I was really worried that Peter O’Toole might sneak in and win the Academy Award this year over Forest Whitaker. I wasn’t sure if Hollywood was going to get sentimental and give it to the legendary actor or actually award the best nominated performance of the year (which they did)…
Before becoming a comedy legend by playing against type in classic cinematic masterpieces such as Airplane and The Naked Gun, Leslie Nielsen was a “serious actor.” In fact, Nielsen has appeared in more than 200 movies and TV shows, playing everything from doctors to soldiers to the ship’s captain in…
Most people are aware that the U.S. government did not approve of the peace movement during the Vietnam War. Actually, strike that—the U.S. government has never approved of any peace movement ever. Arguably, the most public and well-known figure of the peace movement during the Vietnam era was John Lennon…
Sky and shade is an apt description of recent works by Chicago-based collage artist Andrew Young. With meticulously executed images of science and nature constructed with supplies like hand-stained rice papers and mineral pigments, he captures the ideas of both shelter and warmth in the essence of the world around…
At first sight, there’s nothing artistic about Flubber, the wobbly star of comedies since the ’60s. But Flubber is also considered a source of energy and is referred to as the stuff dreams are made of. We think the same can be said about art. Skidmore College professor Victoria Palermo’s…
In classrooms across the country, little girls with acerbic wits are told every day, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” After all, we’re composed of sugar and spice. Boys get a little leeway—a tough exterior and a “You want summa this?” attitude are…
Easter’s here, and kids everywhere are peeing their pants thinking about all the Peeps they’re gonna eat. But in Dallas, Easter is about more than just candy—it means the arrival of the annual Easter in the Park event, where we get to enjoy a free Dallas Symphony Orchestra concert and…
It always makes me wonder when a band’s name incorporates the founder’s name. Do the members of Dave Matthews Band resent the fact that it’s all about Dave? Did Van Halen’s Michael Anthony ever bitch about not feeling like a real part of the band family? And don’t even get…
Bring on the rain. This ghastly musical by Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown plods along like a tired circus beast as it tells the story of Leo Frank, a young Jewish factory manager in 1913 Atlanta who is railroaded to a guilty verdict in the rape and murder of…
It never occurred to me that chess was a contact sport. Recently I was shocked to find out my Catholic school nephew got in a fight with another boy—in his chess club. How could this happen? Was a threefold repetition not going to cut it? Did one call the other…
Get your chainmail chaps, your magic wand and your creepy leather out, folks. It’s time for the Scarborough Renaissance Festival. You want State Fair food served to you by toothless wenches? No need to go to Hooters (although I hear their wings are awesome). Scarborough has exactly what you need…
Twin Peaks: The Second Season (Paramount) So, here it is: perhaps the most infamous shark-jumping in TV history. The first season of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s comedy-horror-mystery-soap opera caused a cultural frenzy of “damn good coffee” quips and questions over who murdered prom queen/town doorknob Laura Palmer. It’s also…
At various times over the last decade, David Fincher, Sam Mendes and Michael Mann were attached to direct Scott Frank’s screenplay for The Lookout, about a brain-damaged high school hockey stud who’s smooth-talked by distant acquaintances into robbing a small-town bank. That Frank—best-known for straightening and sharpening the tangled lines…
Neutrally retitled from the more pertinent Orchestra Seats, Avenue Montaigne is a French soufflé of the old school, a romantic comedy set in Paris’ arty district, where neurotic writers and actors wring their manicured hands and—at least in flirty little numbers like this one—rub shoulders with the hoi polloi. For…
Look at James and the Giant Peach through the eyes of a 5-year-old and you’ll see a cute play about a sad British orphan boy who grows a big piece of fruit, makes friends with giant bugs and lives happily ever after in New York City. A super-sized stage adaptation…
Children of Men (Universal) Set in a tomorrow that looks like yesterday, Alfonso Cuarón’s wrenching adaptation of P.D. James’ novel feels more like documentary than fiction. In the movie’s world, women have gone barren, and immigrants are tossed into prison camps; it’s the proverbial nightmare to which we might actually…
In the poem “In Just-,” e.e. cummings described the world as “mud-luscious” and “puddle-wonderful” — words so perfectly befitting MotorStorm’s gorgeously sloppy off-road hijinks, the game’s designers probably had them tacked up on a wall somewhere. And had Cummings paid $60 for MotorStorm, the verbally inventive (and upper-case averse) poet…
Bow (Tartan) Comeback Season (First Look) Curse of the Golden Flower (Sony) The Eden Formula (Westlake) The Addams Family: Volume 2 (MGM) Errol Flynn: The Signature Collection, Volume 2 (Warner Bros.) Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes, Volume 1 (Fox) Following Sean (New Video Group) Hacking Democracy (Docurama) Happy Feet (Warner…
At midnight Friday, the revolution begins. Well, at least the documentary of a revolution. Well, at least the documentary chronicling what could have been a revolution, had ego, drugs, booze and generally self-destructive behavior not brought the rebels down from the inside. The revolution in question is the British punk…
With all the controversy over Anna Nicole Smith and her will recently, it’s interesting that the Kimbell Art Museum would host a screening of The Will of the Shogun. I mean, an art museum is a pretty hoity-toity place to have your will read, shogun or not. How exactly would…
Dear sweet, sweet Bacon. I love you. Especially when you’re all peppery and yummified at the AllGood Café. I don’t know why it should come as such a shock to me that I would fall in love with a pork product, but you are the best. I love you in…
Herbs. It’s a word with a controversial “H” (just ask Eddie Izzard), but shockingly enough, herbs are also an intricate, necessary and dynamic element for mystery. No, not a mystery like “What’s in this? Tarragon?” but actual literary works of whodunit-ness. Native Texan mystery author Susan Wittig Albert will discuss…
