“Who can give me the derivative of X?” a high-school teacher asks early in the YA-apocalypse mashup The 5th Wave. As soon as she asks that, the lights blink off, everybody’s cellphones die and jets tumble from the sky. We never hear a student respond, but here’s my Official Fan…
Call it a dissenting opinion if you must, but Dirty Grandpa has sporadic moments of hilarity: the spontaneous “USA! USA!” chant that erupts after an out-of-his-mind Zac Efron announces to spring breakers that he’s just unknowingly smoked crack, or Aubrey Plaza commanding as foreplay that Robert De Niro, as the…
When Kathleen Madigan strolls out on a stage, she’s not playing a character, sticking to a certain kind of comedy or even enhancing her personality to make an audience laugh. She’s an anomaly in comedy. She’s (gasp) genuine. She portrays herself honestly in her material. She can do topical humor,…
Beyond the reaches of the art world, the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer is a familiar name. The book about his painting,The Girl with a Pearl Earring, was later made into a movie with Scar-Jo. There was also a documentary called Tim’s Vermeer where a guy tries to figure out how…
In 1961, Dwight Eisenhower famously left the White House with a warning to the American public about the rise of the military-industrial complex. When Barack Obama exits the Oval Office next year, he wouldn’t be remiss in cautioning the nation about the conspiracy-industrial complex, which has dug its tentacles into…
Remember when Thin Line was just a film festival? Well, the minds behind the festival stylishly exploded like the comet in Michael Bay’s Armageddon, adding bands galore, groovy art exhibits, panels, and other creative events. Last year our erstwhile staffer Daniel Rodrigue taught a free crash course photography lecture. If…
Do This! BodyTraffic brings its energetic choreography from Los Angeles to the Winspear Opera House for a one-night only performance this weekend. At 8 p.m. Friday, the troupe promises to electrify the stage with movement both precise and wild. Tickets start at $12. If you’re looking for a few laughs…
Howard Kremer has an interesting challenge as a comedian and a musician. His shows have the structure of a concert but he also needs the response from a crowd that every comedian needs to make their shows work. A joke takes about a minute to tell from setup to punchline…
Ann Veronica Janssens Belgian artist Ann Veronica Janssens has long been interested in creating what she describes as “situations of dazzlement.” She uses light, interacting with materials and architecture to explore our eye’s interpretations of reality, hoping to in turn allow the viewer “an experience of excess.” Her exhibition at…
How smart are American readers? What about readers in Dallas, specifically? These questions lingered in the air last week as representatives from three nonprofit presses publishing works in translation — Chad Post of University of Rochester’s Open Letter, Kendall Storey of New York City-based Archipelago Books and Will Evans of…
In Martyr, there’s not a likable character to be found. At least not in Second Thought Theatre’s production of it. Marius von Mayenburg’s moralistic tale of a teenager who seeks solace from adolescent confusions in the strictures of the Bible is treated without a hint of subtlety rendering it a…
You can knock his prankish dilettantism all you want, but James Franco — that actor/director/writer/boho curio — has this going for him: The not-bad short stories of his books Palo Alto and A California Childhood have now been adapted into two quite good films. Like Gia Coppola’s Palo Alto (2013),…
An admirably complex tale of time travel, corporate espionage and high emotions you’ll just have to take everyone’s word on, Jacob Gentry’s science-fiction puzzler Synchronicity is so ambitious — and so canny, on occasion — that you might be willing to forgive its indie infelicities. The acting is iffy, especially…
But what about the meaninglessness of everything? William Monahan’s Mojave is one of those ’90s-style chatty-killer movies, mixed with one of those ’90s-style guns-in-the-desert existential cheapies, the kind of picture where good-looking dudes shooting each other is passed off as elemental and beautiful rather than just what it actually is…
Do you know Arthur Redcloud? He lives in Colleyville as a fuel delivery driver. Oh, another tidbit about him is he’s also in the biggest movie of the year, The Revenant, which just racked up 12 Oscar nominations for the upcoming Academy Awards. Yeah, you know Arthur Redcloud, and even…
Drinking games are an American tradition. But with a marketplace so crowded with games, alcohol and other recreational drugs, it can be difficult to find a pair that works well together. So we’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite games and some of our favorite ways to enjoy…
If you’re finding yourself a little short on inspiration lately, this is the week to get out there and find someone to light a fire under you. There are plenty of opportunities to find insight, know-how, and revelation in the coming days, whether from the glimpses into the most ordinary…
Benghazi is a hashtag battle-cry, a call to arms that many Americans don’t understand. Unlike the simplicity of “Remember the Alamo!” a bleat of “Benghazi!” still has people wondering, “Wait, what happened? And why are we mad?” Michael Bay’s 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi has an explanation, though…
For her latest solo show, Becoming Colette, multimedia artist Colette Copeland has switched alter egos, assuming the identity of French author Colette. As a teen, Copeland naturally gravitated toward the novels of the famous French author who used her first name as a pen name. Over the years, she found…
Critics rarely receive love from filmmakers. Last year’s Best Picture Oscar winner, Birdman, featured a vengeful harpy of a theater reviewer (played by Lindsay Duncan) hellbent on annihilating a play before she’d even seen it. Birdman was joined in its release year by other unfair portraits of critics in Top…
Alan Rickman has died at the age of 69. To Americans of a certain generation, he’ll always be Hans Gruber from Die Hard; to those of a slightly fresher vintage, he’ll never not be Severus Snape. But it was his ability to transcend the typecasting of those iconic roles that…
Do This! Artopia is the party of the weekend. The Dallas Observer art overload features some of the city’s best music acts (Ishi, Dezi 5), a fashion show, performances by magician Confetti Eddie, and so much more. There will be drinks, dancing and a lot of art. One of the…
