Ah, the Academy Award "Shorts." Largely ignored in favor of the races focusing on acting accomplishments and what movie had the saddest/more politically controversial/historically momentous ending, the Short Subject categories often offer a hodgepodge of achievements actually more worthy of your time than most of the feature length tripe that hits theaters these days. They're also full of fun trivia: did you know Billy Zabka, a.k.a the fantastic villain Johnny Lawrence from one of our favorite films of all time, was actually nominated for an Academy Award in the Live Action Short category in 2004? And have you ever seen Don Hertzfeldt's excellent 2001 nominated animated short, "Rejected"? Wacky stuff. more ›

The Chicagoist Arts and Entertainment department has been suffering from a month long movie news drought that officially ends this week. more ›

So Chicagoist was enjoying this peaceful Saturday afternoon reading the paper and eating Chinese food when this absolute scrub of a kid struts into the restaurant like he owns the joint yapping into his cell phone with a total disregard for the people around him. After a few too many "damn, bro's" we walked to him and politely mentioned that we weren't really interested in the killer game of pickup ball he played, the wack-ass dj at the club the night before, the dvd player he installed in his Honda Civic, or his baby mama drama. We got the stink-eye, sure, but he did take the conversation outside where he added "kicking (our) ass" to his list of talking points. more ›

Now that the Oscar nominations have been announced, Chicagoist plans on spending the weekend catching up on the films it’s missed so far this season. The Landmark (at Clark and Diversey) is making it real easy too; half of the films playing there are nominated for an Oscar: Being Julia, Hotel Rwanda, A Very Long Engagement, and Sideways. AMC River East has a bunch too: Being Julia; Hotel Rwanda; Closer; Phantom of the Opera;... more ›