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News
Residents are hoping that revitalization plans will spark new interest in Troy Hill
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Features
A U.S. Attorney's tenure may be winding down ... but the controversy surrounding her will linger
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News
Duquesne faculty wants 'no criticism' section stricken from handbook
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News
Regional gay volleyball tournament hits city
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News
The risk of focusing on individual reduction efforts is that we'll lose sight of the urgency of getting off fossil fuels entirely.
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Dining Reviews
The setting and atmosphere evokes a country B&B, but the food is sophisticated and urbane.
- by Angelique Bamberg and Jason Roth
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On The Side
Local honey is the buzz, in a new book and start-up beekeeping project
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Signal to Noise
"Well, lemme see what I can do. Go Steelers."
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Music Features
"The way the parts interlock makes them seem complex, but we're not a math-rock band -- it's not written to be difficult."
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Music Features
"I would love for Billy Bob Thornton to play me."
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Music Features
"A customer would come in and say, you know, 'Do you have that Hidalgo movie?' and I'd run to the back and call my cell phone, leave myself a message, singing that."
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Music Features
"Only in music does it have a negative connotation to work on different projects."
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Movie Reviews + Features
An astrophysicist (Nicolas Cage) comes across a sheet of number which he believes show exactly when and where the world will end. Alex Proyas' new apocalyptic thriller has a lot important numbers in it, but what's lacking is logic. That makes Knowing an intermittently entertaining swirl of poorly defined characters, half-baked ideas, in-your-face special effects and yes, numbers -- all in search of a coherent solution. Proyas clearly hoped to make a thriller buttressed with some thought, and the film flirts with a variety of philosophies and tactics that man uses to assign order to the confounding universe. But Knowing gets its story in a big muddle (I'm still not sure why it all happened the way it did), and gives us stock characters whose illogical behavior is papered over by the hurtling plot before culminating in a really, really bad ending. Bad as in cheesy, dreadfully acted, head-scratching (is that a bunny?), silly-looking ... The scene is supposed to be uplifting, but all it did was move this maddeningly mixed-up movie into the canon of Bad But Kinda Fun. (AH) [2 out of 4 stars]
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Movie Reviews + Features
The second half of Steven Soderbergh's two-part bio-feature on Ernesto "Che" Guevara continues to downplay the heroic myth. In 1966, Guevara (a compelling Benicio Del Toro) secretly left Cuba for Bolivia, where he hoped to lead the poor peasants in an armed overthrow of the government. The film hunkers down for a year in the mountains with Guevara and his increasingly beleaguered rebels, where the narrative is often dull or scattered. Yet, in the final 45 minutes, Soderbergh, after lurking in the woods of earnest dogma, reaches for more conventional, and entertaining, filmmaking. The lengthy final stand-off in the forest between Guevara's few compadres and Bolivian soldiers is shot intimately, nearly at ground level. Whereas previously, such long sequences of confused silence and inaction frustrated, here the same narrative murkiness effectively underscores how a decisive moment -- Guevara and his exported revolution have failed -- transpired with a pathetic banality. Che is one of those films that has "deeply personal project" stamped all over it, and while it's not a total success, it's certainly an interesting experience. Soderbergh has swung for the fences, but it would seem his ideals -- demythologizing Che, eschewing the bio-pic mold, choosing "reality" over plot or emotional hooks -- have made Che a nutritious if flavorless dose of movie-making rather than a tasty, fulfilling platter of engaging cinema. In some English, and Spanish, with subtitles. Part 1: The Argentine, continues through Thu., March 26. Part 2: Guerrilla starts Fri., March 27. Harris (AH) [2.5 out of 4 stars]
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Movie Reviews + Features
Two former spies -- a CIA agent (Julia Roberts) and an ex-MI6 man (Clive Owen) -- match wits, while working as intelligence officers for two corporations, each headed by ego-driven, highly competitive CEOs (Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti). An entertaining peek behind the curtain at big, nasty mega-bucks companies is just what the doctors ordered these days, and despite all the underhandedness our two handsome leads display, you'll root for the individual to triumph over the boardroom. Tony Gilroy's romantic corporate-espionage caper, set primarily in New York City, unfolds in a nonlinear fashion, with sojourns in several high-class European hotels. Roberts and Owen hardly break a sweat at the back-and-forth barbed banter necessary to keep this highly-unlikely-in-real-life plot afloat, but really, this film is not a meal -- just a better seasoned pretzel. You'll twist, turn, twist some more, and then, just when you reckon you know who's zooming who -- twist again! (AH) [2.5 out of 4]
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Movie Reviews + Features
After becoming gigantic in a hit-and-run with a meteorite, ordinary gal Susan (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) joins the ranks of the military's super-secret monster squad. When an alien attacks Earth, Susan and her cohorts, who include a brainy cockroach, a blob, the missing link and a huge grub, come to the rescue in this animated feature from Conrad Vernon and Rob Letterman. It's a brightly colored, tongue-in-cheek update of 1950s B-flicks, combining both supersized mutants and outer-space invaders. Younger kids may find the story a trifle confusing (and wordy), but there's a lot of silly jokes and the visuals are great fun. (I also tip my hat to the awesome sounds, especially the icky noise the army of squid-aliens makes.) The "monsters" are way more cute than fearsome, with the translucent, one-eyed blue blob (voiced by Seth Rogen) stealing the show. The film screens in 3-D in select theaters, and the eye-popping animation is probably worth the journey and the goofy glasses. Starts Fri., March 27. (AH) [2.5 out of 4 ]
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Art Reviews + Features
As the titular question mark suggests, the road to legal freedom was a long and crooked one, full of detours, switchbacks and dead ends.
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Art Reviews + Features
His trip was contemplation, and the pleasant surprise.
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This Just In
Highlights from the local TV news: Students gone bad!
- by Frances Sansig Monahan
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Dispatches from the blogosphere: Ravenstahl "Pittsburgh's own version of George W. Bush"
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Potter's Field
Young people enter local politics ... but to what end?
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Chapter and Verse
A poem by Bruce Reisner
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Book Reviews + Features
Satrapi's gift is illuminating history and revealing cultures in simple ways.
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Theater Reviews + Features
With performances like these, you could almost believe this is a perfect play.
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Theater Reviews + Features
Brilliantly, Vogel reminds us that such behavior cannot be simplified.
Spotlight Events
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Tue., May 21
- 1 going/interested
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Mondays-Fridays. Continues through May 24
