Oscar fever has got us doing cartwheels all over the Chicagoist offices, as well as placing more than a few friendly wagers over who will be taking home those expensive doorstops come February 25th. But that’s not the only thing going down in the film world at the moment. A little gathering in Park City, Utah called the Sundance Film Festival has been underway since last week. And lest you shrug your shoulders indifferently just... more ›

Quick: how many more days 'til the Oscars? Frankly, we don't care. However the Sundance Film Festival opens on January 18, an event which we've always daydreamed about but haven't been able to attend. This year's opener will bring a bit of Chicago to the usually-sleepy ski town of Park City, Utah: the documentary Chicago 10, directed by Brett Morgen. It chronicles the anti-war protests which accompanied the 1968 Democratic Convention and the subsequent trial... more ›

The Tribune’s Mark Caro is a lucky guy. No sooner does his Pop Machine blog debut than he’s off to Park City, Utah to cover the Sundance Film Festival. Wait…you don’t suppose they planned it that way, do you? In any case, we’ve been getting a kick out of Caro’s warts-and-all coverage, especially his realization last week that people might, you know, read his blog. Unfortunately, this didn’t occur to Caro until after he took... more ›

We at Chicagoist pride ourselves on our contrarian attitude; there’s nothing in the world so loved that it can’t be mocked. And so we turn our smarmy attentions to New Year’s Eve (from the Latin phrase annus novus magnus pecunia et difficilis vestis, which, loosely translated, means “the same shit you’d do any other night only for more money and in less comfortable clothing.”) Seeing a band play out on New Year’s Eve is a... more ›

This was the year that the Sundance Film Festival definitively jumped the shark. When the big story coming out of Park City isn’t about the bidding war for some hot new film but rather how much swag DJ Qualls is pulling down then you know something’s amiss. And so the South by Southwest festivals stand alone in wearing the mantle of the true independent spirit of the arts. Despite growing in size and scope over... more ›