Arts & Entertainment
No Doubt, "Tragic Kingdom" (1995)
“Only 16?” As if, Gwen. I was only eight when I first tuned into MTV’s Top 10 Countdown to watch the “Just a Girl” video, pulling the bottom of my t-shirt through the neck hole and sporting a hand-drawn dot in the center of my forehead. Sure, she was just a girl.
Pure Blitz
It’s Blitz!, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ first full-length album in three years, delivers listeners the band’s brand new sound — one that trades meaty guitar riffs and guttural yelps for a synthesizer and disco backbeats.
Can you (Pan)handle This?
Flo Rida’s latest release, R.O.O.T.S, rides the popular flow of his debut album, 2008's Mail on Sunday, by essentially remaking it and streamlining his schema for success.
Living Thingle
With Seaside Rock (2008), Peter Bjorn and John seemed to experience the writer’s block that inspired the title of their much-loved first album.
Look Who’s Talking
Smaller than a stick of gum and serving the dual function of tie-clip and 4GB mp3 player, Apple’s new talking iPod Shuffle ($79) is both elegant and understated.
Revelation at the Rotunda
Last Sunday at the Rotunda, the ghosts were out — and they were playing with distortion pedals and tape machines.
The Games People Play
Any will girl will tell you “it’s all about playing the game.” In A Game For Girls, director Matteo Rovere showcases the lives of four beautiful, wealthy Italian high school girls and the sinister tricks they play on others.
Bumping Cars
Have you ever wondered why amusement park employees subject themselves to a summer of bumper cars and corn dogs?
The Rural Jurors
12 sets the tale of the 1957 classic 12 Angry Men in crooked modern-day Moscow. The 12 titular jurors must decide the fate of a young Chechen boy accused of murdering his stepfather.
Guilty Pleasure: Ella Enchanted (2004)
Giants, ogres and elves… oh my! I thought I’d outgrown fairy tales, but when Ella Enchanted, the film version of my favorite childhood novel, came to theaters, I was instantly, well, charmed.
We’ll Love You Forever, We’ll Like You For Always
Sideways Stories from Wayside School Louis Sachar’s loopy series revolving around a 30-story elementary school has the perfect blend of wacky characters and winning story lines to translate onto the big screen.
Questions for the Answer Man
Street: So, much to my excitement, The Answer Man is noticeably set in Philadelphia. How did you make the decision to shoot in our city and what do you feel it brought to the film?
The Best of the Philadelphia Film Festival
The Answer Man The Answer Man has the trappings of a great movie: a Philadelphia set, an excellent cast and a topical conceit that pokes fun at those who think they know all.
The Best Songs For Living the Life
Best Song for Eating Alone in Commons Backstreet Boys, “Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely” So you’re still on the Penn Dining plan and it’s getting harder to give out those Moocher Meals.
Two Lovers Make Civil Hands Unclean
Carefully spaced family photographs line a wall of Leonard’s parent’s apartment. Tracing many generations of his traditional Italian family, they soon come to represent confinement.
Paging Pixar
In the seminal case of Monsters vs. Aliens, an enormous woman battles googly-eyed antagonists from outer space.
Defibrillator: A Streetcar Named Desire
It’s hard to imagine Marlon Brando as anyone other than the notorious Godfather. But before he was Don Corleone, Brando turned in a riveting performance as Stanley in Elia Kazan’s A Streetcar Named Desire, based on the play by Tennessee Williams. The film follows Blanche (Vivien Leigh), who arrives on her sister Stella’s doorstep claiming to be suffering a nervous breakdown.
Before Sunrise: A Tryst Gone Right
Act One Film Buff: Wow, I love your posters. Capra and Lynch, such an unusual mix.(1) Seducer: I almost put up my poster of The Third Man, signed by Orson Welles, but it’s much too valuable. Film Buff: [clearly impressed] Seducer: I rented a few films — Requiem for a Dream, The Bicycle Thief and A Woman Under the Influence— but I’m going to leave the final choice up to you.
How To Seduce A Film Buff
Step 1: Put up posters of films by under-appreciated directors. Purchase coffee table books on film noir, Italian neoRealism and cinéma vérité. Explain that your usual arts-haus indie theatre has been closed for inventory the recession, otherwise you would have met there.
