Being walked through artist Loretta Gonzalez’s new series of paintings is like exchanging introductions at a dinner party for savages. “This is Dena Schlosser from Plano. She cut the arms off her baby,” says Gonzalez, expanding a photo of the painting on her iPad. Next we meet Gilberta from Hudson…
It had to happen: There’s so much voiceover narration in today’s movies, so much needless verbal play-by-play, that it was only a matter of time before somebody made a picture narrated by that life of the party himself, Death. The Grim Reaper delivers the opening monologue of The Book Thief,…
In 1997, 87-year-old Richard Lusk flew from California to Florida to claim an $11 million prize he believed he’d won in a sweepstakes. The day after he returned home empty-handed, he had a stroke. Four months later, he bought a second plane ticket to Florida and stubbornly knocked on their…
It says something that two of the biggest sensations in young adult literature over the past 10 years have featured heroines who keep more than one guy on the line at a time. No longer do the genre’s bright young women sit around waiting for one Mr. Right to notice…
David Mamet writes great arguments. He is, arguably, the current American theater master at constructing conflict among smart characters driven by greed, anger or envy. Mamet’s best plays — Glengarry Glen Ross, American Buffalo, Speed-The-Plow — are built around tense back-and-forth verbal battles among vicious, ambitious, often desperate men. And…
Imagine an alternate history for Vince Vaughn. What if, 18 years ago, instead of rehearsing Swingers during the day and sampling Los Angeles’ starlets at night, he channeled his sexual energy into masturbating for cash at a sperm bank? He could have become Delivery Man’s David Wozniak, father of 533…
Few men wear a dress as meaningfully as comedian Chris Lilley. Since 2005, he has sported the pinstriped schoolgirl uniforms of his native Australia to play Ja’mie King, a perfect little monster created by an ungodly mix of wealth, vapidity, and cheerful cruelty. Ja’mie returns to HBO on November 24…
”This movie has been written about in books — go figure — and there’s discussion about whether or not it’s actually a zombie movie. And I can tell you it’s not; it’s not a zombie movie.” So says director Thom Eberhardt about 20 minutes into the commentary for his low-budget…
Through the soaring windows of the Mandarin Oriental Miami, it’s hard not to notice the blue skies and matching azure water. Most people find Miami’s beachy, serene views relaxing. But for fans of The Hunger Games, the vacation vista could just as easily conjure images of blister-forming nerve gas, vicious…
Once, in the middle of the 2004 Tour de France bicycling race, the nine-man American team, led by Lance Armstrong, pretended that their bus had broken down en route to their hotel. As fans and the international press stood outside, cheering and taking pictures, the team, hidden behind high, tinted…
The state of the arts in North Texas is so dynamic, so fresh and so very exciting these days that you almost feel like you should be sporting a beret and practicing finger snaps. There’s sculpture strewn about town and Big Happenings almost every weekend in our so-not-quaint arts district…
Happening at Martin Sheen’s request, there will be a live reading of Noah’s Ark at the Unity Church of Dallas (6525 Forest Lane). Based on James Douglass’ best selling book , and developed into a stage production by Pittsburgh playwright Ginny Cunningham, Ark shuttles an audience through those choppy waters…
As much as Dallas may like to pretend it’s buttoned-down and well-coiffed, that everything is fancy cars on slow overpasses and unscuffed designer cowboy boots, deep down there’s a counterculture, all riled up and progressive. For the past year THRWD Magazine has been wading into that current and scooping up…
Local photographer and general view-alterer Daniel Kusner brings a multimedia talk to the Dallas Public Library’s Oak Lawn branch (4100 Cedar Springs Road) from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday. That’s where he’ll charmingly punch through his unconventional thesis: “Can drag artists lift the veil of shame surrounding a presidential murder…
Merci beaucoup. The 30th annual Beaujolais & Beyond Wine Festival is here, you little beret-wearing neckerchiefs. This year it’s at that incredible building in the middle of nowhere: The Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas. (You know the one — all angles and glass — spectacular, no? Hoh-hoh-hoh.) Hosted by…
Oswald’s arrest during a screening of War is Hell cemented the Texas Theatre’s (231 W. Jefferson Blvd.) role in the those fated events. (It was also a reminder that sneaking into movies is extremely poor form.) Those history buffs at Aviation Cinemas have decided to tell the story in its…
You’re usually pretty en pointe when it comes to planning a good date night, but lately you’ve been off your mark. Dinner and a movie get pretty meh after a while, even with the best of company, so you’re looking for something that’ll sweep your better half off their feet…
There are seven heavenly virtues. And they’re boring. Honestly, can you name the seven heavenly virtues? They’re things like fortitude, temperance and prudence. There are no justice squads of superheroes named for the virtues. But the seven deadly sins just roll off the tongue — gluttony, pride, greed, sloth, envy,…
Saturday is the season’s final big gallery push, with most of the CADD art spaces filling out one last show before the calendar year flips. It’s always a quick run on opening night, so here are a few you should visit. Circuit 12 (1130 Dragon St. Suite 150) offers a…
“No Shave November” used to be a college excuse for you and your bros to see how scraggly you could get in a month, when you discovered your beard grows in mostly as mutton chops and that one guy had no facial hair except for a tuft at the right…
In the fervor of JFK hype, it’s nice to step back for a bit of meditation. You can do that Saturday at the Nasher’s latest installation of Soundings, titled In Memoriam JFK happening at the Dallas City Performance Hall (2520 Flora St.). Yellow Barn presents this program by the Brentano…
How The Grinch Stole Christmas is already a legend. Written in 1957, it’s a clever little criticism on the commercialization of Christmas. There’s the Grinch who tries to ruin everything by stealing Christmas altogether and there are The Whos that celebrate the spirit of the season even when they’re tinsel-free…
