It had become sport in recent years to dismiss the USA Film Festival for what it wasn’t rather than what it was becoming. No, it is not a South by Southwest Film Festival or an Austin Film Festival, where would-be independent filmmakers gather each year to discuss a project or…
It’s the actor’s dream, to have more work than there is time to do it. At times, it may not all be the most pleasurable work, but for every paycheck there is the payday of working with a Ridley Scott, a Michael Mann, a Harold Ramis, a Norman Jewison, a…
They were loud once, deafeningly so–and dumbingly so, if such a thing is possible. They wore skins of leather stuffed with cucumbers of foil, towered over dwarves who danced around a Stonehenge made of pebbles, sang about women who fit like flesh tuxedos and explored the majesty of rock and…
More than anything, Cyrano de Bergerac is terrified that his beautiful cousin, Roxane, will laugh at his nose. Cyrano is madly in love with Roxane, but his rocket schnozz makes him feel ugly. So, as the sad clown, he takes a defensive stance and pokes fun at his own most…
Southern Methodist University’s Division of Theater’s new production Smash! is about the consequences of introducing Marxism to a private all-girls school. Though we have visions of Groucho, Harpo and Chico hiding in closets, taunting naïve girls with mildly suggestive comments and starting food fights in the cafeteria, it’s actually about…
Thursday, April 24 Parties are great and all, unless the gathering prompts one of our group members to network the entire time, leaving us in a corner with Ted in Accounting from who knows what company. ProvenBrilliance Productions and Gregory Jones have a take on the party we fully support…
Outside looking in: Dallas and Houston are more alike than they are different. Texas’ two largest cities are sprawling, urbane population centers with mostly robust economies, decent tourism and as much culture as the howdy-do’s can muster. Differences seem insignificant: Houston’s a port, while Dallas is landlocked. Houston has higher…
4/26 Lloyd Kaufman will take no offense when you refer to his films, among them The Toxic Avenger and Terror Firmer and Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD, as “low-rent”; the self-appointed renegade director and producer, who launched Troma Entertainment some three decades ago, prides himself on making movies for pennies on the…
4/26 While many are watching the tube or blissfully sleeping in this weekend, people across the nation are voluntarily free-falling a couple of miles at speeds of more than 100 mph, and not in their nightmares. In fact, Operation Freefall, a fund-raiser for Speaking Out About Rape (SOAR) and the…
4/24 Kids Who Care will be presenting Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Fort Worth’s Scott Theater. If you haven’t seen it, imagine a GAP commercial with religious overtones. If you have, then know that it’ll be a lot like the version starring Donny Osmond, only considerably less annoying…
4/25 Last summer, fresh out of college, Dentonites Mark Searcy and Brian Gibb decided to quit their jobs and follow their dream to make their own magazine. They wanted to create a forum that focused on up-and-coming young artists, similar to the way that corporate design magazines spotlight corporate art…
4/25 The motto of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo seems to be “anything you can do, I can do better.” Except, replace “you” with “girls” and “better” with “funnier.” The Trocks–as the all-male, ethnically diverse troupe is wont to be called–take stuffy, classical ballet with its prima roles portrayed…
Just to admit this up front, my ideal concept of musical comedy involves Bryan Adams and Dave Matthews garroting each other onstage with their own damnable guitar strings. Nonetheless, even viewers with a more centrist appreciation of the genre may feel disappointed by this friendly new folk-music curiosity called A…
Better Luck Tomorrow, about Asian-American high-schoolers making good grades but up to no good, arrives with the furor (albeit minor–a rumpus, perhaps?) attendant a Sundance Film Fest fave. In this case, Internet movie-gossip hounds bark among themselves about changes made to the movie after MTV Films and Paramount Classics got…
Adolf Hitler killed his own dog. Most of his other evil is well-documented now, and words alone are inadequate anyway, so let’s begin by considering this comparatively microscopic offense. For the many who shower their canines with at least as much affection as they offer other human beings (and often…
The Harry Potter phenomenon–on the page, in the movies, at the bank–has aroused in publishers and studio heads alike a sudden new appreciation for our children’s needs. These people understand that no consumer is more motivated than a kid in the heat of a craze, so every last one of…
A few things learned from the memoirs of Marines who served in Gulf War I: They’re more terrified of being killed by friendly fire than enemy artillery; they’re bored brainless most of the time; they harbor fantasies of being shot, but never somewhere too painful or where it might inflict…
When all elements come together, a night at the theater can be as refreshing as a three-day weekend. In WaterTower Theatre’s production of the Rupert Holmes musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the cast is first-rate and the technical aspects are nearly flawless. Holmes’ book and music offer a cleverly…
We love birds. We adore the way they peck under their wings while cleaning. And the way they cock their heads side to side when they hear an intriguing sound. We also love the way they can fly and land and grab things in their talons. But we especially love…
Thursday, April 17 MTV and reality do not a pairing make. We’ve never once had a wall-sized aquarium or a penthouse atop a Vegas casino. The network, though, does promote an original series called True Life, and tonight the Lakewood Theater is showing a documentary scheduled to air as part…
Matthew Shepard’s father, Dennis, perhaps said it best: “Matt’s beating, hospitalization and funeral focused worldwide attention on hate. Good is coming out of evil.” Though the words came in a statement in which Dennis Shepard rejected the death penalty for one of two men convicted of luring 21-year-old Matthew from…
4/22 Though the long-running event was recently severed from The Dallas Morning News Wine Competition held earlier this year and the newspaper is no longer a sponsor, the Dallas Wine & Food Festival will still bring a throng of vintners, chefs, authors and culinary experts and those who hunger after…
