Film review: Broken City

Here’s the deal. There are three key pieces of information that roll up in Broken City’s first three scenes: Billy Taggart (Wahlberg), a New York cop, shoots and kills a suspect he’s chasing; a judge decides the district attorney’s office doesn’t have sufficient evidence to bring charges against Taggart; Mayor Nicholas Hostetler (Crowe) and the police commissioner congratulate Taggart on beating the rap, and he’s forced to resign.

ARTS Pick: Rosalie Riegle

Author Rosalie Riegle has collected the stories of over 75 peace-seekers in her book Doing Time for Peace: Resistance, Family, and Community, and details the actions of conscientious objectors, faith-based activists, and other pacifists and the resulting consequences of their decisions to oppose participation in armed conflicts, often resulting in prison terms.

The intermittent trajectory of brilliant drone duo Grand Banks

Grand Banks might be one of Charlottesville’s best-kept secrets. The duo of guitarist Davis Salisbury and keyboardist/singer Tyler Magill have been playing together for over 10 years, yet its discog-
raphy amounts to a handful of CD-Rs, and performances and recordings can go on hiatus for years at a time. But when Grand Banks gets together, dedicated followers anticipate some of the most transcendent, satisfying musical experiences around.

ARTS Pick: Donna the Buffalo

With its tenth album in the works, Donna the Buffalo’s staying power is a testament to its intrepid spirit, prolific output, and ardent following.

On the clock: Whole Theater leads a 24-hour blitz to benefit Live Arts

“24/7 (2013) flips the paradigm,” Ray Nedzel said, noting that actors and writers typically audition and submit works to critical producers. “24/7 guarantees that new work will be produced, that actors will land their roles. The artists, in turn, commit completely, “and they do it with conviction, guts and expertise each time.”

ART Picks: The Country Wife

William Wycherley’s Restoration farce, The Country Wife, offers a plethora of lewd puns, lascivious innuendo, and outright ribaldry in a classically structured, three-fold plot as it plays out the stories of rakish Harry Horner and his ambitious plans to bed as many of London’s finest ladies as possible with a devious angle.

Film review: Zero Dark Thirty

The torture debate detracts from a different critical narrative; imagine how we’d howl if the movie whitewashed that part of America’s recent past. But forget the politics. This is a movie. As a piece of drama, Zero Dark Thirty is a marvel.