It’s rare that an independent film manages to survive and thrive outside the realm of major Hollywood distribution companies. Yet that’s exactly what has happened with Sankofa, a bold low-budget slave epic currently making its way across North America, city by city, drawing huge and enthusiastic crowds wherever it plays…
From the fertile mind of University of North Texas film teacher Justin Wyatt (who’s also the author of High Concept, a compelling analysis of Hollywood’s blockbuster mentality) comes one of the boldest and most provocative film festivals this city has seen in a while. Titled The Cinematic Body: A Film…
I’m really sick of talkin’ about sperm. I don’t wanna hear about it. I don’t wanna hear about people freezin’ sperm, savin’ sperm, bankin’ sperm, borrowin’ sperm, gettin’ sperm from their brother, donatin’ sperm, fightin’ custody battles over sperm, buyin’ sperm, sellin’ sperm, or otherwise doing anything with sperm except…
To Live, the latest historical melodrama from Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou, isn’t anything like the film I’d been led to anticipate–and that’s good. The trailers playing in art houses across the United States position it as a traditionally sentimental epic about a poor family buffeted by the winds of history;…
There’s nobody in American movies like Hong Kong superstar Chow Yun-Fat. Best known stateside as the stoic center of John Woo’s most dizzying action maelstroms (including The Killer and Hard-Boiled), Chow’s antiheroic presence is so alluring that he seems born to play such parts. (It’s been argued that Chow’s good…
Raucous, bawdy, sexy, and violent, Queen Margot is history as feverishly overwrought soap opera–history painted in tears, sweat, blood, and semen, with a very broad brush. In telling the tale of the title character, who survived a ghastly royal power struggle that pitted Catholic against Protestant and royal against royal…
I think I’m the last person in America who doesn’t give one flyin’ flip about what he eats. “Why are you drownin’ those pancakes in syrup?” Is this a question? This is not a question. Do I have to answer this? “I can’t believe you’re puttin’ butter on that.” Why…
AUSTIN–Early into Before Sunrise, as Jesse (the traveling American played by Ethan Hawke) and Celine (the French student, portrayed by Julie Delpy) share their first moments on Eurail bound for Vienna, Hawke’s character explains an idea for a cable access program that would run 24 hours a day for an…
All movie fans have a filmmaker they latch onto, take to heart, and enthusiastically root for. Their triumphs make you euphoric and their failures make you surly and sad, and once you’re plugged into the thrill of following their careers, the emergence of each new work is simultaneously thrilling and…
Paul Newman is our most complex living movie icon. The man and his image are loaded with contradictions–he is an actor of fairly limited abilities, but at least a dozen of his performances from a 41-year career have been burned into our consciousness with the force of genius. Newman’s appearances…
For several years now, I’ve wondered if I simply didn’t get the movies of Krzysztof Kieslowski, the Polish filmmaker who specializes in fare so abstract, obtuse, and overtly symbolic that it’s nearly impossible to read it fully and accurately in one sitting. The first film of his that I sat…
It’s not at all surprising that when Susan Sarandon finally edged away from earthy sexpot roles and began embracing characters with maternal streaks, she’d do it with the same warmth, clearheadedness, and street-smart charm she’s displayed throughout her long and fruitful career. In the past six months, she’s played three…
After several years of talking about it, the Inwood Theater’s parent company, Landmark, has finally decided to sink money into restoring the 48-year-old building. The three-phase renovation process is already under way, with workers busily cleaning and repairing various murals and other artwork. The theater was designed with an aquatic…
Writer-director John Singleton’s Boyz N the Hood was a triumph of intimate storytelling–an African-American melodrama set in a bullet-riddled South Central Los Angeles populated by believable characters who possessed strong, simple emotions. While watching it, you knew (except during a couple of “message” scenes) that you were in confident directorial…
Though 1994 was an interesting year for local imagesmiths, I bet it won’t hold a candle to 1995. Nearly three dozen independent theatrical features either were shot or commenced shooting in the Dallas-Fort Worth area last year; still more are planned. So consider the following list of faves as the…
Matt Zoller Seitz When H.L. Mencken wrote that criticism is prejudice made plausible, he was onto something. Like music, movies are more often fueled by passion than intellect. They invite, even demand, borderline-irrational gut responses. As a result, it’s always difficult to come up with year-end “Best” lists–especially when you…
You ever know a woman who says, “It’s so nice to meet a guy who’s not a JERK”? Is this supposed to be a compliment? Isn’t this about like saying, “Your intelligence appears to be higher than a sea otter. That’s great.” When did being a non-jerk become a sign…
Have you noticed how many things can cause fistfights these days? I mean, things that used to be considered normal, and even polite, but now they’re grounds for fights, lawsuits and general ugliness. For example, the words “Excuse me.” “Excuse me” used to be what you would say if you…
In the middle of the public premiere of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, “Ode to Joy,” the elderly, decrepit, bitter composer leaves his seat in the audience and wanders onstage as if drawn by a supernatural beacon. He’s remembering an incident of childhood abuse at the hands of his drunken…
“A good movie can take you out of your dull funk and the hopelessness that so often goes with slipping into a theatre,” writes legendary film critic Pauline Kael in an influential 1969 essay entitled, “Trash, Art, and the Movies.” “If somewhere in the Hollywood entertainment world someone has managed…
Gillian Armstrong, the director of Little Women, isn’t a daring, kinetic film artist like Martin Scorsese or Peter Jackson or Jane Campion. She’s a storyteller of a purer, less flashy sort–like William Wyler, George Stevens, and other directors from Hollywood’s studio era. Armstrong has faith in the strength of her…
It’s quite a compliment to say that an artist’s failures are more interesting than most of his colleagues’ successes. The description certainly applies to Robert Altman, a filmmaker who works so close to his heart and intuitions that even his most ill-conceived films usually show you something startling and fresh…
