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.

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.

Film review: The Golden Globes

In the awards show canon, the Golden Globes have secured themselves a lofty place just below Oscar. How is it that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which once called Pia Zadora “New Female Star of the Year” for her role in the soft-porny Butterfly, is now arbiter of taste and soothsayer of the Academy Awards? […]

Film Review: Les Misérables

I mention all this to give Les Misérables context in the annals of film history. Unlike Playing for Keeps, Les Misérables features a solid cast. Hugh Jackman, a man known for his acting and singing chops, is Jean Valjean, the hero we love.

Charlottesville’s Facebook page goes viral

Every marketing firm and tourism board in the country is searching for social media’s magic bullet, and the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau might have found it. With a small budget and a young social media coordinator’s instinctive touch, the CACVB’s Facebook page has shot to the top of national user engagement ratings. John […]

Virginia Film Festival announces programming with more to come

On Tuesday afternoon The Virginia Film Festival announced the bulk of its programming for the November 1-5 event with special attention to the commemoration of its 25th anniversary. While a few of the choice feature films and special guests are still waiting for final confirmation, festival director Jody Kielbasa announced an impressive list of highlights […]

Film review: Looper

In 2072, living bodies can be tracked. When they’re no longer living, the authorities are alerted. Pity the mafia, which faces the prospect of not killing anyone it wants killed. Luckily for future bad guys, there’s time travel. The mafia sends the poor souls it wants dispatched to the past. Disappearances don’t raise hackles—presumably because […]

ARTS Pick: How The West Was Won

There was a time in the film industry when a movie was not wholly judged on its returns, when the merit of a film could be found in its effort to capture the spirit of an important moment in human history. They were called “epics,” they cost a lot of money, and they aren’t made […]