City Paper grade: A A tranquil setting hides unsettling truths in director Alain Guiraudie’s minimalist thriller — not just the murder that drives its deceptively simple plot. Set entirely at a lakeside gay cruising spot, Stranger by the Lake follows Franck…

City Paper grade: C If anyone has spent the last seven years wondering what was going on in the background of the original 300 while Gerard Butler and his band of impossibly buff Spartans were engaged in slo-mo slaughter, the…

CHANGE OF PLANS: What started out as a portrait of Lamb of God and the group’s fans turned into a gripping courtroom drama. Documentary filmmaker Don Argott seems to have a knack for being in the right place at the…

When the film Gravity was released last fall, Variety published a review by Scott Foundas titled, “Why Gravity Could Be the World’s Biggest Avant-Garde Movie.” The piece compared the weightless, roaming long takes of the Sandra Bullock-in-space blockbuster with Michael…

Mimi Jones Lucian Ban/Mat Maneri Duo Romanian-born pianist Lucian Ban and violist Mat Maneri pair up to perform a stunning blend of free improvisation, contemporary classical and folk music inspired by composers from Ban’s native region. Jan. 25, Philadelphia Art…

THE GANG’S ALL HERE: A still from James Broughton’s nudie film The Bed (1968), screening on Valentine’s Day at International House. As the sexual revolution gained force in the mid-1960s, filmmakers like Radley Metzger, who produced titillating low-budget movies, were…

Jen Downer Yes, they hail from Portland and their latest record, Swim (Cuneiform), was produced by the Decemberists’ Nate Query, but don’t approach the Blue Cranes looking for irony or affectation. So many musicians combine influences from modern jazz and…

1. Craig Taborn Trio Chants (ECM) The first release by pianist Taborn’s trio with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Gerald Cleaver follows years of touring, during which the trio has developed a captivatingly elusive private language. While he sticks with…

Merie W. Wallace ROUGH NIGHT?: Bruce Dern gives a memorable performance as Woody Grant, a crotchety alcoholic convinced he’s won a million dollars. City Paper grade: B After trekking to California’s wine country for Sideways and Hawaii for The Descendants,…