“You are the man?” a crook asks Ice Cube as the cop comedy Ride Along opens. “I am the man!” Cube insists. You can’t blame him for being defensive. Now a 44-year-old father of five, Cube is three decades away from the furious teenager who co-founded N.W.A. his senior year…
Despite some reluctance, Wes Craven is a name-brand filmmaker. The phrase “Wes Craven Presents” comes with certain expectations thanks to the financial success of the Scream franchise and The Hills Have Eyes series before that. But what cemented Craven’s reputation is A Nightmare on Elm Street, a deathless cycle of…
In Devil’s Due, co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (V/H/S) and first-time screenwriter Lindsay Devlin offer an uninspired found-footage riff on Roman Polanski’s demon-spawn classic, Rosemary’s Baby (1968). On their Dominican Republic honeymoon, the squeakily innocent Samantha (Allison Miller) and Zach (Zach Gilford) are drugged by a cult who draw…
Entropy. William S. Burroughs. Earth as art. These source materials did more than influence artist Robert Smithson: They opened an unexplored sphere of philosophical understanding regarding the world’s perpetual flux and our role within it. Life’s output — rocks, text, trash — affected the minimalist artist, leading him to reinterpret…
If you’re a family man or woman, it is nearly impossible to see live comedy with your little ones. That’s because the man or woman of the hour-and-a-half-or-so on stage either made his name through boundary-breaking shock and obscenity or wasn’t funny enough on his own and had to turn…
Oh, but who doesn’t love a parade? Especially the kind that brings a city together, lining streets from downtown to Fair Park with cheering children, for a loud and proud event that celebrates the legacy of a man who truly made a difference. The 32nd Annual Martin Luther King Jr…
As much as Dallas and its denizens love the finer things in life, the city keeps coming back to two very American standards: burgers and beer. Every week lately there’s news of a new burger joint opening, growler station opening, specialty beer being tapped or a brewery hosting a blowout…
Each year we at the Dallas Observer like to get a little rowdy. We reach deep into Dallas culture and pull out the trend makers, the game changers and the party starters. We find the most interesting names in fashion, dance, art and music. Then we take over a venue,…
When you look at the cultural fabric of Dallas, you see a fair amount of artistic trailblazing: the DMA, for example, taking museum/community interaction to the next level this year; or gallery owners who have defied odds and set up wonderful outposts and spurred an arts revival. But few artists…
Since its August installation Tony Tasset’s sculpture Eye (2010) has maintained unblinking surveillance over the Joule Hotel’s perimeter traffic. Plucked from the socket of Surrealism, Dali and Bataille by way of ’50s sci-fi, Eye’s merging of high and low art embodies the artist’s egalitarian approach toward both his monumental public…
There are probably fewer groups more enigmatic than the Blue Man Group, or at least as committed to staying in character. You’re never quite sure what they’re trying to convey with their firmly grim-set faces or their wide eyes, but you know it’s provocative, perhaps something about the universal truth…
Some movies are just bad and then some movies are so bad, they’re good … for professional mocking in a public forum. Twilight: New Moon is one of those movies. Shape shifters, sparkling vampires and K. Stew’s complete and total lack of acting?!? Master Pancake is all over it. They’re…
Drafthouse Films recently plucked Ms. 45, a very dark and gory ’80s revenge tale, from falling completely into obscurity by re-releasing it in theaters and on DVD and Blu-ray with a brand-new, fully restored high definition gloss. We can certainly respect the film powerhouse’s effort to honor this underrated classic,…
It’s an old truism: The family that ruptures bad guys’ spleens together, stays together. Sadly, in this modern, cuckoo world, we just forget how important hanging with the sibs and delivering roundhouse kicks to vital organs really are. Take a few minutes Monday night to reflect on the importance of…
Wise men say only fools rush in, but margarita-craving Elvis fans might disagree. They understand that getting a table on Elvis Wednesdays at El Ranchito (610 W. Jefferson Blvd.) sometimes requires sprinting past the hostess. (Sorry, hostess.) What started 10 years ago as a one-night-only Elvis impersonator contest has become…
Undermain Theatre brings local theater hard, son. Its latest production, Abraham Zobell’s Home Movie: Final Reel…, is the story of Zobell’s last hoorah. He’s sick, dying and under constant care of his wife. One night he hatches a plan to escape her watchful eye and travel back through his past…
Sometimes wonderful things only happen once, and being ephemeral makes them all the more amazing. Other times some wonderful thing happens more than once and you’re relieved because screw that ephemeral bull, let’s just do that awesome thing again. Such is the case with the second run of On the…
A day trip to Denton is in order. You haven’t really been back to appreciate all it has to offer in a while — you’ve got fond memories, sure, but it’s been too long since you’ve visited your favorite old haunts or checked out what’s new and exciting. As you’re…
The past is not even past, to steal half a quote from William Faulkner. With this in mind there’s a certain relish in seeing remakes and adaptations: finding the things that change, things that skew slightly and the things that keep biting people in the ass time and again. Like…
Tomorrow is the day this year’s Oscar nominations are revealed, also known as national Gah! What Were Those Idiot Voters Thinking Day. We can’t wait, so in the meantime, we give you this: 1. Marvel Films has become Taco Bell, with plenty of sour creamy, cheesy wrap-up menu items scheduled…
She’s the Program Coordinator and Visiting Scholar in Dance at Eastfield College, the Director of University of Texas at Arlington’s Dance Ensemble, a guest choreographer for Dallas Neo-Classical Ballet, and a dancer at Contemporary Ballet Dallas and the Big Rig Dance Collective. Phew! Such is the life of Danielle Georgiou…
There’s a peculiar magic that surrounds creation. A collision of matter, sparked by energy, goes on to be viewed as destiny. In recent years our city has experienced a push of new life, a rupturing of culture. An Arts District was built. A museum became communal space. Public art was…
