The 10 Sundance Movies to Watch for in 2016

The biggest story at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was the record-breaking bidding war for The Birth of a Nation, a prestige biopic about rebellious slave Nat Turner. When Fox Searchlight snatched it for $17.5 million — $5 million more than any other flick in the festival’s history — their…

The Ultimate Guide to Your Dallas Weekend, Feb. 4-7

Do This!  Nothing says Catholicism, like a bigass parade filled with plenty of costumed people riding on floats tossing multi-colored beads. The Oak Cliff Mardi Gras Parade is this weekend, and since it seems to grow every year it’s fair to say, this year will be bigger and better than…

Reese Witherspoon Attached, Sort of, to Pilot to Be Filmed in Dallas

It’s the classic story of mean divorce attorney meets her estranged love-addicted sister and they figure out life together. Or something. Listen, we don’t know. All we know is Meaghan Oppenheimer, who wrote “We Are Your Friends,” (You know “We Are Your Friends” because it starred Zac Efron and was…

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Only Fitfully Comes to Life

You’re probably right if you think you might get a couple laughs out of a movie titled Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. You’re also right if you’ve guessed that this gung-ho but cruddy-looking mashup fails from A to Z: It’s neither good Austen nor good zombie flick. But in those…

The Coens’ Hollywood Farce Hail, Caesar! Flames Out

A kick for those who’ve distractedly thumbed through Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon, Joel and Ethan Coen’s bustling comedy Hail, Caesar! looks back to the waning days of moviedom’s golden age: specifically, to 1951, when big-studio fixers were still tidying up the messes left by the talent (scrubbing now done by…

Five Art Exhibitions to See in Dallas this Weekend

For the Love of Kettle If anyone ever tells you, “No one cares about art in Dallas,” send them straight to For the Love of Kettle. This annual event features the work of hundreds of artists from all over the city at various price points sold off in an energetic…

A Movie Guide for Seven Valentine’s Day Scenarios

You may or may not be attempting to plan a Valentine’s Day that doesn’t suck. There is challenge built in: Valentine’s Day is one of the most absurdly intense holidays in existence, and it’s coming. It’s coming, and it’s like a creepily strong hug from a 6-foot teddy bear that…

5 Offbeat Things to Do for Valentine’s Day in Dallas

Put down those flowers and drop the chocolates! I know it’s Valentine’s Day and all, but I think by 2016 we can all agree, this artificial holiday is in serious need of a face lift. Don’t do what she/he/they expect, step your game up and eschew the clichés. Love is…

VIDEO: A Groundhog Day Visitor

Perhaps one of the most confusing American traditions is relying on a rodent to predict the end of winter. But that is precisely the holiday we are celebrating today. Groundhog Day arrives every February and like Phil Connors says in the namesake movie, “This is one time where television really…

Incisive and Funny, The Lady in the Van Doesn’t Stink at All

The movie they’re selling isn’t the movie this is. Sony Pictures Classics is peddling Nicholas Hytner’s film of Alan Bennett’s play and memoir The Lady in the Van like it’s the usual twinkly Best Exotic time-with-our-elders holiday entertainment. There’s Maggie Smith, dressed up as what my grandmother used to call…

Is Valley View Mall Dead?

In the summer of 1973, Dallasites of all ages salivated at the thought of the opening of Valley View Center. In 2016, the only thing leaking at the 42-year-old mall is the roof. Soon the mall, along with everything else between Preston Road and the Galleria Dallas, will be replaced…

Seven 2017 Texas-Sized Trucks

Texans love their 4x4s. In fact, nearly one in every four passenger vehicles registered in Texas is equipped with four-wheel drive, according to the state’s Department of Transportation. That doesn’t just mean pickup trucks — sport utility vehicles, crossovers, even environmentally friendly yet off-road capable hybrids are part of that…