The cumulative impact of C. Spencer Yeh's loosely connected multimedia works at the CAC forces one to experience the world through his unique, sometimes alienating perspective — an approach the artist has investigated more prominently in his vast and various musical projects over the last dozen-plus years. Yeh's best-known musical entity is Burning Star Core, whose moody, cinematic soundscapes can be described as everything from avant-garde Free Jazz to experimental Noise Rock to the sound of the world caving in on itself.  

C. Spencer Yeh’s first solo museum exhibition features three works, all of which are fueled by his longtime preoccupation with sound and image and the various ways the perception of each can change in different contexts. This Cincinnati-based multimedia artist’s unique vision in Standard Definition, an exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center, is anything but standard. Through Jan. 24.  

Tom Ford arrives on the filmmaking scene fully formed, no doubt the product of a man who has been cultivating and manipulating images for nearly two decades as a bigwig fashion designer. His adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's 1964 novel benefits from strong performances, evocative, detail-rich production design and an effectively melancholy mood that only occasionally drifts into slick stylization. Grade: A-.  

Cincinnati-based trade magazine Writer’s Digest has been offering its literary tips nearly as long as electricity has been in most homes. The magazine hosts their 90th anniversary party at 7 p.m. at Northside Tavern, where the “WD” team will be on hand to celebrate its literary legacy with cake, ice cream, giveaways and other events.  

Movie culture, like the rest of American can society at this late date, is in a serious state of flux. The one-two combo of the recession and the continued fracturing of the pop-cultural landscape have resulted in fewer movies of every size and stripe. Still, the multiplex did have its pleasures in 2009.  

Jason Reitman's sleek yet affecting 'Up in the Air' confirms once and for all that the 32-year-old filmmaker is more than just Diablo Cody's 'Juno' bitch or the opportunistic son of a Hollywood insider. His deft adaptation of Walter Kirn's source novel is a darkly humorous look at the life of Ryan Bingham (a never-better George Clooney), an emotionally stunted "career transition consultant."  

Jim Sheridan reworks Danish director Susanne Bier’s Brodre in the prescient story of a U.S. Marine captain (Tobey Maguire) who, once thought killed in Afghanistan, returns home to discover his b  

The creative kids over at Covington’s Powerhouse Factories celebrate another year of superior design with their annual Holiday Rock Poster Party 6 p.m.-midnight Friday. Creators of crafty, colorful Rock gig posters for nearly a decade, the Powerhouse crew will make available for purchase 11 new prints. And what would a Rock poster party be without music: locals A Decade to Die For! provide an acoustic set.  

Lone Scherfig's 'An Education' is certainly that for the film's central figure, Jenny (newcomer Carey Mulligan), a gifted student from the London suburb of Twickenham in 1961 who dreams of studying English at Oxford University. Based on the memoir of British journalist Lynn Barber and adapted for the screen by novelist Nick Hornby, it's effective on a variety of levels, none more obvious than Mulligan. Grade: B plus.  

The unexpected box-office success of Catherine Hardwicke’s first installment led to the quick green light of the second of Stephanie Meyer’s source novels, New Moon. Ironically, the latest movie flips the formula of the first: Its elaborate special effects, seamlessly guided by new director Chris Weitz, trump its inert, often incoherent story. Grade: C.