It’s that time of the year. Performing arts companies across the city are announcing season line-ups. Just this week, Addison’s WaterTower Theatre, dance presenter TITAS, and Dallas staple Theatre Three revealed 24 promising shows and the dates for the Out of the Loop Festival for 2014-15. But what will we…
Every movie goer knows the pain and anguish of having to shell out money for a movie and realizing that the cash would have been better spent if they threw it into a fire. The modicum amount of heat that burning the cash could produce would give more to a…
You thought books were dead, didn’t you? Well, you just haven’t been paying attention, you illiterate techie. Bibliophilism is alive in Dallas. In March, we introduced you to Oak Cliff’s newest independent bookstore, The Wild Detectives. Now, we’ve got more literary intel…
Want to know the most awesome thing you can do this weekend? Call your mother. Sunday is the annual celebration of all the ways she didn’t mess you up; it’s your chance to practice gratitude, like your therapist keeps suggesting. After you’ve sent flowers and before you pick up the…
North Texas is springing up with creative dance companies full of talented artists looking to expand their skills beyond their graduate studies and carry college projects through to workable careers in the metroplex. Meaning for you: there are a plethora of interesting physically creative shows happening nearby. For instance, Big…
Is getting sand kicked in your face at the beach by a hulking mass of muscles still a common trope? We’re assuming that such unbelievably rude behavior has been drummed out of polite society along with cell phones that you can only transport in a briefcase, neon colored clothing and…
Neighbors Won’t Haze You
Nicholas Stoller’s hilarious Neighbors splashes into summer with the satisfying swish-plop-hooray of a winning beer pong serve, making the director, who also wrote March’s Muppets Most Wanted, the first filmmaker in history to simultaneously have in theaters both a kiddie flick and an R-rated comedy where two men sword-fight with…
Everything in the opening scenes of Jeremy Saulnier’s nerve-wracking revenge drama Blue Ruin is the color of a bruise, from the ocean to the bullet-hole-pocked 1996 Pontiac Bonneville that homeless near-mute Dwight (Macon Blair) calls home. It’s fitting. Dwight has never overcome the pain of his parents’ murder when he…
Although it’s based on the true story of the illegitimate daughter of a Royal Navy captain and an enslaved African woman, Amma Asante’s Belle’s richest inspiration comes from a painting. A 1779 double portrait hanging at Scone Palace in Scotland, it shows a pretty blonde teenager decked out in typical…
Who’s your favorite Sherlock Holmes? Sexy-arrogant Benedict Cumberbatch in the BBC’s fast-paced modern-day version of the Arthur Conan Doyle stories? Muscular Robert Downey Jr. in the action-packed big-budget feature films? The most elegantly droll was British actor Jeremy Brett in the long-running series on PBS years ago. The facial profile…
No actor in a five-state area says “Go fuck yourself!” better than Dallas actor Terry Vandivort says it in Nicky Silver’s The Lyons, now playing at Uptown Players at Kalita Humphreys Theater. Vandivort plays Ben Lyons, an angry old cuss who knows he’s dying. From his Manhattan hospital bed, he…
Tom Hiddleston can pull off extreme looks. In The Avengers, he strutted around in Loki’s 2-foot horned helmet. For Midnight in Paris, he finessed F. Scott Fitzgerald’s prim finger waves. And in his latest, Jim Jarmusch’s vampire romance Only Lovers Left Alive, Hiddleston lounges bare-chested in velvet-cuffed robes. The only…
Harrison Ford has been a good soldier in the Star Wars. He did whatever was asked of him by his commanding officer, George Lucas, even when his commanding officer was wrong. Now that Ford is back in Star Wars, and J.J. Abrams is running the show, Abrams’ first order of…
Dallas native, bon vivant and man of letters Rawlins Gilliland is perhaps most widely known locally (and nationally) for his role as commentator on National Public Radio affiliate KERA. Frequently, Gilliland’s soothing voice can be heard on shows such as Morning Edition and All Things Considered offering revealing, inspiring and…
On the one hand, it seems like Lakewood Theater (1825 Abrams Road) lives in a time warp. This historic theater with its iconic neon tower and huge interior murals seems to exist outside of time. Perhaps this explains why its schedule seems stuck on a loop of never-ending Polyphonic Spree…
If you’re walking down Main Street in Deep Ellum Saturday night and you see people wandering into otherwise deserted buildings, follow them. Trust me. You’ll either witness a drug deal or some wicked cool art. Either way, you’ll have a great story. Deep Ellum Windows presents five new pop-up galleries…
Every year in May, local professional and aspiring filmmakers receive one theme, one prop, one location and one line of dialogue. Then, they have 24 hours to turn that outline into a short film. If you see miniature film crews running around Dallas this weekend, there’s no need to call…
With all of the things that could potentially go wrong during a dance performance, we don’t often think of a broken string or a sour note. Lots of accompaniment is canned these days, leaving less to chance. That’s not to say such things will go wrong during a Mark Morris…
If you have the appetite for much of anything, Addison is the place to visit. This little Dallas suburb boasts more restaurants per capita than any other city west of the Mississippi. Of course, this counts Macaroni Grill and about five Chipotles, but we’ll concede the victory. If your stomach…
Tired of being the redheaded stepchild of the family regardless of whether or not you actually have red hair? Would you like to get back in your mother’s will without having to file some kind of court order or enact a legal scheme that may one day become the convoluted…
Local brewers deserve a brewski and a pat on a back. They’ve been there for us at life’s highs and lows, offering solace and celebration with that perfect ice-cold brew. They’ve helped us through breakups and then been right there helping us work up the nerve to talk to that…
The dream of any gastronome is to be Ruth Reichl. She spent decades as a restaurant critic and food writer in New York City, dining at some of the world’s best restaurants and dishing out her opinion on their merits. She wrote for The New York Times, created a talk…
