"I want to be a killer," says 9-year-old Cataleya Restrepo in the early moments of the film Colombiana, when asked what she wants to do with her future. This conviction foreshadows Cataleya's transformation into a vengeful assassin upon witnessing the cold-blooded murder of her parents.
To friends and family, he is known as John Anderson. But on stage and in the studio, he goes by John Thackston: the multi-talented 20-year-old third year from right here in Charlottesville. As musical director for the Virginia Gentlemen, Thackston has a clear flair for music and sound - a trait hard to miss in his recently released, self-titled EP.
Cowboys and Aliens is as awkward as its title. My first thought when I saw the preview was, "How are they going to make this work?" Well, it doesn't work.
In last season's shocking Project Runway finale, frontrunner and fan favorite Mondo Guerra was scandalously denied the win in favor of dark horse Gretchen Jones.
When Tim Reynolds comes back to Charlottesville, he tends to avoid Miller's, the now legendary bar where he once met a young bartender named Dave Matthews.
As first years and upperclassmen alike arrive at the University, the question on every music fan's mind arises: What bands will be gracing Charlottesville with their presence this fall?
With his adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's best-selling novel The Help, director Tate Taylor serves up the finest film of the summer.
"When people ask me how I know Em, I always say, 'We grew up together.'" And they do. "One Day," which hit theaters last Friday, follows the relationship of two college friends, the irresistible Dexter Mayhew and the awkward but endearing Emma Morley.
Summer marks the season in which stars come out to play in their finest - and often skimpiest - attire.
Standing as perhaps the most anticipated album of the summer, Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch the Throne came crashing onto the summer music scene with a bang.
We are obsessed with love: legislating legitimate forms of it, institutionalizing it through marriage and other unions, depicting culturally accepted norms in the media.
HBO. In recent years, these three letters have come to signify something greater than a television channel - pure excellence.
Get your wands ready, 'cause it's about to go down. That's right kids, everybody's favorite boy wizard is set to take over the Amphitheater 6:30 p.m.
In what is sure to be the most entertaining history lessons you'll ever receive, the University drama department is closing out it's 2010-11 season with Evita, the classic 1978 musical with music and lyrics by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.
Scan a billboard at Newcomb and you'll see flyers promoting everything from a capella to Shakespeare, hip-hop to opera, film to literary magazines.
Have you heard of X-Factor? No, you likely have not, but that will change soon. Like American Idol, X-Factor originally premiered in the U.K., and follows a group of talented contestants through a series of auditions leading to fancy live shows where the fate of the hopeful stars is decided by a public vote.
You know you are cool when thousands of teenage girls and middle-aged women frantically scream in delight whenever your face flickers on the movie screen.
The summer movie season is always extremely crowded, as wannabe blockbusters fight for box-office glory in the heat.
1970s one-hit-wonders The Buggles famously proclaimed, "Video killed the radio star." Although that particular sentiment is up for debate, the creation and success of The Online Musical, an interactive online theater project created and performed by University students, begs a different question: "Did the Internet kill the Broadway star?" Perhaps not, but the members of TOM are taking full advantage of the digital world as a means of producing a whole new genre of theater performance, which they appropriately have dubbed "interactive online theatre." Since the first musical vignette premiered last fall, TOM productions have garnered tens of thousands of views, overwhelmingly positive publicity from the likes of The Washington Post and Playbill.com, and a rapidly growing fan base extending well beyond Grounds. Fourth-year College student Jeff Luppino-Esposito, who is majoring in English and American Studies, and third-year College student Matt Savarese, who is majoring in music and Media Studies, are the masterminds behind the digital madness.
You definitely have heard Rusted Root before. You may not recognize the name, but within seconds of listening to the song "Send Me on My Way," your mind will swell with images of your youth and flashes of movies such as Matilda or, more recently, Ice Age.
