Eric Althoff

Muhammad Ali, boxing great, dies at 74

Ali, considered by many to be the greatest boxer of all time, died Friday in Phoenix after a recent battle with a respiratory illness related to his Parkinson's disease. He was 74.

June 4, 2016

Teens cook for national bragging rights in Education Department contest in D.C.

Teenagers from around the country will compete Monday in a cooking contest at the U.S. Department of Education.

June 3, 2016

Washington, D.C., Thai restaurant Mango Tree offers sumptuous lunch menu

With my pal Allison, I popped by Mango Tree (929 H Street, NW, 202/408-8100) for what I was promised would be an absolutely amazing Thai lunch. And it's always nice when the result lives up to the hype.

June 2, 2016

‘Top Chef’ winner Jeremy Ford headlines ‘Toasted Tour’ beer festival in D.C. Saturday

With summer unofficially kicked off last weekend, it's time to get outside and enjoy a pint or several. Just in time for June, Blue Point Brewing Company will host its "Toasted Tour" at the District's Yards Park Saturday from 2 p.m to 7 p.m., bringing with them their sudsy wares.

June 2, 2016

Climate change solutions debated in documentary ‘Time to Choose’

A decade after "An Inconvenient Truth," the debate continues to rage on all sides about global warming. While even so-called "climate change deniers" have begun to come around to the fact that it is, incontrovertibly, happening, many say it is simply too expensive to address. "Time to Choose," from documentarian Charles Ferguson ("No End in Sight," "Inside Job"), makes the case that time is anything but on our side.

June 2, 2016

Cyndi Lauper, Boy George on double bill at Wolf Trap Filene Center

Over three decades into an amazing career, Cyndi Lauper still knows how to have fun. The New York native known for her Technicolor hair and effervescent attitude will stop by the Wolf Trap Filene Center in Vienna, Virginia, Wednesday evening as part of a double bill with fellow 1980s icon Boy George.

May 31, 2016

GI Film Festival screens ‘Beyond Glory’ with Stephen Lang portraying Medal of Honor recipients

Stephen Lang is trading in his sneer and his villainous roles to honor the troops. The actor known for his turn as the vile Col. Miles Quaritch in James Cameron's "Avatar" will be in to the District Saturday for a GI Film Festival screening of "Beyond Glory," a quasi-documentary that follows Mr. Lang as he portrays eight Medal of Honor recipients -- a film version of his one-man stage show of the same name.

May 28, 2016

Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin home life and New York mayoral race shown in documentary

"Yeah, I did 'the thing,' but I also did a lot of other things." Profound, if prevaricating, words from former Rep. Anthony Weiner in his first moments in the exquisitely fascinating new documentary, "Weiner," opening Friday throughout the District. For it is the hallmark of narcissism to both seek attention while simultaneously lacking introspection.

May 26, 2016

‘Maggie’s Plan’ director Rebecca Miller on how Ireland, Daniel Day-Lewis, influenced New York film

After years of living in Ireland, writer/director Rebecca Miller returned to New York and began working on what would become the new film "Maggie's Plan," opening Friday in the District. Part soap opera and part comedy melodrama, "Maggie's Plan" starts Greta Gerwig as a New Yorker determined to have a baby on her own. But then she falls in love with the married John (Ethan Hawke), which spells doom for his marriage to the artist Georgette (Julianne Moore, employing a unique accent).

May 25, 2016

Songwriters lobby for change in copyright law to increase royalties

You may not have heard of MoZella, a songwriter and performer from Detroit, but you absolutely know her work. She co-wrote "Wrecking Ball," a smash for Miley Cyrus that has over 1 billion views on YouTube and became a No. 1 hit for the singer — thanks, in part, to its notorious video of Miss Cyrus riding the titular implement of destruction in the nude.

May 24, 2016

‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ celebrates 30th anniversary at FerrisFest in Chicago

Three decades since Ferris Bueller embarked on his epic day off in 1986, Hughes' film is as pitch-perfect as it was then. While all movies are undoubtedly a reflection of the time in which they are produced, as with much else of his limited oeuvre as writer-director, Hughes' single-day adventure of the satyr Ferris against the adult world and the ogre Edward R. Rooney remains as close to flawless to a cinematic confection as has ever been made.

May 22, 2016

MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Sunset Song’ brings life to England on even of World War I

Magnificently realized and acted, although a tad lugubrious at times, "Sunset Song" from British director Terence Davies (2011's "The Deep Blue Sea," an adultery drama not to be inadvertently confused with the similarly named 1999 film about genetically engineered sharks) translates Lewis Grassic Gibbon's novel about a Scottish woman coming of age at the turn of the 20th century to the screen.

May 19, 2016

‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’ director Matthew Brown on Ramanujan legacy

It was one of the most unlikely of friendships: a tenured Cambridge professor taking a promising Indian named Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar under his wing, with the latter's work becoming a cornerstone of modern mathematics. "I knew very little of this story before I found Robert Kanigel's incredible biography, other than the small reference which I vaguely remembered from 'Good Will Hunting,'" said writer/director Matthew Brown of the new film "The Man Who Knew Infinity."

May 19, 2016

PilatesProWorks Alexandria set to open in D.C.

I'd never tried Pilates, but I had always thought I should. Now I have, and I am here to tell you that it is much, much harder than it looks.

May 18, 2016

Gary Sinise, actor, and Lt. Dan Band to play Howard Theatre in D.C. Saturday

Actor Gary Sinise and his cover band will play the Howard Theatre Saturday evening to kick-off the annual GI Film Festival.

May 18, 2016

Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes to open May 24 in Kansas

On May 24 the gates of the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes will open in Fort Scott, Kansas. The new 6,000-square-foot facility will be dedicated to celebrating those who have "made a profound and positive difference in the course of history." The museum will feature exhibits, a theater and other facilities for visitors to experience.

May 18, 2016

Valerie Bertinelli of ‘Food Network Star’ discusses show’s finale, Italian cooking

Long before Valerie Bertinelli was known the world over for her modeling and acting career -- to say nothing of being the former spouse of guitar god Eddie Van Halen -- she learned how to cook under the tutelage of her Italian "Noni," or grandmother. Valerie Bertinelli has ventured into food-based entertainment, including the reality shows "Valerie's Home Cooking," "Kids Baking Championship" and "Food Network Star: Comeback Kitchen," the competition show that has its finale Sunday on Food Network.

May 17, 2016

GI Film Festival X to host ‘Top Gun’ screening, bring military, civilian, Hollywood together

GI Film Festival co-found Laura Law-Millett wanted to program films that not only showed the heroism of American service members, but also ones that did not have the "stereotypical" tragic finale. Beginning May 21, Ms. Law-Millett and her husband, Brandon Millett, will enjoin Hollywood and Washington for the 10th iteration of the film festival they founded in 2007. For nine days the 2016 GI Film Festival -- known this year as GI Film Festival X -- will showcase dozens of movies that celebrate America's heroes as well as shine a spotlight on issues that continue bedeviling the armed forces community.

May 16, 2016

‘Love & Friendship’ director Whit Stillman on adopting Jane Austen for the screen

Director Whit Stillman's residing in Paris allowed for proximity to Great Britain and its centuries of writers -- not the least of them being Jane Austen. The new film "Love & Friendship" is based on the romantic writer's short story "Lady Susan," centering around the socialite Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale) who visits her in-laws determined to find a match for her daughter Frederica (Morfydd Clark).

May 15, 2016

Irish independence centennial to be celebrated at Kennedy Center’s ‘Ireland 100’

Nearly a century ago Ireland formally left behind the United Kingdom after centuries of strife and warfare with its rulers across the Irish Sea. And on May 29, 1917, the scion of one of the Emerald Isle's most powerful families in America was born, and who would later become the 35th president of the United States.

May 15, 2016