Checking in with Jesse Dukes

What were you doing before we called? I was trying to learn the guitar part for “Surf Rider” by The Lively Ones. Tell us about your day job. I work three days a week, part-time, for the radio program “With Good Reason,” which is produced by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.   In addition […]

Capsule Reviews

2012 (PG-13, 158 minutes) It’s the end of the world as we know it, and John Cusack fees fine. Opening Friday Amelia (PG, 111 minutes) Hilary Swank embodies airborne Earhart in this fall’s hot historical epic. Read C-VILLE’s full review here. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6 The Box (PG-13, 115 minutes) Cameron Diaz and […]

Checking in with Rose Hill

What are you working on currently? An Uncle Remus mosaic mirror. What were you doing just before we contacted you? I don’t remember. From illustrating scenes from The Story of Little Black Sambo to her seen-on-“Oprah” “Little Colored Girls” plate series, Rose Hill continues to engage historical representations of African-Americans with her work. Catch her […]

Dude, where are the Coen brothers?

As an exercise in futility—a Coen-brothers-appreciation primer if ever there was one—let’s imagine what might have happened had A Serious Man been made by gentiles or, Hashem forbid, by Arabs. Under those circumstances, it might be called the most anti-Semitic film of the year. Over the line! Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg, right) goes through a […]

Hide your hamsters

“V” Tuesday 8pm, ABC One of my earliest TV memories is watching that lady alien devour a hamster whole on the original version of “V” from the 1980s. (My parents also let me watch the original Alien movie when I was 6, and A Nightmare on Elm Street not long after that. Hello, sleep terrors!) […]

First Friday — November 6

Angelo “Inspiration within a Paradigm,” works in multiple media by Tracy Verkerke and Annie Runkle, 5:30-7:30pm. Art Upstairs Gallery “From Sketch Book to Canvas,” mixed-media works by Barbara Wachter, 5-8pm. BozArt “Toward the Light,” paintings by Phyllis Koch-Sheras, 5-9pm. The Bridge/Progressive Arts Initiative “Anniversary Wall,” a collaborative painting to celebrate The Bridge’s five-year anniversary, 6-8pm. […]

Capsule Reviews

Amelia (PG, 111 minutes) Hilary Swank embodies airborne Earhart in this fall’s hot historical epic. Read C-VILLE’s full review here. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6 Astro Boy (PG, 94 minutes) A sort of Pinocchio for the 22nd century, about a rocket child created in his father’s image who blasts off to save the world. […]

Is Amelia ready for takeoff?

“Flying lets me move in three dimensions,” she says early on. Well, so does standing on an escalator and scooching over to get out of someone else’s way. But flying is supposed to be more exciting than that. So it’s strange that the first few stolid scenes of Amelia suggest otherwise. Come fly with me: […]

Nothing to fear

AMC Fear Fest Tuesday-Saturday, AMC The folks at AMC are taking the term “fear” a little broadly for this year’s installment of the annual horror-movie marathon. Now through Halloween you can catch supernaturally themed flicks on the channel non-stop. But many of the selections this year are more comedic than scary: Buffy the Vampire Slayer […]

Checking in with Bree Luck

What are you working on? I’m the director of a program called the Voice Project, over at Fluvanna Women’s Prison. It’s a theater and writing program. I took over the reins about four years ago, as a drama therapist, and it started out with [inmates] creating their own productions based on their own life stories…We […]