No bride likes to get gussied up for her wedding rehearsal and arrive to the chapel only to be shot by an ex-lover and a gang of assassins. At least that’s what we learned from Kill Bill, Tarantino’s two-part tale of a vengeful bride and her quest to find her…
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Director: Stephen Daldry Writer: Eric Roth Condensed Cast: Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Thomas Horn You may have heard about this one. Maybe because it’s already scooping up awards on it’s way to the Oscars (our own DFWFCA gave it 3rd in the year’s best pictures…
Remember Frank Lopez? That’s right, the Collodion photographer who took the excruciatingly good, vintage-style photos around Fair Park. He’s shot other remarkable international sites, too, that garnered for him a 2011 MasterMind award. Ever wonder what Frank’s up to? When I last spoke to him back in November, Frank had…
This year’s first Dallas Observer Tweet Up Party happens at Bryan Street Tavern from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. tonight. Ridiculously awesome drink specials for the event include 50 cent draft beers and $1.50 well drinks. Don’t worry about getting too hammed; you can sop up the booze with free…
Immerse yourself in fashion inspiration this weekend when style’s ultimate curator Jean Paul Gaultier appears on CBS Sunday Morning. The interview was filmed from his current exhibition, which ends on February 12, at the Dallas Museum of Art. Gaultier’s creative influence in the field cannot be matched, and that’s likely…
We loved large Jennifer Hudson. Everyone did. The admiration wasn’t due to her weight, it was because of her vivacious spirit, unmarred from Hollywood and backed up with a “This is me. Deal.” attitude. Yeah, she was hanging on to an extra 80 pounds — so? It didn’t stop her…
Most of the laughs from Michael Frayn’s farce Noises Off come from action, not dialogue. The play has three acts of nonstop physical comedy including doors slamming, pants falling, and plates of sardines and fire axes juggled among actors with split-second precision. In lesser productions than the great one going…
Doth thou seek amusement cast off from thy daily toil? Are darkness and light one and the same betwixt the hours of 9 to 5? Need ye an outlet, a respite of the soul, tethered along thy brethren of stage and illusion? Take heart, good lord. Hope awaits ye, and…
LEGOs can be built, smashed and reconfigured in an unlimited amount of ways. Their creative potential is infinite, much like a child’s imagination. When the two pair up on Saturday for the FIRST LEGO League robotics competition just imagine what they’ll achieve. The students were given a goal: identify problems…
Director Stephen Daldry has never met a Big Theme he didn’t like: After 2002’s The Hours, a lugubrious women’s-problem picture touching on AIDS and assisted suicide, he went to Auschwitz with 2008’s The Reader. Following two such high-toned literary adaptations with such hefty subject matter, Daldry’s logical next stop is…
There’s a point in Haywire when the film’s protagonist, ex-Marine Mallory Kane (Gina Carano), gone rogue from her job as hired muscle for a private government subcontractor, takes a fall while scaling down a drainpipe and hits the ground with a crunch that knocks the wind out of you. It’s…
Call a play a farce and it damn well better be funny. Michael Frayn’s Noises Off is far and away the farciest of all modern farces. Full of slamming doors, sexy girls, mistaken identities and stray plates of sardines, Noises Off has been setting the standard for feather-light theatrical comedy…
Getting cast in Elvis Lives!, the touring homage to the Big E, is not easy (think Highlander for stage impersonators). The worldwide auditions lured in more than 500,000 would-be hip-swivellers in the last five years alone. Once the tribute artists are assessed and whittled down, those remaining Kings of Kings…
Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel are both coming to the Dallas Museum of Art. Together. And they’re splitting a cab. Or maybe they aren’t. Who can know for sure? The point is they’re coming and they’re funny and couldn’t we all use a laugh? And not just at the expense…
Some people need a little more than the traditional performance with their classical music. It isn’t enough to have an opera with its extravagant costumes and lavish sets, or to have a ballet with its subtle and precise choreography. Sure, that’s nice, but where is the contortionist stuffing herself in…
For all of the praise and fond memories of fans heaped upon the early stages of Martin Short’s legendary career in comedy, the recent past is as compelling a study in his overall talents as any period of time. The last few years have witnessed the diminutive Canadian explore the…
With performances held in 42 countries and 600,000 people filling seats in venues throughout the world, the American Ballet Theatre rivals a Metallica reunion as a draw — though there’s probably not not much overlap in audiences. With support from TITAS and the AT&T Performing Arts Center, the ballet’s dancers…
We spent our youths enjoying screen classics from studios like Disney and (for the later generation) Pixar, and though it was pretty rockin’, the kids in Japan had us beat — they had Studio Ghibli. Founded in 1985 by anime superstars Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli has produced…
With all the sassy little girl characters out there in the literary world, it boggles the mind to think that self-esteem is such a huge issue among young women. Some of these loveable heroines are borderline bratty, but none of them give a rat’s about what their peers, their doormen,…
The poor soul who attempted to teach me guitar at age 40 was a jazz man, a fan of the great Django Reinhardt and the Gypsy-infused, swing guitar style he perfected in France in the ’30s and ’40s. Maybe my teacher thought that if Reinhardt could overcome adversity — born…
A lot has changed for the Dallas Stars since winning the Stanley Cup more than a decade ago, as evidenced by the club’s three-year playoff drought and bankruptcy after losing a reported $92 million during that span. Now there’s a new owner (Canadian hotelier and restaurateur Tom Gaglardi), new head…
Oh, the weather outside is … yep, it’s still pretty frightful. If there’s one thing Texans don’t like, it’s cold weather. Staying cooped up near the fireplace can only keep the shivers away for so long before it’s time to maneuver around the house. It’s times like these when a…
