CHICAGO – If you’ve never seen the farcical ensemble theater chestnut “Noises Off,” you will see no better version than on the Steppenwolf Theatre stage, now at their northside Chicago venue through November 3rd. For tickets and details for this riotous theater experience, click NOISES OFF.
Journalism
On-Air Film Review: Papa Can You Hear Me! Review of ‘Flag Day’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on August 19, 2021 - 4:27pmCHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on August 19th, 2021, reviewing the new film “Flag Day” – featuring and directed by Sean Penn – In theaters on August 20th, 2021.
Podtalk: Chicago Icon Bruce DuMont on ‘Mike Wallace is Here’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on July 30, 2019 - 10:35amCHICAGO – This week, the new documentary “Mike Wallace is Here” will release in Chicago, so who better to get a perspective on the CBS News and “60 Minutes” interviewer and reporter than Bruce DuMont, a Chicago broadcasting icon who has covered the scene since the late 1960s.
Interview: Director David Farrier Finds No Mirth in ‘Tickled’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on June 23, 2016 - 4:45pmCHICAGO – In the underbelly of American society, if you dig deep enough, there is also an underbelly to the underbelly. When a New Zealand journalist named David Farrier goes to such depths, on a story about competitive tickling (yes, tickling people to laughing fits), he gets much more that he bargained for.
Film Review: ‘True Story’ Just Leaves a False Impression
Submitted by PatrickMcD on April 19, 2015 - 3:06pmCHICAGO – Sometimes, just casting a film with “names” is not enough to make it work. Jonah Hill and James Franco play cat-and-mouse for 100 minutes in “True Story,” but the narrative, the structure and their own inability to communicate their characters conspired against the overall experience.
Film Review: Meet the Press in Illuminating ‘Kill the Messenger’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 14, 2014 - 12:22pmCHICAGO – When journalists were heroes and exposed those in power for their sins, movies were made like “All the President’s Men.” Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News was one of those journalist heroes during the 1990s, but he wasn’t celebrated in his time. The indictments, induced paranoia and outright lies against him are distinctly chronicled in the luminary “Kill the Messenger.”
Interview: Director Michael Cuesta on Issues in ‘Kill the Messenger’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 8, 2014 - 12:50pmCHICAGO – What happens when too much truth is exposed, and those who will feel the backlash from that exposure are too powerful? The new film “Kill the Messenger,” directed by Michael Cuesta, seeks an answer to that question through the true story of journalist Gary Webb, a victim of his own investigative reporting.
Theater Review: Real Chicago in Timeline Theatre’s ‘The Front Page’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on April 25, 2011 - 4:45pmCHICAGO – The popular image of the newspaper reporter screaming into the phone with a hot scoop most likely began with the popular and oft-produced stageplay, “The Front Page.” Timeline Theatre of Chicago presents an essential restaging of the classic with superior attention to period detail.