Raise a Finger

Chinese artist, activist and antagonist Ai Weiwei became a worldwide cause celebre last April when he was arrested by authorities at the Beijing Airport, detained in an undisclosed location for nearly three months, and released after allegedly confessing to tax evasion. The Sundance-feted documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry concludes shortly…

The Lurid Pleasure of Killer Joe

At one point in Killer Joe, a hideously funny tabloid noir set on the outskirts of Dallas County, Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch) is let into the family double-wide by a relation whose face has just been pummeled into a Rorschach blot of dried gore. He doesn’t stop to ask what…

A Little From Our Files

Our sister paper The Village Voice has been around, like, forever and has some deep archives, including this December 28, 1967, review of The Graduate, which is being re-released, opening this week at the Angelika in Dallas. Enjoy.

The Best of Dallas’ Asian Film Fest

Distribution companies for Asian cinema have been in steady decline over the last decade, often citing illegal downloads and lackluster international market response when they fold. For lovers of the genre, this means fewer funds are being put toward the creation of new films, making it tougher for innovative talent…

In Take This Waltz, What Happens in Nova Scotia…

Take This Waltz, director Sarah Polley’s second feature, is much like her first, 2006’s superb Away From Her, in that it thoughtfully probes the pitfalls of coupledom and third-party threats. Five years into their marriage, Torontonians Margot (Michelle Williams) and Lou (Seth Rogen) have regressed fully into sexlessness, heat and…

Jonathan Demme’s Neil Young Journeys, Another Journey Worth Joining

Not to knock films as fantastic as his Rachel Getting Married, The Silence of the Lambs and Something Wild, but there’s something wilder — or at least, more directly stimulating and pure — about Jonathan Demme’s live-performance docs. The 68-year-old auteur immortalized a Talking Heads show (and David Byrne’s oversized…

Student Filmmakers Screen Work Tonight, Make You Feel Old and Lazy

Bart Weiss is a man of many camera angles. He’s the artistic steering power behind the Dallas Video Festival (which enters its 25th installment this September), serves as President of the Board of Directors of the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, and sits on the Board of Directors of…

5 Amazing Movies at this Week’s Asian Film Festival of Dallas

Distribution companies for Asian cinema have been in steady decline over the last decade, often citing illegal downloads and lackluster international market response as the culprit when they fold. For lovers of the genre, this means that fewer funds are being put towards the creation of new films, making it…