CHICAGO – The Steppenwolf Theatre of Chicago continues to provide different viewpoints on the American stage, and their latest “Little Bear Ridge Road” is no exception. Featuring ensemble member Laurie Metcalf, it’s the resonate story of a family at the crossroads. For tickets/details, click LITTLE BEAR.
Adolescence
Growing Up Fast in the Skateboard Life of ‘Mid90s’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 29, 2018 - 10:33am Rating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Character actor Jonah Hill has just scored behind the camera. As writer/director of a authentic look back at the “Mid90s” he went back to his inner source of growing up in that 1990s time, skateboarding with his buds and experiencing the teenage life. The story never blinks, as the teens are authentic and the situations they get in even more so.
Awkward & Difficult is Played Out in ‘Eighth Grade’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on July 22, 2018 - 3:22pm Rating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – We’ve all been there. Depending on what school structure you lived through, everyone had issues in “Eighth Grade.” Writer/director Bo Burnham puts those universal issues in a modern context (social media, online video), and portrays them through a girl struggling to belong while navigating the choppy waters of adolescence. It’s difficult, awkward and representative.
Authentic Coming-of-Age in Expressive ‘Lady Bird’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on November 13, 2017 - 1:30pm Rating: 5.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – In one of the best American films of 2017, Greta Gerwig went behind the camera to write and direct an autobiographical overview of her Senior Year in high school, within a directionless town and family. The result is enlightening truth, told with laugh-out-loud directness and connective empathy. The film is a total winner.
Edge Ebbs & Flows in ‘The Edge of Seventeen’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on November 17, 2016 - 12:52pm Rating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “The Edge of Seventeen” does attempt to do some different things with the growing-up-too-soon teenager soap opera – it throws in a authentic parent, contemporary sex issues and truthful awkwardness. But it can’t help being too heroic, and too “everything’s all right.”
Facing Life Transitions in ‘Hide Your Smiling Faces’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on April 14, 2014 - 3:04pmRating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The pain and passion of prepubescent youth and adolescence unravels in the excellent directorial debut of Daniel Patrick Carbone, “Hide Your Smiling Faces.” Carbone captures the isolation and meticulous boredom at a time of life when everything conspires to happen on a daily basis.
