A Dallas theater showed Ben Fountain/Ang Lee’s new film in a very cool way. But then, it vanished. You’d be hard-pressed to find a Dallas nightstand that hasn’t felt the weight of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. The New York Times bestseller, penned by local author/writing superstar Ben Fountain, is…
“It’s time to get a little sympathy for women,” says filmmaker Anna Biller from her California home. “Women are great, even when they’re awful.” We’re chatting about her latest work The Love Witch, a technicolor kiss blown toward female-centric thrillers like Repulsion and Marnie — the kinds of films that…
I’m looking at old WFAA news clips with Jeremy Spracklen, moving image curator of SMU’s G. William Jones Film & Video Collection, and the kid on screen has an awful lot of ventriloquy dummies. This footage is from the mid-’70s, and shows a 14-year-old Richardson boy with his right hand…
Dallas VideoFest enters its 29th year on Tuesday, Oct. 18, and that means more than 150 boundary-pushing things to see and do. Its programmer/creator, Bart Weiss, is a local counter-culture staple who’s helped push new media to the forefront of Dallas life for more than three decades. His reach runs…
Michael Nesmith and I are chatting on the phone, and I’m being greedy with his time. But what you realize when reviewing the former Dallasite’s career is how influential his efforts have been to the oozy creative goop of subculture. From those hook-heavy Monkees tunes, to his work in music…
“I’ve never considered myself the ‘Woman of the Year’ type,” said director Rachel Talalay into the microphone as she accepted her award from Women in Television and Film Vancouver in June. “I’m more the ‘Tank-Girl, post-punk feminist warrior.’” For those who never saw Tank Girl or were too young to remember…
Justina Walford is the founder director of the Women Texas Film Festival (WTxFF), the first event in the state to exclusively showcase cinematic work created by women in high-profile positions. But perhaps more important, Walford was just slipped a coupon for a free coffee, an unexpected perk of being on…
The box set sitting under glass at Holly Johnson Gallery isn’t your standard rock compilation. And while its contents resemble CDs in their size and shape, they are actually custom 5-inch vinyl records — little palm-sized things, complete with sleeves, album art and liner notes. Housed inside their grooves is…
If you end up following a group called Sex Lab Inc. from the Texas Theatre this weekend, they will stop you and ask you to sign a liability waiver. Then, when they’ve shuttled you to an undisclosed second location, you might witness something unsavory. The name “Sex Lab Inc.” belongs…
The Oak Cliff Film Fest returns this week to share its treasures across Dallas’ favorite spaces. And while previous iterations have celebrated cinematic pioneers, obsessive documentarians and subversively innovative collaborators, this year’s inspiration is drawn from the New American era of 1970s filmmaking, a time when directors wrested creative control…
From June 16 to 19, the Oak Cliff Film Festival returns for the fifth time to offer up a curated hotlist of screenings, panels and interactive to-dos. The fest’s organizers just released this year’s fully cooked schedule, so slide your gaze south to see what the Aviation Cinemas crew is serving…
Star Wars has warmed up box offices hotter than a Tatooine summer, and fans are going back to relive The Force Awakens experience to the fevered tune of 1.39 billion in global sales. As the film continues to dominate theaters with spaceship cameos and warm-hearted Wookiee hugs, detractors have begun…
Across the country, opera audiences are thinning. The old guard is getting older and youthful cans aren’t plunking down in the chairs. So while there’s something inherently bratty about saying “I would prefer this free thing over this other one,” just follow me here. Dallas Opera has been busy funding,…
I’m in a 20-year-long joint custody situation with Florida and Texas. So when Florida Congressman Alcee Hastings called Texas a “crazy state” that he would never visit, I knew he was just protecting his heart. Florida doth protest too much. These two wacky panhandles were made for each other –…
Even if you weren’t a Tori Amos fan in the mid-to-late ’90s, the odds are good that you knew a few of us who were. Our Kool-Aid dyed hair and witch-length skirts helped visually amplify our hormonal angst to the surrounding world. As did our notebooks — scribbled with words…
With the arrival of Cirque’s celebrated Michael Jackson: The Immortal Tour this Friday and Saturday night at American Airlines Center (2500 Victory Ave.), we’re invited to experience the lighter side of resurrection. In the five years since his passing, we’ve seen the King of Pop exhumed repeatedly — a posthumous…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 20 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Can Turkyilmaz. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. UNT professor Ruth West is showing me a diagram of branching lines that resembles a March Madness…
Since its inception three years back, the Oak Cliff Film Festival has proven there’s plenty of room at the cinematic table for another Dallas fest offering. Hubbed at the Texas Theatre (231 W. Jefferson Blvd.) the fellas of Aviation Cinema designed OCFF with the goal of keeping it hyperlocal –…
Aviation Cinemas staked its claim to Dallas’ film circuit three years ago with the annual Oak Cliff Film Festival, and from the onset OCFF’s programmers did things differently. A blend of old and new, the festival brings together the latest in experimental film from the indie world along with repertory…
In Expo Park an unexpected delight sits, waiting to be adored. Guarded by a T-Rex that’s large by human standards, small by a dino’s, is the studio of artist, inventor and magician Edward Ruiz. This is, quite literally, where the magic happens. Ruiz has begun opening up his art space…
The Pin Show is more than a night of fashion; it’s Dallas’ most fashionable night. Two-time winner of Best Fashion Show as awarded by us, the Dallas Observer, the production merges a heavily local talent base with a few faraway ringers. Then it sets their work loose on the runway…
Spanish surrealist figureheads Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí were classic frienemies. After meeting in college, they went on to share a complicated relationship. Jealousy, adoration, respect, criticism and conflicting philosophies regarding their work’s role and message — especially surrounding its palatability to the wealthy social class — generated a lot…
