The House Bunny
Although it’s refreshing to see Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison production company make its first female-driven comedy, The House Bunny is as skimpy as Anna Faris’ wardrobe. Orphaned as a child, the only home Shelley (Anna Faris) has ever known is the Playboy Mansion. After Hef boots her out following her 27th birthday (that’s 59 in…
The Long Shots
Based on a true story, this film about the first girl to play in a Pop Warner football super bowl is inspiring enough, I suppose. Jasmine (Keke Palmer) is the geeky bookworm that everyone at school picks on, and Curtis (Ice Cube) is her delinquent uncle living on the dole. When Curtis, a former standout…
Frozen River
First-time director and screenwriter Courtney Hunt’s somber, contemplative drama centers on Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo), a struggling mom who works part-time at a dollar store and whose gambling-addicted husband has run off two days before Christmas with the money for their house payment. While searching for her husband, Ray meets Lila Littlewolf (Misty Upham), a…
Hamlet 2
Why do so many of today’s movies start brilliantly and then go nowhere? I think they’re like certain romantic suitors: strong starters but poor finishers. The comedy Hamlet 2 is plagued by the same condition. This movie, directed and co-written by Andrew Fleming, has good ideas, among them the absurd notion of a sequel to…
Tell No One
On the eighth anniversary of his wife’s yet-unsolved murder, pediatrician Alex Beck (an excellent Francois Cluzet) begins receiving weird e-mails. After clicking a Web-cam link, Alex sees a woman in surveillance camera footage who bears an eerily uncanny resemblance to his late wife, Margot (Marie-Josée Croze). Since the police still consider him a prime suspect…
Death Race
With guns blazing, tires squealing and cameras convulsing, Paul W.S. Anderson’s Mortal Kombat-on-wheels careens onto the screen like a motorized Running Man. The plot goes something like this: In the distant future, the most popular show is the internet-broadcast Death Race, where prison inmates drive gnarly speed machines and kill each other to win back…
Around Hear: The Buzzard Has Landed
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame exhibit WMMS: A Cleveland Legend Turns 40 opens Friday, August 29. The display pays tribute to the storied radio station, which shaped FM radio. "WMMS was Cleveland radio," says Rock Hall curator Meredith Rutledge. "It really redefined what radio was, not only in Cleveland but nationally. It really…
The Beauty Of Truth
Slow down, my friend.Consider the strange and wonderful minutiae offered by our world:the ethically appropriate compensation for an egg donation from a fertile woman; a funeral for the "N" word; the story of Gerald R. Ford's funeral, organized by New Order song titles; sodden pages found on an Icelandic beach that could lead to the…
Your Complete Concert Calendar
THIS WEEK THURSDAY, AUG. 28 Col. Bruce & the Quark Alliance: 8 p.m., $10. Wilbert's, 812 Huron Rd. E., 216-902-GOOD. Infected Mushroom: $26. Metropolis, 2325 Elm St., 216-241-4007. Nas/Talib Kweli/Jay Electronica/DJ Green Lantern: 7 p.m., $37.50. House of Blues, 308 Euclid Ave., 216-523-2583 Molly Late/the Life of Me/Steve Graham: 8 p.m., $5 ADV/$8 DOS. Hi-Fi…
Whack A Rat
Tattletale, snitch, squealer, stoolie, rat. Other than whistle-blower, there aren't many positive words for somebody who passes along incriminating information about others. And nowhere has the hatred of informants been more visceral and violent than in Ireland during the "Troubles." The paranoia and fear of that time is central to the action in Defender of…
Great Expectations
CLEVELAND BROWNS NFL ¥ www.clevelandbrowns.com ¥ Cleveland Browns Stadium, 1085 W. 3rd St. Aug. 28: vs. Chicago Bears, 7:30 p.m. Last preseason game Sept. 7: vs. Dallas Cowboys, 4:15 p.m. Jessica Simpson notwithstanding, Dallas has assembled perhaps the most talented squad in the NFC, and the Browns get them the first game of the season.…
Tasty Tidbits On Dante’s, The Flying Fig, And Brennan’s Colony
"I'm not going anywhere," asserted Dante Boccuzzi when asked to confirm or deny reports that he is buying Tremont's Sage Bistro. "There's a lot of stories floating around – that I'm opening a restaurant on East Fourth Street, that I'm buying Sage. I don't even know where that place is." For proof that Boccuzzi, chef-owner…
Pass The Popcorn
Warner Bros. has been very good to conductor George Daugherty. Since he and David Ka Lik Wong created the hit concert program Bugs Bunny on Broadway in 1990 (which Daugherty conducted at Blossom with the Warner Brothers Symphony Orchestra), he’s been leading programs of cartoon music to accompany screenings of the animated shorts with orchestras…
Delta Spirit, Amy Mcdonald, And More Get Reviewed
Delta Spirit Ode to Sunshine (Rounder) Sunny/smoggy San Diego ought to be as fine a place as any to forge some folk-rock gold. With Delta Spirit, a three-year-old five-piece that sounds at turns way smaller or waaaay bigger, you have more than enough evidence. After debuting with a heartfelt 2006 EP, I Think I've Found…
Vino Vending V’easy
Like most kids, I used to get a kick out of those self-serve soda fountains at family restaurants. The notion that you could press a button and be in control of your own sugary destiny was an attraction too compelling to ignore. My tastes have changed, admittedly, but my delight in high-tech gadgetry has never…
Arts News
Air-conditioning is not the kind of thing that typically shows up in arts news, but when it means the preservation of art made by Clevelanders, it's worth a note. The board of trustees of the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve, whose business is to preserve and exhibit work by member artists of the region,…
Letters 8/27/08
SIGN WAVES Excellent job on your articles about the Clear Channel billboards of Cleveland ("Advertising Rage" and "Lovelee's View," August 13). Hopefully, more Clevelanders will read about this eyesore on our city and (even more hopefully) will feel offended by the corporation of Clear Channel. Your articles beg the question: Is it your opinion that…
Double The Devo
It's unlikely that when the members of Devo formed their arty conceptual band at Kent State University in the early '70s, they envisioned themselves as a Northeast Ohio tourist attraction. But that's what they've in essence become, as the raison d'tre for the annual DEVOtional, a fan gathering begun in Akron in 2000. This year's…
Pas De Do
After years of reeling from the demise of major companies, Cleveland's dance scene seems to be gaining strength. Local groups are adding new works and significant pieces from major companies, as well as building relationships through collaboration and, perhaps most important, through stable, experienced leadership. Consider: GroundWorks, led by David Shimotakahara, is now 10 years…
Forth Time’s The Charm
Back in the mid-'90s, when Britpop sorta mattered, it looked like Blur, Oasis and other bands from the land of bad teeth actually had a chance of taking over the world. At least it appeared that way for a couple of years. Then music fans got tired of recycled Beatles riffs and moved on to…
Smorgosbord
Fall is generally the time when the outdoor sheds start to shutter and the clubs and indoor arenas get busy. And given that some of the larger tours (Metallica!!!) are bypassing Cleveland, the club schedule looks better than ever, especially with schlock-rock like Céline Dion (!!!) and New Kids on the Block (!!!) slated for…
Col. Bruce Hampton
Col. Bruce Hampton Singer-guitaristEven though his 1971 album Music to Eat is notorious for being the second-worst-selling album in Columbia Records history, jam-band man Col. Bruce Hampton has soldiered on, playing with an array of different musicians (his current group is called the Quark Alliance) and collaborating with many of the bands he's befriended over…
Capsule Reviews
Baghead – Baghead is a clever, funny and suspenseful film about a group of low-level actors who decide to write their own movie in the hope of getting some attention. Chad (Steve Zissis) wants to use the movie to get closer to Michelle (Greta Gerwig), but Michelle has the hots for Matt (Ross Partridge), even…
Los Lonely Boys
It's been a crazy and eventful four years since Los Lonely Boys were catapulted from the security of their rabid fan base in Austin, Texas, to a largely receptive world audience after the major-label reissue of their eponymous debut album. With their Epic contract, the brothers Garza (Henry on guitar, JoJo on bass, Ringo on…
There Will Be Blood
The real bloodletting began with a malicious stake to the heart on November 6, 1995. And it continued virtually unabated through circumstance and incompetence for a decade. When the Steelers lacerated the Dawg Pound faithful last September, it seemed all that was left for those with Orange and Brown coursing through their veins was to…
Local Disc Reviews
The Deacons Evolution of a Soul (self-released) www.thedeacons.us Evolution of a Soul, the Deacons' debut, incorporates soul, jazz, R&B and a little old-school funk. "Homeboy" is a seven-minute instrumental introduction to an album filled with dazzling guitar riffs, classy jazz boards and cool sax solos topped with inspirational vocals. "Talk About It," "Mamma Told Me…
A September To Remember
Around Labor Day, the local art world enters the on-ramp to fall with a burst of speed. But this year the pace is a little different. Challenging, energetic shows and events (the Ingenuity Festival, exhibits of Matt Dibble's paintings at Tregoning Fine Art, prints by Darren Waterston and Karen Kunc at Kokoon Fine Art in…
Resolute
March 20, 2003. American troops were roaring through Iraq, just hours into the invasion. In Washington, Republicans were preparing some shock and awe of their own, popping corks and congratulating each other on what seemed then like two sure, decisive victories: over Saddam Hussein and over those damn Democrats. So they introduced a resolution that…
Warhorsing And Foaling Around
In their fall runs for both box-office and critical roses, local theaters seem to be splitting their programming bets between proven champions and neophyte maidens. (In the-sport-of-kings parlance, "maiden" is the term for either a filly or colt who has yet to win a race.) It's the old warhorses, however, who by far outnumber the…
Full Of Hot Air
Sean Casten has for years been peering into the abyss that is energy consumption in the United States. And for years he's been nagged by the opportunities that drift away – through the staggering amount of heat that escapes out of the nation's industrial smokestacks every day. Casten, now the president and CEO of Chicago-based…
The State Of The Individual Artist
Look ahead to the coming arts season, as Scene writers have done on the following pages, and you'll find one organization after another that got a boost in the last year from the cigarette tax. The biggest pool of funds was distributed, as planned, in the form of operating support for organizations. Seventy-two of them…
Still Cool For Cats
Few new-wave power-pop bands had as much going for them as Squeeze. Chris Difford's textured deep-register vocals resonated below Glenn Tilbrook's smooth pop croon with an astoundingly cool chemistry. Squeeze's blend of guitars and synthesizers epitomized new wave's fun essence. Furthermore, Difford's insidiously clever lyrics integrated seamlessly with songwriting partner Tilbrook's infectiously hummable melodies, exceptionally…
Landscaping
There's lots of landscape on the way from Cleveland to Oberlin's Firelands Association for the Visual Arts (FAVA). Unless you're transported there in a blindfold, you get to see a characteristic range of Rust Belt scenery: Battered inner-ring and downtown real estate sinks below the surreal swoops and long slow curves of the interstate. If…
The Sounds Heard ’round The World
It's a sequence of events that shouldn't go unnoticed: East Cleveland's Shaw High School Marching Band is just back from a pre-Olympic trip to China, during which they took their mega-dose of East Cleveland style over to where all the plastic widgets are made. And slightly less remarkably, the Cleveland Orchestra is about to conclude…
Days Of Dominance, Finch, And More
Days of Dominance Hatebreed at Peabody's on Wednesday, September 3 After Wednesday's show at Peabody's, Hatebreed will sign copies of its new DVD, Live Dominance. The band's first video release captures a bloodletting 2008 concert from Detroit, and it commemorates a run that's 13 years strong. The personal touch has helped the band grow from…
Pulp Friction
Adapted from Yank novelist Harlan Coben's 2001 best seller (six million copies sold in 27 languages), the diabolically crafty French-language thriller Tell No One manages to be quintessentially Gallic while still retaining the best and pulpiest qualities of American dime-store fiction. Considering the source material, it's a bit of a surprise Hollywood didn't beat director/co-writer…
Undercover Brother
In the opening scene of Traitor, Jeffrey Nachmanoff's thriller about a devoted Muslim who struggles to keep his violent tendencies in check, a young boy witnesses his father die in a horrifying car bomb. Flash forward to the present day, and that boy is now Samir Horn (Don Cheadle), a multilingual entrepreneur who sells detonators…
Culture Jamming: Hellraisers
TOP PICK Black Sabbath: The Rules of Hell (Rhino) This five-CD box includes all four albums Ronnie James Dio made with the legendary rockers: Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules, Live Evil and Dehumanizer. Ozzy may have rode the highway to hell with Sabbath, but it was Dio – with his devil-horn hand signs and larynx-shredding…
Get Out!
Thursday 8.28 1920s APPETIZERS Throughout her life, high-society doyenne Gertrude Seiberling drooled over plates of prunes stuffed with cream cheese. That's why the wife of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company's co-founder, Franklin, made the hors d'oeuvre a staple at her sumptuous parties in the couple's Akron mansion back in the day. You can try them…
Hamalot
WHY DO SO MANY of today's movies start brilliantly and then go nowhere? I think they're like certain romantic suitors: strong starters but poor finishers. Take this summer's Hancock, whose premise – reluctant superhero messes up everything he tries – was so attractively original. But after a promising first lap, the movie lurched abruptly into…
