Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce star in Traitor, a terrorist thriller conceived by Steve Martin that the Village Voice calls "uneven yet engrossing." In it, Cheadle plays an American-born mercenary who at age nine witnessed his Sudanese Muslim father die in a car bombing. When the flick finds him as an adult, he's seemingly gone from U.S. Special Ops to selling explosives to jihadists, with Pearce as the FBI agent on his tail. The......

Left to right: Chuck Palahniuk, Clark Gregg, Aaron Gell, Sam Rockwell. Last night Radar Magazine hosted a screening of the film adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's satirical novel Choke, about a sex-addicted med-school drop-out (played by Sam Rockwell) who works as an Irish indentured servant in a Colonial-era theme park to keep his Alzheimer’s-afflicted mother in an expensive private medical hospital. The movie's creepiness gets under your skin a little bit, but it also has a......

This week Frank Bruni files two shorter reviews for the Times instead of handing down his usual hefty decision on a single restaurant. He heads east to follow up on Sushi Yashuda on 43rd Street, declaring that from the time it opened "more than eight years ago, when William Grimes awarded it three stars in The New York Times, it has been among the best. And a recent visit suggested that there’s been no slippage,......

Robert Murray, the 18th century merchant for whom the neighborhood of Murray Hill takes its name, might be troubled to see that his family's legacy has been reduced to a fratastic cluster of post-collegiate, quasi-dorms. But his ghost can also take comfort knowing that for the past decade or so a comic lounge singer in Rat Pack drag has made the name certifiably applause-worthy. Of course, being a Quaker, it might take Robert Murray's ghost a drink or five to warm up to Murray Hill's ribald shtick. His audience at Corio Friday night, on the other hand, was roaring with laughter even as they sipped their first "Pink Tassel" martinis....

You know summer's over when the biggest movie opening is Hamlet 2, a Sundance hit about a high school teacher's struggle to save the school's drama program by writing, directing, producing and starring in a zany time-travel musical. (Okay, there's also Death Race, which the Times calls "a supercharged junkyard apocalypse powered by an unabashed relish for brutal comeuppance and a flair for delirious vehicular mayhem.") British funnyman Steve Coogan – you know, the......

This week the Times’s Frank Bruni rhapsodizes about Perbacco (pictured), which has been open for about five years on East 4th Street, but has a much-buzzed about new chef: 26-year-old Italian hot shot Simone Bonelli, who comes from “the northern city of Modena and the kitchen of Osteria La Francescana, where Italy’s old guard meets Spain’s New Wave.” A two star rating from the Times is a slam dunk for a casual restaurant in this......

With minimal props (a quill pen, a gas mask), rich sound design, and vivid video projection, Michael McQuilken's one man show, A Day in Dig Nation, sets out to be a dystopian exploration of our "media-drenched" post-modern phantasmagoria, as seen through the giant eyes of Rex, an isolated office drone kept complacent by video games and television. Then the apocalypse happens, and Rex survives in a bunker for 26 years until he finally hears a woman's voice calling for survivors over the ham radio. But she sounds kind of demanding, and rather than respond he goes back to working on his robot....

Tropic Thunder – an action/comedy lampoon of a Vietnam action movie gone awry – would seem worth the price of admission just to see Robert Downey, Jr. in blackface, but Robert Wilonsky's Village Voice slam does give one pause: "When it isn't tossing softballs at the studios, Tropic Thunder is the very thing it parodies: a wall of noise engulfed in flame... Stiller is back in the send-up business, nibbling gently at the soft,......

This week finds the Times's Frank Bruni rhapsodizing about Matsugen, the new haute soba restaurant in Tribeca from chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who's kind of a big deal. Actually, as Bruni makes clear, only half the place is Jean-Georges; the other half, which includes the kitchen, is run by Taka, Yoshi and Masa Matsushita, brothers who also operate Matsugen restaurants in Tokyo and Honolulu. "Their soba, condiments, dips, broths and interlopers... are so clearly and cleanly......

Because opening ceremonies for the Olympics are on Friday, most of the big studio movies are opening today. At the top of the heap is Pineapple Express, the new stoner comedy from Seth Rogen and southern art-house director David Gordon Green (friend of Gothamist). The action-packed romp, replete with an eponymous theme song by Huey Lewis, follows a stoner and his dealer on the run from some murderous thugs. Reviews are very mixed, with......

In a city with an abundance of Italian and Latin flavors, it's surprising that these cuisines don't intermingle more often. At Miranda, on North 9th & Berry in Williamsburg (across from Hotel Delmano and Silent H), the husband-wife team of Sasha Rodriguez and Mauricio Miranda fuse mixed heritages and culinary experiences into grains, appetizers, and entrees with sauces both ragu and mole. The dining room is cozy, with a moderate sound level and low light......

This week the Times’s Frank Bruni hands down a generally favorable verdict on Persimmon Kimchi House, the 20-seat, communal table restaurant from chef Youngsun Lee, who cut his teeth with David Chang (Momofuku). Bruni admits that “…at least a third of the dishes I tried prompted yawns or head-scratching. But at least another third riveted me, and all in all I enjoyed what struck me as the polar opposite of a cookie-cutter, fashion-driven meal, the......

Shawn Brackbill In Joseph Campbell's hugely influential work of comparative mythology, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, the world's hero myths are boiled down to three narrative stages: the action, the trials, and the hero at home. But what about that fourth stage, when the retired hero is puttering around the house with no greater trial than cleaning the leaves out of the gutter? In mythic figurations: a power triptych, the plight of the washed-up......

Swing Vote, anyone? You know, starring Kevin Costner as an “apathetic, beer-slinging, lovable loser, who is coasting through a life that has passed him by, until his daughter sets off a chain of events which culminates in the election coming down to one vote: her dad’s!” HAHAHA! Take it away, Boston Globe: “Swing Vote is a satire that's afraid to satirize. It's predicated on so many forces of incompetence converging in a single spot......

Restaurants that we'd recommend off the L train's Montrose stop are few and rarely worth visiting twice. Mojito Loco is an exception, with recipes coming from the Peruvian chef-owner's fearsomely delicious arsenal. The dining room itself is a vortex of well-kept neighborhood restaurant and '80s music-video showcase house (think: Rod Stewart on repeat). And at Mojito Loco every hour is happy hour, which means extra-strong $5 margaritas in six flavors, mixed drinks for $7, and......

This week the Times’s Frank Bruni opines on Scarpetta (pictured), the new Meatpacking District Italian restaurant from Scott Conant (L’Impero, Alto) that the Village Voice loved and the Sun disdained. Bruni bestows a big three stars, raving about the unassuming dish of spaghetti, tomato and basil: “However Mr. Conant is choosing and cooking the Roma tomatoes with which he sauces his house-made spaghetti, he’s getting a roundness of flavor and nuance of sweetness that amount......

Di Fara Pizza in Midwood may be revered by everyone from Brian Chase from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to New York Mag’s Josh Ozersky – who makes a point of living within walking distance of the joint – but Gotham City Insider is not impressed. After a recent visit, she slams the thin crust pizza mecca as “a spot for tourists to take pictures of an old man cutting basil onto a pizza.” And furthermore:......

Here’s an abbreviated list of show biz references that went completely over my head during [title of show], Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell’s audacious meta-musical about two theater “g’nerds” struggling to write a musical: Mary Stout getting hit by a hot dog cart; Dee Hoty; Henry, Sweet Henry; Betty Buckly, Dina Manoff, Ruthless: The Musical. I could go on – that’s just the first ten minutes. Suffice it to say, [title of show] is first and foremost a Broadway musical for people who adore Broadway as much for its dreadful flops as for its glittering triumphs. ...

Compared to the hype that surrounded the first film adaptation, this second X-Files movie is opening almost discreetly this weekend. Is the studio’s subdued promotional effort a sign that I Want to Believe is a mess, or is Space Chimps just sucking all the air out of the room? The Times’s Manohla Dargis says, “I wanted to believe. But with his big-screen blowup of his great and weird television series The X-Files, Chris Carter......

The Sun’s Paul Adams is the latest critic to get around to Hundred Acres (pictured), the meticulously-sourced, farm-to-table restaurant which used to be Provence. While the Daily News was haunted by the ghosts of the old restaurant, Adams says “the transformation is a delightful blast of fresh air. A sultry Southern accent marks the restaurant's menu… where "seasonal" isn't just a buzzword, but where you actually look forward to returning season after season to see......

Yesterday was an appropriately blistering day for this year's eighth annual Village Voice Siren Music Festival at Coney Island, which, with the right frame of mind, can be a total blast. Yesterday had everything we've come to expect from the annual indie rock extravaganza: massive crowds of dehydrating hipsters, fresh clams on the mobbed boardwalk, and a bulging, unmanageable lineup of 14 bands on two stages. Those who stuck through until the evening were rewarded......

Convivio: The Tudor City restaurant formerly known as L’Impero has been reborn as Convivio (pictured), a more casual but still swish venture from the same team, Chris Cannon and chef Michael White. Located in a historic 1920s building, the space is made deluxe with burnt orange banquettes, a hand-hammered copper bar top, and reflective lacquered ceilings. White – who spent seven years studying Italian cuisine in Imola – emphasizes the southern part of the boot......

Something tells us that most people who end up in the audience for Space Chimps this weekend will be people who either lost a bet or bought tickets in a failed attempt to sneak into The Dark Knight. And to hear the Times’s Neil Genzlinger tell it, there are worse fates: “Journalism is all about having the courage to write the truth even if it will get you mocked by your relatives and co-workers,......

Today the little movie that could, The Dark Knight, opens on the wings of a cosmic hype that could make it the third biggest box office earner this year. The first screenings began at midnight, continuing through the night, and many moviegoers were declaring it the best movie ever while still waiting on line to get in. The Observer talked to some fanboys (and girls) waiting for the IMAX screening at Lincoln Center last night;......

At a press/industry screening of The Dark Knight at the Lincoln Square IMAX last night, the line was already halfway down 68th Street an hour before showtime – and these are the overprivileged industry slobs. It’s going to be pandemonium Friday once the rabid fanboys take over. But you already knew that; the question of the hour is, “Does it live up to the hype?” Well, considering that the anticipation level rivals that of......

This week the Times’s Frank Bruni reminds everyone about Oceana (pictured), that fancy three star “seafood restaurant in Midtown that looks like an ocean liner.” After more than fifteen years in business, he says it’s still “very much worth boarding.” And save room for dessert, which is “splendid.” The frozen banana mousse, “presented with both sticky rice and puffed, caramelized rice, [is] the transmogrification of a bowl of Rice Krispies with bananas into dessert, and......

Wow, this show is bizarre. But bizarre in a way that carries on P.S. 122’s scintillating legacy as a downtown refuge for freaky, outré performance art. Musician/performer Neal Medlyn’s latest rock "tragic-comedy," Unpronounceable Symbol, pays musical homage to Prince, with a live band led by Kiki & Herb’s Kenny Mellman, who co-wrote the show and rearranged a bunch of Prince B-sides for the score. Over the years, Medlyn’s developed quite a cult following with his......

Nope, still not July 18th; will Space Chimps never open? Well, let’s put on a brave face and make the best of it. Hellboy 2: The Golden Army is looking pretty interesting, actually. Based on the graphic novel about a demon from hell who ends up sympathizing with the enemy (us), this sequel from talented Pan’s Labyrinth and Hobbit director Guillermo del Toro is “capable of delighting even the most jaded, comic-book-weary summer-blockbuster conscript,”......

In “soft-opening” mode since Wednesday, Macondo is a new Lower East Side restaurant (157 East Houston) that aims to “elevate ‘comida de la calle’ (Latin street food) to the gourmet level.” Small plates span the Spanish-speaking world, with cocas from Barcelona, empanadas from Colombia, piragüas from the Caribbean, churros con chocolate from Spain, tacos from Mexico, and arepas from Venezuela. The place was well packed by 8 p.m. last night, and if food critics think......

Hometown post-punk heroes Sonic Youth played a free show for approximately 7,000 fans in Battery Park on July 4th as part of the River to River Festival. The decades-old band started the set with a spellbinding, spacey rendition of “She is Not Alone,” followed by the Kim Gordon-led classic “Bull in the Heather.” By the third song, a blistering “Silver Rocket,” 50-year-old frontman Thurston Moore seemed to have had enough of the photographers separating his......