Science Fiction

CHICAGO – Time to get back to live stage shows! The Otherworld Theatre of Chicago (Wrigleyville Neighborhood) presents an immersive sci-fi experience – AKA audience participation – on a space station, enticingly titled “Murder on Horizon.” The audience is part of solving the mystery as a futuristic gumshoe goes from suspect to suspect to find the killer of a prominent scientist.

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 10th, reviewing “The Adam Project,” featuring the “Free Guy” team of Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy, and is streaming on Netflix beginning March 11th.

CHICAGO – In a sure sign that production is ramping up in Chicago once again, the pilot sci-fi film “Wizdom” – the first step in a larger project – will film in the city the week of February 21st, 2022. “Wizdom” is co-created and co-written by Ashton Swinford, who also will portray the lead role.

CHICAGO – One of the more popular series at the Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF) – opening tomorrow, October 13th, 2021 – is the After Dark series. The title screams horror films, but the series also focuses on outliers in categories such as sci-fi, fantasy and the just plain bizarre.

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on April 8th, 2021, reviewing the new film “Voyagers,” in theaters now.

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on January 15th, 2020, reviewing the new film “Outside the Wire,” streaming on Netflix beginning January 15th, 2021.

CHICAGO – The concept of “family” has been romanticized to death in the movies in the last generation, coinciding with the increasing decline of actual togetherness. The new film “Kin” is essentially about family, but it also is about otherworldly weaponry, gritty crime lords and the old on-the-road story.

CHICAGO – The tagline for the new film “Kin” is “No force is stronger than family,” and who would know that better than a couple of twin brother filmmakers. Josh and Jonathan Baker make their feature film debut with this gritty sci-fi action picture, and create a new direction and style for the genre.

CHICAGO – Alex Garland, the standout creator/director of “Ex Machina,” is back with “Annihilation,” another science fiction story. And like the previous film, it explores implications of a sci-fi event, in this case an outer space incident that restructures a cellular code, that ends up destructive.

CHICAGO – “Downsizing” is an interesting premise that doesn’t ultimately go anywhere interesting. Part of the problem is that writer/director Alexander Payne doesn’t seem to know what kind of a movie he wants it to be… it’s part cerebral Woody Allen futuristic comedy, part sci-fi social satire about Midwestern malaise, and winds up failing at both.