Dmitry Samarov, author at Chicago Reader

A large horizontal painting, collage-like and layered, painting in muted colors. On the left, in graffiti letters, BOYS is spelled out. Beneath the word is a reclining figure with their hands raised to their face. On the right side are three German shepherds with their tongues out.

Poetic misdirection

by Dmitry Samarov June 5, 2023June 6, 2023

I’m always a little in awe of people who can collaborate on any creative project, but two people working as equals on a single canvas is well near unimaginable. For the 40 years I’ve been painting, the idea to invite anyone to so much as doodle on the margins of one of my pictures has […]

an unsettled white blonde woman stands outside with blurry FBI agents in the background

Film

Review: Reality

by Dmitry Samarov June 1, 2023June 1, 2023

By presenting testimony without editorializing, the film becomes a searing indictment of a country that routinely punishes low-level true believers while rewarding traitors and opportunists up the food chain for their treachery.

Seven actors in bright Mod jackets stand and sprawl around a set of gray cracked floor tiles and gray boxes.

Theater Review

Bowie in Warsaw serves up a moonage nightmare

by Dmitry Samarov May 24, 2023May 24, 2023

Paweł Świątek directs the U.S. premiere of Dorota Masłowska’s arch 70s-era murder mystery/comedy of manners (translated by Soren Gauger). Rumors fly wild in the streets of Warsaw about a mythical stalker terrorizing the citizenry while the true villain pervading their society seems to be a blanketing existential despair. In the last days of Soviet hegemony, […]

a white man and woman stand in a living room looking surprised

Film

Review: You Hurt My Feelings

by Dmitry Samarov May 22, 2023May 19, 2023

Definitely one to watch the way most people do with SNL: wait till the highlights hit YouTube and skip the rest.

Five people onstage One is only visible from the legs down. They appear to be chasing each other while holding various objects in their hands

Theater Review

A perfect Ten

by Dmitry Samarov May 17, 2023May 17, 2023

What can you say in ten minutes? If the ten examples in the Gift’s triumphant return production of its long-running series are any indication, anything and everything. Ten 2023 Through 5/22: Mon and Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; Filament Theatre, 4041 N. Milwaukee, thegifttheatre.org, $10 A mother agonizes over getting her eight-year-old an iPhone. […]

Three people in khakis and tan shirts stand in a row. The person in the middle appears to be white. The two on either side of him are Black. The person on the right has bloodstains on their shirt. Behind them we see a young Black person writing on a clipboard and a partial view of a young white person holding a brochure or book.

Theater Review

Catharsis through fire

by Dmitry Samarov April 26, 2023April 26, 2023

To break in their new North Lawndale space, Kezia Waters directs Theatre Y’s production of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s 2012 meta meditation on colonialism, genocide, and racial trauma. (The play received its world premiere at Victory Gardens Theater.) Structured as a rehearsal for a play about the massacre of the Herero people of Namibia by the […]

a white man with a pompadour and red tinted sunglasses sings at a mike

Film

Review: Personality Crisis: One Night Only

by Dmitry Samarov April 24, 2023May 1, 2023

What raises this above the typical nostalgia-logged music doc is the clear sense that Johansen is not reliving his long discography onstage but continuing to live it in that moment.

Two men are shown onstage, tied up together with rope while sitting on chairs. The man on the left is Black and wears green fatigue pants, a brown T-shirt, a long white shirt, and boots. The man on the right is white and wears tan fatigues, boots, and a blue work shirt.

Theater Review

Army tales

by Dmitry Samarov April 15, 2023April 15, 2023

Jonah Saesan and LanDis Frederick are veterans of two different branches of the U.S. armed forces. After being discharged in 2015, they started processing their experiences in the military through sketch comedy, which has culminated in their first two-person show. Lasting 60 minutes, the program covers topics such as the difficulty of forming meaningful friendships […]

four people look at large floor-to-ceiling paintings

Film

Review: Hilma

by Dmitry Samarov April 14, 2023April 14, 2023

Watch the excellent 2019 documentary Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint, or better yet, just look at the paintings.

The book cover is read and shows a black and white image of a woman's face with an X through it. The order of the face is rearranged in the X, so she appears disjointed.

Arts & Culture

Unraveling X

by Dmitry Samarov April 11, 2023April 18, 2023

What if you fall in love with a monster who engulfs your entire world then dies? You’re bound to have questions, and, if you’re a writer, or just a certain type of obsessive, you’ll turn over every rock and upset every applecart looking for answers. In Catherine Lacey’s immersive new novel, Biography of X, a […]

a blond boy in a red shirt holds his hand to his forehead

Film

Review: The Worst Ones

by Dmitry Samarov April 7, 2023April 6, 2023

The line between fact and fiction always blurs when a camera is pointed at people, but in Lisa Akoka and Romane Gueret’s arresting new feature, it’s more like a game of three-card monte.

The 1932 book is shown opened to an ocean scene, popping up in the center are the characters standing in the mouth of a giant fish.

Arts & Culture

Hands-on reading

by Dmitry Samarov April 4, 2023April 18, 2023

The act of reading is rarely just a simple matter of decoding text, but as this diverting exhibition demonstrates, book designers have been augmenting blocks of words with fold-out extensions, rotating dials, opening doorways, and 3D elements for almost as long as there’s been a printing press. Composed of objects from the Newberry Library’s own […]

Arts & Culture

The Girls shows Chicago, warts and all

by Dmitry Samarov March 27, 2023March 29, 2023

What can a book about three generations of unmarried women in Chicago, set between the Civil War and World War I, originally published over 100 years ago and now out in a new edition by Belt Publishing, have to say to a contemporary resident of our city? Quite a bit, as it turns out. Its […]

Four people sit on orange rolling office chairs. They are wearing a mix of "professional" clothing (jackets and ties) with shorts. At the far left, the person in the chair holds a cement block. The next person to the right is beating against a suitcase with a drumstick. The two people toward the right of the photo are staring ahead, looking a little disgruntled

Theater Review

Fire sale

by Dmitry Samarov March 23, 2023March 23, 2023

What does material success look like to young people in 2023? Is it possible to attain the lifestyle they see in 80s TV shows? Is that something to aspire to? A talented Neo-Futurist troupe takes on capitalism, parents’ expectations, their own hopes and dreams, and whether it’s even possible to just get by in this […]

Film

Review: Inside

by Dmitry Samarov March 17, 2023March 17, 2023

An art thief breaks into a New York City penthouse and is unable to get back out.