What's Up, Chuck?

Duquesne faculty, students say Dougherty making big decisions without input

• by Chris Young

Silent Film

Labor lawyer stars in controversial documentary -- just don't ask him about it

• by Kate Giammarise

School Choices

North Siders say closing one school could affect others

• by Lauren Daley

Mixed Results

Outcomes differ for defendants who interrupted Onorato event

• by Marty Levine

Hot Franks

Hotdogs are just the beginning at this Strip District eatery.

• by Aaron Jentzen

Chen's

Despite a charming old-school design, this Chinese restaurant's food proves disappointing

• by Angelique Bamberg and Jason Roth

A Conversation with Magik Markers' Pete Nolan

"I remember how our friend Dumpster-dived some reels and there ended up being some P-Diddy shit on there."

• by Andrew McKeon

Maree Gallagher works behind the scenes on behalf of local musicians

"It makes many artists uncomfortable to self-promote."

• by Andy Mulkerin

Jazz drummer Allison Miller's all-star project plays Club Café Tuesday

"Over the years I've realized I have to make my own music and do my own thing as well because if I don't, I'm not spiritually fulfilled."

• by Mike Shanley

Louisville psychedelic rockers Phantom Family Halo visit new Bloomfield venue

"Fear, love, life, death, calm, horror, beauty, euphoria -- all those things fall in there too. It's my personal therapy through sound."

• by Aaron Jentzen

Local band The Ceiling Stares releases debut cassette EP at Gooski's

"My old bands' CDs -- I've used them as coasters, used them to scrape the ice off my car."

• by Andy Mulkerin

Port O'Brien brings haunted melodies to Mr. Small's, opening for Portugal. The Man

"When I was falling, there were a few seconds there when I was thinking, 'Alright, I've had my time.'"

• by Justin Jacobs

Green Zone

If the Iraq war had never happened, Green Zone might have been a serviceable and entertaining action thriller. It's a fast-paced romp, featuring standard heroes and villains, vicariously made exciting with documentary techniques, and semi-serious with geo-political intrigue. Loosely adapting Rajiv Chandrasekaran's book about the first year of the U.S. occupation, Paul Greengrass creates a movie-ready tale out of one specific aspect -- the fruitless search for weapons of mass destruction. The tale's hero is Roy Miller (Matt Damon), an Army chief warrant officer, searching out WMDs. In theory, Green Zone should play to Greengrass' strengths. He made his bones shooting in war zones, and has delivered both docu-dramas adapted from real crises (Bloody Sunday, United 93), as well as two hyperkinetic episodes of the Bourne spy-thriller series. But Green Zone simply doesn't work as a docu-action hybrid. I tried to watch it simply as a thriller, but was undone by Greengrass appending too much reality. Knowing everything we know now, it's awkward to embrace a series of catastrophic policy blunders as "edge-of-your-seat entertainment," the colorful backdrop for a fantasy action hero to get his easy morality on. In English, and some Arabic, with subtitles. (Al Hoff) [2.5 out of 4 stars] 

• by Al Hoff

Our Family Wedding

In Rick Famuyiwa's rom-com, Lucia Ramirez (America Ferrera) and Marcus Boyd (Lance Gross) come home from college and spring their engagement on their families. They have just three weeks before Marcus heads to Laos to volunteer as a doctor, and Lucia's family doesn't yet know that she has dropped out of law school to go with him. As the mad dash to plan a wedding begins, the Mexican-American and African-American families clash. Comedic (though predictable and at times overkilled) chaos ensues, led by dueling dads: family man Miguel Ramirez (Carlos Mencia) and ladies' man Bradford Boyd (Forest Whitaker). "Our marriage, their wedding" quickly becomes the mantra of Lucia and Marcus as their families' craziness takes over. This movie is a lot like wedding cake: It's a nice touch, but if you get too much, you might get a little sick. (Lauren Daley) [2 out of 4 stars]

• by Lauren Daley

CP's hired-gun cover artists get their day in the sun -- and in a gallery -- at the Toonseum.

"I decided, 'You know, I'm an illustrator, and that's what I'm gonna do.'"

• by Bill O'Driscoll

Selling Pittsburgh Short

Morgan Stanley finds few buyers on council

• by Chris Potter

This Just In: March 18 - 25

Highlights from the local TV news: Tattoo You -- Everybody Else

• by Frances Sansig Monahan

Local comics artists Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca pay homage to blaxploitation with Afrodisiac.

The book's array of styles -- '50s pulp, '70s Marvel, '80s manga -- is hyperkinetic.

• by Bill O'Driscoll

Acclaimed poet and best-selling novelists visit Pittsburgh.

The writers’ series takes a second stab at assessing the future of poetry with two emerging names in the field.

• by CP Staff

Valu-Mart

This is an immensely satisfying work of theater, and there's not a second you don't feel trapped in the break room with these richly drawn characters and questioning your own assumptions.

• by Ted Hoover

The Price

Tracy Brigden again shows, in a different venue, that her insight as a director remains in place, bringing out the best of these talents.

• by Gordon Spencer

Short List: Week of March 18 - 25