GoG All Reviews

First Bite: Le Mediterranean Bistro

Tom Sietsema — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:39:00 GMT

If you like deals and find yourself in Fairfax City, make it a point to drop by Le Mediterranean Bistro. Fourteen bucks buys you a three-course lunch; happy hour toasts $5 cocktails; Wednesday nights mean half-price bottles of wine.

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Tom Sietsema: Just say ‘No, grazie’ to La Tagliatella

Tom Sietsema — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:54:00 GMT

La Tagliatella in Arlington makes a strong case for hazard pay for restaurant critics. The Italian concept, an unfortunate import from Europe that plays up 400 combinations of pasta and sauce, is so distasteful on so many different levels, I was tempted to dismiss it after just one visit. I changed my mind when I considered its prime corner real estate in Clarendon and the Poland-based chain’s intention to expand elsewhere in the United States.

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June Chamber Series at Kreeger Museum opens with 2 hours of ear-pleasing music

Stephen Brookes, style@washpost.com — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:07:16 GMT

Art museums aren’t always ideal places to hear music — the echoey galleries, folding chairs and awkward sight lines can make concerts a bit of a trial. But the small (and often overlooked) Kreeger Museum on Foxhall Road is a striking exception to the rule. Not only does its music room have some of the best acoustics in town, but the whole museum — a modernist masterpiece designed by Philip Johnson in 1963 — has an almost musical sense of flow and movement to it, with soaring ceilings and expanses of glass that open onto sculpture gardens awash in Henry Moore’s voluptuously abstract nudes.

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At D.C. Jazz Festival, Karriem Riggins revives close ties between hip-hop and jazz

Sarah Godfrey — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 23:15:45 GMT

On Saturday night, the D.C. Jazz Festival offered a heartbreaking choice: One could see the Roots and experience incredible drummer and hip-hop/soul producer Questlove or see the lesser-known, but equally talented, Karriem Riggins, a Detroit native who is also an immense drummer and producer.

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National Orchestral Institute’s presentation of young musicians displays talent, haste

Charles T. Downey — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 20:47:08 GMT

The best way to learn is to do. That is the goal of the National Orchestral Institute, the summer apprenticeship program for young classical musicians at the University of Maryland. Its National Festival Orchestra prepares weekly programs of symphonic repertoire with different conductors in a short turnaround time. The latest one was presented Saturday night at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

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Ann Hornaday — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:31:00 GMT

The apocalyptic satire “This Is the End” was made for admirers of Seth Rogen and James Franco, who, the movie suggests, may be their own biggest fans. An alternately sly and wildly indulgent exercise in omni-referential humor, “This Is the End” is accidently true to its title: As both homage and sendup, it presents viewers with the ultra-meta image of a comedy genre eating its own tail.

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‘Tiger Eyes’ movie review

Stephanie Merry — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:54:32 GMT

Judy Blume understands pain, but she also seems to know how important laughter is. Maybe that’s why the beloved novelist behinds 1970’s “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.” has guided multiple generations through the awkwardness and agony of puberty.

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‘Vehicle 19’ movie review

Sean O’Connell — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:48:08 GMT

Contrary to recent “Fast & Furious” logic, dropping Paul Walker behind the wheel of a speeding car does not automatically mean a successful movie.

Mukunda Michael Dewil learns this the hard way with “Vehicle 19,” a lean, low-budget and claustrophobic mistaken-identity thriller that’s so stripped-down, it’s nearly nonexistent.

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‘Shadow Dancer’ movie review

Michael O’Sullivan — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:40:17 GMT

The hopelessness of the self-perpetuating cycle of violence that characterized the strife in Northern Ireland in the 1990s also characterizes “Shadow Dancer,” a moving if also somewhat deflated thriller set in that era. It’s a mostly gripping tale with a nice twist. But the story — adapted by Tom Bradby from his 1998 novel and directed by James Marsh — is delivered with something akin to resignation.

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‘Pandora’s Promise’ movie review

Michael O’Sullivan — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:34:00 GMT

It has got to be a weird experience, for both environmentalists and supporters of nuclear power alike, to watch “Pandora’s Promise.” Although the documentary ultimately argues in favor of nuclear power, an energy source that’s anathema to many tree huggers, it does so in a way that’s less strenuous than strenuously ambivalent. In the end, its somewhat equivocal message — that nuclear power might just be the lesser of several evils — is more convincing than you’d think.

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‘The Painting’ movie review

Michael O’Sullivan — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:26:38 GMT

“The Painting” imagines a world in which the inhabitants of artworks are alive, like the portrait subjects on the magical walls of Hogwarts, but with one critical difference. In this charming, if slightly twee, animated fable, the characters not only can come and go as they please, hopping from canvas to canvas, they also can enter the real world, in their search for greener pastures.

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Don’t Miss: A.U. Museum unveils new summer shows

Michael O’Sullivan — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:20:19 GMT

The American University Museum is building a reputation as a champion of the Washington art scene. On Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m., the evidence of that will be on display as the museum hosts an opening reception for six new summer exhibitions, five of which focus on local artists.

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Gallery opening of the week: ‘Jealousy of Clouds’

Michael O’Sullivan — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:14:36 GMT

Gallerist Jayme McLellan is also an artist, but she’s always used her Civilian Art Projects to showcase the work of others. Now, her own art will get a chance to shine, when Heiner Contemporary opens “Jealousy of Clouds,” an exhibition featuring McLellan’s photography, video and installation, on Friday from 6 to 8 p.m.

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‘Man of Steel’: Henry Cavill stars as Superman in this bombastic reboot

Ann Hornaday — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:57:00 GMT

Newly minted superstar Henry Cavill makes a well-built, handsomely credible Superman in “Man of Steel” — or at least he will, in an already-planned sequel that, with luck, will more thoughtfully exploit his talents.

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Tom Sietsema: Azur, where seafood sparkles

Tom Sietsema — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:54:00 GMT

Diners don’t need a menu to tell them they’re in for something fishy at Azur.

A simple sweep of the eyes around chef Frederik De Pue’s fresh, three-story dining room in Penn Quarter provides plenty of clues that patrons won’t be nibbling on charcuterie or gnawing on bones — as they do at seemingly every other new restaurant.

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‘This Is the End’ review: Both an homage and send-up of stoner action comedies

Ann Hornaday — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:46:00 GMT

The apocalyptic satire “This Is the End” was made for admirers of Seth Rogen and James Franco, who, the movie suggests, may be their own biggest fans. An alternately sly and wildly indulgent exercise in omni-referential humor, “This Is the End” is accidently true to its title: As both homage and send-up, it presents viewers with the ultra-meta image of a comedy genre eating its own tail.

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First Bite: Etto in Logan Circle

Tom Sietsema — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 17:33:00 GMT

Much like the mash of chocolate and peanut butter celebrated in those vintage ads for Reese’s cups, the recent merger of talents from 2 Amys, one of the city’s premier pizzerias, and Standard, the beloved beer garden known for its barbecue, sounds like a union poised to become a classic.

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At NGA, Hoerr and Sigfridsson have difficulty finding clarity

Stephen Brookes — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 20:55:00 GMT

The German cellist Peter Hoerr has no lack of subtle, interesting ideas, but he had two big hurdles to overcome at the National Gallery of Art on Sunday night. One was the notorious acoustics of the West Garden Court, which tend to swamp gentler-voiced instruments in a sea of reverberation. The other was the cellist’s partner for the evening, the Finnish pianist Henri Sigfridsson — whose driving, full-speed-ahead approach often seemed to leave the more introspective Hoerr hanging on for dear life.

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Review: The Washington National Opera’s ‘Approaching Ali’

Charles T. Downey — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 22:26:50 GMT

Little is more exciting than the chance to hear a new opera. There before you is an unknown libretto, characters and plot unfolding, and unheard music flowing into your ears for the first time without anyone’s impressions or experience of the work to bias your own. So kudos to the Washington National Opera for putting its money where its mouth is by supporting the American Opera Initiative, which aims to foster composers and librettists in the composition of new operas. The program closed its first season with the presentation of “Approaching Ali,” a new opera by D.J. Sparr heard Saturday night in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

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‘Lost and Found in Armenia’ movie review

Sean O’Connell — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 17:33:00 GMT

While vacationing in Turkey, the American son of a powerful U.S. Senator accidentally parasails into the neighboring country of Armenia. Mistaken by local government officials to be a Turkish spy, the man is mercilessly interrogated by his captors until a beautiful female student breaks through the language barrier and comes to his aid.

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‘The East’ movie review

Michael O’Sullivan — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 22:46:13 GMT

As a scriptwriter, actress Brit Marling has so far demonstrated an unerring instinct for creating meaty, if somewhat hard-to-swallow, roles for herself. Her 2011 breakout film “Another Earth,” which she wrote with director Mike Cahill, centered on a guilt-ridden young woman who’s torn between two equally far-fetched options: having an affair with the husband of the woman she accidentally killed in a car accident or starting over in a parallel universe that scientists recently discovered on a mirror image of our planet.

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‘The Purge’ movie review

Michael O’Sullivan — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 22:35:00 GMT

A stock home-invasion thriller made moderately more interesting by a thin veneer of pop psychology, “The Purge” asks us to believe that, in nine short years, American society will have become so depraved that our government will grant us one night a year to indulge our inner Neanderthals with impunity.

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‘The Kings of Summer’ movie review

Ann Hornaday — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 22:28:04 GMT

A movie has been made that captures adolescence — from its evanescent innocence to its tentative grasps at autonomy — with uncommon sensitivity, plunging viewers back into their own summer idylls of exploration, self-expression and heartbreak.

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‘Wish You Were Here’ movie review

Stephanie Merry — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 22:22:33 GMT

Life looks pretty peachy for a quartet of vacationing Australians at the start of “Wish You Were Here.” Dancing, drinking, wandering through markets and touring Cambodian beaches, the two couples appear to be enjoying the trip of a lifetime. If only they had heeded an important rule of international travel: Leave the drugs at home.

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‘Fill the Void’ movie review

Stephanie Merry — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 22:16:40 GMT

The opening shot of “Fill the Void” captures the faces of a mother and daughter swiveling their heads, clearly searching for someone or something. The camera remains still as the women turn to scan the room, allowing the two to alternately shift into and out of focus.

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