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Review: Grant Park Orchestra Gives an Inspired Performance of Ravel, Rachmaninoff, and Hindemith
Under another beautiful evening and sunset, the Grant Park Orchestra continued its excellent season at Jay Pritzker Pavilion on Wednesday evening. Conductor Eric Jacobsen called the program “inspired” because the composers Maurice Ravel, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Paul Hindemith based their works on the inspiration of other composers. Headlining...
The Best Films of 2024…So Far
In a year where it feels like the movies are finally coming back (post-pandemic, post-strike), 2024 is only half over and we've already seen some of the best films of the year. Included here is a list of what's been my favorites, as well as a few I've already seen that are films to look forward to later this year.
Review: Haley Bennett Stars as Widow Cliquot in a Biopic of an Unsung Hero of Everyone’s Favorite Champagne
Though her IMDb filmography dates back to 2007, Haley Bennett first made a name for herself in 2019's psychological thriller Swallow, Carlo Mirabella-Davis' unsettling and striking drama about a woman pulled toward ever-more-destructive behavior. Since then, Bennett has appeared in several higher-profile films that, through no fault of her own, never seemed to catch on with audiences (poor thing is apparently in the doomed Magazine Dreams, which may never see the light of day...). And yet, I find myself drawn to projects she chooses and always eager to see who she can transform into for her latest roles. In Widow Cliquot, she is Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin-Cliquot, widow of François (Tom Sturridge in flashbacks) and heir to the family's now-storied champagne vines and cellars.
Review: A Creature Feature Where Mother Nature is the Monster, Twisters Leans into Nostalgia With a Charismatic Cast
The only real through-line between 1996's summer blockbuster Twister and this week's "stand alone sequel" (whatever that is), cleverly titled Twisters, is that in a dramatic prologue that sets up our main character's redemption journey, we see that she and her team are working with "Dorothy," the bucket of flying sensors that storm trackers sent into the middle of a tornado in Jan de Bont's original adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel.
Who We’re Excited to See at Pitchfork Music Festival 2024!
It's one of our favorite weekends of the year as the prime summer treat that is Pitchfork Music Festival makes its way back to Union Park. This is your chance to check out a nice highlight of local acts, diverse sounds and just a well curated lineup of 42 bands/artist/performers. Now that number may sound daunting, that's why we're here with who we're interested in seeing this Pitchfork Music Festival weekend!
Review: Not Just Pretty Flowers—Georgia O’Keeffe: My New Yorks at the Art Institute Through September 22
Some think that painter Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) was a sleepy Southwesterner who primarily depicted labial flora. But the Art Institute’s exhibit chronicles a more complete origin story with the energetic exhibit My New Yorks, a title she gave to her architectural depictions of the city she lived in during the 1920s and beyond.
TCR Mixtape No. 44: Pitchfork Music Festival 2024
The rain and thunder came early this year and it's looking like clear skies (knock on wood) for Pitchfork Music Festival! Once again the Union Park celebration of indie music is back for another year of fantastic artists. This year's lineup has excited with the likes of Black Pumas, Alanis Morissette, and Jamie XX headlining!
Review: Romeo and Juliet Simmers With Young Love and Tragedy in Midsommer Flight’s Theater in the Park
Is there anything as lovely as theater in the park on a warm summer evening? That’s the concept behind Midsommer Flight’s annual summer series of Shakespeare in the park. This summer, they are performing Romeo and Juliet in six city parks on the north and south sides. We spent Friday evening in Lincoln Park to see Romeo and Juliet, skillfully directed by Beth Wolf. Ebby Offord and Faiz Siddique play the lovers, who meet cute, fall in love at first sight, and decide to marry immediately to avoid the animosity of their warring families, the Capulets and the Montagues.
Review: Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus Offers Stephenson, Beethoven, and a Beautiful Requiem by Maurice Duruflé
On yet another lovely evening, the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus gave an equally lovely performance on Friday at Jay Pritzker Pavilion. Leading the orchestra and chorus was Giancarlo Guerrero in a program that started with a world premiere of You Have Reached the City Limit by Chicago composer James Stephenson. It ended with the beautiful Requiem by 20th century French composer Maurice Duruflé.
Review: Sun-Drenched French Family Drama Last Summer is as Sexy as it is Complicated
Writer/director Catherine Breillat returns to cinemas this week with her first film in a decade, and what a return it is. Last Summer is so quintessentially French, so perfectly seductive, both literally and figuratively, that it almost makes such a long wait worth it. An intimate, surprisingly fierce family drama about an older woman who has an affair with her stepson, the film is an adaptation of 2019's Danish film Queen of Hearts. That simple logline might be enough to turn off many a prude American film-goer, but it would be their loss. Starring Léa Drucker as Anne, a successful children's advocate raising two adopted school-age girls with her husband, Pierre (the great Olivier Rabourdin), Last Summer is not an endorsement of the depicted behavior at all; it's also not exactly an indictment, though, and living in that in-between, where we're forced to confront our own taboos and biases, is something Breillat revels in.
Review: Guy Pearce Stars as a Historical Figure Inserted Into Indigenous Affairs in Smart, Beautifully-Rendered The Convert
New Zealand-born director Lee Tamahori has a proven track record for character-driven action films (The Edge, Once Were Warriors)—he even made a Bond movie (Die Another Day). With The Convert, he returns to his homeland to make this 19th-century historical piece about Thomas Munro (Guy Pearce), a British preacher who arrives in the island nation in 1830 only to find himself in the middle of a bloody tribal dispute between two Māori tribes that has been going on for decades. The ruling British government doesn’t necessarily want to see peace between the tribes because war keeps things unstable and makes it easier for them to stay in control.
Review: Memories, Missed Connections and What Could Have Been in Touch, a Moving, Emotional Story of Searching
Why anyone would release an awards-worthy drama like writer/director Baltasar Kormákur’s Touch in the heart of the summer is a mystery to me, but don’t let this deeply moving film slip between the cracks of the blockbusters surrounding it. Kormákur is a Icelandic-born filmmaker making mostly English-language, action-based movies (The Beast, 2 Guns, Contraband) for the past decade or more. But Touch feels more personal, even though it’s based on a novel by co-writer Olaf Olafsson. In it, an elderly Icelandic gentleman named Kristofer (Egill Ólafsson) sets out in search of an old acquaintance back in London, where he went to university and ended up working in a Japanese restaurant. His ill-timed search takes place just as the world begins shutting down thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, but his journey also triggers memories of his time as as much younger man some 50 years earlier (young Kristofer is played by Pálmi Kormákur), and a great deal of the film is flashbacks to the early 1970s.
Review: Longlegs Chronicles a Decades-Long Connection between Killer and Investigator, Relying Too Much on Genre Tropes
Writer/director Osgood Perkins has gotten quite the reputation as a horror filmmaker when it’s never truly seemed to be his goal to scare people. His objective with film like The Blackcoat’s Daughter and I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House seems more to be to get under people’s skin and make them uncomfortable or anxious and less outright terrified. His latest work, Longlegs, is being touted as flat-out horror tale about the unique relationship FBI Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) has had with a serial killer who calls himself Longlegs (Nicolas Cage in pale makeup and a weird voice) over many decades—from the 1970s, when she was a little girl (Lauren Acala) living with her single mother (Alicia Witt), until the “present day” of the 1990s (which is firmly established by the abundance of Bill Clinton photos on every wall in government buildings).
Events: Togetherness Through Tacos at Rogers Park Taco Crawl
Rogers Park is very much a vibe. A vibe that consists of neighbors who know each other's names and always say hello, a global community, and of course really great taquerias. Next week on July 18 in RP, the Rogers Park Business Association (RPBA) is hosting their annual Taco Crawl along Clark Street. From 3 to 6pm, you can skip out on your last few hours of work and your dinner plans for a tour de taco including churros, margs, and even free ice cream.
Review: Raw and Emotional Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Haven Chicago
This is a love letter. To Stephen Trask's brilliant music and lyrics and John Cameron Mitchell's searing wit. To one of the best musicals to ever come out of New York's downtown theater scene. And to Haven Chicago, which ends its 11-year run as a local theater company with a raucous, rousing and thoroughly rock-and-roll production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, now running at the Den Theater through August 4.
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