Boundaries are violated repeatedly in Fifty Shades Darker, a film that demands even more submission of its audience than its predecessor, 2015’s Fifty Shades of Grey. No safeword can protect you from the sequel’s depleting incoherence, its punishing pileup of plot and its inability to successfully stage, even once, the…
If you’ve been scouring all the usual thrift shops and vintage stores in Dallas for a deal, whether it’s a chair to decorate your living room or some designer shoes you can resell for a profit on eBay, you probably haven’t been having much luck. Most shops in the city…
Every generation has its scientific idol, from theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking to Crog, the first caveman who figured out how to use fire without setting himself on fire. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of our generation’s most revered and recognized names in the scientific community. He’s a writer, presidential-appointed…
In 1902, Dr. John Kellogg changed two letters in the word “sanatorium” — defined as a resting spot for disabled soldiers — and changed the world. “Sanitariums” became the health resort of choice for the wealthy and weary, instilling in the privileged a sense that they were perpetually ill, and…
The Lure Texas Theatre 231 W. Jefferson Blvd. Multiple showings Friday through Sunday $10 The directorial debut of Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczynska, The Lure looks like a haunting, musical-horror fairy tale filled with glittery and splashy (no pun intended) music video aesthetics. In her debut, Smoczynska very loosely adapts Hans…
Joel Ferrell is tackling what might seem like familiar territory at the Dallas Theater Center right now. The DTC artistic associate and actual son of a preacher is directing Lucas Hnath’s The Christians. But he says comparing his dad, a former Methodist pastor in Fort Worth, to Hnath’s world of…
Murray Smither went into the prison in Huntsville, Texas, not knowing what to expect. But the art appraiser knew the surroundings well — he was born in the city and raised about an hour north of Houston — and he was in good company. His friends, faculty at Sam Houston…
Milk chocolate and a stuffed bear don’t cut it anymore. Anyone can buy those from CVS or from a guy selling them on the street. This is Valentine’s Day, damn it, and your significant other wants to feel special and loved. We see the fear in your eyes, but even…
We Appreciate Your Business H. Paxton Moore Fine Art Gallery at El Centro College 801 Main St. Artist reception 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday We Appreciate Your Business is a group exhibition showcasing a group of local artists whose pop surrealism works are characterized by a mutual use of color,…
First, the good news: The dog doesn’t die in John Wick: Chapter 2. This will come as a relief to some of us who adored the original, an action masterpiece about a retired hitman taking unholy revenge on the Russian scumbags who killed his pup and stole his car. The…
Given that it’s a sequel/spinoff built around a mostly throwaway gag in The LEGO Movie, The LEGO Batman Movie is funnier than you might think it has any right to be. But those of us who were expecting something more can’t help but feel a twinge of disappointment. The LEGO…
London-based artist Carey Young spent three weeks in Brussels, Belgium, lugging around heavy camera equipment eight hours a day, to and from her hotel and the Palais de Justice, the largest courthouse in the world. What came from the exertion were moving and still images of the powerful women of law and order, which…
Hedwig and the Angry Inch is on its first national tour, and it opens in Dallas today. It’s the story of a German, genderqueer rock singer who’s obsessed with becoming a star. Her husband, Yitzhak, an Eastern European drag queen, is the victim of her verbal abuse and jealousy. The musical…
Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman is a tense, visceral drama of wounded masculinity — and therein lies part of its problem. Farhadi, whose About Elly and A Separation are two of the greatest movies of the past decade, can find tension in the most mundane of exchanges, and he…
Not long ago, a driverless car would have made for a good ghost story — perhaps a modern-day twist on the Headless Horseman. But not a single mouth gaped open last Thursday as a crowd of people pooled atop a hill near Arlington Convention Center to take a spin in…
If you tried convincing your significant other to go with you to the Monster Jam monster truck event at AT&T Stadium on Saturday by calling it a “romantic date night,” you were probably met with laughter. The word romance usually conjures images of a candlelit dinner, not a stadium filled…
Tue 2/7 Whoever said cats can’t learn tricks has never seen the Acro-Cats: a kitty circus with its own band, the Rock Cats. The traveling circus is the result of animal expert and self-proclaimed cat lady Samantha Martin’s love for the feline species. Her troupe of 15 house cats walks…
Contemporary American horror’s obsession with morality and psychotherapy can really be a downer. In 2002, Gore Verbinski expertly remade the J-horror hit Ringu with a layered story about a single mother (Naomi Watts) who watches a cursed videotape. To stop the curse, she travels through the warped psyche of the…
When government leaders start calling for budget cuts, arts funding is usually the first item they stick under the guillotine, and this time, the cuts could be more extensive than just a little off the top. Arts funding could be thrown into an empty field and run over with a…
Two local theaters, Ochre House Theater and Firehouse Theatre, are having difficult seasons after their artistic directors were the victims of unrelated, violent assaults in January. Ochre House Theater announced Tuesday evening that it would be canceling its entire run of world premiere Dr. Bobaganush. The play, written and directed…
First Friday at Dallas Farmer’s Market 920 S. Harwood St. 6-9 p.m. Friday Free Look no further for your Friday night plans. The Dallas Farmers Market has it all: local merchants, artisans, brews, bites and live music to boot. The first 50 people to stop by the information booth after…
Sheriff Parnell McNamara says he wanted witnesses in the room when he read lines with Jeff Bridges over the phone. “I put him on speaker phone, and I got three of my captains and my secretary in the office to listen because I didn’t think anybody would believe that I…
