After its initial debut on the coasts, Sundance darling Madeline’s Madeline opens in dozens of locations across the U.S. this weekend, including at Chicago’s own historic Music Box theatre. (You can see a full list of cities, which also includes places like Austin, TX, Denver, CO, and and Atlanta, GA, here.) We’ve…
Earlier this month, the Chicago Police Department and the Norfolk Southern Railroad Police teamed up for a cruel experiment: They parked a truck full of Nike sneakers and Louboutin shoes—expensive, coveted items usually far out of the reach of residents—in an impoverished, majority black area of Chicago, and then…
Greetings, fellow kids! After about 15 minutes of browsing skate lingo glossaries online, we’ve decided to spare ourselves—and you—the indignity of attempting to use said terminology as if we had any idea what we were talking about. Instead, we’ll just let you know that Crystal Moselle, director of the 2015…
Photographer and filmmaker Lauren Greenfield has made a career out of documenting the latter-day Neros whose massive wealth has allowed them to keep fiddling as American society burns all around them. Last week, Generation Wealth, Greenfield’s documentary follow-up to her acclaimed 2012 film The Queen Of Versailles,…
The Zellner brothers’ upcoming comedy/drama/Western hybrid Damsel is out to re-write two narratives: First, as yet another entry into the ongoing de-Twilighting of Robert Pattinson, and second, as a subversive counter-narrative to the Western cliché of the damsel in distress. That’s about all we’ll elaborate on that…
Fans of absurd amounts of gore, gratuitous nudity, nerve-shredding horror, and gonzo action, take heart: Your film festival of choice is here again. The Cinepocalypse film festival has released its 2018 lineup, and there’s a little something for everyone, especially if your brand of something involves mayhem. The A.V.…
Cue The Alan Parsons Project and put on the bad CG journey through downtown Chicago, because here comes a documentary series on the ‘90s Chicago Bulls. The show, The Last Dance, comes from ESPN Films and Netflix, and a press release says it will “chronicle one of the greatest icons and most successful dynasties in…
Today, most movies are projected digitally. But there’s more to seeing a film projected the old-fashioned way, from a 35mm or 70mm print, than a nostalgic return to the days when movies flickered on theater screens. To learn more, The A.V. Club paid a visit to the projection booth of Chicago’s storied Music Box…
Fresh off reunion stints at Riot Fest and FYF Fest, and performing a stellar version of Sonic Youth’s “100%” for A.V. Undercover, Chicago natives Cap’n Jazz sat down with us to rank their five favorite Chicago bars. Unfortunately, they could only come up with three.
Thanks to its proximity to both the Steppenwolf Theatre (which is right down the street) and Second City (which is directly across the street), the Old Town Ale House has long been a favored haunt of Chicago’s theater and comedy communities, a place where visiting celebrities can go and enjoy the relaxing ambience of…
Forget Paramount Network’s ill-advised TV update of Heathers: For a 21st century update on the “murderous high-school ennui” genre, you’re much better off with Thoroughbreds. Starring The Witch’s Anya Taylor-Joy and Bates Motel’s Olivia Cooke as disturbingly emotionless upper-class teenagers who plot to kill one…
Big news, comedy fans: Our comedy festival returns May 30-June 3 at various venues in Chicago under a new name, The Onion Comedy & Arts Festival. Why change the name from the amusing-but-difficult-to-remember-and-Google 26th Annual Comedy Festival? Well one, see above. And two, it’s The Onion’s 30th anniversary in…
Last week, we told you about an upcoming series of midnight movies we’re hosting here in Chicago, including the crazed Italian “when animals attack” film Wild Beasts, one-in-a-generation midnight movie discovery The Astrologer, and the psychedelic Japanese girl-gang flick Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter. Now, in…
Monday afternoon, Kanye and Kim Kardashian West announced the birth of their third child via a surrogate, which we noted here at The A.V. Club with a nod and a quick, “good for them,” before going back to our daily routine of writing about sexual misconduct allegations and fragile men whining about Star Wars. However,…
For a couple of years now, we’ve been teaming up with our friends (and, full disclosure, former video-store colleagues) at The Front Row to give away tickets to midnight screenings of such high-quality cinematic ephemera as House, Boarding House, Streets Of Fire, and even a couple of movies without obvious geographic…
No city is a “character.” As much as creators like to elevate their stories by claiming a location, it’s just a clichéd attempt to make something sound important without earning it. Cities are complicated places, and nowhere is that more obvious than in Showtime’s new drama series, The Chi. As much as recent headlines…
Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest collaboration with Daniel Day-Lewis and (supposedly) the celebrated actor’s final film role, is currently expanding nationwide. The film took the No. 3 spot on The A.V. Club’s list of the best films of 2017, on which our own Ignatiy Vishnevetsky said about the film, “the…
Get ready, Seattle, Chicago, and San Francisco: The A.V. Club is joining forces with HBO to present a series of events with our pal Pete Holmes. This January, we’ll be galavanting around the country with Holmes and Jamie Lee in order to screen the first two episodes of Crashing season two. We’ll be popping up at local…
Margot Robbie and Allison Janney were both nominated for SAG awards for their performances in I,Tonya, Lars And The Real Girl director Craig Gillespie’s new movie dramatizing the rise and dramatic, sudden fall of Tonya Harding, whose hardscrabble background and athletic style scandalized the figure-skating world even…
Adal Rifai and Matt Young, two Chicago-based comedians, co-host the improvised fantasy podcast Hello From The Magic Tavern with Arnie Niekamp. The podcast, in which the trio “interviews” various magical creatures, wizards, and adventurers, features a number of improvisers from Chicago’s comedy scene. In the video…
