Labor Day Is a Waste of a Perfectly Good Holiday

Though Jason Reitman’s name is on the poster, it’s impossible to believe that the sardonic boy wonder of Juno, Thank You for Smoking and Young Adult would direct this stilted romance between a divorcée and a dreamboat escaped convict. Labor Day is so self-conscious and phony, it must be the…

Oscar Bites: Here’s awards glory in a sensible serving size

Who says award-season winners have to be epic? If you’re looking for an alternative to the lengthy features vying for recognition and box-office glory, ShortsHD and Magnolia Pictures have on offer the full slate of 2014 Oscar-nominated short films. Divided into three categories (documentary, animation, live action), each featuring five…

Aim For The Head

An entire evening of free pickup adult kickball games? Yes. It’s the WAKA League’s doing: They’re throwing Thursday’s free-for-all to recruit the shit out of you. Guess what else? We’re gonna lead off with a ball joke, so if you have a set, head out to Tietze Park (2700 Skillman…

Pull In And Break Down

There’s a tenderness to Yen Tan’s 2013 feature Pit Stop that rarely surfaces in contemporary film. At its most basic, Pit Stop is a look at two gay men in dusty, small-town Texas — where serious Southerners live lonely lives and hold their secrets close. When you feel the film’s…

Follow The Power Lines

John Lithgow is one of America’s most celebrated actors. He’s got a shelf full of Tonys, an Emmy for a dark guest appearance on Dexter and he’s even put out some charming kids’ albums. But if you’re a child of the ’80s, you remember him for one role: the high-strung,…

Tingly Spines

If you’ve never seen an installment of Naked Girls Reading, you might have some preconceptions about what exactly is involved. You’d be right on a couple of them: One, there ARE naked girls. Two, they ARE reading. (You’re batting 1.000 so far.) But here’s where things might diverge from what…

Call Me “Snake”

During the halcyon days of post-apocalyptic cinema, John Carpenter’s Escape From New York (1981), as well as the dozens of rip-offs it inspired, helped convince a generation of impressionable filmgoers that the 1990s were doomed. Totalitarian rule would reign and cities would be overrun by armies of savage criminals in…

Watts, Blazing

The AT&T Performing Arts Center (2403 Flora St.) is upping Dallas’ classical music game with a brand-new recital series featuring big-name soloists. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, American piano superstar André Watts will take the stage for the series-opening concert in a solo recital featuring the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin…

No Fleas Were Harmed

Fashion & Flea isn’t a stuffy, boring, snoozefest-y event. It’s a spirited treasure hunt where you’ll find “vintage, antique, locally produced or handcrafted items.” It has everything from furniture and décor to clothing, jewelry, toys, games, crowd-pleasing ephemera and more. At the Fashion & Flea you’ll also find Danielle Colby…

Triple Down On Free

Saturday is a great day to visit the Arts District. Whether you go alone, with friends or bring along your familial gaggle, you get free admission at two different museums and grab a complimentary cultural festival at a third. The DMA is always free, so pop in and see what’s…

Glow For It, You Freaky Aliens

Nobody knows how to do camp anymore. Humor in modern film and TV is so wrapped up in irony that not a sliver of campiness can wedge in among all that hyper-awareness. Luckily camp’s heyday has left behind a treasure trove of silly but gratifying works that made us squirm…

Herper? Eh, I’ve Been Called Worse.

Do you hate snakes? If so, then stay the hell away from the Texas Motorplex (7500 U.S. 287) in Ennis this Saturday and Sunday. Repticon holds its second Dallas-area show this weekend, baiting in dedicated herpers from across the state. This destination festival allows enthusiasts to show off their most…

Super Mega Football Day Parties

Whether you follow football or not is pretty inconsequential when the Big Game rolls around. It’s as much an excuse to drink beer and eat party subs (is that still a thing?) as predicting the outcome in New Jersey. Some of you will use it to show off your heirloom…

Not That Kind Of Donkey Show

You have to choose your level of jackass when you buy a ticket to The Donkey Show. This is not a snarky stab at the third annual fundraiser for the Far North Dallas Richardson Democrats. The various ticket levels actually include “Shrek Donkey,” “Eeyore” and the highest, “Pegasus Donkey.” Either…

But It Was Still Whoopi’s Body…

The undead of today’s films don’t hold a candle to those of yesteryear. In the 1990 film Ghost, Swayze’s portrayal of ectoplasm haunted film audiences, inspiring sexual fantasies that weirdly involved pottery wheels. In 2012, Broadway saw songwriters Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard resurrect the story of a man stuck…

Cock, Directed By An Organ

Dallas’ Second Thought Theatre launches its 10th anniversary season with the award-winning Cock, a play about sexuality, identity, the comedy of human relations — and really complicated love triangles. Love dodecahedrons? Directed by Dallas favorite Alex Organ, Cock follows everyman John (played by Justin Locklear) as he emerges from a…

Watch Kiki Transform

She’s a beautifully dark force in the world of contemporary art, and North Texas gets easy access to Kiki Smith’s latest exhibition, currently on view at UNT Gallery on the Square (109 N. Elm St., Denton). Transformations shows both the artist’s process and final output through a series of five…