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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Jane Got a Gun’s reputation precedes it, but it shouldn’t define it. After a tortured production that included the departure of original director Lynne Ramsay (Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk About Kevin) and a revolving door of leading men, the Western arrives in theaters long after popular opinion declared…
Patrick Warburton is that rare voice actor who looks like he sounds. His imposing, muscular physique complements his deep basso voice, but his warm tone gives a touch of soul to his many memorable performances as lunkheaded alpha males. Quite likely your ears perk up when you hear him. He…
The queasiest thing about American Crime Story’s (FX) retelling of the 1995 O.J. Simpson murder trial is how easily such a flagrant miscarriage of justice could happen all over again. The twin forces that most warped that case, after all, still plague us today: a tabloid culture that reduces flesh-and-blood…
Three years ago, Michael Moore wrapped up a TV interview about the Sandy Hook massacre and asked the producers to leave him alone. “You guys call me every time there’s a school shooting,” he sighed. He had, after all, made Bowling for Columbine, which blasted the NRA and the nightly…
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…
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…
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…
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…
One of the city’s great supporters of visual art, June Mattingly, died the afternoon of February 1 at Baylor Hospital in Dallas. She was 83 years old. For decades, Mattingly was at the heart of the Dallas art world. She was the owner and co-founder of the Mattingly Baker Gallery,…
The Denton Black Film Festival happened over the weekend, despite having gone under many folks’ radar during its 2nd year in operation. With a robust programming schedule, the 3-day event was held in Downtown Denton and just three weeks before the 9th annual Thin Line Film Festival hits the downtown…
If you had to distill February down to a couple of key phrases, you’d probably be hard pressed to come up with something beyond unpredictable weather and a wealth of chocolate. But this second month of the year also offers up a diversity of experiences in the arts—from somber remembrances…
Hello Boys and Ghouls, I know it is only February, but one of the most howling good times in Dallas is coming up. Texas Frightmare Weekend has garnered so much attention it now has a fence around it like a graveyard because everyone is dying to get in. Just kidding…
The New York City cultural world has heard the news that Dallas Symphony Orchestra maestro Jaap van Zweden will be taking over the New York Philharmonic, and its reaction is a resounding “meh.” Many critics are underwhelmed by van Zweden’s modest international stature, but there is also more than a…
Dallas music lovers learned on Wednesday that the Dallas Symphony’s music director Jaap van Zweden has accepted the post of music director of the New York Philharmonic, to complete the transition to his new job at the beginning of the 2018-19 season. Thus, what was to have been a fairly…
Earlier this week, NXT announced five matches for their NXT: Takeover Dallas event that will take place at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center the Friday before Wrestlemania. I suppose you can consider it the kickoff event for Wrestlemania Weekend. For who don’t know, NXT is considered to be the…
In his studio, Jeff Parrott has paint in pill bottles. For him, painting is therapeutic, a journey into his mind, an addiction. His imagery is frenetic and crowded. An intensely prolific psychedelic artist, he literally has rooms full of paintings in his home. Parrott is still making final decisions on…
Mark Cuban knows a good investment when he sees one. When Stephan Aarstol pitched his San Diego-based company, Tower Paddle Boards, to the sharks on Shark Tank, he ultimately chose Dallas Mavericks owner and entrepreneur Cuban to invest $150,000 for a 30 percent stake in the paddle boarding company. Now,…
