Across the Universe
Julie Traymor’s candy-colored musical fantasia combines a TV-movie-style précis of tumultuous youth in the late 1960s with a textbook boy-meets-girl-then-loses-girl plot energized by Beatles tunes, most delivered in elaborate song-and-dance set pieces. [Capsule review]
Gone Baby Gone
Ben Affleck’s directorial debut is a pulpy mess of drug dealers, corrupt cops and dark bars full of daytime drinkers. [Capsule review.]
Kyle Ethan Fischer’s exhibit mixed powerfully evokes Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.
Human figures show up to crouch, fall through the air, and take aim. Color is limited primarily to the crimson of blood or flame, occasional bursts of metal, and every shade of gray.
A Conversation with John Schmersal of Enon
“And how much joy is left in something, when you don’t have to do anything to get it?”
Things We Lost in the Fire
It’s good to see Hollywood slow down a potentially sensational drama into small everyday moments, but Things We Lost can’t help but be compromised by its surface sheen. [Capsule review]
Red Ginger
If the descriptions were all too summary — “pork ear,” “beef tendon,” and the awe-inspiring “stir-fried mix of everything” — it was pretty clear that the key was to put our faith in the kitchen, not to micromanage our meal.
Gowns meld droning noise with quiet folk-pop
Gowns often exhibit a spiritual feel that pervades even when the content of the songs strays toward the mundane.
30 Days of Night
This above-the-Arctic-Circle thriller is like Night of the Living Dead and all its countless iterations, but with more darkness. [Capsule review]
Pittsburgh n’@
From: http://blog.habscast.com/2007/10/13/should-there-be-a-double-standard-for-sidney-crosby Should There Be a Double Standard for Sidney Crosby? After watching Wednesday night’s game, I was questioning the NHL and how they treat Sidney Crosby. During the game, I witnessed more lenience towards Crosby than any other player in the NHL. For example, on Saturday night against the Leafs, Chris Higgins was pushed…
Anita Fix releases The Lost Songs of Alan Lewandownski
There’s a depth to Lewandowski’s plaintive man-child persona, part of a cultural outsider tradition.
We Own the Night
Director James Gray finds cinematic beauty in NYC’s less traveled spaces, and delivers one nervy, crackerjack car chase. [Capsule review]
The Pittsburgh International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
The 22nd annual festival returns with entertaining and provocative feature films, documentaries and shorts highlighting the gay, lesbian and transgendred experience.
Mindless Faith releases the electro-industrial Medication for the Misinformed
Much like the rigged two-party system these boys surely decry, Medication doesn’t launch any new policy initiatives.
Scare Tactics
Cyclists are turning to ghost bikes to demonstrate the dangers they face on the roadways, but does anyone actually see them or the message?
Calling Foul
PIRATE CITYBradenton, FL Tuesday, March 20, 2007, a date on which Pittsburgh Pirates manager Jim Tracy has scheduled himself to awaken with a toothache. Shortly before 8 a.m., clad in golf shirt and slacks, Tracy climbs to the fourth row of a small bleacher standing at the hub of several practice fields that sprawl across…
Hate Zones
In some areas of Pennsylvania, bigotry based on sexual orientation is still legally acceptable.
The Comedy of Errors
Think of it as 16 people in a fun-loving on-stage crew, all pulling in the same direction.
Anti-death penalty group brings message of forgiveness
It wasn’t the sentencing of son’s killer that gave pastor peace; he says it was forgiveness.
The Recruiting Officer
Even more incisive is the undisguised glee of the upper classes in turning the less fortunate into cannon fodder, contrasted with their anguish at the thought that one of their own loved ones could end up in the army.
Alia Musica presents New Music with a young, local focus
“If you’re going to find composers that are young on the one hand, but also have some level of advancement, the likelihood is they will be at Pitt.”
Mother Teresa Is Dead
By adding elements to hook theater-goers, Edmundson distances us from the message she obviously wants to impart.
On the Run
It’s time for my periodic doom-and-gloom “this city’s going down the crapper and there’s really no way to fix it” column. I’m happy to be an uplifting part of your day. I came to this conclusion, again, after watching the Oct. 11 so-called debate between the monotone robotic Mayor Luke “Opie” Ravenstahl and Republican Mark…
Macbeth
Ben Greenstone’s Macbeth came across not as a tragic figure, bewildered about what he is doing, but rather as an actor bewildered about the essence of what he says.
Coach Class
It’s hard not to like a coach who, after his first loss, says things like, “Believe it or not, I expected to lose a game. And it may even happen again.” To that charm, add erudition, good looks and an easy smile, and it’s easy to embrace rookie Steelers coach Mike Tomlin — even though…
A puppet adaption of surrealist classic Ubu Roi highlights the ninth annual Black Sheep Puppet Festival.
“It’s Godzilla meets a sideshow carnival meets our current president,” says Conroy. “It’s very crass and obscene and bloody.”
Schramm Farms and Orchards
It was the aroma of homegrown Chippewa potatoes plunging into the bubbly grease that lured me over, and once I got there, how could I not indulge? Fall Fest at Schramm Farms and Orchards, in Jeannette, takes place every October — and this year I arrived hungry. There’s enough farm-grown goodness here to keep any…
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
The frequently mythologized life and death of Jesse James gets another workover in this lengthy account of the 19th-century outlaw’s last few months.[Capsule review]
Savage Love
How much piss can one consume without getting sick?
Deep Water
Lousie Osmond and Jerry Rothwell’s documentary pieces together a modern-day endurance feat that spared no participants. [Capsule review]
Amazing Gracelessness
Since this is an article about a Catholic university, I’ll begin with a confession: I’m one of those people who listen to WDUQ-FM without paying. I don’t listen much — just a few NPR headlines in the morning, and occasionally This American Life. But yeah, I’m the guy they’re talking about during pledge drives. When…
The Devil Came on Horseback
Ricki Stern and Annie Sundbeck’s documentary provides a primer on the genocidal conflict in Darfur as it recounts one man’s experience there. [Capsule review]
This Just In: Oct 17 – 24
Highlights of the local TV news. This week: Dueling Mommies … Mr. Yuk in court … The Great Pumpkin Heist of 2007
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Shekhar Kapur’s movie is gloriously filmed and the costumes are lush. The plot, however, is a bit threadbare. [Capsule review]
Michael Clayton
A corrupt corporation that knowingly poisons people with dangerous chemicals: That’s yesterday’s news and yesterday’s plot. A corporate snake, Michael Clayton (Clooney) who sheds his evil skin: That’s just yesterday’s plot.
Rendition
There’s a lot of moral relativism — and tricky questions — in our actual War on Terror that are distinctly absent from this contrived, uninspired melodrama. [Capsule review]
