The neglect of American playwright Clifford Odets is partly his fault, partly ours. It’s certainly true that Odets–who applied his talents to screenwriting but could barely stomach the Hollywood establishment in the ’40s and ’50s–had a sanctimonious tone in his author’s voice. Indeed, his political affiliations were more naked than…
When filmmakers who already possess morbid, vibrant mentalities discover the topic of food obsession, duck. Audiences are likely to be splattered with all manner of deeply personal opinions about the human condition. Trouble is, our most neurotic talents in contemporary cinema know that a ritual so intimate as eating is…
Bill Watterston, the cartoonist who created Calvin & Hobbes, was so devoted to the concept of his strip–that a little boy’s toy tiger might actually come to life, but only he could see it–that he refused to merchandise the characters. It was as if making Hobbes a real stuffed animal…
thursday september 12 Three Tall Women: Six years ago, Edward Albee couldn’t catch a cold in American theater, having been pretty much shunned as a has-been writer wilting in the camp shadow of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Thanks to a 1994 Pulitzer for Three Tall Women and a spectacularly…
Lately quite a few people have been calling me a “greasy yahoo redneck” or a “greasy redneck yahoo” or, for those who didn’t graduate eighth grade, a “jerk.” It feels good. I thought I’d lost the touch. It’s been years since I’ve gotten good, solid American hate mail, which always…
There’s a moment near the beginning of Into the Woods, Theatre Three’s latest production, when you know you’ve ventured into Sondheim territory–and director Jac Alder has provided you with a whip-smart, conscientious map. Little Red Riding Hood (Emily Parsons) has just detailed her purpose for traveling through the trees–to bring…
There were several reasons I had not anticipated reviewing The Island of Dr. Moreau. Not the least of these was that early word on the film wasn’t exactly brimming with enthusiasm. Val Kilmer reportedly was so difficult to work with that he had the first director fired, and Marlon Brando,…
The Brady Bunch Movie was a sleeper success last year, but the film itself wasn’t quite as good as the screenplay’s primary idea: setting the film in the ’90s, yet keeping the Bradys forever in the ’70s. (The Bradys aren’t too out of it; they have their own home page.)…
thursday september 5 Utopia Danza-Teatro: Based on a reading of its press information, it would be tempting to describe the Mexican dance troupe Utopia Danza-Teatro as “experimental,” but there is nothing new or uncertain about the themes that underlie its mixed-media work–economic instability in its homeland and the anonymity of…
Has this ever happened to you? You’re watching one of the 347 cable boxing matches of the week. Let’s say it’s a match between Louie “Hammerhead” Santini and Frankie “Frank” Franklin. The announcer says: “Santini is wearing the diamond-checked trunks with gold trim and black piping. Franklin is wearing the…
Jean-Michel Basquiat was a middle-class kid from the suburbs when he first started living in a cardboard box in a New York City park in 1979. Jean wasn’t homeless as a result of financial necessity, nor was he mentally unstable. He was, instead, an artist. Using the signature “Samo,” he…
It’s hard to decide which we hear more often: that there are no good roles for women in commercial American cinema, or that this–fill in current calendar year–is The Year of the Woman in film. Whatever the case, there’s usually a self-serving public-relations motive lurking behind these proclamations. The women…
thursday august 29 Rocket to the Moon: New Theatre Company picks up the Clifford Odets baton handed to it by the Richardson Theatre Centre, which staged a sumptuous Odets script called The Big Knife a couple months back. That one concerned the evils of Hollywood greed and was bedecked in…
Just three months into the gig as Dallas Observer stage critic, I found myself in a peculiar situation: hiding from the performer I was about to review. I wasn’t alone when I arrived at the opening night of performance artist Fred Curchack’s latest one-man symphony, The Comeback of Freddy Chickan:…
Today’s topic is The Phantom Boyfriend. I didn’t wanna talk about this. I really didn’t. But modern feminist propaganda has driven me to defend the male species. What’s the No. 1 complaint of women in the ’90s? “All men are liars.” How many times have we heard this in, like,…
The word “improvisation” is often bandied about when people talk about stand-up comedy; indeed, the most famous comedy club chain in America was named after it. But watching HBO’s Comedy Showcase or Comedy Central’s A-List, you’ll find precious little real improvisation. The reason is simple: Improv comedy by its very…
Several years ago, the Arlington Museum of Art made a decision to be a museum–without a permanent collection. The AMA sent it’s small collection away in what you might call a fire sale. “It wasn’t an important collection,” museum director Joan Davidow recalls, “so what the board opted to do…
As you watch The Spitfire Grill flicker by on the screen, it’s difficult not to ask yourself whether the writer-director, Lee David Zlotoff, honestly thought the movie he was making was a grand tragedy rather than a mere melodrama. Sure enough, as Zlotoff cautiously unfolds his sentimental tale–about a dreamy…
During a summer movie season dominated by a 300-pound celluloid gorilla named Independence Day, The USA Film Festival has offered a smashing August menu of sci-fi classics to remind moviegoers that once, not so long ago, the genre provided greater opportunities for audience involvement than thrills and chills. This is…
thursday august 22 The Comeback of Freddy Chicken: Internationally acclaimed Dallas-based performance artist Fred Curchack is a lamb on the phone, a lion when he steps on stage. Curchack, a hands-on kinda performance artist, is happy to give us a ring and follow up with his own bit of publicity…
This is the time of year when Heifer Women insist on wearing white shorts that look like they were designed for Sumo wrestlers. What’s going on with this? Entire Wal-Marts are filled with human beanbag chairs stuffed into the kind of sportswear that only looks good on Gabriela Sabatini. In…
Although different scenes may hop from century to century, a stage play really must concern itself with the moment. In the theater, real time isn’t a trick the director and producer pull from a toy box full of gimmicks, as in filmmaking. The playwright, the actors, and the director are…
