photo credit: Jake Lyell Becoming Jane is easy to describe in one sentence: a cheap trick designed to lure in the dreamy escapist ladies who start to panic during those years without Pride and Prejudice adaptations. Luckily, I am one of those dreamy escapist ladies, and although the rational part of me screams, “You are [...]
Election Day in the Museum District/West of the Boulevard area is Tuesday, Nov. 6. Our neighborhood is represented in the House of Delegates 68th District. The three way race is being run by incumbent Katherine Waddell (Ind.), former City Council President Manoli Loupassi (R), and William “Bill” Grogan (Ind.). The Museum District Association hosted a [...]
photo credit: Jake Lyell Remember when Pixar was so insecure about the way their newfangled technology represented humans that they only sporadically showed them – always in a rush and always only bit by bit? Now, as my moviegoing friend reminded me, they are able to digitally portray humans so realistically that they have to [...]
photo credit: Jake Lyell For someone who has never seen an episode of this apparently life-altering cartoon, Transformers sure isn’t a difficult movie to follow. And even if I wasn’t following the basic (er, only) premise – (bad guys want to take over the universe, good guys try to stop them) – I wouldn’t have [...]
Monument Avenue: gorgeous mansions line the street, and the statues that dot the medians make the historic road a hallmark of Richmond. The purely residential feel of Monument Ave is one aspect that sets the street apart from all others. But now, are developers descending upon it looking to cash-in on history? Pictured above is [...]
photo credit: Jake Lyell The inside of Captain Jack Sparrow’s brain is a marvellous thing: richly detailed, over the top, and full to the brim with nonsense. Disney’s new Pirates of the Caribbean installment, At World’s End, occasionally opens a tiny window into the character whose massive popularity was brought about, and let’s give credit [...]
photo credit: Jake Lyell Recently, I made some sweeping statements about the seemingly indefatigable trajectory of trilogies as of late, fueled by my bitter and almost personally offended disappointment in the final installment of Pirates of the Caribbean. One is enough! I said. Two is indulgent, and three is simply showing off effects, recycling jokes, [...]
photo credit: Jake Lyell CaryTown is truly a magnificent place. The sheer quantity of independent shops makes it leaps and bounds better than the corporate malls in Short Pump and Stony Point. A stroll down Cary Street on a lazy weekend afternoon is both fun and refreshing. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it, right? [...]
photo credit: Jake Lyell When asked to choose her favorite item at It’s Hip to be Round, Anne Kennon gasps. “It’s like choosing a favorite child!” she exclaims in mock dismay. Kidding or not, this devotion to her products makes It’s Hip to be Round a must-stop-shop for Richmond’s mommies-to-be.
photo credit: Jake Lyell Things I learned from this film: Spartans are the hottest ancient Greeks, Persia’s king was an eight-foot-tall drag queen, and shirts should really be optional as they serve no purpose except to limit a (my) healthy appreciation of pectoral muscles.
photo credit: Jake Lyell The Oscars are exhausting for those of us who obsess about films – weeks of predictions and nail-biting, followed by a few days of scoffing and/or gloating. The weeks after the Academy Awards are usually a nice breather for me. Usually there’s a dearth of good movies in theaters, and I [...]
photo credit: Jake Lyell I’ve said this time and time again, but last year I should have tried to make money off of it — in order to win an Academy Award for Best or Best Supporting Actor or Actress nowadays, you must be impersonating a real figure in a biopic about that figure. If [...]
photo credit: Jake Lyell Ben Stiller plays Ben Stiller in this kid flick and/or two-hour-long advertisement for New York’s Museum of Natural History. I know I’m coming across as really harsh, but it just so happens that usually I like Ben Stiller, I like kids’ movies, and I’m down with some CGI history. And with [...]
photo credit: Jake Lyell When you walk into 15 N. Belmont, you might see Chris cradling his newest mortadella like a proud father. Or maybe you’ll spot Tanya finishing off her lunch of baguettes and bolognaise sauce as she advises a customer on selecting a cut for that night’s dinner. Either scene is exactly what [...]
photo credit: Jake Lyell Is it or is it not true that modern-era James Bond movies are, as a rule, laughably bad? I thought that this was understood – certainly Pierce Brosnan got the picture. You only (and without exception) go to a Bond movie because your boyfriend makes you, and you get to gloat [...]
photo credit: Jake Lyell All I can say is, thank God Stewart Watkins lost that job in Colorado. After completing her undergraduate degree in photography, Stewart headed out west to pursue her graduate studies. However, as often happens with native Richmonders, our River City wouldn’t let her be gone for long. As she puts it, [...]
photo credit: Jake Lyell I have never been a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, or Martin Scorsese. I’m sorry. The first two annoy me, and Gangs of New York got me a speeding ticket (well, it was really long and I was tired and irritated when we got out of the theater, so I [...]
I honestly never thought I’d say this about a movie that revolves around rats and sewers, but Flushed Away was denied an Oscar nomination. Possibly this is because no one actually saw the film, due to its incredibly poor marketing. If you remember, this film was a collaborative effort between Aardman Features, the people behind [...]
West of the Boulevard News is our community’s forum. A place to find out what is going on, to be heard on our issues and to express our thoughts on what’s good and bad. Want to promote your event? Let us know, we’d love to pass it on. Know of something going on in our [...]
