CAFE ASIA
Pan-Asian restaurants continue to sprout up in Pittsburgh. This spring brings us Café Asia, in the heart of Squirrel Hill. It’s just a nook of a restaurant, but attractively decorated in a simple style — black-framed walls are covered in a finely woven mat of reeds set off by oversized ethnic artwork. The front is…
SPLICE: CUTTING-EDGE FILM FESTIVAL
Like the term “alternative music,” the words “independent film” don’t mean too much any more. That is, they seem to connote whatever the speaker wants them to, including films with big-name stars, sizable budgets, and distribution via some arm of the entertainment-industry octopus. But that wasn’t always the case. So for this year’s film-festival class…
SAFETY OF OBJECTS
Like The Myth of Fingerprints, The Substance of Fire, The Sum of Us and (in some languages) The Storm of Ice — that is, movies with metaphoric “The X of Y” titles — Rose Troche’s The Safety of Objects revolves around a collection of people at a crucial time in their lives. It’s a mini-genre…
STEVIE
You’d be hard-pressed to find a less sympathetic or attractive protagonist than Stephen Fielding, the subject of Steve James’ documentary Stevie. His rap sheet is long, his crimes ranging from the minor and inept to the felonious and violent. He has crude, self-made tattoos and rotting teeth. But James’ film is less about depicting Stevie…
BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM
In Tony Blair’s Cool Britannia, it’s not hard to imagine a situation like middle-class London suburb-dwelling Jess’. Her Indian immigrant parents want for her the best of the world that they understand: A traditional Indian husband (like sister Pinky’s) and solid test scores that will place her in a university to become anything she wants…
