Our top reviews of 2008

Whenever a Time Out Chicago editor slaps six stars down on a review, news of it spreads throughout the staff quicker than gossip about intra-office liaisons. That’s not just because it happens so rarely, but because we’ve talked endlessly about what warrants our highest rating (we’ve had meetings, people).  So at the end of the year, it’s worth taking a look through the entire magazine and seeing what works of art pried those sixth stars from our stingy editors’ reserves. Not everyone was willing to part with a sixth (I'm looking at you, Music), but taken as a whole, these reviews provides a survey of the best-of-the-best, across disciplines.

Art & Design
“Black Is, Black Ain’t” at Renaissance Society (left)
“‘Black Is, Black Ain’t’ surveys a moment in which race is simultaneously retained and rejected. It hits its ambiguous mark while serving up a collection of first-rate work by both emerging artists and familiar names.”

Jennifer Bartlett’s “Amagansett.”
“Jennifer Bartlett’s new series leaves little doubt as to why she is one of America’s most important painters.”

Books
Our Story Begins, by Tobias Wolff
“The dramas here are firmly realist: a hunting accident, a coke binge, a stranger’s charity, a soldier’s boredom. But with a gentle and steady focus, Wolff imbues each with cosmic stakes.”

Classical
Martinu, Isabelle Faust (right)
“From the opening, contentious chord to the final, affirming trumpet proclamation, this disc constantly awes.”

Clubs
Hercules and Love Affair, Hercules and Love Affair
“Released in Europe in March, this long-player established a Gotham-based electronic disco beachhead in the U.K. charts, and it’s bound to start some fires around here.”

Sessions, Carl Craig
“Disc 01’s mix meets up with a percussion orgy on his remix of Cesaria Evora’s “Angola” which will melt your mind while your body wanders away happy.”

DVD
The BBC Natural History Collection
“All four are essential viewing and are as likely to change the way you look at the world as Attenborough is to make you feel all warm and fuzzy about it.”

Touch of Evil: 50th Anniversary Edition
“The movie has a Talmudic richness; don’t be surprised if it lives in your DVD player for weeks.”

Film
There Will Be Blood (left)
“As for Day-Lewis’s performance, sometimes the only two words that will do are holy shit; he’s an actor known for burrowing into his roles, here paired with a director eager to see exactly how deep he’ll go.”

Theater
Caroline, or Change
“Charles Newell’s steely, graceful production blows a hole through the heart.”