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Southern Gothic: The Global Underground Hits Richmond

Richmond has always produced world-class talent and just as often, watched it leave. That cycle was exactly what Warren Jones, performer and co-founder of Prison Religion, and Christian Detres, filmmaker and longtime RVA Magazine contributor, set out to change. Their...

From Skate Parks to Tour Vans: Elyza Reinhart Shoots the Grind

Elyza Reinhart has been shooting shows since she was twelve, before she had a photo pass, before she even really knew what she was doing. That early start, and the nerves that came with it, still shape how she works today. Now based in Richmond, she’s finding new ways...

Broke Student’s Survival Guide: Cheap Eats in Richmond 2025

If you’re a broke student back in Richmond and already sick of the dining hall’s gray meatloaf, relax, this city won’t let you starve. The food here has always been a patchwork of dives, diners, and half-chaotic kitchens that somehow keep the student body alive. You...

Canned Heat! A Richmond Guide to Summer Wines in a Can

We had never tried canned wine before this week. Up until recently, we hadn’t really given them much thought. We would see new canned wines emblazoned with eye-grabbing artwork on shelves in stores and wine bars around town, but never felt compelled to try them....

Kyle’s Criterion Corner: Desert Hearts (1985)

A cornerstone for gay cinema, “Desert Hearts” is director Donna Deitch’s first scripted feature, but also a rare coming out in independent cinema and the romance genre. It’s 1959 and Vivian Bell (Helen Shaver) needs a divorce. She rides in on a train to Reno, Nevada to fulfill and establish a six-week residency, all while trying to maintain her...

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Virginia Film Festival’s ‘Permanent’

The following is RVA Magazine's continued coverage of Charlottesville's Virginia Film Festival this past weekend. Staff writer Kyle Shearin was on the scene to highlight some of the films from the three-day event. If you missed the first in the series, you can check that review out here.  “Permanent”, a new film, comes from Virginian...

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Virginia Film Festival Review: Spike Lee’s ‘4 Little Girls’

Based in Charlottesville at the University of Virginia, the Virginia Film Festival has celebrated the art of film for over 30 years and this past weekend, it continued its tradition of highlighting new features and documentaries, fresh takes on timeless classics, and local filmmakers. Staff writer Kyle Shearin attended the festival and in the...

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Kyle’s Criterion Corner: The Lure (2016)

Not exactly a modern-spin on an old fable, The Lure is a stirring, if fragmented coming-of-human tale of two sisters who happen to be carnivorous, singing, vampire-like mermaids. After being lured by a family of intriguing music performers, Silver (Marta Mazurek) and Golden (Michalina Olszanska) two young, beautiful, mermaids find themselves the...

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Kyle’s Criterion Corner: David Lynch: The Art Life (2016)

2017 has been the year David Lynch returned to our lives. After a decade-plus absence in making films, his signature series Twin Peaks resumed (after a seemingly foreseen 25-year hiatus), continuing to instill that special sense of enigmatic storytelling that’s often associated with the director and his work on and off the screen. While Lynch is...

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Kyle’s Criterion Corner: Certain Women (2016)

Certain Women, director Kelly Reichardt’s modern pioneer-woman film not only explores the temporary trials and tribulations of its three contemporary women, conjured from the short stories of Maile Meloy, it also showcases how the gorgeous, wide-open, the Montana landscape ties into each central character’s own sense of loneliness and longing....

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Kyle’s Criterion Corner: Meantime (1983)

As political as it’s a social statement, writer and director Mike Leigh’s (Secrets and Lies, Happy-Go-Lucky) 1983 tragicomedy, Meantime, centers on the downtrodden poverty stricken Pollock family, amid the jobless working-class placed in the grim societal backdrop of Margaret Thatcher 1980’s Britain. The Pollock family; headed by unemployed grump...

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