Friday, September 19, 10:10 a.m.-ish: It's been six weeks since my last quadruple feature, and I'm expecting this one to start with supreme novelty, considering that the poster for the day's first feature, A Walk Among the Tombstones, boasts the image of a brooding Liam Neeson holding a gun. That's right: Liam Neeson! That guy from Schindler's List! Brooding and holding a gun! How does Hollywood keep coming up with such fresh ideas?!

THE DROP

Tom Hardy, by this point in his career, has had enough major roles in enough major movies to qualify as a familiar face. And a good thing, too, because if we were forced to rely on his voice and specific screen type, how, from film to film, would we ever recognize him? The British star's latest is the crime thriller The Drop, and it's a solid piece of work - hardly novel, but gripping and enjoyable nonetheless. Yet it's tough to imagine any Hardy fan even thinking about skipping it, considering that, much like the recent home-video release Locke, the movie allows this brilliantly chameleon-like character actor to perform an exquisite slow burn that lasts 90-ish minutes, and to sound and seem quite unlike anyone he's ever played before.

Vocalist Janiva Magness is a four-time recipient of the Blues Music Award for "Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year" and the 2009 winner of the "B.B. King Entertainer of the Year" citation, and an overview of the artist's biography suggests that her life story could be its own blues song. But it's really more like its own blues album, liner notes included.

Music

Tommy Emmanuel

Adler Theatre

Wednesday, September 10, 7:30 p.m.

Guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel performs at the Adler Theatre on September 10, and as fans of the two-time Grammy nominee can attest, he's famed for perfecting a complex playing technique called "fingerstyle." That's what I used to call my talent for eating jarred peanut butter without a spoon, but I'm betting Emmanuel's fingerstyle never got him kicked out of the family kitchen.