Rally CAP

It may not be perfect but health advocates say the governor's CAP insurance plan is a step in the right direction.

• by Chris Young

Signs of trouble ahead

"The question of the legality of the permit cannot be resolved by the legislative branch, and it cannot be resolved by the executive branch. It can only be resolved by the judicial branch," Dowd said.

• by Charlie Deitch

Art of the Deal

There's big money in studying art ... if you own the school

• by Charlie Deitch

Protest: Group trying to revive student involvement in antiwar movement

One Pitt student is trying to reinvigorate a student war-protest effort that has gotten off course.

• by Adam Fleming

Politics: District 21 state house race loses half its field

When state Rep. Lisa Bennington decided to step down after only one year, the field to replace her was huge. However, after the Democratic Party nomination went to former Pittsburgh City Councilor Len Bodack the field got a whole lot thinner.

• by Adam Fleming

Bangkok Balcony

The menu offers a familiar array of Thai dishes, as well as the chef's own sophisticated specialties.

• by Angelique Bamberg and Jason Roth

Cooking at Merante Gifts

• by Colleen Van Tassell

Local vinyl-phile Karim Khan launches new wax-only label

"I don't even buy CDs anymore -- I keep them in the car and sling them around, but other than that, I only listen to records."

• by Manny Theiner

Synthpop is alive and well with Seabound and Iris

It's hard to believe that the goth stigma can still scare away major labels at a time when a Hot Topic flourishes in every suburb.

• by Manny Theiner

Locals The Meridians channel '90s guitar rock on Heavy Silver

There are times on the record that the band's influences show through, especially Fleetwood Mac and the Gin Blossoms.

• by Andy Mulkerin

Black 47 brings an edge to St. Patrick's Day festivities

"A warped ideology caused this war and, even though we're against it, the last thing the country needs right now is more didactic posturing."

• by Aaron Jentzen

Who is local singer-songwriter Alex Pfundt -- really?

You're stuck wondering whether he's an earnest nice guy trying to be gritty, or a likable jerk who's trying to sing pretty.

• by Aaron Jentzen

Funny Games

A family on holiday is mentally and physically tormented by two seemingly nice young men, in Michael Haneke's film about a home invasion. Funny Games assaults the complacency of the privileged rich at the same time it explores the metaphysics of cinema. Haneke is one of the few people left making serious cinema on a high scale. His production values are sterling, his intellect punishing, his use of the camera as economical and complex as nature itself. And yet, there's no pretense in Haneke's work: He's an artist who passionately believes in the existence of inexplicable evil. A story like this demands a lot of its actors, and the performances are surprisingly naturalistic and unrehearsed for such precision cinema. Haneke is not too good to embrace the visual techniques of suspense cinema, yet he doesn't trade in surprises -- at least, not in the cheap conventional sense. Every single moment and frame of his film suggests and signifies: Funny Games unfolds as realistically as a drama can short of being improvised, and if it's unrealistic, I hope I never find out by how much. [3.5 out of 4 stars]

• by Harry Kloman

10,000 B.C.

In this prehistoric adventure "legend" (i.e., totally made-up crap), a young hunter ventures through distant lands to retrieve his sweetie from slave raiders. Director and co-writer Roland Emmerich is no stranger to entertaining junk films (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow), but 10,000 B.C. is the simply the same old story -- brave warrior leads many in noble pursuit -- with goofier costumes. The action is too sporadic to excuse this as brainless caveman-fu. Wooden acting and laughably bad dialogue wipe out any hope of a drama. And anthropology for the masses? Not likely when you've got telescopes and mammoths co-existing. Occasionally the computer-generated effects work well; then again, I could almost see the scissor marks around the edge of the saber-tooth tiger. Emmerich shot in New Zealand, Namibia and South Africa, so some impressive landscapes are the real deal. But vistas and the occasional unintentional guffaw aside, 10,000 B.C. is a dull slog. In English, and an ancient language, with subtitles. [1.5 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

The Bank Job

Like all bank robberies, it should have gone swimmingly. Posh London bank; inside tip; a quiet weekend; just tunnel in from next door, collect the goods and Bob's your uncle. No surprise to learn that in Roger Donaldson's crime story (loosely based on a real-life incident), things go pear-shaped for petty criminal Terry (Jason Statham) and his cheery but ragtag crew of bank robbers. Emptying the wrong safety-deposit boxes brings heat from good cops, bad cops, intelligence officials, angry wives, black militants and a porn king. More caper than thriller, The Bank Job proves entertaining thanks to its wild over-plotting (all threads do tie up), lively banter and quick pace. It's in 1971, so there's extra fun with bad hairdos (discounting Statham's contemporary shaved head) and the use of contemporary "cutting-edge" technology, including walkie-talkies and ham radio. (AH) [capsule review] [2.5 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

Caramel

A Beirut beauty shop is the focal point for Nadine Labaki's romantic dramedy that ambles comfortably through the lives of five women like their sixth friend. The incidents are relatively small -- an affair with a married man, an impending wedding, potential romance, aging -- yet they acquire greater urgency and poignancy when reflected against Lebanon's contemporary but still restrictive culture. (The women are mostly Catholic.) Without being preachy, Labaki's film suggests that the women's greatest strength is a fierce, if quiet allegiance to themselves -- and to each other. It's familiar stuff, but with fine, understated performances, Caramel is an enjoyable evening out with the girls. In Arabic and French, with subtitles. Starts Fri., March 14. Squirrel Hill (AH) capsule review] [2.5 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Over the course of one fraught day in 1987, college student Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) helps her roommate Gabi (Laura Vasiliu) procure an illegal abortion. The focus, however, is not on Gabi or the morality of the procedure, but rather on Otilia and how the day's events test her relationships, resourcefulness and perhaps her future. Writer/director Cristian Mungiu (Occident) films 4 Months very deliberately, with long, still conversational takes that keep the film's undercurrent of tensions simmering. This is purposefully unsentimental vignette, and offers some tough, though never explicit viewing. The film's larger lack of emotion may be another aspect of Ceausescu's Romania that Mungiu intentionally highlights: the flat grayness of a totalitarian society (reflected, too, in the story's cheerless settings), a culture in which the intersection of the private and the public is problematic, and where daily life requires various forms of subterfuge. In Romanian, with subtitles. Starts Fri., March 15. Manor (AH) capsule review] [3 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

Note By Note: The Making of Steinway L1037

It takes one year to make a Steinway 9-foot grand piano, a remarkably slow journey in this age of rapid mass production. Ben Niles's quietly rapturous documentary (a must-see for piano-lovers) follows one such instrument -- No. L1037 -- from Alaskan timber to its months-long, hand-crafted construction at Steinway's Queens facility and, finally, its place among the world's elite concert pianos. Note's singular focus at times makes the film feel like an infomercial for Steinway -- though, in fairness, few viewers are likely to be lured into purchasing a $100,000 concert piano. A number of professional musicians weigh in on what makes a Steinway piano so grand, but it's the myriad craftsmen in Queens who provide the most compelling testimony. A decidedly blue-collar lot, they ply their anachronistic trade -- hands, ears and centuries-old implements prevail as tools -- in the creation of the most high-brow of products. Yet they seem to draw most of their obvious pride less from the finished product than from their own handicraft and the maintenance of tradition. In today's madcap world, that's a reward as precious as any exquisite piano. Starts Fri., March 14. Harris (AH) capsule review] [2.5 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

The Price of Sugar

In the Dominican Republic, a few miles from affluent vacationers lounging on beaches, live some of the 250,000 or more undocumented Haitian workers who cut the cane that supplies U.S. consumers most of their sugar. Recruited to emigrate, stripped of IDs, underfed and underpaid, they live under armed guard in labor camps called bateyes, essentially as slaves. While Bill Haney's 2006 documentary implicitly indicts sugar consumers -- a trade deal assures that the U.S. pays the country's sugar oligarchs twice the going rate -- it focuses on one Catholic priest's struggle to organize and aid workers. Father Christopher Hartley, who grew up privileged in Spain, starts a nutrition program and organizes workers to strike, but is opposed at every turn by the complicit government, compliant news media and anti-Haitian bigotry. The Price of Sugar, narrated by Paul Newman, delivers more evidence that our food is costlier than we realize. In English and Spanish, with subtitles. Fri., March 14, through Sun., March 16. Melwood (BO) [capsule review] [2.5 out of 4 stars]

• by Bill O'Driscoll

Among the planet's top online sources for retro clothes is a company based in Friendship.

"We've turned the online disadvantages into advantages: We try to be the trusted-adviser voice to the customer."

• by Melissa Meinzer

At The Warhol, Ron Mueck's sculptures pushes humans out of scale to pull humanity into focus.

What he's stirred up we can carry with us, and it might make us ask why what's outside of us can affect our inner size.

• by Lissa Brennan

A Conversation with Shawn Kelly

• by Chris Young

This Just In: March 12 - 19

Highlights from the local TV news: Bottling compassion ... recession-proof your life

• by Frances Monahan

Letters to the Editor: March 12 - 19

Feedback from our readers: Focus on surveillance cameras.

A local author's "resurrection" of Allegheny City has its ups and downs.

The book's biggest strength can also be a weakness: The sheer volume of the archives crowds out other compelling material

• by Chris Potter

Plateau

Plateau feels like a throwback to theater from the '60s and '70s -- specifically, all those urgent little dramas about the anesthetized ethos of suburbia, as well as stories about the dehumanization of "working for the man."

• by Ted Hoover

Emanuel Gat Dance makes "Rite of Spring" anew.

With movement styles from salsa to hints of hip hop, Gat's choreography is mesmerizing, and builds on itself like Ravel's "Bolero," expanding phrases as it goes.

• by Steve Sucato

Victor Varnado is not just another black-albino comic.

"I was something new, so they didn't even know how to tease me."

• by Justin Jacobs