A Girl Cut in Two
French director Claude Chabrol (Chocolat) delivers something like a Pedro Almodovar film with this drama that finds a famous author named Charles (François Berléand) and a rich businessmen named Paul (Benoît Magimel) both vying for the attention of Gabrielle (Ludivine Sagnier), a vivacious newscaster who aspires to do more than weather forecasts. Neither suitor is…
The Lucky Ones
This low-key “dramedy” about three Iraq soldiers on leave is something of a problem child for its studio, Lionsgate, which dithered for a year over how to market an Iraq war movie to audiences who have rejected every single movie that even mentions Iraq. Iraq-phobia isn’t the movie’s only problem, however; it’s just not very…
Battle in Seattle
Ray Liotta, Woody Harrelson and Charlize Theron star in this misguided dramatization of the 1999 protests of the World Trade Organization’s meeting in Seattle. The tension in the film, which stems from the stand-off between protestors and police, is telegraphed right from the start. The drama in the documentary footage is so much more compelling…
Last Stone Signed
Last Stone Cast has signed a one-record deal with A & S Record Private Label. The Texas indie label heard good things about the Akron rock band, checked out its MySpace page and decided the group's retro pure-rock sound is in step with the times. "I feel Last Stone Cast has what it takes to…
T.i., Kings Of Leon, And More Get Graded
T.I. Paper Trail (Grand Hustle/Atlantic) Clifford "T.I." Harris welcomed mass success like a champ when his fourth album, King – more a lucky situation he was plugged into than any kind of artistic throne-grab – hit No. 1 in 2006. You could check its highlights off like a hip-hop scorecard: grand entrance ("King Back"), anthem…
Beat Back
It's no surprise that Elec Simon loves to play bucket drums like kids and homeless people do in the streets of most big cities. The Stomp cast member can't hide his enthusiasm for the DIY, recycled instrument: "I played buckets in N.Y.C. I love the bucket drums. I learned from Larry Wright, from Bring in…
Your Weekly New Release Round-up
Remember that Saturday Night Live sketch about the Gay Communist Gun Club? The gag: how unlikely it was that any person could have all the criteria to join a shoot-and-hunt group for homosexual Marxists. Substitute "Gay Muslim Liberal Theologian" and you have Muhsin Hendricks, a central figure in the documentary A Jihad for Love. The…
Through The Looking Glass
Phillip Glass at the Ohio Theatre, 8 p.m. Friday, October 3Whether you believe Philip Glass is one of the greatest composers of our time or are more likely to crack jokes about how he writes his scores with a copy machine, you can't deny that his substance comes from repetitive structures. As the joke from…
A Novel Approach
Jonathan Lethem isn't just your everyday award-winning novelist. Yes, Motherless Brooklyn, his homage to the classic detective novel, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. And yes, actor Ed Norton is in the process of turning it into a movie. And yes, The New York Times has dubbed him a "hipster celebrity." But…
Corn-fed Madness
In the pantheon of predictable similes, there are probably none more banal than this: Families are like gardens. You see, each family – even the weirdly distorted one in Buried Child, which is now playing at Convergence-Continuum – is a collective entity made up of distinct individuals. So it's just like a vegetable plot, except…
The Hero
Friday night fights at Saxon Hall in Youngstown, a catering hall that hosts more weddings than boxing matches. Undisputed world middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik is in attendance, but no one would fault a visitor for not noticing. The 11-year-old phenom on the card tonight has a bigger entourage than Pavlik. Thin, bald, clad in jeans…
Your Complete Concert Listings
THIS JUST IN AC/DC: Mon, Jan. 5. 7 p.m., $91.50 (LiveNation.com or Ticketmaster). Quicken Loans Arena. Sasha Allen: Fri., Oct. 3. Midnight, no cover. Nighttown. Sam Bush: Thu., Oct. 2. Beachland Ballroom. Stacie Collins: Sat., Oct. 18. 9:30 p.m., $5. Brother's Lounge, Dub Is a Weapon!/Umojah Nation: Tavern, Sat., Oct. 4, 10 p.m., $10. Beachland.…
Unearth
It's tough being a metalcore band these days. The term has almost become an insult, a way of dismissing a group as more interested in roiling the mosh pit than musically evolving. Unearth vocalist Trevor Phipps understands where that dismissiveness comes from. "When a certain subgenre kinda takes over as the main influence of all…
Working-class Heroes
There has always been a correlation between punk and politics. From the snarled screeds of the Sex Pistols and the working-class woes of the Clash to contemporary artists like Strike Anywhere and Paint It Black, who condemn the current administration more than R. Kelly talks about hitting the club, punk rock has always been linked…
Danny Wood
The New Kids on the Block aren't so new anymore. They aren't kids either. But their new album is called The Block. Yes, the former pinups from Boston are back after a 15-year hiatus. Reportedly, fans are flocking to arenas throughout the country to see if the New Kids, who are creeping toward middle-age, still…
High School Musical
TORONTO – Director Peter Sollett (Raising Victor Vargas) grew up in the New York City neighborhood where Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, a book about two music-obsessed teenagers who meet in less-than-ideal circumstances, is set. So it's natural that he'd want to direct the film based upon the popular novel by Rachel Cohn and David…
Naan Better
Have you ever noticed that most Indian restaurants in town feature the exact same menu? Apart from the prices, which seem to be adjusted for neighborhood, interior design and portion size, there is little to differentiate one restaurant from another. If ethnic dining is all about discovery and adventure, why are we compelled to order…
If You Don’t Have Anything Nice To Say …
Thanks for printing the story about The Plain Dealer/Donald Rosenberg debacle ("What Part of Critic Don't They Understand?", September 24). This is clearly a censorship/integrity issue, regardless of the varied opinions of Rosenberg's work. Cleveland deserves an explanation from PD Editor Susan Goldberg as to who or what pressured her into removing Rosenberg as critic…
Mo, Me And Pierogi
On a weekday afternoon after practice, less than seven days before the start of training camp, Mo Williams sits at a worn table at Sokolowski's University Inn, surrounded by a gluttonous feast in full-court press. Pierogi, stuffed cabbage, potato pancakes, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and kielbasa are splayed in front of the Cavs' new point guard,…
Get Out!
Wednesday 10.1 FACE OF YOUR FEAR After Katie Lane gets done with you at one of her Face of Your Fear workshops this month, you'll look like an extra from Night of the Living Dead. But you don't need Lane to turn into a zombie on Halloween night; the Fairview Park native says the best…
Culture Jamming: Return Of The Jedi
TOP PICK Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Cartoon Network) The animated movie that launched this new weekly TV series (which premieres at 9 p.m. Friday) wasn't too good. But that's partly because Obi-Wan and Anakin's adventures seemed padded over 100 minutes. It works better in 22-minute chunks. And the small screen actually suits the CGI,…
No Gimmicks Required
If there EVER was a box set that deserved the title of "definitive collection," this salute to Roy Orbison – easily one of the rock era's bonafide originals – would be it. The 107-song, career-spanning collection, The Soul of Rock And Roll, begins with Orbison's earliest recordings with the Teen Kings, including the raw urgency…
The Blame Bubble
Recently, Kevin O'Brien of The Plain Dealer wrote an opinion piece making some observations about the current financial crisis. It was, in a word, startling. After admitting that he doesn't know much about finance, he proceeded to assess blame for the current crisis, without once using the word deregulation. That's like trying to talk about…
Tidbits Of Foodie News
Anthony Vicente, a Michelin-star chef from France, has been quietly working in the pantry department at Fire Food & Drink (13220 Shaker Sq., 216.921.3473, firefoodanddrink.com) over the past few months. He is biding his time and brushing up on his English until his new restaurant debuts on Lee Road. Set in the former home of…
Arts News
The theater season began with a stumble for several local companies, including one literal case. Cesear's Forum has "suspended" its production of Edward Albee's Marriage Play due to a) an actor being fickle, b) an actor being so impoverished that he has to work for the highest bidder, c) "contractual vicissitude" or d) all of…
Local Disc Reviews
Kev Blaze Smoke N Blaze (Blue Image Entertainment) myspace.com/blazesings Kev Blaze survived the collapse of a major-label record deal to issue his long-delayed debut, Smoke N Blaze. But deduct two points for his boasting about blending R&B and hip-hop like it's something new. And deduct another three for the same-ol' subject matter – nobody cares…
Your Weekly Concert Picks
Pop Perfectionists Pinback at 9 p.m. Wednesday, October 8 at the Grog Shop San Diego's Pinback – multi-instrumentalist producers Rob Crow and Armistead Burwell Smith IV – features two of indie rock's most innovative musical architects who've constructed opulent albums with titles like Summer in Abbadon and Nautical Antiques. The songs are as complexly structured…
Are You There God? It’s Us, Cleveland
Dear Jesus, please smite Sam Miller. In case you've been too busy with hurricanes and anguished bankers to stay current on Cleveland news, let me get you up to speed. Last week, we learned that the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer Board paid Sunrise Development $1.55 million for some contaminated land that the company had purchased…
Mass Appeal
The guys in the politically oriented punk band Rise Against remember where and when they were when they heard the results of the last presidential election. They were on tour with Bad Religion, another act that wears its lefty impulses on its sleeve, and had just finished playing a show in Toronto when they got…
Labors Of Love
The words "art" and "hard work" aren't often used in close association, yet just about every artist knows what it means to sweat over the difficulties of process and expression, presentation and promotion. Then there's the fact that most artists do double-duty, working at sundry day jobs before pumping aesthetic iron during off-hours. An artists'…
Extreme Makeover
For any of us raised in Cleveland and weaned on the mythology of theater, the Hanna has always been a reason for awe and celebration. It's fueled our lives like a grand aunt who married a Ziegfeldish entrepreneur and beguiled our youth and adolescence by constantly introducing us to the creme de la creme of…
Works On Paper
"It is exactly what academia is not these days," says printmaker Claudio Orso about the Morgan Conservatory, a studio that will teach and practice the art of handmade paper, book arts, letterpress and other fine printmaking techniques. Orso has been volunteering in the DIY tasks of converting a former machine shop into an art studio:…
Capsule Reviews
All in This Tea (U.S., 2007) – Ethnographer Les Blank travels to China to explore the cultivation of tea. Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall. At 7 p.m. Friday, October 3 and 1:30 p.m. Saturday, October 4. Battle in Seattle – Ray Liotta, Woody Harrelson and Charlize Theron star in this misguided dramatization of the…
Crude
In 1992, during the final months of President George H.W. Bush's administration, Wendy Lee Gramm, was the head of the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The CFTC oversees the commodities market and applies the regulations set forth under the 1936 Commodities Exchange Act (CEA), a measure enacted by Congress to prevent another collapse on…
Fowl Play
The first zombie chicken musical splatter flick, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is as good/bad as Troma gets. With their low-rent, late-'70s porno production values, actors with more enthusiasm than talent and Ed Wood-worthy F/X, Troma movies have always been something of an acquired taste. But for anyone with an abiding passion for The…
