On the surface, Disney’s Queen of Katwe is a feel-good, fact-based movie whose familiarity is part of its charm. Based on the life of Ugandan chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi, the film, directed by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, Mississippi Masala), confidently navigates the Disney underdog formula, yet finds personal and occasionally political depth in its subject’s […]
Sorcery, magic and family feuds combine in The Comedy of Errors, one of 18 plays that entered the theatrical world when friends of William Shakespeare released First Folio in 1623, seven years after the Bard’s death. The tribute production coincides with the First Folio exhibit at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library on […]
Dutch-born, Charlottesville-based singer Paulien brings an array of languages and talent to the stage through her French jazz interpretations of the Great American Songbook. Dubbed as a musical story, she captures everyone from Edith Piaf to Cole Porter in an afternoon performance to benefit the WTJU Jazz Marathon. Sunday, October 2. $15-17, 4pm. The Southern […]
Amber Arcades Fading Lines (Heavenly) A stereotypical indie-rocker might work as a barista or telemarketer; Utrecht songwriter Annelotte de Graaf is a legal aide for the international war crimes tribunal and the Dutch immigration office. As such, you could expect Fading Lines, her debut as Amber Arcades, to be full of ponderous downers, but it’s […]
Ron Campbell is best-known by legions of Beatles fans for his work directing the cartoon series “The Beatles” and animating parts of Yellow Submarine, but his résumé is deeper than that. After working on various Beatles projects, he went on to animate, produce and storyboard “Scooby-Doo,” “The Flintstones” and “Rugrats.” Campbell’s creative fingerprints are all […]
Washington, D.C., is not the first place that comes to mind as the center of folk and bluegrass music, but there’s a long history of accomplished players from the capital city, including Eric Brace and Peter Cooper, who honor their peers on the recent album, C&O Canal. The Grammy-nominated collaborators’ engaging songwriting, quick wit and […]
In the epilogue of her book, Scattering Ashes: A Memoir of Letting Go, Charlottesville-based author Joan Z. Rough describes the process of writing about her aging alcoholic and emotionally abusive mother as “the day-by-day knitting together of a broken bone.” In this way, she says, “The writing of the book was probably the most healing […]
Everyone knows that girls rule and boys…well, boys, too, will be wildly entertained by The Sally Rose Band and Erin and the Wildfire, two of Charlottesville’s most prominent female-led outfits. Sally Rose’s saucy Southern rock tunes about witches and ghosts, heartaches and moons, are packed with mother-daughter blood harmonies, good old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll riffs […]
Found footage movies, though often disparaged as too heavily reliant on gimmicks, jump scares and bad writing, have arguably grown up in the last few years. Creep, currently viewable on Netflix, was a production involving only two people on the screen, yet was far more terrifying than most big-budget horror films of the last decade. […]
When people talk about Rachael Yamagata’s musical style, names such as Bonnie Raitt, Tom Waits and Roberta Flack get tossed around. So when her new album, Tightrope Walker, is released on Friday, fans can expect more of the soulful eloquence and intense production that frames her dark, modern pop. Yamagata is after themes of perseverance […]