“I’m not the celebrity type,” says Vincent D’Onofrio, and he does not lie. His is a household name in very few neighborhoods; it appears in film credits buried just beneath those of actors more famous, or just luckier. Rare is the filmgoer who utters the words, “Dude, let’s go check…
Be cool, get chicks.” While that’s paraphrased and boiled down, it’s nonetheless the essential creed of Dex (Donal Logue), the corpulent connoisseur of carnality who lumbers through this debut feature from Jenniphr Goodman as if he’s Paul Bunyan and every woman in sight is a tree. Overweight and underemployed, Dex…
The Tao of Duncan The Tao that can be followed is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. This is the koan that begins the Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu. This is the fat guy who scores all the hot chicks? Hmph…
Turns out that when goodfellas don’t die–when they don’t get shot or blown up in a car or beaten to death with a baseball bat–they move to Miami’s South Beach. They drive tour buses for the elderly, take orders at Burger Kings, give dime-a-dance lessons to old women in need…
Following in the grand cinematic tradition of cheerleading films– movies such as Gimme an ‘F,’ Revenge of the Cheerleaders, and Debbie Does Dallas (both the original and the why-bother remakes)–Bring It On is about beautiful, young girls in short skirts who have to overcome the fact that they suck. On…
Despite its late-summer release date–usually a sign of studio jitters–The Art of War is a mostly well-constructed action flick with a number of flashy, well-choreographed fight and chase scenes. Wesley Snipes stars as Neil Shaw, a supersecret operative of a supersecret “dirty tricks” agency, whose methods are more than a…
When William Shakespeare wrote King Lear (it appeared at the Royal Court in 1606, among his first tragedies) he was obsessed with sight, what it means to see, and the ways that faculty deceives and reveals. That’s arguably the dominant theme in his tale about an imperious but feeble king…
If Gloria Estefan and Jesus knew how many times their likeness had been immortalized in prison art, they could demand a guest spot on HBO’s prison drama Oz. Paño arte, Spanish for “handkerchief art,” is currently on display at the Bath House Cultural Center in an exhibition titled Art Behind…
All’s faireFor years we’ve harbored an idea for the perfect costume for a Medieval fair (or faire, as many aficionados prefer to call it): The Black Death. Dress in a black faceless cape, carry a wooden staff, and pass out black “X” badges to three-quarters of the people in attendance…
Irish charm and British eccentricity are hot properties on this side of the pond — especially among U.S. moviegoers. Witness the phenomenal success of The Secret of Roan Inish, in which a 10-year-old Irish girl finds her lost brother living among seals off her country’s rugged western coast, or of…
The practice of motion-picture production in China is clearly in flux. While films have long emanated from government studios, political changes in the past decade or so have led to co-productions with other countries — Farewell My Concubine (with Hong Kong — then a British territory), Dr. Bethune (with Canada…
What right do theatergoers have to expect two very different individuals–folks of vastly divergent age, experience, political, and religious sensibilities–to cross the chasm and embrace? Of course, we’ve come not just to expect such a thing to occur on stage, but to view it as a ticketbuyer’s privilege, if only…
I have never read The Odyssey, A Tale of Two Cities, Pride and Prejudice, or, for that matter, the Bible. But I have read, from cover to cover, Occupation: Skateboarder, the just-published autobiography from Tony Hawk. I have never seen most of the films of Yasujiro Ozu, Robert Bresson, or…
As any Klump family member can tell you, this has been a hot summer for black comedians. New movies starring Martin Lawrence, the Wayans brothers, and Eddie Murphy have already pulled down more than $300 million at the box office, and by the time Chris Rock’s remake of Heaven Can…
For the first half hour or so of John Waters’ latest film, Cecil B. Demented, I found myself reflexively evaluating it in terms of the guidelines we all — critics as well as audiences — have been trained to follow: “This isn’t going to make much money, because it’s not…
In a perfect world, any documentary about televangelists narrated by RuPaul and a couple of sock puppets would be hailed as the conceptual masterpiece of the year. Alas, those stodgy Academy voters just don’t understand cross-dressers, religious broadcasting, or foot warmers made to look like dogs. And so the best…
Make no mistake: The Cell is, easily, the most unforgettable film of a pedestrian, forgettable summer. You will walk out of the theater and be grateful for the light and the heat; it is, in places, a rather chilling and claustrophobic film. In places, The Cell is also a rather…
Frank’s Place, the rehearsal facility at Dallas Theater Center’s Kalita Humphreys Theatre that is often rented for performance, was almost tropical last Saturday night, since so many bodies were pressed in such close proximity to watch short productions from Soul Rep’s Fifth Annual New Play Festival. Downstairs at the box…
It’s said that people spend the first half of their lives looking toward the future — imagining who they’ll be, what they’ll do, what they’ll be, who they’ll do — and the second half looking back at the past. Whether they see life’s great sorrows and failures or its triumphs…
Pass the blintzesThis Sunday, the Jewish Community Center hosts the Fifth Annual Jewish Arts Fest at the Meyerson. According to the press release, this event will “highlight the sounds, sights, smells, and tastes of Jewish culture.” Funny thing about Jewish culture: It exists. This can be something of a sore…
He’s sitting in a makeshift conference room in a temporary building, not far from where workmen are finishing his more permanent, palatial digs — maybe a long touchdown pass or kickoff return from SMU’s nearly finished Gerald J. Ford Stadium. Even now, with silver and green wires hanging everywhere, with…
“Please hold for Tammy Faye.” The few seconds between those words and those that follow, uttered by the woman who once haunted pay-to-pray TV like a mascara-ed harlequin, are interminable. Until a month ago, the notion of talking to Tammy Faye Bakker-Messner, once the most adored and reviled figure in…
