Crisis Resolution?

North Point Breeze neighbors take issue with the zoning of a new crisis center

• by Adam Fleming

The Cultural Trust reprises its Festival of Firsts.

It's staged in Shadyside's cavernous Ellis School Armory -- with timed admissions for one patron at a time to a labyrinth full of performers.

• by Bill O'Driscoll

Tempt fate this fall concert season

As the man says, "Surrender to Jonathan."

• by Aaron Jentzen

Fall Film Guide

• by Al Hoff

Downtown: After a week, the new Downtown bus station still doesn't look, smell like a bus station

• by Robert Isenberg

Notable non-canonical plays dominate fall stages.

The Pittsburgh Public Theatre has staged every episode of Wilson's cycle, from Gem of the Ocean to King Hedley II, but the saga's final installment makes the vision complete.

• by Robert Isenberg

Human Rights: Torture survivor to tell his story during conference

• by Marty Levine

From tango to Dirty Little Secrets, Orwell to Gatsby, it's a full slate of fall dance.

Attack Theatre takes audience participation to another level in [Insert Clever and Thought-Provoking Title Here], Oct. 31, Nov. 1 and 3 at the New Hazlett Theater.

• by Steve Sucato

Environment: Proposed alert network would provide needed river monitoring

• by Adam Fleming

Education: Pittsburgh schools trying to get away from race-based admissions

• by Chris Young

Highlights from the season's upcoming literary offerings.

Scratch your head, laugh and realize you're in the company of a wildly educated and painfully clever word-nerd when you go see Pulitzer-winning Paul Muldoon.

• by Melissa Meinzer

Social commentary is big on the season's visual-art scene.

The show finds artists and architects exploring the "physical and social complexities" of a suburbia that's grown beyond tract housing and picket fences.

• by Bill O'Driscoll

Fall Arts Highlights

It's Greek to Me

A cozy stop for feasting on Mediterranean favorites

• by Angelique Bamberg and Jason Roth

Tomato-rama

• by Melissa Meinzer

Local music scene organizers Barack the vote.

"This campaign has done a great job in getting young people excited about politics again, and not taking voting for granted."

• by Manny Theiner

New Music ensemble IonSound Project gives first "in residence" concert at Pitt

"Composers can hit them with almost anything, and they can deal with it."

• by Aaron Jentzen

Chris Ryan & Chicken! releases lo-fi CD The City Has Teeth

The songs are often about relations between people and living in the city, and of course occasionally about drinking whiskey.

• by Andy Mulkerin

The name has changed, but Bill Callahan's Americana gut-punches remain

"I will drive a car that runs on carrots, I will buy life jackets for polar bears, I will do anything I can to stop the end of the world."

• by Chris Parker

Local band Cry Fire debuts with radio-friendly Strangers

Nathaniel Minto's vocals are notably strong, a fact that likely adds to the band's mainstream appeal.

• by Andy Mulkerin

Voices and Organs' sound collages plumb fictional childhoods

At times, the songs fall apart; at others, they are so melodic as to resemble a lullaby.

• by Andy Mulkerin

Lakeview Terrace

In almost every way, this is a pretty typical Sam Jackson movie. He's intense. He's furious. He's armed like an octopus. But this time, Jackson is a Los Angeles police officer, driven to tormenting his neighbors, mixed race couple Kerry Washington and Patrick Wilson -- and his director is Neil LaBute, the brutalist playwright/filmmaker (Your Friends and Neighbors), hiring himself out for a Hollywood hack job. And, for about 90 minutes, before it plummets into one of those cowardly endings, Lakeview as tight, absorbing and trenchant as a commercial thriller can get. This could have been a thoughtful little movie about race and urban culture without the rogue cop ploy. LaBute makes movies about people who are uncomfortable in their own skins, and Lakeview makes his metaphor literal. (HK) [2.5 out of 4 stars]

• by Harry Kloman

Greetings From Pittsburgh

Neighborhood Narratives

• by Al Hoff

Righteous Kill

You don't serve two hams at one dinner, but that's exactly what Jon Avnet does in his bad-cop thriller Righteous Kill. Actually, the cured meat in question -- stars Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, goofin' on their reps -- is about all that makes this outing palatable. The pulpy plot concerns the NYPD and some vigilante killings, but the set-up, and just about every other clue and red herring, in Righteous is too obvious. Despite the promise of a mystery, it shouldn't take long to guess how it will play out. Clearly, Righteous' big attraction is the pairing of DeNiro and Pacino, over the last decade, both actors have tread so much water and chewed so much scenery that it's hard to read their trumpeted partnership here as anything other than a couple of old half-hearted hacks, laughing all the way to the bank. (AH) [2 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

Ghost Town

It's a new riff on a familiar comedic plot: Troublesome ghosts enlist the living in order to tidy up the loose ends left hanging when they were suddenly whisked off this mortal coil. The pesky specter in David Koepp's comedy is Frank (Greg Kinnear), a well-to-do philanderer who needs a warm body to prevent his widow, Gwen (Téa Leoni), from re-marrying. Unfortunately, the mortal he enlists – peevish, anti-social dentist Bertram (Ricky Gervais) – is the worst man for the job – and thus, it's all very amusing for us. The film's first half has quite a few laughs: Gervais is marvelously adept at playing hilariously awkward, petty clueless sorts, and he even lets us glimpse the little sad man underneath, when inevitably Bertram falls for Gwen. But, subplots about other needy ghosts clutter up the story, and the film's headlong tumble into gooey sentimentality winds up trading gags for Hallmark moments. Starts Fri., Sept. 19. (AH) [2.5 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

Kenny

This day-in-the-life account of Kenny, a cheerful, hard-working Australian supplier of porta-potties, may be the most heartwarming mockumentary I've ever seen. It's also screamingly funny. But this family affair – brother Shane and Clayton Jacobsen wrote the script; Clayton directs and Shane stars as Kenny -- brings massive amounts of dignity to Kenny's poo-pumping job, or "trade," as he insists it is. The film never laughs at Kenny, and serves as a smart reminder about – if you'll excuse the pun – not pissing on working-class folk from on high. (Because he's so funny I forgive Kenny's profane dad [played by Ronald Jacobsen, the filmmakers' real-life dad] for constantly belittling his son's occupation.) It's Kenny's deadpan, matter-of-fact throwaway observations on his underappreciated work – "there's another classic example of someone having a two-inch arsehole and us having installed only one-inch piping" -- that'll have you laughing, but still lovin' the big-hearted plumber. In English, with subtitles, for those with no ear for Aussie accents. Starts Fri., Sept. 19. Harris (AH) [3 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

Transsiberian

An American couple – Roy (Woody Harrelson) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer) – opt to return from China on board the fabled Trans-Siberian Express. Roy's a rail-geek and falls easily into the low-rent camaraderie of the train. But, Jessie, more worldly, is troubled by their dubious young bunkmates, one of whom confesses to a bit of smuggling. Director Brad Anderson sets up a decent thriller-on-a-train – the snowy vastness outside the window, the shabby, claustrophobic interior, the whiff of danger mingles with a hint of sexual intrigue, an unexpected accident. Plus, we meet a Russian cop (Ben Kingsley) in the prologue, who is sure to surface again. Unfortunately, it all builds to a last reel that is truly off the rails – a strenuous bit of action-flick silliness seriously at odds with the more low-key, psychological thriller that precedes it. Kingsley, though, has a nice turn as the cop, and the scenery is lovely. Too bad Anderson, who also directed 2004's The Machinist, couldn't trust his narrative set-up to play out more naturally. Starts Fri., Sept. 19. Manor (AH) [2.5 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

At The Framery, Nikki Sixx meets Tiffany -- or does he?

Rounded beads of baby blue, Milk of Magnesia pink, crème de menthe green explode from rusty orifices to brighten the day, let the sunshine in, and generally turn that frown upside down.

• by Lissa Brennan

This Just In: September 18 - 25

Highlights from the local TV news: Black-and-gold colors that really don't run.

• by Frances Sansig Monahan

Quiet Desperation

Have we heard the last from Pat Ford?

• by Chris Potter

The author of a wrenching book on pre-Roe adoptions screens her film in progress.

"Every woman described it as the most traumatic and life-changing event they ever experienced."

• by Melissa Meinzer

The Story

The Story is raw, razor-edged and (dare I say it?) fun in a way that exercises rather than insults your brain.

• by Michelle Pilecki

Wicked

This show features knock-out performances by every member of the cast, and the entire production is the most lavishly outfitted tour I've ever seen: breathtaking sets, lights and costumes.

• by Ted Hoover

Dorothy 6

Dorothy is peopled with solid, real portraits of stricken steelworkers.

• by Michelle Pilecki

Pittsburgh Project Remix captures a vanishing past in everyday people's stories, on stage.

"So often when I tell people these stories I hear exclamations like, 'Oh my god that's my grandfather!' or 'That happened to my parents too!'"

• by Jessica Lam

Stage performer Tim Crouch returns to the Warhol's Off The Wall series with the provocative England.

Among the show's purposes is to ironically interrogate its own title: to question the substance of "nationality."

• by Bill O'Driscoll