Dresses (and shoes, and accessories) for Success

A handful of Pittsburgh fashionistas go to Las Vegas, and take on the world

• by Melissa Meinzer

Policy Issues

Insurance customers, advocates say Pa. residents need more protection from rate hikes

• by Chris Young

GOP: Grand Old Protest

Local protesters stormed the Republican National Convention only to find the cops storming right back

• by Marty Levine

Offensive Strategy

Cops turned streets outside RNC into battleground against protesters

• by Sam Stoker

Election News

Doors close again on open government amendment

• by Adam Fleming

Three Amigos Mexican Restaurante

Tacos, burritos and other South of the Border fare get on the Harmarville dining map.

• by Angelique Bamberg and Jason Roth

Angelia's Italian Grille

Pizza and good beer cheap: What's not to like?

• by Colleen Van Tassell

O'Hara Township couple makes a federal case out of house concerts

"Football's OK, live music is not."

• by Aaron Jentzen

Emily Pinkerton blends old-time and Chilean music on her album Valparaíso

"It's this thing with a long history, and the point of it being to relay both secular and sacred stories through this either memorized or improvised poetry."

• by Aaron Jentzen

Singer-songwriter Dar Williams plays Club Café with Shawn Mullins

"It's a lot of lyrics but the voice has a lot of personality, so it's still kind of punk."

• by Chris Parker

High Places take listeners "from stardust to sentience"

High Places often sound like the Cocteau Twins' Liz Fraser singing for an Angelo Badalamenti soundtrack.

• by Mike Shanley

Soft Targets aim straight for your pop sensibility

A knack for tales of love told in metaphor, whipped up with chiming guitars, vocal harmonies and some electric piano textures.

• by Mike Shanley

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

The infamously outrageous writer at the heart of Alex Gibney's latest documentary is a certainly an entertaining subject. Gonzo is a laudatory profile, though it can hardly be a strictly golden-hued hagiography; after all, Thompson's misdeeds and flaws propelled his stardom. But, most of the film focuses on the highlights of Thompson's career, beginning with his 1966 book Hell's Angels, through his drug-fueled road trip Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and his evisceration of the 1972 presidential campaign. A savvy observer of popular culture, Thompson nonetheless missed the oft-repeated public lessons about fame. The notoriety he actively pursued eventually interfered with his reporting, costing him useful anonymity and reducing him to a caricature he was trapped into repeatedly playing. The myth may have triumphed, but not before the man left an impact: Thompson's much-publicized free-wheeling style of reporting and writing helped, in part, to create the flashier, personality-driven mainstream media we embrace today. Starts Fri., Sept. 12. Regent Square (AH) [3 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

Global Lens

A 10-film,two-month international film festival kicks off.

• by CP Staff

Burn After Reading

Mistaken identities, misplaced desires, rocky marriages and the self-important, semi-paranoid state of life within the Washington. D.C., beltway combine to propel a near-meaningless act -- a computer disc is accidentally dropped at a gym -- into a roundelay of betrayal, law-breaking and bloody violence. This light dark comedy from the Coen brothers feels like an amuse bouche -- a tasty trifle to be popped between the filmmakers' heavier dramatic courses. (Heads are still being scratched over their last blood-soaked brooder, No Country for Old Men.) A tip-top cast keeps Burn's farcical plot afloat: Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, George Clooney and a loosey-goosey Brad Pitt. Most play this silliness straight, though John Malkovich indulges his histrionic side as the high-strung intelligence analyst who sets the whole mess a-rollin'. It's all good fun and well played, and if the ending has some loose threads, J.K. Simmons' perfect deadpan delivery will at least leave you laughing. Starts Fri., Sept. 12. (AH) [3 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

The Women

One remakes classics at one's peril, and I'm not sure we needed (or wanted) another version of Clare Booth Luce's bitchy comedy of manners, filmed in 1939 by noted "ladies' director" George Cukor. But a proposed remake has been kicked around for a decade, and now Diane English (creator of Murphy Brown) has delivered a rather tepid and pointless update. The original story may be hopelessly dated today, but beneath the archness and the outdated social mores, the work drew its power -- and its bitterness -- from depicting a necessary, if troubled sorority that sustained women in a world dominated by men. (Neither film has any male parts.) Minus that giant hindrance, The Women 2008 (brought to you by Saks, Lexus and Dove) is a wafer-thin chick flick about vapid, whiny, well-to-do women who want it all -- and get it, with seemingly little cost. Most of the drama involves shrieking over expensive consumer products, and the performances -- by Meg Ryan, Annette Bening and Candice Bergen -- are all fluffy when they should be sharp. Starts Fri., Sept. 12. (AH) [2 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

The Westmoreland surveys American painting in the 1940s -- courtesy of the old Carnegie Institute.

On the homefront, the days are beautiful and clear -- children read, farmers plow, coal-miners descend -- but everything is just a little surreal, just a little not right.

• by Sherrie Flick

You Say It's Your Birthday?

For local lefties, the city's birthday is no piece of cake

• by Chris Potter

Letters to the Editor: September 10 - 17

Feedback from our readers: South Side food fight continues.

This Just In: September 11 - 18

Highlights of the local TV news: Thumping everything except the Bible.

• by Frances Sansig Monahan

Cadillacs

A poem by Jason Irwin

Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded gets it mostly right on the environment.

Environmentalist Edward Abbey wrote, "Growth for growth's sake is the ideology of the cancer cell"; Friedman believes that with careful planning, the tumors can be benign.

• by Bill O'Driscoll

Without You

When he sings, he lets himself go, almost howling, bending his frame as if in pain, suggesting, perhaps, that that is safe territory for emotional outlet.

• by Gordon Spencer

Death of a Salesman

Who knew that Miller, way back in 1949, could predict the collapse of not just the American Dream, but America itself?

• by Ted Hoover

Brooklyn Boy

See Brooklyn Boy for its talented cast -- because they have mastered Margulies' thoughtless insults, awkward compliments, dead-end jokes and merciless silences.

• by Robert Isenberg

The Rocky Horror Show

Director Shoberg seems to lavish so much attention on production values that he neglects the needs of comic pacing.

• by Michelle Pilecki