TACO LOCO
There was some snickering when folks were telling me about a new taco joint on the South Side that was manifesting in the evenings at O’Leary’s lunch counter. “Taco Leary’s!” But it sounded right to me. I grew up in a neighborhood of Irish and Mexican immigrants where Simon’s CarnicerÃa y Burritos naturally sat next…
PITTSBURGH JEWISH ISRAELI FILM FESTIVAL
The 10th annual Pittsburgh Jewish Israeli Film Festival runs Feb. 27 through March 16. Tickets are $7.50, $6.50 for seniors and students; group rates and multi-film discounts are available. Films screen at the Loews Waterfront, in Homestead; the Regent Square Theater, in Edgewood; and the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, in East Liberty. Call 412-992-5203 for ticket info,…
DARK BLUE
As bad as we know things are in the L.A.P.D., let’s hope Ron Shelton makes things appear way worse in Dark Blue, which takes place in 1992 as a jury deliberates the fate of four cops in the beating of Rodney King, and which climaxes on the riotous day when the four are found not…
SKINS
It’s not enough to say that Chris Eyre’s Skins finds its drama amid the social decay on a South Dakota Indian reservation, for it also takes pains to place it there. Eyre opens the film with TV news-style footage of the Pine Ridge reservation, site in 1890 of the Wounded Knee massacre of more than…
THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE
With its dubious hero a capital-punishment abolitionist who’s sitting on death row, and its brooding themes of duty and remorse, The Life of David Gale is at once about as high-concept and low-gloss as Hollywood dramas get. It’s a cleverly scripted film of serious intent, but it’s so over-engineered it ends up tying itself in…
