Arts & Entertainment
- Sun Day Event to Celebrate Equinox Day
- Citizens’ Climate Lobby-Tacoma and Tacoma Mountaineers are hosting a Sun Day event at the Tacoma Mountaineers on September 21 (equinox day) from noon to 4pm to celebrate solar and clean energy efforts in Tacoma and Pierce County. The event features booths, exhibits, presentations, and short films. Learn more at sunday.earth/events.
- Puget Sound Veterans Creative Arts Exhibition
- The Museum of Glass has partnered with the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System and American Lake Veterans to host the annual local exhibition of the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival. Local veterans have contributed more than 100 pieces now on display in the Museum of Glass Grand Hall. Finalists will be selected by a jury of VA staff, American Legion members, and the Museum of Glass team. Winners will take part in the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival in 2026.
- Botanical Printmaking Workshop
- Join the Tacoma printmaker Yoshi Nakagawa at the Tacoma Armory for a Botanical Printmaking Workshop on September 20, 10am – 1pm, Suite 15. Participants will roll oil-based ink onto plants with a brayer and create proofs along with at least two washi (mulberry paper) prints to take home. Tickets link: https://bit.ly/47ynjug.
- WSHM Presents Shaping the Story: Designs for the Theatre by Carey Wong
- From October 4, 2025 – February 22, 2026, the Washington State History Museum presents Shaping the Story: Designs for the Theatre by Carey Wong. For more than 50 years, Wong has designed sets and costumes for more than 300 productions. The exhibition features scale models, sketches, costumes, set pieces and stories from Wong’s remarkable career. Visitors will also see Wong’s acclaimed work for the Portland Chinatown Museum’s Beyond the Gate. More info: bit.ly/carey-wong.
- Pantages Welcomes David Arquette
- Actor David Arquette will visit Pantages Theater on October 30 for a live conversation and screening of the 1996 Wes Craven classic Scream. Following the film, Arquette will join a “Behind the Scream” moderated interview and Q&A. Known for playing Dewey Riley in the original series, Arquette is set to reprise his role in Scream 7, scheduled for release in February 2026.
Neighborhood News
- Point Ruston Drops Parking Fees
- Point Ruston visitors can now park for free throughout the waterfront development, including the multi-level parking garage. The change took effect this week following months of complaints from businesses and customers about rising fees. Merchants had argued that hourly rates-previously topping $5 with tax-were driving customers away. Free parking is expected to boost traffic for shops, restaurants and events.
- UW Tacoma Names New Engineering Fellowship to Honor Rep. Marilyn Strickland
- The University of Washington Tacoma has launched the Strickland Fellowship for Career Pathways, honoring US Representative Marilyn Strickland’s commitment to education, workforce development and civic-university partnerships. The fellowship offers students real-world engineering experience within city departments such as environmental services, public works and utilities. A second cohort begins this September. Details: bit.ly/4gibDhz.
Local Governance
- Share Your Tenant Experiences
- The Tacoma-Pierce County Affordable Housing Consortium is seeking tenant feedback on the new Tacoma Landlord Fairness Code. The survey asks about barriers to finding housing, complementing a similar survey already completed by landlords. Tenants who speak languages other than English may participate by listening sessions in their primary language by contacting info@tpcahc.org.
- September 22 Park Board Meeting at STAR Center
- On Monday, September 22, the Park Board meeting will be held at STAR Center. Meet commissioners at 5pm with refreshments, followed by the regular meeting at 6pm. The agenda will be posted at parkstacoma.gov.
Business & Opportunity
- Fall Career Internship Fair – Wednesday October 8, 11:30am – 1:30pm
- The University of Puget Sound invites employers to its Fall Career and Internship Fair, now scheduled during lunch hour for maximum student engagement. Students bring liberal arts strengths – critical thinking, communication and problem-solving. Register at pugetsound.joinhandshake.com.
- Artist-in-Residence Program at Hotel Murano
- Hotel Murano has launched its Artist-in-Residence program, inviting creatives to exhibit original work in its 600-sqaure-foot Barlow Gallery for one year. Artists must complete at least 12 pieces, be available for interviews, and share their residency experience online. All artwork will be for sale. Deadline: October 31, 2025.
- Pierce County Resources Event
- Join the Pierce County Community Navigator team for a free Thriving Together small business resource event on Wednesday October 8, at STAR Center. Entrepreneurs can connect with organizations offering programs and services. RSVP at piercecountywa.gov/thriving.
- Spaceworks Artscapes Application Live September 15
- The Spaceworks 2026 Artscapes roster application opened September 15 and closes October 15. Artists can apply for murals, window installations, digital video galleries and special projects including pop-ups and performances. Apply at spaceworkstacoma.com.
- Seeking New Members for the Parks Tacoma Arts & Heritage Advisory Council
- The Parks Tacoma Arts & Heritage Advisory Council seeks new members. Learn more at an open house Wednesday, October 15, 5:30pm at Seymour Conservatory in Wright Park. RSVP to Sarah Sutton, Chair at bmuse216@gmail.com. Apply at parkstacoma.gov.join-advisory-council.
- Back to School Resources Provided by Tacoma Public Library
- Tacoma Public Library offers many resources to help children, families, and educators thrive. Learn more at tacomalibrary.org.
Recreation & Wellness
- New Travel Book Highlights Three Washington Locations
- Writer and filmmaker Matt Tory’s new book, Go See America: 118 of the USA’s Greatest Hits (According to a Guy Who Visited Them All). highlights Mount Rainier, the Olympic Peninsula and Snoqualmie Falls among the nation’s must-see destinations. Tory shares stories, tips and personal photos in a lighthearted travel guide. The book is available now.
- Skate the Armory – Sunday Open Skate
- Starting in October Skate the Armory returns twice a month on the Armory Parade Floor. Bring friends and family to groove to music – no experience necessary. Skates are not provided. Memberships are $15 per month and include free admission to all sessions through June 2026. Tickets available at tickets.tacomaartslive.org.
- Yoga with Plants at the Conservatory September 21
- This is your chance to join a rejuvenating yoga session surrounded by lush greenery at the W.W. Seymour Conservatory. This class September 21 at 9am will be held by an experienced 200-hour registered yoga teacher Sarah C. Low and will include gentle movement, breath awareness, and focused attention using the surrounding plants as focal points. This class will be one hour and there is no experience necessary to participate. Bring a water bottle, yoga mat, blanket and pillow (if desired). There will be chairs and benches available. Register here.
Reviews
- Film Review: Steve, by Elizabeth Mulloy
- Being a teacher is one of the hardest jobs in the world. It’s stressful, the hours are relentless, and the pay is shit. So imagine being a teacher at a last-chance reform school where many of the students are openly violent and verbally abusive to not only each other but to each teacher. Tim Mielants’s, Steve, adapted from Max Porter’s Shy, is a love-letter to teachers who teach in this environment. While its heart is in the right place Steve sadly gets lost in its homework.
- We follow Steve (Cillian Murphy), the headteacher at a last-chance reform school in the remote English countryside. His days are filled with teaching, verbal and physical abuse as he pops opioids to keep his sanity. Yet despite the abuse, he still deeply cares for his students. One of them is Shy (Jay Lycurgo), a bright young man who is struggling with the demons of his past. However, when news reaches that the school will be closing by the end of the semester, the entire school spirals into madness.
- Before I bog down the room too much let me talk about what I like. Steve is undeniably well crafted thanks to Tim Mielants’s commanding direction. He wastes no time throwing his audience into the frenzied ecosystem of this school. Through suffocating long takes, we are held hostage in this sweaty, claustrophobic environment right alongside the students and teachers. The walls feel like they are closing in, every hallway echoes with raised voices, and since no one is capable of communicating outside of shouting, the school itself is a pressure cooker threatening to blow every five minutes. It’s stressful, it’s exhausting, and that is the point that Mielants makes sure his audience doesn’t just witness the chaos, but lives it.
- On the performance side, it should be no surprise that Cillian Murphy delivers another brilliant performance. He plays this worn-down, deeply wounded teacher, with all of the layers of this teacher struggling to keep his sanity. He grounds the chaos with his weary presence. Yet, the real stand out here is from Jay Lycurgo as Shy. Lycurgo captures the painful contradictions of a student whose raw brilliance and potential are perpetually smothered by his neverending trauma. His performance is alive and filled with vulnerability and rage, making him the beating heat of this film.
- However, despite all this praise, Steve can’t quite escape an identity crisis. At just 92 minutes, the film is trying to shoulder more story than its runtime can reasonably support. The biggest issue is focus as the narrative can’t decide if it belongs to Steve or to Shy, and in splitting the difference, it shortcuts both. What we’re left with is two compelling threads competing for attention, neither of which is given enough room to fully develop. That lack of breathing space ultimately robs the conclusion of its weight, leaving it feeling unearned and undercooked. It’s frustrating, because the pieces are all there. With even 30 more minutes, I’m convinced the film could have struck gold. Instead, it feels like Steve cuts itself off just when it starts to get interesting.
- Ultimately, Steve has everything it needs to be a moving ode to teachers. It has strong direction, fantastic performances, and the raw emotional core. But instead of delivering a cohesive statement, the film ends up caught between two competing narratives, with neither fully coming into fruition.. What could have been a moving love letter is reduced to a muddled draft, stuck halfway between answers A and B.
- My Rating: B-
- Film Review: The Long Walk, by Elizabeth Mulloy
- I don’t have much to say so I will keep this short and sweet. Adapted from the Stephen King novel, The Long Walk takes an incredibly simple premise, a group of teenage boys walking till the last one is standing, and turns it into an unforgiving adrenalin rush. From the moment our boys began their walk, tension gripped my seat as I found myself unable to sit still. We watch these boys forge fragile friendships and cling on to their sanity as one by one, they’re torn away from each other in a brutal and unforgiving fashion. It’s as devastating as it is terrifying. Anchored by rising talents Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson, who provide the emotional heartbeat of the film, both prove themselves as some of the most compelling young actors working today. In the end, The Long Walk is a fierce, exhilarating experience that surpasses expectations at every turn.
- My Rating: A-
- Film Review: The Lost Bus, by Elizabeth Mulloy
- Paul Greengrass’s The Lost Bus was probably the one of the biggest surprises that I saw at the Toronto International Film Festival. At the very least I was expecting it to be a decent survival thriller. What I was not expecting was a surprisingly emotional, anxiety inducing ride that had me on the verge of tears for nearly two hours. Naturally, you put children in a dangerous situation where they are crying for their parents and asking if they are going to die, I will get emotional. But, The Lost Bus is not only emotional, but executes this real life story with thrilling precision.
- We follow Kevin McKay (Matthew McConaughey), a bus driver for Paradise Independent School District in Paradise, California. He starts off his day like any other, taking kids to school, running some errands and performing routine maintenance on his trusty old school bus. However, this day a wildfire sparks several miles outside the city and begins spreading rapidly. During the evacuation efforts several school children are left stranded at a local elementary school and require a school bus to evacuate them. With the wildfire rapidly approaching the school, Kevin takes up the jobs and what unfolds is an ultimate tale for survival.
- The Lost Bus is at its absolute best when it leans into being a survival thriller. From the very first moment the kids step onto that school bus to the breathless final minutes, the film grips you in a vise of tension, rarely offering a chance to exhale. The terror is relentless. Whether it’s the image of the bus surrounded on all sides by an unforgiving wall of fire devouring everything in its path, the piercing screams of children who know they are trapped, or the two adults who slowly come to the horrifying realization that unless they act, they too are going to die in the most nightmarish way imaginable. Greengrass turns these moments into pure cinematic panic, using his signature documentary-style filmmaking to pull you into the inferno. Every crackle of flame, every gasp of smoke-filled breath, every shudder of the bus is amplified by sound design and VFX that feel terrifyingly real. You may be safe in your theater seat, but you will not feel safe. I certainly didn’t and neither did my fellow critics with me, all of us shifting, fidgeting, unable to sit still, as if the fire might somehow leap from the screen and swallow us whole.
- However, despite all of this praise, the film does stumble with one unfortunate hiccup: it tries to wedge in a family drama subplot involving Kevin, his wife, and their son. The idea seems to be that none of them are able to articulate their feelings to one another, which is meant to add another layer of tension, but instead it plays out like boilerplate domestic conflict we’ve seen countless times before. These are the kinds of “typical family problems” that might work in a different story, but here they feel clumsy and unnecessary, especially when the survival narrative is so much stronger on its own. The result is a tonal detour that only drags the pacing down and distracts from the urgency of the central disaster. Honestly, if the film had resisted the urge to shoehorn in this melodrama, it would have been sitting comfortably at an A.
- Overall, Paul Greengrass’s The Lost Bus is a nerve-shredding and deeply emotional survival thriller that demands to be experienced on the big screen. It’s not flawless, but when it locks into its harrowing momentum, it is both exhilarating and devastating in equal measure. Imperfections aside, it’s a ride well worth taking, especially in a theater where every crackle of fire and every scream will rattle through you.
- My Rating: A-
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