Many great American plays have been written about big moments in otherwise small lives. Death of a Salesman. Summer and Smoke. A Raisin in the Sun. In these, the characters are ordinary people facing life-altering events: the loss of a job, devastating heartbreak, the struggle to rise out of poverty…
Making a Murderer has only been out for two weeks and the Internet is already lit up by intense reactions from angry viewers who managed to binge watch all ten episodes of the documentary series, holiday season be damned. Set in Wisconsin, the protagonist is Steven Avery, who was released…
JoJo Fletcher’s life is about to change. Tonight. Tonight is the night her entire existence is about to change. We are excited. Just kidding, we are terrified for her. Fletcher is one of the 28 bachelorettes on ABC’s The Bachelor, vying for Bachelor Ben’s attention. All of that is nice…
As you go forth into this new year armed with the best intentions to be more well-rounded, well-read, and generally happy, you’ll be glad to know you’ve got all the support you need to actually pull those things off. Consider Dallas’ literary minds, theater companies, dancers, artists and dreamers your…
One of our most enduring cinematic genres, horror is also among the most difficult to do right. This may sound obvious — countless attempts are made to scare moviegoers every year, whether in theaters or, increasingly, streaming online — but it’s brought into focus by the few that actually make…
As cinematic year 2015 reaches its end, the FOMO specter threatens to haunt us all. If you pored over the results of our film poll and felt aghast at how many apparently great movies you’ve yet to see, here at last is a chance to catch up without braving traffic. About…
Just a few years ago, a serious discussion of the “literary” scene in Dallas would have felt a little forced. Our fair city is known for a lot of things — well, at least a few — but breeding, attracting, inspiring and keeping writers of literature has not been one…
The party’s over. You’ve welcomed the New Year with a glass of champagne or with a big dose of vitamin sleep. For some of you, it was just a typical Thursday night. So maybe you’re asking, now what? Well, here’s what. Plenty of things to do this weekend to keep…
If you’re interested in emerging talent, Dallas is teeming with it. Just stop by a show at 500X Gallery, Kettle Art Gallery, Random Art Gallery or Beefhaus and dig through the names on the walls. It’s amazing how much work is being made in this city at any given time,…
Here’s to Quentin Tarantino’s cussed perversity. The Hateful Eight, his intimate suspenseful Western splatter-horror comedy, has been shot at great expense in the long-gone 70mm format, but the movie itself is set almost entirely in cramped interiors. He’s hired Ennio Morricone to score the thing, but don’t expect rousing new…
What’s been missing for years in Hollywood’s adventure films? Verisimilitude. Correspondent with the rise of the computers, and the ability to show us any place that filmmakers can imagine, has been the fall of immersiveness — that sense that the actors are in a place you can’t go yourself rather…
Sure, they’ve cancelled the city’s big event in Victory Park, but that doesn’t mean you need to sit on your ass. And sure, partying with strangers isn’t always the best way to start a new year, but nothing’s perfect and you never know who that stranger will turn out to…
You will think you know what Target in the Night is when you begin reading it, but you’ll be wrong. Ricardo Piglia — the author of this latest release by Dallas’ Deep Vellum publishing house, seamlessly translated from Spanish by Sergio Waisman — sets you down in 1970s Argentina. A…
If, like me, you’ve devoted an unhealthy portion of your life to attempting to make sense of the Dallas Cowboys, you’ve probably been frustrated by conversations about the team with your family. You may have realized a long time ago that your closest relatives have had their minds made up…
The week after Christmas always seems to move at a glacier’s pace: it’s a weird transition period between holidays and a return to the real world—school starts back up, work suddenly expects you to stop taking days off and do something, and the glitter and gold fade into the gray…
All the world’s a stage, but theaters have the most flattering lighting. Into the amber-gelled glare aimed down on Dallas stages in 2015 stepped hundreds of productions big and small. This remains a busy and constantly churning theater town. Seasons overlap. New shows open every week. Here’s a look back…
Panther Island Ice If you want to feel festive and do something designed for the winter we don’t have in Dallas, head to Fort Worth and skate on real ice at Panther Island Ice. On Christmas day, the rink is open from 2- 11 p.m. Admission is $11, which includes…
Here’s a challenge. Gather some friends, pour some drinks and announce to everyone the premise of Daddy’s Home, the new family comedy about dads competing to be pater superior. It won’t take long: Will Ferrell is a doting schlemiel of a stepdad to suburban moppets whose biological father, played by…
In most of his eight films and especially since The Fighter (2010), choreographer of chaos and screwball scion David O. Russell has assembled boisterous, buoyant casts. His manic ensemble players, like those in Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, carom off one another, their high-pitched energy keeping the movies bustling…
Was 2015 a strange year for anyone else? It seems this year sucked a lot of the city’s mojo dry. Maybe it was all the rainfall that filled the Trinity River. Maybe Mercury never came out of retrograde. Maybe we’re all just overworked and underpaid. Whatever went wrong, the tone…
Concussion isn’t much of a movie, but it’s a fascinating bellwether for where the National Football League currently stands on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the degenerative brain disease associated with many of its former players. As it happens, the brain isn’t supposed to whip against the skull like humans are…
Fueled by impotent, blustery outrage, Adam McKay’s The Big Short, about the grotesque banking and investing practices that led to the 2008 financial collapse, is about as fun and enlightening as a cranked-up portfolio manager’s rue-filled comedown after an energy-shot bender. Based on Michael Lewis’ 2010 bestselling book of the…
