Category > Film
If you play with fire, you are bound to get burned. Lisabeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) returns ablaze with fury and vengeance in The Girl Who Played with Fire, the second installment of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. The film picks up exactly where the first one ended, with Lisabeth enjoying the spoils of her acquired riches abroad. However, any sort of easy living is short-lived, as she begins to access her computer hacking skills in order to aid …
It must be any director’s dream (pun unapologetically intended) to work with dreams as subject matter. Their unique and subjective nature allows for a near limitless canvas of ideas and designs to be explored in fascinating ways. The only limits of course being the imagination… and nowadays the CGI budget. Furthermore, any typical film convention can be shed, as the rules that apply to normal behavior or flow of logic do not necessarily follow in the dreamscape. There are some …
There is (arguably) no movement that changed the landscape of music culture more than punk rock in the 1970s. It was more than just backlash against the more sophisticated artistry of music in the late-60s, or the bloated arena rock that was popular at the time (forgive me if I'm being reductive); it was a shift in attitudes regarding the intersection of music and culture. A shift that encouraged a rejection of traditional systems in favor of a DIY-ethic and …
The 2010 Oscar-nominated The Secret of Kells is an animated film set in ancient Ireland, and it’s currently playing at The Art Theater. Children will enjoy the protagonist, Brendan, his forest friend, Aisling, and his feline companion, Pangur Ban. But teens and adults shouldn’t write it off purely because it’s not live action. The plot explores deeper issues, including: family relationships, friendships, impending attack (in this case, from Vikings), life and death, responsibility, and the importance of books—or at least …
Our beloved girls — Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte (Kristin Davis), and Samantha (Kim Cattrall) — are back for the second installment of the Sex and the City movie enterprise. The fact that the film garnered over 32 million in its opening weekend is a testament to its loyal and ever present fan base. As the film unfolds, we see that another two years has passed since we last glimpsed the girls and they are contending with …
The Secret in Their Eyes is an incredible crime drama that relies less on flashy effects and action sequences than it does on its rich story, which doubles back on itself in ways both big and subtle. It also explores issues of memory, specifically how certain events in our lives can change them forever and how obsessions with these events can prevent us from letting go of our past and moving on. The film begins with Benjamín Espósito (Ricardo Darín), …
This year, April 15 can be about something more than tax day. It's also the day that the New Art Film Festival (NAFF) kicks off at the Art Theater at 5:00 p.m. The beginning of the film fest runs concurrently with the eighth annual Boneyard Arts Festival, and runs through April 20, right before this year's Ebertfest begins. This Thursday is also the anniversary of President Lincoln's death, which is why it's the perfect time to show The Transient, a …
Dr. Albert C. Barnes first came into the national spotlight in the early 20th-century for his invention of Argyrol, an antiseptic used to treat gonorrhea and prevent potential gonorrhea blindness in newborns. It is hailed, perhaps a tad hyperbolically, in the documentary The Art of the Steal as an invention comparable to what a cure for AIDS would be today. Barnes' contribution to the medical community, however, is not important to The Art of the Steal; that it made …
Arthur Radcliffe Castlebottom is a prospective arts writer for "Smile Politely, Fella!" His interests include arts of the higher-brow, the theater, his penny farthing collection, and Boston Braves baseball. Born in 1881, he moved to Urbana in 1925 when a freak accident involving an electrical experiment abruptly transported him across time and space to 2010. Let me preface my remarks about the state of modern cinema by stating that I have never been particularly keen on the motion …
The White Ribbon presents a simple premise: the small village of Eichwald in Germany, pre-World War I, experiences a series of bizarre accidents. It all starts when the village doctor trips while riding his horse back to his home and is badly injured. Upon further investigation, it is discovered that this was no accident; in fact, a wire had been strung between two trees at the entrance of the doctor's property. Someone knew he would be passing through and wanted …
Most Recent Arts Comments
Karen Vaccaro is a remarkable person as well as a dedicated performer. I couldn’t imagine a better night at theater!
The director should’ve added the wrinkle that the ban on dancing’s the only thing keeping Bomont from attracting the green/tech/jobs of the future!
I have read several of her books and liked them. I guess because I’m not an overweight, lesbian, intersexed Jewish amputee with divorced parents I can’t comment on the offensiveness of some of her jokes.
You forgot to mention fat people. She made fun of obesity. And divorce. Children of divorce were lampooned, too. Jewish people. She hit on a lot of “groups.“ I fit into a number of them. If you didn’t like her speech you won’t like her books. If…
Lesbians: Anecdote about her mom being a lesbian, and getting her mom introduced to Rosie O’Donnell, and mom and Rosie talking about oral sex, and Weiner acting disgusted. She probably meant the disgust in a “don’t wanna hear about my mom’s vag” kind of way, but all…
I went to this. In the first 5 minutes of her talk, she made fun of lesbians, intersexed children, and amputees. I was honestly surprised at how offensve she was—it was like she thought the Champaign Public Library was a venue for Last Comic Standing. I…
Most Popular Arts Articles (60 days)
- Celebration Company prevails over predictable cliches in Ug!
- Be Okay: Author Jennifer Weiner in town on Sunday
- Book review: Keyhole Factory by William Gillespie
- Sirens in the Night brings local talent together
- The physical self in Hammie’s Recent Works
- The Little Dog Laughed a strange summer delight
- In dreams: Inception
- The man who taught us to hear
- The Little Dog Laughed, but not for long...
- A better Footloose
Most Recent Comments
Illinois has simply had no luck at all in these Mizzou games. None. I think maybe we’re do for a couple of bounces to go our way. If we get one or two (or sever or eight) breaks, I think it’s a win.
Jason, Savoy could easily join the CPL tax district, which is probably closer to most Savoy residents than the Tolono library is. But my impression is that Savoy residents as a whole don’t want to pay the cost of the CPL (Tolono’s library taxes are cheaper), even…
Sorry, but I am lagging behind on updates to the map. Also, some construction projects were delayed from their original start date. On a more positive note, I am putting together a map of haunted houses in Central Illinois. I have a few plotted already, and I…
I’ve never gotten the privilege of all the services CPL cardholders get. I just want to be able to go out of my way to drive to the CPL to check out books, pay fines, maybe buy some coffee, and enjoy the library. None of those activities…
These days, there is more to using a library than checking out books. At one time, paying into the Lincoln Trails system probably would cover the expenses incurred by other libraries in the system. Now, with Internet, videos, coffee shops, wireless Internet hubs, etc., I suspect the…
(speaking as a Savoy resident) By paying taxes to support a member of the LTLS, we are paying our “fair share” to use any LTLS library—Tolono, Champaign, Urbana, etc. This is how library systems work. The 6% of CPL’s circulation represented by Tolono users is NOT significant…
I would be interested to hear more about the “word on the street”—how are individual hauling companies fulfilling their promise to recycle?
Timbo makes a smart, sound argument. Reread it.
I joined on 09-09-09 after living here over a year, and having to listen to my dad tell me how his best friend is, like, #27 or something crazy like that, and how said friend never lived further than 50 feet from the Illini Inn while going…
And, I might add, no one is being prevented from using the Champaign library. They are just being asked to pay their fair share if they are going to use it as their primary library.
The equation is pretty simple here. If you want social services, then pay the taxes required to run those social services. These things only work if everyone puts in their fair share. As a heavy user of the Champaign Library, I say bravo to this new policy.
What is the increased marginal cost of serving a resident of Savoy or Mahomet? I suspect negligible. What is the increased revenue to be realized by this new policy? I suspect very little. Aside from these financial aspects, what are the most probable results from this new…
Looks like you are also all members of the killer sideburns club.
Thanks for the article, Ben. I was not familiar with this band until now and even though I won’t be able to attend the show on Friday they are now on my radar. A *good* jam band is hard to find, and these folks appear to fill…
Nice article, love the Dead quote in the beginning. If they can get down here to Central FL I’ll definitely be heading out to the show. Some of my friends have finally stopped wincing when I say “jam band.“ I’ve now tried my best at more descriptive…
@Annie: Yeah, my bad. That was the best part! Drinking + memory exercises = fun @Rob: According to Ask the English Teacher, “My dictionary says ‘drunk’ is an archaic past tense of ‘drink.‘“ We’re all about the new grammar around here.
Katie, have the residents of Savoy and Tolono thought about having their taxes raised a little to help their public library expand? That’s a possibility for them. And then everybody wins.
Most Popular Articles (14 days)
- Camp Rantoul Report: August 20, 2010
- Withershins: the hardest working band in Champaign
- Champaign to close recycling drop-off center

- Pygmalion schedule changes, Emeralds and new Erin Fein project added
- The Burlington Coat Factory Mosque

- Meet the new blog on the block
- CU Pride Fest review
- Flatlander fundraising off to a tasty start
- The right thing changes from state to state
- Garbage doesn’t just “go away”
Recent Searches
- 1592 (7 Results)
- Susan Toalson (3 Results)
- Gabe (4 Results)
- Bond (97 Results)
- Bond (97 Results)
- Gabe (4 Results)
- bond (97 Results)
- bond (97 Results)
- dan schreiber (34 Results)
- gillespie (129 Results)
- Men Against Sexual Violence MASV (1 Results)
- 8684 (1 Results)
- Men Against Sexual Violence MASV (1 Results)
- great cover up doug hoepker (13 Results)
- great cover up (589 Results)
- C-U Circle (32 Results)
- 4130 (1 Results)
- elsinore (123 Results)
- elsinore (123 Results)
- ryan groff elsinore (35 Results)

Facebook
Twitter
Full Site
Events Calendar


























The main character’s name is actually Lisbeth, in case you want to correct.