In the life of a Chicago bar, there are three days that are worse than any others: New Year’s Eve, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving as everyone gets tanked up enough to deal with their relatives the next day, and St. Patrick’s Day. Due to Chicago’s considerable Irish population, the city’s long tradition of…
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…
Adal Rifai and Matt Young, two Chicago-based comedians, co-host the improvised fantasy podcastHello 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. We asked Rifai and…
Vic Mensa, one of hip-hop’s fastest-rising stars, has collaborated with artists like Chance The Rapper, Weezer, and The Dream, and recently released his first full-length studio album, The Autobiography. In the video above, the Chicago native gives us his five favorite restaurants in the city.
The A.V. Club caught up with Chicagoland natives The Orwells at this year’s Riot Fest in Chicago. The band hails from the western suburb of Elmhurst, and in the video above, we ask the band to give us their favorite places to hangout in their hometown.
Open Mike Eagle’s new album, Brick Body Kids Still Daydream, is heavily influenced by the legacy of the Robert Taylor Homes, a former public housing project on the South Side of Chicago, which was unceremoniously torn down in 2007. (Today, all that remains at the site is a barren field.) Mike grew up in Chicago and…
While in our hometown Chicago, The Daily Show correspondents stopped by The A.V. Club office for a thoughtful, hilarious Facebook Live discussion about comedy, politics, and the state of the show. In this snippet from that interview, the correspondents discuss the feasibility of a conservative alternative to The Daily…
In this outtake from The A.V. Club Hosted By John Teti, Chicago hip-hop legend Rhymefest talks about his ultra-close race to be a Chicago alderman, which he lost—to a cop!—by only a hundred votes. You can catch the full interview on the Fusion app, and check out new episodes of the show every Thursday night, only on…
Vic Mensa has been riding a wave of success after releasing his first full-length studio album, The Autobiography, earlier this year. The Chicago native has worked with some of the city’s biggest talents, including Kanye West, Chance The Rapper, and producer No I.D. But the young artist has also collaborated with…
