Not many people admit to a brutal murder and avoid a lengthy prison sentence, but not many people are cross-dressing billionaire Robert Durst. In 2001, Durst admitted to killing a neighbor in self defense and was later acquitted, but this wasn’t his first brush with the law. In 1982, Durst…
A close game is generally more exciting than a blowout for most sports fans. But if you’re the kind of Mavericks fan who gets more entertainment out of watching your team deliver a thorough ass-kicking–or if your ticker or stomach can’t handle the stress of a tense, down-to-the-wire contest–Dallas vs…
From Scarlett O’Hara on down, everybody knows that when the chips are down, home is the place to go. That’s where Babe Magrath goes to reunite with her two eccentric sisters after shooting her abusive husband in the 1981 Pulitzer Prize winning play Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley…
The film version of Sunday in New York, a vintage 1960s comedy about a 22-year old virgin who’s itching to find a mate without sacrificing her sterling reputation, is credited with launching Jane Fonda’s career. Rover Dramawerks’ Kelsey Kruse is no doubt hoping her company’s production in Plano will do…
Love knows no season, but a new show at Cohn Drennan Contemporary is a pretty good warm-up for the most romantic of all months. The Dallas Design District gallery is showcasing three sets of couples who work in the arts, including Cohn and Cathy Drennan, who’ve befriended many other artists…
Pressed for time? Well, save an extra minute or two to take in Jeff Zilm’s new art installation of full films pressed onto canvas. He’s “extracted the sound and image data from the celluloid base of a reel film” and projected it onto canvas. While you may not be able…
In sixth grade, I saw a real heart. No, not one of those cheesy, pink, heart-shaped necklaces; I actually saw the real deal. Okay, it was only because I had to. Every sixth grade science class was required to dissect a frog as a part of its final grade. Who…
If you’ve always wondered about the colorful facade of Uptown’s Kilgore Law Firm, wonder no more. Sometimes a law office is more than a law office. Here, it’s also an art museum. Delve deeper into the mystery, and MADI, the museum’s chosen focus, at an in-depth exhibit that explores Constructivism,…
Much has been said in the past decade or so about the evolution (or devolution) of sports in this country. It’s been obvious for many years that it’s not just about the game anymore; it’s the personalities and the paychecks and the merchandising that make the headlines rather than the…
Tracking the parallel trajectories of three employees laid off from cushy corporate jobs at the same Boston-based manufacturing conglomerate, The Company Men is transparent in its ambition to capture The Way We Live Now from a sensitive, equitable—rather than a withering and satiric—point of view. Writer/director John Wells portrays the…
Ivan Reitman, master of the high-concept, big-budget Hollywood comedy (Ghostbusters, Dave), would seem an unlikely candidate to direct No Strings Attached, an extremely low-concept, low-key romantic comedy of contemporary sexual mores centered on the dating foibles of attractive nerds. Fully devoid of the fantasy contrivance that often sets a Reitman…
They call it “human interest.” There are few narratives more compelling than a survival story like Peter Weir’s new adventure yarn. The protagonists of The Way Back, the veteran director’s first movie in the seven years since his seafaring Master and Commander, are a group of Soviet prisoners who escape…
“Maybe I should just tell you some of the facts as I remember them,” Spalding Gray says a few minutes into And Everything Is Going Fine, Steven Soderbergh’s fascinating posthumous documentary on the writer/actor/monologist, who apparently jumped off the Staten Island Ferry in 2004. Soderbergh, who filmed the monologue Gray’s…
A 2009 Cannes winner, Dogtooth is hyperrealist sci-fi detailing an (anti)social experiment gone awry. The matriarch and patriarch of an upper-class Greek family have taught their three nameless, college-age offspring an alternate language (“A sea is a leather armchair, like the one we have in the living room. A pussy…
In her recent English-speaking roles, 50-year-old bilingual Kristin Scott Thomas has gamely endured the fate of most actresses her age, cast as the fretful mother of Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson in The Other Boleyn Girl and the pinched, sexless guardian of Aaron Johnson’s John Lennon in Nowhere Boy. Her…
Deconstruct the features of Dallas actor Steven Walters and it’s hard to believe they constitute the attributes of a great stage performer. There’s his voice: high, a little nasal, with a hint of Texas twang and audible hisses on sibilant consonants. There’s his chin, strong but soft. His long nose…
After reading the bio of comic Shawn Halpin, you might wonder how the hell his show would be funny. Seems his stand-up works within Halpin’s somewhat downtrodden life experiences: dad leaving early, single mom, chubby kid, life in the Marines, commitment phobia, abandonment issues. Common, but also commonly sad, stuff…
It’s difficult to believe that 500X Gallery is 33 years old. The Exposition Park arts venue has hung in through trends and trials and remained a vibrant hub of local work, never seeming to age–save for whatever the art gallery equivalent of a little distinguished gray around the temples might…
Moral lessons are more interesting when delivered by bears. Although we’re most familiar with Goldilocks’ story (lesson: don’t nap after breaking, entering and porridge-eating), we can’t discount pearls of wisdom from lesser-known bears. The Berenstain Bears, stars of children’s books and a few cartoon specials, are a family that has…
Her curvy body moves in unison with the music as her long fingers move up her fully fit fishnet thighs. Her lips are luscious and her hair is done. There’s not a man or woman in the room that can take their wide eyes off her acrobatic grace and form…
The world can be a harsh, lonely place when your loyalty is split between two opposing factions. The little mermaid loved her finned kin of the underwater kingdom, but she also longed to be with her beloved fish-eating prince on land. That kid from Glee was a macho football player…
The cure for the winter blues is not in some sad bastard country album. The empathy that offers is tempting, but ultimately you’re forced to open a beer, take a big sigh, and agree wholeheartedly that everything sucks. What we all need (and some of us more than others, for…
