I love history, especially Dallas history, but I wouldn’t want to live all of it. I’m perfectly fine with my air-conditioned flat in East Dallas and my gas-guzzling, smallish SUV on somewhat smooth cement roads. When I need to revisit our local past, I just head out to a museum,…
The Graduate: 40th Anniversary Edition (MGM) Fifteen years after its last home-video commemorative edition (extras from which appear here), The Graduate once more gets the bonus-laden makeover—and if ever a movie deserved its kudos, it’s Mike Nichols’ masterwork. That said, the movie is its own bonus; not since its release…
Until 2005, Richard Shepard’s was a lamentable direct-to-prop-plane filmography populated with such forgettable titles as Cool Blue, Oxygen, Mexico City and The Linguini Incident, the latter of which was a heist film most notable for pairing David Bowie and Buck Henry—and that’s not even a punch line. For a while…
I’ve said it before and hope to again: David Cronenberg is the most provocative, original and consistently excellent North American director of his generation. From Videodrome (1983) through A History of Violence (2005), neither Scorsese nor Spielberg, and not even David Lynch, has enjoyed a comparable run. A rhapsodic movie…
Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. That’s Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic “musical play” Carousel. In Lyric Stage’s majestic production, directed by Cheryl Denson, the Irving Arts Center’s acoustically generous Carpenter Performance Hall fills with waves of waltzes, ballets and ballads played by a full 40-piece orchestra. A dozen violins! Three violas! And nearly…
In the new Neil Jordan movie, Jodie Foster plays New York talk radio DJ Erica Bain, who survives a vicious Central Park mugging and becomes an urban crusader devoted to cleaning up the city—with a Glock instead of a broom. Yes, The Brave One is that movie: the one with…
Late at night, alone in the woods, a group of film students at work on a no-budget horror film called The Death of Death are interrupted by — the death of death. Reports of animated corpses feeding on human flesh come over the radio and are met with nervous skepticism;…
The exemplary achievements of the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival succeeded by two means: either narrowing the gap between author and subject in pursuit of intimate effects, or else working distance into the material and profiting from the vantage. Contemporary neorealism at its most confident and alert, Chop Shop finds…
Typically, first-person shooters are a lot like virtual shooting galleries: Great fun, yes, but not exactly thought-provoking.So it’s nice when an FPS comes along that’s trying to be something more — and even better when it actually succeeds. Sometimes you know it in the first few minutes. Take Half-Life: Unlike…
Andre Rieu: Live in New York (Denon)Away From Her (Lionsgate)Bones: Season Two (Fox)Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (HBO)Casper Meets Wendy: Family Fun Edition (Fox)Charmed: The Final Season (Paramount)DOA: Dead or Alive (Weinstein)Ever Again (Starz)Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes — Volume Two (Fox)The Fly Collection (Fox)From Beyond: Unrated Director’s Cut…
People love to hate Sam’s Town, the Killers’ 2006 sophomore album, because many of the songs sound earnest and contrived, like a Bruce Springsteen tribute band that tries a little too hard to nail “Born to Run.” But not all of the songs sound like that; in fact, one of…
A dashing, blond hero, an evil Fu Manchu-esque villain, a super-foxy Italian bombshell named Princess Aura and a soundtrack by Queen, one of the best bands in all of history. Add all these things up and you get only one thing: Flash Gordon! This 1980 live-action comic book of a…
My all-time favorite song from Carousel is “Soliloquy.” It’s a surprise choice, I know, but you just can’t top being introduced to the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical via Jack Nicholson in his PJs dancing around a bedroom like a madman (think joyous, not “redrum”) singing about “my boy Bill.” It’s…
On first sight, it would seem that Gary Panter and Vernon Fisher don’t have a lot in common. And indeed, it’s not a pre-requisite that two artists have a common thread just because they’re being exhibited in the same gallery. However, when you’re poring over their work, trying to find…
On first sight, it would seem that Gary Panter and Vernon Fisher don’t have a lot in common. And indeed, it’s not a pre-requisite that two artists have a common thread just because they’re being exhibited in the same gallery. However, when you’re poring over their work, trying to find…
Let’s hope the third time is the charm for artist Aqsa Shakil, the Tanzanian-born Pakistani-American artist featured in the solo show I’ll Be Outside. She needs this to go really well because she’s had a string of bad luck lately. Shakil just received her MFA from SMU, though we all…
Ahem. A few weeks ago, an item appeared in this section concerning a screening of the 2005 film version of Pride & Prejudice, in conjunction with the Dallas Theater Center’s ongoing production of a stage version of the Jane Austen novel, adapted by Catherine Sheehy. A certain writer may have…
Of the eight films featured in the 11th Annual Jewish Film Festival of Dallas, not one of them involves Woody Allen, and thank God for that. No two-hour examinations of middle-aged male neuroses here. Instead, the series, which runs through September 25, features some of the best Jewish-themed comedies, documentaries…
Who doesn’t love potato chips? We’ll eat ’em in just about any variety—plain, barbecue, salt and vinegar, dill pickle, sour cream and onion, etc., etc. You might even say we’re connoisseurs of fine fried taters. We’ve even had friends and family ship us bags of our favorite regional chips (Ever…
Accommodating Nature: The Photographs of Frank Gohlke features works by the highly influential landscape photographer. While trying to accomplish the sweeping and uncluttered shots that are typical of landscape photographs, Gohlke discovered that it was difficult to show only nature without evidence of man. Telephone poles, in particular, were difficult…
I’ve seen exactly one live butterfly in the past few years. Seeing a Giant Swallowtail was a rare sight—living in East Dallas, I’m privy to a different kind of wildlife. For those of us who aren’t fortunate enough to be greeted at our doors by Monarchs and Question Marks, the…
Sondheim. Rodgers. If you were in need of emotional resuscitation with fast-acting lyrics and time-released melodies, these were your go-to guys. In the ’90s the warm-and-fuzzy experience was chased off Broadway, apparently by antidepressant manufacturers and the American Psychoanalytic Association. Enter Jason Robert Brown, a young composer who understands our…
