Arts & Entertainment

The Last King of Scotland is an intense political thriller that brings to life the mythical figure of 1970s Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Forest Whitaker's performance as Amin mesmerizes.
October 5, 2006 at 12:00 am

Beck is a man known for wearing many hats at once. He has built his career upon shapeshifting, evading classification, seamlessly blending the unlikely with the illogical.
October 5, 2006 at 12:00 am

In an age when one can't swing a bat in a video store without hitting a biopic, it's easy to get sick of movies that chronicle the lives of famous people, no matter how interesting those lives may or may not have been.
October 5, 2006 at 12:00 am

In the Chinese film Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, acclaimed director Yimou Zhang (House of Flying Daggers; Hero) presents a compelling meditation on father-son relationships.
October 5, 2006 at 12:00 am

By all accounts, life on the road is nasty, brutish and long. And on the eve of a North American tour, Islands' Nick Diamonds is sick in a Toronto hotel room, speaking in low tones to protect his voice.
October 5, 2006 at 12:00 am

Political activism and artistic integrity go hand in hand," said a calm and composed Salim Washington over the phone from his New York office.
October 5, 2006 at 12:00 am

It's a brave new world for Decemberists fans. The release of their new album, The Crane Wife, marks the group's shift to Capitol Records from indie Kill Rock Stars.
October 5, 2006 at 12:00 am

In his latest triumph, Martin Scorsese succeeds where few before him have: filming a remake that trumps the original in all respects.
October 5, 2006 at 12:00 am

If you asked us which of today's popular young comics most definitely engages in recreational drug abuse, we'd probably say Dane Cook - in about a second.
October 5, 2006 at 12:00 am

Fearless 4 Stars Directed by: Ronny Yu Starring: Jet Li, Shido Nakamura Rated: PG-13 If Fearless truly is Jet Li's last martial arts film, as is advertised, then Li has succeeded in going out on top. It's hard to imagine that this movie could fall short of excellence, given the pedigree of its principles.
September 28, 2006 at 12:00 am

It's ironic that this relatively derivative, though not uninteresting, addition to the dystopian sci-fi genre is titled Renaissance.
September 28, 2006 at 12:00 am

If you thought that the twang of country couldn't be combined with tedious sound effects and mild musical enthusiasm, then the monotonous sounds of Mad Tea Party's latest, Big Top Soda Pop, will quickly prove you wrong.
September 28, 2006 at 12:00 am

Michel Gondry has a knack for taking the banal and making it extraordinary. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the maxim "those who forget their past are destined to repeat it" provided a launching pad for an enigmatic journey to the heart of what it means to be human.
September 28, 2006 at 12:00 am

In The Guardian, director Andrew Davis, best known for 1994's The Fugitive, dives deep into the world of the United States Coast Guard's elite rescue swimmers.
September 28, 2006 at 12:00 am

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It's a motto that most aptly describes Sparklehorse's latest, a merely competent album that explores little new ground.
September 28, 2006 at 12:00 am

Perhaps no filmmaker today has a better grasp on a college guy's sense of humor than Todd Phillips. The director who cornered the market on frat-boy comedies - Old School, Road Trip - played Twenty Questions in an exclusive interview with Street at the Four Seasons downtown Tuesday to promote his new movie School for Scoundrels. Street: What's it like working with Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite)? What's he like in real life? Todd Phillips: In real life, Heder is a Mormon, did you know that? Street: I heard the cast from Napoleon was shipped in from Utah. TP: They're all like Mormon guys.
September 28, 2006 at 12:00 am

Smile... It Confuses People is the kind of record that really makes you wonder. Whatever happened to the idyllic, innocent rebellion of our parents' generation?
September 28, 2006 at 12:00 am

The outer room of WQHS is the most organized it's been in a long time. Rows and rows of CDs and LPs stand ordered alphabetically and by genre.
September 28, 2006 at 12:00 am

At a time when pop culture phenomena like Paris Hilton and Hulk Hogan's daughter are relentlessly promoting their debut albums, the idea of the remake doesn't sound all that bad. Take Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt," for instance.
September 28, 2006 at 12:00 am

Some good CDs make you smile, some make you dance, and some make you cry. Emily Haines's Knives Don't Have Your Back belongs in the last category: bittersweet, but infectious all the same.
September 28, 2006 at 12:00 am