The Flat Line

Did Rendell's plan resuscitate PAT or just put it on life support?

• by Lauren Daley

Fast Lane

School board skips search process and promotes deputy superintendent

• by Chris Young

Feast of the Seven Fishes

• by Charlie Deitch

Woodside's Grille

An updated menu freshens up the Gilded-Age décor

• by Angelique Bamberg and Jason Roth

30-year-old DJ Bonics is using his heart attack to raise heart-health awareness

"I'm not a model of health by any means, but that definitely took me by surprise."

• by Andy Mulkerin
• Tags: Local Beat, Wiz Khalifa, Hip hop, Black and Yellow

The Clarks play their 2,000^th show and look back at some memorable gigs

"If you give a shit about your family" -- and can't take them with you -- "you can't tour."

• by Aaron Jentzen

Indie-rock trio Lemuria reveals a more complex side on the forthcoming Pebble

Upbeat but not escapist, the album contains plenty of spatial exploration, both geographic and metaphoric.

• by Andy Mulkerin

Trombone Shorty brings "supafunkrock" to the Rex Theater

Instead of eating crayons, at 3, Shorty was putting a trumpet to his lips; by 6, he was leading a band.

• by Aaron Jentzen

True Grit

Joel and Ethan Coen's film is based on the 1968 Western novel by Charles Portis, about a one-eyed cur of a U.S. marshal named Rooster Cogburn who tracks a killer into hostile Indian territory on behalf of a 14-year-old girl, who accompanies him on his perilous odyssey. John Wayne won an Oscar in the 1969 version; here, Jeff Bridges takes the saddle as Cogburn. True Grit falls somewhere in the middle of the Coen's ourvre. It's a visually gorgeous work, and the performances are absorbing. But this True Grit takes liberties. The Coens change the way some things happen while more or less ending up in the same place -- almost as if they're trying to hold the attention of people who know the story too well. If they intend here to send up Western mythology, they've done it so subtly that you'll need Cliffs Notes to discern it. This is the most Western Western we've seen in years, not naïve about how the genre has changed, but not too willing to subvert it much further. Why the Coens felt the need to re-film Portis' novel is something you'd need to ask them. But they did it, and they did it well, if un-abidingly. (Harry Kloman) [3 out of 4 stars]

• by Harry Kloman

The Fighter

Boxing stories generally end in a burst of triumph, or with a long slide to ignominy. David O. Russell's dramedy based on the real-life tale of "Irish" Micky Ward, manages to intertwine these two threads. Ward (Mark Wahlberg) is a thirtysomething, no-nonsense welterweight with just a few chances left. But his hopes are held -- and mismanaged -- by his braying manager-mom Alice (Melissa Leo) and his trainer, older half-brother Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), a former fighter who once knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard. Around working-class Lowell, the manically effervescent Dicky lives on the fumes of his past glory -- and those of the crack pipe. Thus, Ward's real struggle isn't in the ring, but in fighting his way free from the self-defeating rut that his perennially dysfunctional family keeps him in. Whether the real Ward was or not, Wahlberg plays him as low-key, even resigned, so Bale and Leo, in their loud, messy roles, dominate the film. Boxing stories are a dime a dozen, and anybody can look up how Ward actually fared during the 1980s and '90s. Russell, instead, takes most of the fight out of the ring, and into the house, forefronting a relatable story about family struggles set against a backdrop of boxing. It's a punch that lands. (Al Hoff) [3 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

How Do You Know

The writer/director James L. Brooks must spend a lot of time watching people and collecting their quirks, which he then weaves gracefully into smart, entertaining dramedies. His latest isn't his best -- it's a little too thin and contrived -- but it's better than, say, Love and Other Drugs. How Do You Know is about relationships -- between men and women, fathers and sons -- and it's delightful, as always. His comic timing is distinctive and patient, and his actors get it: Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Jack Nicholson (who worked with Brooks in As Good As It Gets), and especially Paul Rudd, who deserves a nuanced movie like this. More than usual for Brooks, he's created characters here rather than people with character, and he hurries his inevitable ending. But he's as keen an observer as ever, and his dialogue is so good that you have to hear it to appreciate it: On a blind date, George (Rudd) talks way too much, and Lisa (Witherspoon) stops him with, "Jesus! Do you know I don't know you?" You just need to be there. (Harry Kloman) [3 out of 4 stars]

• by Harry Kloman

The King's Speech

They might as well just start engraving the Oscars now -- an inspirational, real-life-story about a British royal overcoming a disability during wartime? Tom Hooper's film is a handsomely made, well-acted story that, for the most part, wins hearts by transforming a potentially mega-watt historical story into a low-key dramedy and mismatched buddy movie. Britain's Prince Albert ("Bertie" to his family) has always stammered -- and now, with the advent of radio and newsreels -- it matters. Desperate, Bertie (Colin Firth) turns to the unorthodox treatment of Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), a quirky Australian speech therapist. The film, which slyly trades on our obsession with the domestic lives of royalty, is well paced; the dialogue is lively and witty; and many respected thespians are on board. As befits the prince's unique position as one of the earliest British royals to be publically available through mass media, the prince is mostly about rigid composure. Beneath that, it's Firth who lets us read Bertie's anxiety, embarrassment and misery beneath the stiff upper lip. Starts Sat., Dec. 25. (Al Hoff) [3 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

This new holiday tale, set in Lapland, asks the eternal question: Is there really a Santa Claus? Young Pietari, who lives with his father in northern Finland, thinks that a mining company may have disturbed Santa's lair in a nearby mountain. While Pietari frets about Santa, the men of the village -- who are the kind of rough-edged, snowmobiling, reindeer-shooting Arctic Circle bad-asses Sarah Palin's Alaska can only fantasize about -- tackle a weirder problem: Somebody stole all the heaters. Jalmari Helander's film isn't your granny's Christmas charmer; it zigs, then zags, slowly revealing its dark, comedic heart. And though this tale centers on a naive child wondering about Santa, this is not a film for the kiddies. Unless, of course, your brood is into gutted reindeer, X-mas Eve profanity and dozens of old naked Finnish dudes running in the snow. But if you're fed up with holiday schmaltz, pack your sleigh -- and chain-saw -- for this entertaining, and weirdly uplifting, bit of frosty bad attitude. In Finnish, with subtitles. 7:45 p.m. Sun., Dec. 26, through Wed., Dec. 29. Oaks (Al Hoff) [2.5 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

TRON: Legacy

Way back in 1982's TRON, a video-game designer named Kevin Flynn went inside a computer to wage a death-battle with a software program. Now, in Joseph Kosinki's semi-sequel, we learn that Flynn got stuck inside "the grid," the computer-generated game-world he created. His grown son Sam (Garrett Hedlund), himself a computer-whiz smarty-pants, pops into the grid, where he in no short order: fights a laser-Frisbee game; pilots a bitchin' light-cycle; is rescued by a hottie (Olivia Wilde); and meets his dad (Jeff Bridges, reprising his role from TRON). Together, they hatch an escape plan, while being hunted by rogue software programs. The new TRON unpacks loads of digitally enhanced special effects. But not enough to make me care, or to further the story, which was both pedestrian and confusing. On the upside, Jeff Bridges can sell just about anything, including whoever he is here: a Zen-like retired code-warrior, aging-hippie genius and absent dad, with sublime tastes in sleek midcentury design? The story is mostly upbeat, but the palette is broody and dark as befits this twisted place; and the Daft Punk soundtrack is a huge improvement over Disney's usual soaring strings. In 3-D in select theaters. (Al Hoff) [2 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

At The Warhol, it's the photos that best tell Marilyn Monroe's story, from pin-up to doomed icon.

The luminescence that transformed Norma Jean into Marilyn and keeps her altars lit is on full view.

• by Lissa Brennan

This Just In: December 22 - 29

Highlights from the local TV news: A Slippy Slope

• by Frances Sansig Monahan

Gas: Dirty Like Coal?

If correct, a new study's conclusions could undermine arguments for natural gas as a "bridge fuel."

• by Bill O'Driscoll

Poet and ex-police detective Jimmy Cvetic offers dark -- and darkly funny -- tales from Pittsburgh's cops-and-robbers underworld.

Cvetic's voice is real, urgent and knowing.

• by Bill O'Driscoll

Triple Espresso

Civilians will enjoy the romp, but actors and comics may see a Kafkaesque version of themselves, and the sight ain't pretty.

• by Robert Isenberg

No amateur dancers to distract you in the sexy ballroom-dance stage show Burn the Floor.

"It is definitely sensual."

• by Steve Sucato

Short List: Week of December 23 - 30