Some film aficionados are weaned on art-house offerings, savoring the mise-en-scène of Kurosawa, the montage of Eisenstein, and the imagery of Fellini. Others suckle on the teat of Cinemax, sneaking back into the living room after Mom and Dad have gone to bed to study the brutal disfigurement of bad…
Beating and being beaten about the head and torso until one of two bruised and bloodied humans drops — clever sport, boxing, which tops even American football for sheer poetic elegance. So it’s not surprising — and this is only half sarcastic — that so many fine films have been…
The Cup In a Tibetan monastery-in-exile in Bhutan, the head abbot (Lama Chonjor) is curious, though not the least bit ruffled, to discover that some of his monks are secretly sneaking off to a nearby town to watch World Cup matches on television. Not surprisingly, the abbot has never heard…
Twenty-seven-year-old Ben Younger delivers the message of his first feature, Boiler Room, with all the subtlety of a car bomb. To wit: Greed is alive and well in the new century, fueled by the material dreams of a generation bent on instant gratification and the distorted expectations of neophyte investors…
Even at just 92 minutes, this film feels endless. Intended as a humorous, heartwarming take on dysfunctional family relationships, Hanging Up doesn’t work as comedy or drama or anything in between. Given its wealth of above-the-line talent — director and costar Diane Keaton, writers Delia and Nora Ephron, and actresses…
Pitch Black is one of those films that becomes a distant memory while you watch it. Not only does it barely register as you sit through it — the film feels so distant, it occasionally seems as though it’s being shown in a neighboring theater — but it recalls a…
It’s hard to blame Kirk Douglas for choosing so formulaic a vehicle as a comeback film, especially after fighting back from a devastating stroke almost four years ago. Certainly no one can fault him for wanting to act again, to prove he’s still got it. However, the question is: Can…
“Fuckin’ long life, ain’t it?” Two characters in two different scenes of Jim Cartwright’s Road express this sentiment, not so much with weariness but as bitterly humorous testimony to all the ways they must distract their senses to make it through another night. Alcohol remains the diversion of choice, to…
So I’m leaving. Sitting on the floor of my apartment (which is in pre-move shambles), typing on my laptop (which is seizing up with an irritating little virus), and reflecting on my last two years as an art columnist for the Dallas Observer (which have been amazing), I can’t help…
Fighting fire It’s been quiet — too quiet — since Talley Dunn filed her lawsuit against former employer Gerald Peters in August. The scandal-curious were beginning to believe that a settlement must be in the works, since the dueling gallerists were quietly conducting business as usual. Dunn opened Dunn Brown…
It’s the kind of book that the educated liberal might approach from a cynical angle, or at least with a generous shaker of salt. How to take the spiritual musings of a dreadlocked single mother? As meditative ramble, soulful lecture, or worldly-wise confession? Anne Lamott sidesteps any category with the…
The South Dallas Cultural Center serves up a week that will satisfy all four major food groups of the arts — visual art, music, film, and theater — for the climax of OurStory 2000: A Diaspora Perspective, the center’s celebration of Black History Month. For the film portion, Black Cinematheque…
Jane Campion’s 1992 film The Piano was an intoxicating work of art, a film of such beauty and power, it literally took my breath away. Nothing the New Zealand-born writer-director has done before or since even comes close to matching it in form, content, or sensibility. And her latest film,…
La crème de la coiffure! A mock documentary about, of all things, a Scottish hairdresser who travels to America to compete in an international hairstyling tournament, The Big Tease is a mildly amusing romp that benefits enormously from an ingratiating performance by Scottish actor Craig Ferguson, who also co-wrote the…
Theatre Three prides itself on being the Southwest’s most frequent showcase for the works of Stephen Sondheim since 1969. The program for their newest effort, the complex and obtuse Company, features a photo of Sondheim onstage with artistic director Jac Alder. When the now 70-year-old composer came to Dallas in…
Suburban sprawl The ArtCentre of Plano has found a way to get its foot in the door of the Dallas art scene, increase visibility for its Plano programming, and create additional revenue. The nonprofit ArtCentre is now providing exhibition management and some curatorial support to Deep Ellum’s Mitchell Lofts Atrium…
My friends, both of them, have begun speaking in a new language. They often claim they are “beaten down” and “whipped” by things that once merely irritated them; they celebrate the “greatness” of those they admire; they refer to the inferior among us as “spares”; they greet each other with…
Ewan McGregor — you can’t toss a caber in Scotland these days without toppling a gaggle of blokes who closely resemble him. Yet some magical combination of talent, charm, and shrewd management has thrown wide the gates of choice projects for the young superstar, whose résumé already glows like a…
Ever pressed flesh with a machine? Scrunched your fat ass or angular cheekbone up against a copier’s glass and pushed “start?” If you have, then Dallas artist John Pomara believes you’re in a particularly good position to appreciate his art and his commentary on a technology-based culture and its struggle…
Valentine’s Day is really a day for love’s refugees — the single, the spurned, and those of us pining in that arid limbo between friendship and romance, with a who-knows-what-the-future-holds? dangling like a big, juicy carrot in front of us. With this holiday, we can sit back in our recliners,…
Folks who spent part of their college years watching Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson every Friday and Saturday night on HBO, and then CBS, can easily become confused about whom they actually hung out with back then. In my addled memory, when a couple…
It may come as no surprise that there’s a new book out in the For Dummies series. It’s called, of course, Art for Dummies, and it purports to alleviate the dreaded fear of art, a condition that strikes terror in the hearts of God knows how many people. Or so…
