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Articles by Eric Althoff

CD REVIEW: ‘Alone in the Universe’ return to form for ELO and Jeff Lynne

Original Electric Light Orchestra mastermind Jeff Lynne gets the band back together for the supergroup's first disc in years, "Alone in the Universe." The disc sounds both vintage and current, recapturing the signature sounds that made the act such a hit with songs with some newer sounds to boot.

November 22, 2015
Natalie Dormer attends a special screening of "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2" at the AMC Loews Lincoln Square on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Natalie Dormer on Cressida’s final adventure in ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2’

Natalie Dormer is perhaps loathe to discuss the future given the phenomenal present success of "The Hunger Games" franchise, which reaches its cinematic conclusion this week when "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 2" hits theaters Friday. "It feels weird because we said goodbye over a year ago with filming," Miss Dormer told The Washington Times, "which is obviously sad at the time [as] we'd all just spent these extraordinary nine month together doing 'Mockingjay 1' and '2' back to back. But now I'm just genuinely excited to pass it over to the fans and let them see the final installment of the story."

November 19, 2015
Jackie Earle Haley (right) directs and co-stars in "Criminal Activities" with John Travolta. (sacurrent.com)

Jackie Earle Haley makes directorial debut with ‘Criminal Activities’

Even during his 13-year self-imposed exile from Hollywood, Jackie Earle Haley knew that someday he wanted to sit in the director's chair. At long last, the 54-year-old actor has gotten his chance for the big-time. Mr. Haley's directorial debut, "Criminal Activities," opens Friday at the AMC Hoffman Center 22 in Alexandria, Virginia, -- a neo-noir crooks-and-crooked cops drama starring John Travolta, Michael Pitt and Mr. Haley himself as Gerry, a quipping mob enforcer.

November 18, 2015
David Arquette with “Sherlock Holmes” co-stars James Maslow and Renee Olstead. (splash.suntimes.com)

David Arquette brings unique interpretation of Sherlock Holmes to D.C.

The iconic detective Sherlock Holmes has been interpreted so many times on stage and film that bringing anything new to the role seems Herculean in and of itself. But David Arquette, bowing Wednesday at the Warner Theatre as the canny detective, believes District audience will find something exciting in his new interpretation.

November 18, 2015
The Tie Bar DC will have a grand opening fiesta Wednesday evening.

Tie Bar DC offers pop-up menswear shop for holidays

The Tie Bar DC in Northwest has come to the District just in time for the holiday shopping season, offering high-quality menswear at rather reasonable rates. The Chicago-based retailer offers a catalog of ties, tie bars, kerchiefs and pocket fabric for the discerning customer this season.

November 17, 2015
(Roy Sewall)

Odyssey cruises offering fall foliage tours in Washington, D.C.

The Washington Times recently had an opportunity to take an afternoon bottomless mimosa brunch cruise from the good folks at Odyssey cruises aboard the Odyssey III, docked in Southwest, for a fall foliage voyage along D.C.'s Potomac waterfront.

November 16, 2015
In this Sunday, March 2, 2014, file photo, Angelina Jolie, left, and Brad Pitt arrive at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Jolie and Pitt were married Saturday, Aug. 23, 2014, in France, according to a spokesman for the couple. (Photo by Vince Bucci/Invision/AP, File) ** FILE **

‘By the Sea’ a misfire vanity project for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt

In "By the Sea," opening Friday, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie star as Roland and Vanessa -- he a frustrated writer and she a failed dancer who "got too old" for the stage. To attempt to put their ailing marriage back on track, the American couple travels to the French Riviera (substituted here by lovely Malta) to hole up in a seaside inn run by an avuncular Frenchman (Niels Arestrup). What precisely are they doing there? The film is vague on details, but the couple soon enough settles into a lackadaisical routine: Roland drinks and drinks like Hemingway while trying to write like Elmore Leonard, while Vanessa perpetually glares at him from across the room with her arms crossed.

November 13, 2015
French actress Juliette Binoche gained worldwide acclaim in the American film of the Czech novel "The Unbearable Lightness of Being." Her latest film is "Paris." Jane Campion (below) wrote and directed "Bright Star," the story of the relationship between poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne. (Associated Press)

Juliette Binoche discusses importance of spirituality in ‘The 33’

If one word comes to mind to explain what has made Juliette Binoche's film career so rich, it would have to be "empathy." Friday, Miss Binoche can be seen in "The 33," which tells the incredible true story of the Chilean miners trapped underground for 69 days. Miss Binoche co-stars alongside Antonio Banderas and Lou Diamond Phillips as Maria Segovia, whose brother is one of the trapped 33 miners.

November 13, 2015
Horst von Wachter (left) and Niklas Frank (right) are the sons of Nazi war criminals struggling with their familial pasts in "What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy." (Tribecafilm.com)

‘What Our Fathers Did’ shows the pain of Germans acknowledging Nazi past

The aphorism goes that the sins of the father shall be visited upon the son, but what of the sin of willful ignorance even in the face of overwhelming evidence? This is the question posed by "What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy," a documentary of sorts opening Friday at the District's Bethesda Row Cinema.

November 11, 2015
This photo provided by Bleecker Street shows Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo in Jay Roach’s "Trumbo," a Bleecker Street release. The movie opens in U.S. theaters on Friday, Nov. 6, 2015. (Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Bleecker Street via AP)

‘Trumbo’ financiers didn’t want Bryan Cranston for title role

He was the highest-paid screenwriter in the world, but in 1947, after refusing to name names before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), Dalton Trumbo found himself first in prison for contempt, then blacklisted as one of the so-called "Hollywood Ten." "They were throwing big names at us for a while, and when I finally arrived at the idea of Bryan Cranston" playing Trumbo, "I just said, 'That's so perfect, I'm not doing it unless he's it,'" Mr. Roach said of his leading man.

November 11, 2015
This photo provided by Open Road Films shows, Michael Keaton, from left, as Walter "Robby" Robinson, Liev Schreiber as Marty Baron, Mark Ruffalo as Michael Rezendes, Rachel McAdams, as Sacha Pfeiffer, John Slattery as Ben Bradlee Jr., and Brian d’Arcy James as Matt Carroll, from the film, "Spotlight." (Kerry Hayes/Open Road Films via AP)

‘Spotlight’ director Tom McCarthy, writer Josh Singer on silence of Catholic Church scandal

Many in Boston knew something was amiss, but it took an outsider to bring the focus to bear on decades of transgressions and cover-ups. In less than two years, the Spotlight team blew the lid off the institutionalized abuse of children within the Catholic Church as well as shone the light of guilt upon those who turned the other way. "I think that's the best argument for good local journalism that we could possibly make," said Josh Singer, who co-wrote the new film "Spotlight" with director Tom McCarthy, opening Friday.

November 11, 2015
In this Feb. 9, 2004 file photo, a pedestrian walks through the parking lot of Tower Records in Los Angeles. "All Things Must Pass," a documentary by Colin Hanks about Tower Records, the retail store that dominated for decades before filing for bankruptcy in 2006, earned at standing ovation at the South by Southwest festival on Tuesday, March 17, 2015. (AP Photo/Ric Francis, File) — FILE

‘All Things Must Pass’ documentary shows rise and fall of Tower Records

Directed by Colin Hanks, "All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records" chronicles the music store powerhouse from founder Russ Solomon's humble beginnings in a Sacramento location before expanding into -- and becoming a part of -- San Francisco's hippie culture and south to protest era Los Angeles and beyond.

November 9, 2015
FILE - In this April 29, 2004, file photo, Gunnar Hansen poses at his home in Northeast Harbor, Maine. A spokesman says Hansen, who played the iconic villain Leatherface in the original “Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” died Saturday, Nov. 7, 2015, of pancreatic cancer. He was 68. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

Gunnar Hansen, Leatherface in ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’ dead at 68

Icelandic-born actor Gunnar Hansen, who achieved Hollywood notoriety as the masked, chainsaw-wielding killer in the cult 1974 horror film "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," died Sunday at the age of 68, The New York Times is reporting. The cause of death was reported as pancreatic cancer.

November 8, 2015
Actor Chazz Palminteri has his own signature brand of vodka, BiVi. (swineandswill.com)

Chazz Palminteri enters vodka market with Sicilian BiVi

Chazz Palminteri, the writer-actor-director known for his one-man show and subsequent film adaptation of "A Bronx Tale," has gone where no Sicilian distiller has gone before. "My [business partner] Rich DeCicco said to me, 'You know there's never really been an Italian/Sicilian vodka made in Sicily,'" Mr. Palminteri, 63, told The Washington Times of his entry into the vodka business with his new signature brand, BiVi.

November 6, 2015