Vinegar Hill Theatre closed its doors on Sunday after 37 years in business. The decision came suddenly, just 6 days before closure. This was written as preparations were being made for the final weekend, and by the time you read this Vinegar Hill will be gone. The major reason that Vinegar Hill Theatre closed is […]
Now that we’re six films into the X-Men series, it’s about time we got one that can stand on its own. It’s not that viewers should skip all the other X-Men films—but seriously, skip Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand, the truly wretched X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Bryan Singer’s original X-Men—but Hugh Jackman is captivating […]
Give Kristen Wiig credit: She’s clearly not interested in repeating the Bridesmaids formula. And though Girl Most Likely has, at least on the surface, some plot threads in common with Wiig’s breakthrough movie—she’s a loser who moves home with her mother (Annette Bening)—it’s a decidedly more somber picture. That’s not to say Girl Most Likely […]
Blending the tragic with the triumphant, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly depicts the life of renowned magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who, after suffering a stroke that paralyzed his entire body except his left eye, used a blinking code to write his own memoir in 1997. Adapted to film [...]
There’s an episode of “Magnum P.I.” in which Magnum (Tom Selleck), who played for Navy’s football team during his time at the academy, can’t watch that season’s Army-Navy game live on television. There’s a case or someone gets shot or something—you know how it goes with Magnum. This is all from [...]
Many years ago, when summer action blockbusters were a new-ish thing, my mother would say at their conclusion, “That movie was so loud.” It wasn’t really a complaint. It was an observation that, at 10 years-old, I found spurious. Maybe they were loud, maybe they weren’t. I was probably more [...]
Move aside Johnny Depp, and let Gene Wilder show you how it’s done. Revisit the zany world of mysterious recluse and confection genius Willy Wonka in a special showing of the beloved classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Dream alongside Charlie, the impoverished hero of the story, and [...]
How does a reformed supervillain, Gru (Steve Carell), have anything to do in a sequel in which he’s not made the villain? Simple: He’s recruited by an international crime-fighting organization led by Silas Ramsbottom (ha, yeah; he’s played by Steve Coogan and resembles an obese James Fox) and [...]
In case you missed it, lots of people are angry over Johnny Depp’s decision to play Tonto in the manner he plays Tonto in The Lone Ranger. There’s further anger over the decision to have a white man play Tonto. And the dead bird on his head. Et cetera. Sorry, peeps: The redface is a […]
Brad Pitt’s attack on zombies fails to capture the trend It’s not that World War Z is bad. Any movie with star Brad Pitt and director Marc Forster—whose resume swings from Stranger Than Fiction to Machine Gun Preacher-—can’t be bad. It can, however, be pretty mediocre. Fans of Max Brooks’ novel [...]
Enjoy a star-studded trip to 1940s Hollywood with the suave Cary Grant and glamorous Rosalind Russell in a special screening of Howard Hawks’ classic screwball comedy, His Girl Friday. Adapted from Broadway hit The Front Page, the film features a hard-boiled newspaper editor who learns his ace [...]
The record-breaking success of 1989’s Batman green-lit a wave big-budget retro-adventure films, including the outlandish, neon ensemble piece Dick Tracy; the brash, moody grotesquerie of The Shadow; and the feather-light, straight-faced camp of latecoming entry The Phantom. Nestled [...]
Slim Loris Future Echoes and Past Replays/Record Union Swedish indie Americana rock group, Slim Loris, has made one of 2013s most surprising albums thus far. Euphoric, humorous and bittersweet, Future Echoes and Past Replays is a success. The band ensnares you with the lively and whimsical [...]
Michael “Nick” Nichols’ years of work for National Geographic have taken him around the globe, providing an up-close look at some of the few corners of the world that remain untouched by human civilization. His recent work in the Serengeti uses state-of-the-art advances in photo technology to [...]
Though Photoshopping and digital retouching have become common practices in both journalistic and creative photography, Martha Rosler’s recent work foregrounds the process, creating deliberately artificial digital collages that create jarring juxtapositions of familiar imagery. Her 1960’s [...]
Window to the soul In a project that mixes art with outreach to the incarcerated, Virginia-based artist Mark Strandquist asked prisoners “If you had a window in your cell, what place from your past would it look out onto?” Answers were collected, those sites were photographed, and prints were [...]
This is the End is so devoid of good ideas, smarts or laughs that it’s hard to understand just what its purpose is. I can only conclude it’s to get the six leads together who appear on the poster—James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson—and let them [...]
The stories of factory workers are always relevant, but they’ve been prominent in the public consciousness recently with April’s horrific factory collapse in India, one of the deadliest industrial accidents in history. There’s a very different story on display in “160 Actions to Make a [...]
Will Smith and M. Night Shyamalan made a movie together. See, they’re both into patterns. After all, in a recent interview in New York Magazine, Smith said, “I’m a student of patterns.” Shyamalan made a movie, Signs, about crop circles (which, really, are patterns). And finally, they’re both in [...]
The first full-length album from London-based band Daughter is a sonic and emotional feast. “Lifeforms” encapsulates the album’s sound, tone and content, with echoing, reverb-heavy guitars, singer Elena Tonra’s husky, lilting vocals, and her metaphorical lyrics about cleaning up after your [...]
Wow. Where does one begin? The insipid dialogue? Paul Walker’s non-presence? A plot that makes almost no sense? Stunts that defy the laws of physics? Nah. Let’s start here: I can’t believe how much fun I had watching Fast & Furious 6. Don’t get me wrong. It’s so absurd and stupid that it [...]
One of Charlottesville’s most anticipated springtime events began today with the hanging of the LOOK3 TREES exhibit. The installation has kicked off Charlottesville’s LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph since it began in 2007. “It’s really our coming out party,” said LOOK3’s managing director, [...]
Now that The Great Gatsby is out, there’s just one relevant question: To whom is this film targeted? It can’t be people who read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel when it was first released. They’re dead. Is it for recent high school graduates? The millennials, who are plugged into everything all the [...]