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The Chicago Reader

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Arts & Culture, Theater Review Oct 10, 2018
The dystopian Endeavor Mind could do with a little less certainty

The script's strict logic is its greatest weakness.
- By Justin Hayford
- Tags: Theater Review, Endeavor Mind, The Plagiarists, Den Theatre, Kim Z. Dale, Jen Poulin, science fiction, dystopian

Music, Concert Preview Oct 5, 2017
Recommended
The Long Island emo titans appear to go out on top with Science Fiction
- By Leor Galil
- Tags: Concert Preview, Brand New, Science Fiction, Recommended

Blogs, Bleader Sep 5, 2017
Close Encounters of the Third Kind remains an uncanny mix of globalist optimism and private horror

The 1977 sci-fi spectacle, currently in rerelease, is one of Steven Spielberg's most personal films.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Broken, Film, Paranormal, Steven Spielberg, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Paul Schrader, Richard Dreyfuss, science fiction, extraterrestrials, Francois Truffaut

Blogs, Bleader Apr 5, 2017
Ghost in the Shell is all shell, no ghost

The live-action adaptation of Shirow Masamune's celebrated manga is the year's biggest moviegoing disappointment so far.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Film, Technology, Ghost in the Shell, anime, Shirow Masamune, Mamoru Oshii, Rupert Sanders, Scarlett Johansson, Juliette Binoche, science fiction, cyborg, Blade Runner, eXistenZ

Blogs, Bleader Mar 23, 2017
The multidisciplinary Tesseract explores queer identity through the lens of science fiction

Dance and video—both 3-D and real-time—combine in this MCA show featuring veterans of Merce Cunningham Dance.
- By Matt de la Peña
- Tags: Dance, Arts, Silas Riener, Rashaun Mitchell, Charles Atlas, Tesseract, Merce Cunningham, Merce Cunningham Dance, MCA, Museum of Contemporary Art, queer identity, science fiction, Merce Cunningham: Common Time

Music, Music Feature Aug 31, 2016
The Reader’s comprehensive guide to the 2016 Chicago Jazz Festival

This year’s lineup captures the music’s proliferating diversity, with the Bad Plus, Anat Cohen, Erwin Helfer, Tarbaby, JD Allen, the Liberation Music Orchestra, and much more.
- By Peter Margasak
- Tags: Music Feature, Chicago Jazz Festival, Jazz Festival, Millennium Park, Cultural Center, Von Freeman Pavilion, Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Jazz and Heritage Pavilion, Young Jazz Lions Stage, Orbert Davis, Soul Migration, Great Migration, Carla Bley, Charlie Haden, Liberation Music Orchestra, Bad Plus, Ornette Coleman, Science Fiction, Candido Camero, Charles Rumback, Erwin Helfer, George Fludas, Barry Altschul, 3Dom Factor, John Scofield, Joe Lovano, Michael Zerang, Blue Lights, Anat Cohen, Eric Alexander, Harold Mabern, Cameron Pfiffner, Adolphe’s Ax, Brian Carpenter, Ghost Train Orchestra, Greg Rockingham, JD Allen, Nate Lepine, Tarbaby, Oliver Lake, Benny Golson

Blogs, Bleader Nov 10, 2014
Is Interstellar better when you're stoned?

Christopher Nolan's sci-fi epic has a few things in common with 2001: A Space Odyssey, you say? Let's put it to the test.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Science, The Reefer, Moviegoing, Film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Andrew Sarris, cannabis, Christopher Nolan, Interstellar, Jonathan Rosenbaum, marijuana, Moviegoing, Olaf Stapledon, Ray Bradbury, science fiction, Stanley Kubrick, the Internet

Arts & Culture, Culture Vultures Oct 2, 2013
Culture Vultures: Illustrator Matthew LaFleur recommends the webcomic Space-Mullet

Plus: Chicago Urban Art Society founders on contemporary art mags and Supernatural Chicago's Neil Tobin on Lisa Alvarado's Still, Life
- Tags: Culture Vultures, Matthew LaFleur, Space-Mullet, webcomics, websites, Supernatural Chicago, Neil Tobin, Lisa Alvarado, Chicago Urban Art Society, Lauren Pacheco, Peter Kepha, Kolaj magazin, Elephant magazine, bookstores, magazines, Kroch's and Brentano's, contemporary art, writing, performance, first-person narratives, illustrators, Daniel Warren Johnson, science fiction

Blogs, Bleader Aug 7, 2013
Sebastian Cordero's Europa Report, nearly lost in orbit, touches down in Chicago on Friday

Previewing the talented Ecuadoran director's English-language debut, an old-school sci-fi movie set in space
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Science, Foreign, Opening, Film, Sebastian Cordero, Europa Report, Music Box Theatre, Ratas Ratones Rateros, Cronicas, La Rabia, Pescador, Guillermo del Toro, Ecuador, Claude Chabrol, science fiction, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, Anamaria Marinca Embeth Davidtz, Sharlto Copley, Christian Camargo, Michael Nyqvist

Blogs, Bleader May 22, 2013
Zardoz has spoken, and your penis may never be the same

John Boorman's futuristic camp classic screens tonight at the Portage.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Seriously?, Film, Deliverance, John Boorman, 20th Century-Fox, Sean Connery, James Bond, Charlotte Rampling, science fiction, fantasy, movies

Blogs, Bleader Feb 28, 2013
Reader's Agenda Thu 2/28: The Ensemble Dal Niente, "I Sh!t You Not," and speculative fiction

What's on the Reader's Agenda for Thursday, February 28, 2013
- By Drew Hunt
- Tags: Do This, Arts, spectralism, the Ensemble Dal Niente, Austria, Georg Friedrich Haas, In Vain, Ruth Page Center for the Arts, Township, Michael Sanchez, Monte LaMonte, I Sh!T You Not, Caitlin Bergh, Colt Cabana, Keith Ecker, Open Books, Chicago Writers Conference, An Evening of Speculative Fiction, science fiction, horror, fantasy

Blogs, Bleader Feb 11, 2013
Oscar-nominated live-action shorts: The story is old—and it goes on and on in Henry

Oscar-nominated live-action shorts: Yan England's Henry
- By Drew Hunt
- Tags: Art House, Film, Yan England, Henry, Oscar-nominated live-action short films, Inception, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, science fiction, genre

Blogs, Bleader Jul 31, 2012
Video
Remembering Chris Marker

The French director turned science fiction on its head, creating a haunting film in the process
- By Jordan Larson
- Tags: Foreign, Film, Chris Marker, French film, La Jetée, Sans Soleil, 12 Monkeys, Terry Gilliam, science fiction, Video

Blogs, Bleader Jul 26, 2012
Video
Opening soon: The Watch

Ben Stiller and company go hunting for aliens in this sci-fi comedy
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Film, Neighborhood Watch, Trayvon Martin, Ben Stiller, Tropic Thunder, Tower Heist, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, Richard Ayoade, Costco, Akiva Skaffer, Saturday Night Live, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Rosemarie DeWitt, R. Lee Ermey, Will Forte, science fiction, comedy, movies, Video

Blogs, Bleader Mar 12, 2012
Rompin', stompin', and chompin'

"Godzilla 101" probes the cultural origins of the ass-kicking lizard
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Boom!, This Will Kill You, Film, Hungry Brain, Homeroom Chicago, Japanese American Service Committee, Godzilla 101: Birth of an Atomic Monster, Larry Mayo, DePaul University, science fiction, horror movies, monster movies, atomic monsters, movies

Blogs, Bleader Oct 28, 2011
Now playing: In Time

Andrea Gronvall reviews the futuristic sci-fi thriller from director Andrew Niccols.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Film, In Time, Andrea Gronvall, Andrew Niccol, Gattaca, Lord of War, Justin Timberlake, Olivia Wilde, Vincent Kartheiser, Amanda Seyfried, science fiction, sci-fi movies

Blogs, Bleader Sep 6, 2011
Now Playing: Apollo 18

Ben Sachs reviews the new sci-fi conspiracy thriller.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Film, Apollo 18, Paranormal Activity, Ben Sachs, Craig Baldwin, Mock Up on Mu, Jim Finn, Interkosmos, Damon Packard, SpaceDisco One, Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego, NASA, science fiction, movies

Arts & Culture, Book Review Apr 14, 2011
The Lives He's Leading

At 91, sci-fi master Frederik Pohl comes out with a dystopian new novel, All the Lives He Led
- By Patrick Daily
- Tags: Book Review, Frederik Pohl, All the Lives He Led, science fiction, The Space Merchants, New Maps of Hell, The Way the Future Was

Blogs, Bleader Jul 29, 2010
Video
African Women and Science Fiction

Wanuri Kahiu's post-apocalyptic short "Pumzi" screens and YA novelist Nnedi Okorafor reads and speaks in the African Woman and Science Fiction program Sunday at the DuSable Museum of African American History.
- By Ed M. Koziarski
- Tags: Lit & Lectures, Film, Free Shit, Swag, Books, Wanuri Kahiu, From a Whisper, Nairobi, Kenya, Dusable Museum, African American History, African Jubilee Film Festival, African Women, Science Fiction, Sundance, short film, Public Square, Civic Cinema, portoluz, UIC, Chicago State University, YA, Nnedi Okorafor, Zahrah the Windseeker, Kudzani Moswela, Video

Blogs, Bleader Jun 19, 2009
Afric-a-go-go

The African Diaspora Film Festival opens today at Facets Cinematheque. Plus, this week's Critic's Choices and new reviews.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Film, Film Festivals, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Science fiction, Gene Siskel Film Center, Jia Zhang-ke, Andrea Gronvall, Terence Davies, Of Time and the City, Lola Montes, Max Ophuls, Cliff Doerksen, Errol Flynn, Food, Inc., African Diaspora Film Festival, Glorious Exit, Gospel Hill, Giancarlo Esposito, Jacques Romain, Youssou N'Dour, Return to Goree, Moon movie, Seraphine de Senlis, 24 City, Accidental Army, Czechslovak Legion, Capers movie, Mr. Art Critic, Eating Buccaneeers, Will Ferrell, Land of the Lost, Sandra Bullock, Proposal movie, Tetro, Francis Ford Coppola, Conversation Coppola, Ace in the Hole, Billy Wilder, Adventures of Robin Hood, Exile Ophuls, James Cagney, Yankee Doodle Dandy

Blogs, Bleader Jul 5, 2008
Metropolis: (Finally Almost) The Director's Cut

Could this be the last restoration of Fritz Lang's Metropolis?
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Film, Science fiction, Fritz Lang, Metropolis, Helmut Possman, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation, Patrick McGilligan, Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast, silent cinema, German cinema, expressionist cinema

Blogs, Bleader Sep 21, 2007
Let the nerd wars begin

Deplore everyone else's taste, then vote for your sci-fi faves, thanks to an Aussie-built site.
- By Harold Henderson
- Tags: Books, Science fiction, Lists

Blogs, Bleader Aug 17, 2007
SF transcending itself

If you don't realize that time was stopped in 70 A.D., check out Adam Gopnik's latest review.
- By Harold Henderson
- Tags: Philip K. Dick, Empire, New Yorker, Science fiction, Adam Gopnik

Blogs, Bleader Jan 4, 2007
Science fiction and literature, the grudge match

Is any sci-fi good?
- By Harold Henderson
- Tags: Science fiction, Literature, Kurt Vonnegut, David Marusek

News & Politics, The Reader's Guide Feature Jul 22, 2004
The Bradbury Chronicles

A little-known Chicago writer goes where no man has gone before--into the private life of sci-fi icon Ray Bradbury.
- By Grant Pick
- Tags: The Reader's Guide Feature, TRG Cover Feature, Sam Weller, Ray Bradbury, science fiction, writers

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