A review of Cynthia Wade's short documentary
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Art House, Film, Academy Awards, Redemption movie, King's Point movie, Open Heart movie, Cynthia Wade, Mondays at Racine, Racine Salon de Beaute & Spa, cancer patients, movies, Video

Blogs, Bleader Feb 13, 2013
Video
Oscar-nominated documentary shorts: Rwandan children go under the knife in Open Heart

A review of the 2012 documentary short
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Film, Academy Awards, Oscar Open Heart, Open Heart movie, Salam Center, Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery, Kief Davidson, Gino Strada, Emmanuel Rusingiza, University Teaching Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda, Omar al-Bashir, International Criminal Court, documentaries, movies, Video

Blogs, Bleader Feb 8, 2013
Oscar-nominated documentary shorts: kvetching past the graveyard in King's Point

Oscar-nominated documentary shorts: King's Point
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Art House, Dim the Lights, We're Old, Film, Academy Awards, Oscar nominated short documentaries 2013, King's Point, Sari Gilman, The Golden Girls, documentaries, aging, movies

Blogs, Bleader Feb 5, 2013
Video
Oscar-nominated documentary shorts: Hard times in NYC in Redemption

Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill's Redemption looks at New York's can and bottle collectors.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Art House, Film, Jon Alpert, Matthew O'Neill, Redemption documentary, Wall Street, Microsoft, Gold Derby, Academy Awards, Oscar race, movies, Video

Blogs, Bleader Jan 18, 2013
Can the torture scenes in Zero Dark Thirty be defended?

About Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar-nominated film
- By Michael Miner
- Tags: Media, Film, Politics, Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow, Argo, torture, David Denby, the New Yorker, Jonathan Kim, Mark Boal, James Stockdale, Academy Awards, Golden Globe awards, Osama bin Laden

Blogs, Bleader Feb 23, 2012
This week's food and drink events

A "meaty" film premiere, a cookbook signing, a wild game dinner, and more
- By Daniel Gerzina
- Tags: Food Chain, Food & Drink, Uncommon Ground Devon, Michael Gebert, The Butcher's Karma, Small Bar Fullerton, New Belgium, Martha Bayne, Soup and Bread Cookbook, Foodease, Harvard Sportsman's Club, Academy Awards, Pete Miller's Seafood and Prime Steak, Fear no Art Chicago, The Dinner Party, JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound, Luna Negro, Underground Food Collective, Tru, The Bedford, Mark Steuer, Quince, Few Spirits, The Purple Pig, Heaven on Seven, The Underground, Y-Me.

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