'An Education': Mulligan, Molina add intellect to coming-of-age film
He seems like deliverance itself on a rainy day. There she is in her English school uniform, getting soaked to the skin. He slowly pulls up in a plush-looking maroon car of a sort she’s never seen before. “It’s a Bristol,” he says. There were “not very many of them made,” he explains. (Updated: 11/20/09 8:50 AM )
'Paris': Film’s stories offer an homage to life in famed city
“Paris,” Cedric Klapisch’s new film, provides homage to the famed city, to the human condition and to the bittersweet, sometimes unfathomable emotional range that people go through in life. (Updated: 11/20/09 8:51 AM )
'Planet 51': Cute, but no ‘E. T.’
In the new animated adventure, “Planet 51,” the residents of the title planet would be more at home in “Leave It to Beaver” than “Alien.” Sure they have green skin, but their yards are enclosed by picket fences, television is in black and white, and families are made up of two parents and two well-behaved kids. Life is good. (Updated: 11/20/09 8:51 AM )
Mac’s Village Brewhaus: A good time is brewing
It was a frosty Thursday when Mike and I drove into the Village of Orchard Park to Mac’s Village Brewhaus. Lisa (a bubbly blond) greeted us right away and we ordered a pitcher of Labatt Blue Light, a double of Jamison on the rocks and a tall glass of Southern Comfort and Diet Coke for $20. Lisa asked us if we wanted glasses or plastic cups and we opted for glasses. (Updated: 11/20/09 8:56 AM )
Hill family celebrates son’s life with concert
In September, after a car crash claimed the life of 7-year-old Asa Hill, the boy’s parents turned their sorrow into celebration. (Updated: 11/20/09 8:52 AM )
Buffalo’s Alan Kryzak shows how the weird can be wonderful
There are several ways to define what it means to be an “independent” musician. (Updated: 11/20/09 8:52 AM )
Buffalo Music Awards celebrate vibrancy, variety of local scene
On Thursday evening, the annual Buffalo Music Awards took place inside Blasdell’s Club Paradise. (Updated: 11/20/09 8:54 AM )
Return flight
When the lights went down on Studio Arena Theatre’s production of “To Kill a Mockingbird” in February 2008, they went down for good. Since then, Buffalo’s boisterous theater scene has been chugging away sans a regional playhouse. Some say good riddance, but others miss the opportunity to see actors, directors and designers from outside Western New York performing in nonmusical productions. (Updated: 11/20/09 6:55 AM )
Happy birthday
A year ago, the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Western New York’s first major new museum in more than 100 years, opened its doors. Since then, it has held an impressive series of exhibitions featuring work by its namesake artist, Charles Burchfield, and hundreds of pieces by Western New York artists. It has also hosted countless events and lectures, delivering on its promise of serving not only as a sanctuary for art, but for the entire community. (Updated: 11/20/09 6:55 AM )
‘Tuna’ time
The American Repertory Theatre of Western New York Inc.—perhaps our city’s most elaborately titled theater company—is launching its three-play season this week with a production of the comedy “Greater Tuna.” The 1981 comedy, by writers Ed Howard, Jaston Williams and Joe Sears, is set in the teeny-tiny town of Tuna, Texas. It features just two actors (in this case, Thomas LaChiusa and Christopher Standart) in more than 20 roles and at least that number of madcap situations having to do with the vagaries of small-town life. Tom Dooney directs the show. (Updated: 11/20/09 6:55 AM )
Taste of Vienna
Vienna has been a center for music for centuries. Vivaldi moved there from Venice, dying penniless there in 1741. Haydn, who as a boy sang at Vivaldi’s funeral, died in Vienna in 1808 to the sound of cannons as Napoleon was laying siege to the city. Vienna was home to the composers we now think of as the greatest legends, including Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. This weekend, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra pays tribute to two composers who, in different ways, could be considered quintessentially Viennese. (Updated: 11/20/09 6:55 AM )
Greetings from Bruce
So far on the final leg of the “Working on a Dream” jaunt, Bruce Springsteen &theEStreetBandhave performed all but one of its seminal studio albums, through 1984’s “Born In the USA,” in their entirety. Sunday’s tour finale show inside HSBC Arena will fill in the one missing puzzle piece, as it has been announced that Bruce and Co. will go right back to where it all began with Springsteen’s debut effort, “Greetings From Asbury Park, N. J.” performed from front to back. (Updated: 11/20/09 6:54 AM )
Club Chatter: The Box Tops at the Bear's Den, Baroness at the Tralf
Chilton, to the letter (Updated: 11/20/09 9:11 AM )
John Mayer
Battle Studies [Columbia] (Updated: 11/20/09 6:54 AM )
Norah Jones
The Fall [Blue Note] (Updated: 11/20/09 6:54 AM )
Alma Mater: Music From the Vatican
Featuring the voice of Pope Benedict XVI, the Choir of the Philharmonic Academy of Rome and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Updated: 11/20/09 6:54 AM )
Mark Soskin
Man Behind the Curtain [Kind of Blue] (Updated: 11/20/09 6:54 AM )
Second Helpings
Friar’s Table ★★½(Nov. 13) 301 Cleveland Drive, Cheektowaga (833-5554, www.thefriarstable.com). Large popular restaurant specializing in steak and seafood. (Updated: 11/20/09 6:54 AM )
SHORT ORDERS
Cooking challenge (Updated: 11/20/09 6:54 AM )
Behind the Scenes
Auditions (Updated: 11/20/09 6:54 AM )
Classics redux
Arguably the most famous motion picture ever made, “Gone With the Wind” (1939), and a rebooting of a science-fiction legend, “Star Trek” (2009), sit atop this week’s lineup of titles making their first appearance on the Blu-ray high-definition DVD format. (Updated: 11/20/09 6:54 AM )
Taylor made
LOS ANGELES — The only way Taylor Lautner was going to reprise his “Twilight” role of Jacob Black in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” was to change. (Updated: 11/20/09 6:54 AM )
CRITICS’ PICKS
TODAY, NOV. 20 • Bruce Neswick, organ recital. 7:30 p. m. University at Buffalo Lippes Concert Hall, Slee Hall, North Campus, Amherst. (Updated: 11/20/09 6:54 AM )
TELL ME
S TEVE WILSON has wanted to make people laugh since he was a kid. He left Buffalo when he was about 19, honing his skills in Los Angeles at comedy clubs, as well as TV shows like Comedy Central’s “Live at Gotham,” and BET’s “Comic View,” “One Night Stand” and “Showtime at the Apollo.” He recently moved to New York City to co-host a radio show with his longtime pal, comedian (Updated: 11/20/09 6:54 AM )
JUST ANNOUNCED
New concerts (Updated: 11/20/09 6:54 AM )
NO I. D. REQUIRED
Not 21? No problem. (Updated: 11/20/09 6:54 AM )
FUN FOR ONE
Go single–or bring a friend (Updated: 11/20/09 6:54 AM )
FREE FOR ALL
The no-cost way to go (Updated: 11/20/09 6:54 AM )
Friar’s Table: A place where beef is king
“Specializing in Steak & Seafood,” the menu says. And that’s what I think you should keep in mind while dining at the venerable Friar’s Table, which has undergone a change in ownership during the last year. This is a big place, cozily decorated — several rooms, nice lighting, pictures of jolly old friars living it up here and there. (Updated: 11/13/09 5:05 PM )
Soho: Chippewa spot remains the place to be
What would the Chippewa Strip be without Soho? Since I hit the big 2-1, I knew that if I was partying down on Chippewa, there was going to be a definite stop at Soho. Five years later, not much has changed. Every time I head downtown to party, it’s always on the itinerary. (Updated: 11/14/09 10:17 AM )