It’s impossible to review a film and not consider the political climate of the country in which it was produced, especially if the movie makes no bones about trying to piss off as many people as possible. This is clearly the mission of filmmaker Greg Araki’s fifth feature The Doom…
As Sabrina opens, a woman’s voice purrs in breathless tones: “On the north shore of Long Island there was a big house–a castle almost,” and it’s clear you’re being set up for a fairy tale. The only thing missing is an overstuffed, gilt-edged, leather-bound book with large gothic letters spelling…
The shadow of marital infidelity falls dark and heavy over the theater, perhaps because that subject is particularly suited to the claustrophobic confines of the stage. Audiences can sit close to actors who piece together the tortured mosaic of betrayal and be forced to question their own boundaries of love…
Today I wanna pay tribute to all the guys who are in love with ugly girls. The best thing about them is that they never know the girl is ugly, so it saves the rest of us from a lot of embarrassment in later life. She’ll never find out that…
I wasn’t much of a fan of Sean Penn’s first effort as a writer-director, The Indian Runner. The film, a mood piece about a man’s return from Vietnam and his big brother’s attempts to understand him, had the kind of problems you’d expect from many freshman efforts; it was long…
thursday december 7 Malignant Redemption: Goethe’s Faust legend has for centuries now served as a neat microcosm of humanity’s search for experience beyond the physical realm. Its protagonist can be displayed as cocky or well-meaning, the antagonist as evil or fateful, but always, the action forces us to consider the…
Hailing Mary is not just a rote exercise for area artists honoring the Virgin of Guadalupe. In fact, the passion and intensity poured into spiritual art is all too evident in two local exhibits paying homage to the Virgin. The December shows also give ample evidence of the conflict between…
Sin and redemption are the favorite themes of Janet Farrow, a skilled, intuitive adapter and a flamboyant, if sometimes overly mannered, director. Farrow imported her fierce love for classical literature from the American Shakespeare Repertory Theater in New York City to our arts-unfriendly city and created Classic Theatre Company five…
I have a question about singers: How come they use a microphone when they’re singin’ in a place the size of a Salvation Army bathroom? I mean, you’re sittin’ about four feet from this chantoose and she starts wailing away into about 70 tons of sound equipment until the little…
Although ostensibly a film, Carrington, about painter Dora Carrington (Emma Thompson) and her decades-long platonic love affair with writer Lytton Strachey (Jonathan Pryce), is pregnant with literary conceits: the nature of true love as spiritual, not physical; the interdependence of strong creative personalities; the anti-Victorian ethic of early bohemianism. The…
Nick of Time begins with the type of set-up that should be the makings of high drama: The young daughter of drab businessman Gene Watson (Johnny Depp) is kidnaped, and will be killed unless he assassinates the governor (Marsha Mason). The difference from any other movie is that this one…
thursday november 30 Webb Gallery: For anyone who finds the New York-based visual art establishment something of a well-organized scam, the proliferation of institutions like Waxahachie’s Webb Gallery is not only a relief, but a rescue from artificial, trend-driven ideas of creativity. This weekend, the Webb Gallery hosts a pair…
Goethe is one of those heavyweight writers (mostly Russian or German) who everyone admires but who no one reads. In fact, in these post-literate times, you can now get into Mensa just by being able to pronounce Goethe’s name correctly. You no longer have to study Cliffs Notes on Faust,…
Remember last year when Time and Newsweek both decided to put Marriage on the cover? Marriage Is Back! Marriage Is Groovy! People are Getting Married! And then you read through these articles to try to figure out what the heck they were talkin’ about, and they said things like, “Lewis…
For a film critic to react negatively to the beloved renaissance of Walt Disney animation is something akin to a Catholic priest criticizing Jesus’ personal hygiene–it just ain’t done. Indeed, it’s almost a waste of time (and since we all may be working for that corporate juggernaut in the next…
What can you say about James Bond that hasn’t already been said about Ted Bundy? He’s charming and reckless, well-traveled and intelligent, but half the women he sleeps with end up dead. Sure, Bundy doesn’t have the same beach-boy good looks, but a fast car and $3,000 tux tend to…
In Milton’s Paradise Lost, as God casts him out of paradise, Lucifer declares, “Better to reign in hell than serve in heav’n,” a sentiment not unlike ones expressed by the vicious lowlifes that infest Martin Scorsese’s brilliant new film, Casino. The idea of going legitimate–at least the way normal people…
thursday november 23 Save the Turkey: Stop complaining about all the fat calories in delicious food and do something about it, if you must–removing animal flesh from your diet will go a long way toward improving your health. This is true, based on all available medical data, but it’s not…
The commissioner of the NFL, Paul Tagliabue, was holding a formal press conference downstairs. The pain in the butt of the NFL was holding an impromptu press conference upstairs–in a hallway at the D-FW Airport Hilton. Only about seven reporters were in attendance. But some worked for very big and…
With Ohio Tip-Off, the Dallas Theater Center takes aim at the merry dance of dreams and commerce that is professional sports. Unfortunately, it puts up an air ball. The play takes for its subject the Ohio Shakers, a team mired in the recesses of the downscale Continental Basketball Association. The…
The 41-year-old Taiwanese-born director Ang Lee has been granted a rare international honor–unanimous box-office approval from audiences who don’t often mix. His second feature, 1993’s The Wedding Banquet, became one of the highest-grossing indie films ever made, and also became a beloved cult treasure that crossed gender, sexual, and ethnic…
The first time I saw Annette Bening was in Valmont, Milos Forman’s adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. She played Madame de Merteuil, a part portrayed the previous year by Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons. Both actresses gave terrific performances, although they couldn’t have interpreted the role more differently: where Close’s…
