The press notes for Pulse would have you believe that it predates many of the recent Japanese horror films that have been remade for American audiences, but that doesn’t seem to be true. It predates the U.S. remakes, yes; but according to the Internet Movie Database, Pulse came out in…
Most movies intend to entertain or inform us, or maybe take our minds momentarily off personal problems–that bullet-riddled body in the trunk, say, or Aunt Edna’s arrest for shoplifting doughnuts. Presumably, no picture really means to make an airtight case against children. But after sitting through the witless, terminally irritating…
Deception, betrayal and revenge. In his film directorial debut, acclaimed playwright/screenwriter/theater director Craig Lucas is done in by his own script, which becomes so excessively icy and cruel that it breaks, rather than solidifies, any bond it could hope to establish with its audience. A modern-day Greek tragedy–complete with an…
Annette Lawrence: Edge Annette Lawrence makes flat striations of color that sit against the wall, what some might call “painting,” from stacked two-inch strips of hand-torn paper. Ultimately, though, the pieces that make up this work, July-October 2005, are more sculpture than painting. Nevertheless their color palette and relationship to…
Morning’s at Seven Paul Osborn’s lovely three-act dramedy looks at an extended family dominated by four elderly sisters and their husbands. When one sister’s shy son (Halim Jabbour) finally brings home his girlfriend of 12 years–only to break up with her and decide to keep living at home–the clan engages…
“There is no amendment against same-sex comedy,” warns comic actor Paul J. Williams in his introduction to another performance by Queertown, the seven-member comedy troupe that commands the stage at the West End Comedy Theatre. They’re gay, all right, this bunch of giddies. It’s just that not all of them…
Americans have a peculiar Manichaean relationship with clowns. This dualism sees us hiring them for kids’ birthday parties and cheering a clown-packed car at the circus while simultaneously relishing the spectacle of a clown gone bad. Malevolent, evil-doing clowns take center stage in many popular plot lines, from Batman’s archenemy…
There was a time when it was perfectly respectable for a grown man to have a poster of a beautiful woman on his wall. It could be said that women like Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable even helped win World War II–not by taking up arms and fighting but by…
Relax with laid-back festivities 11/25 It’s that time again; time for Amazon wish lists, drunken professional functions, gift card cop-outs and uncomfortable family dinners. Happy holidays, Dallas. Sure, yuletide festivities may be all Nat King Cole and Chuck Dickens for those with an adorable nostalgia bug, but it’s extended events…
Ready your button-pushers 11/27 Electronic Arts should be pretty stoked about this past Tuesday’s release of the mega-hyped XBox 360 gaming system. Obviously, their EA Sports division sold a crapload of its biggest games for the new, superpowered machine, but there’s another perk here–the new XBox has finally taken attention…
The Stewpot offers a creative outlet 11/27 Bet you never thought an art crawl in Dallas could include a homeless center. Thanks to The Stewpot and the Dallas Public Library, however, your perspective might change a bit. The Stewpot, a resource for the homeless and at-risk, will present artwork by…
The reindeer call out Kringle 11/24 If irreverence is a hallmark of the avant-garde in art, then a play about Santa Claus sexually harassing one of his reindeer might as well be experimental theater. Or it could just be another production by CrimeScene Company, a group that performs plays like…
Thursday, November 24 On Thanksgiving Day, it’s rare to find an activity that doesn’t involve watching a televised sport after consuming an absurd amount of starchy food. Why not take things a bit literally on Thursday? After all, Dallas does have its own Thanks-Giving Square at 1627 Pacific Ave. And…
Born to Run: 30th Anniversary Edition (Columbia Home Video) The centerpiece of this three-disc boxed set isn’t the classic 1975 album, but the two DVDs that come with it. On one, shot in London in 1975, Bruce and the band tear through most of Born to Run and its two…
The Beat That My Heart Skipped (Wellspring) The Ed Sullivan Show Rock & Roll Classics Boxed Set (Sofa Entertainment) Fantasy Island: The Complete First Season (Columbia/Tristar) Friends: The Complete Tenth Season (Warner Bros.) Friends: Collector’s Box (Warner Bros.) Greg Behrendt Is Uncool (WEA) Guided by Voices: The Electrifying Conclusion (Plexifilm)…
The part with the dragon is really cool. Might as well cut to the chase, right? It’s not as though you need anybody to tell you the basic premise of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; if you somehow missed the last three, this won’t likely be the one…
It seems like so much nitpicking, but why is the Johnny Cash biopic called Walk the Line when a far better name would have been Ring of Fire? Surely James Mangold, co-writer and director, would insist he chose the former because of its lyrics dealing with the temptations that crop…
Richard Gere? That’s the first thought that came to mind upon learning that Mr. Salt-and-Pepper-Sexy-Buddhist-Wasp had been cast as Saul Naumann in Bee Season, the film version of Myla Goldberg’s best-selling novel. In the book, Saul is an oppressive and learned Jewish patriarch, a cantor and student of mysticism whose…
Anselm Kiefer: Heaven and Earth Anselm Kiefer is one of the few artists in the world who knows how to make the same old thing interesting. Though he’s been making monumental, craggy-surfaced and quasi-spiritual paintings for 30 years, they continue to succeed in disarming the viewer, making her feel just…
Visiting Mr. Green A young man visits an old Jewish widower every week for six months. They talk, they eat kosher chicken soup, they sip tea. Wisdom is shared, secrets revealed. Sound like Tuesdays with Morrie? Well, kinda. Actually Jeff Baron’s play is more like a very special episode of…
It’s not easy being German after World War II. Born in 1945, the German conceptualist and painter Anselm Kiefer has spent most of his time as an artist directly or indirectly confronting the matter of national identity. Confrontation began more as silent collision in his earliest work, with Kiefer posed…
Yes, Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus, but instead of flying eight tiny reindeer, Mr. Ho Ho Ho tools around the world in a Global Express jet. Where once he ran an elfin toy shop, he now swipes his Visa Platinum and receives Free Cash Rewards. Yes, Virginia, that’s…
