Best Sleeper Hit: WordJong (Nintendo DS) — It may not sell like Mario, but this mishmash of Scrabble and mah-jongg hooks you like handheld crack. Already a word-of-mouth hit, despite being released only this month, WordJong is perfect for quiet afternoons, loud commutes, or romantic walks on the beach. Best…
Blade Runner: The Final Cut (Warner Bros.): It’s the collector’s-set briefcase that seals the deal, a gunmetal-gray case that all but shouts “Completist dork!” Also: There’s damned near every single version imaginable, plus a making-of doc almost as essential as any iteration of the movie itself. Film school in a…
At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the American painter turned filmmaker Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, Before Night Falls) won the jury’s Best Director award for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, his French-language adaptation of the best-selling memoir by the late Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby. Felled by a massive stroke…
In Starting Out in the Evening, a new film by Andrew Wagner, a pneumatic graduate student spreads honey over the face of the elderly New York novelist she’s trying to seduce. Later, the two will lie down on his bed with their hands by their sides, and later still, he…
With The Goodbye Girl, now playing at Theatre Three, it goes like this: Buy your ticket, sit down, wait four songs and fall in love. That’s exactly how long it takes for Dallas actor Gregory Lush to make his first entrance. And when he comes onstage and starts singing, dancing…
It’s that time of year again. Our six critics don’t always (or often) agree, but we’ve combined their top 10 lists (allowing for ties) to pretend like they do! So without further ado, the 10 (or 15) best movies of the year, kind of: There Will Be Blood The Texas…
How tough is it for a movie to find its audience above the din of blockbuster marketing and beyond the clogged distribution pipeline? Tsai Ming-liang, the Taiwanese/Malaysian director regarded as one of the world’s greats, had two films in U.S. theaters this year, The Wayward Cloud and I Don’t Want…
Absolutely, unequivocally, this has been The Year of the Apatow: Judd got Knocked Up to the tune of $150 million (at the box office alone); the super-OK Superbad, which Apatow produced, grossed another $120 million, “gross” being the operative word; and at year’s end, he walks hard to the finish…
An acquaintance who fought in both Afghanistan and Iraq says he has no use for documentaries about George Bush’s bungling of the War on Terror. He has not and will not see a single one of the movies made about the tragic consequences of the administration’s rush to drop bombs…
The first thing you notice when you walk on to the set are the 300 extras in late-1920s period costume, seated at cafeteria tables in a holding area, gazing up at you in their wool suits (for the men) and cloche hats (for the women) as if all of this…
It was only a couple of years ago that the horror genre seemed newly resurgent, like an undead killer digging himself out of the grave. “Fresh-faced” directors such as Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, Darren Lynn Bousman and James Wan—many of whom were dubbed “The Splat Pack”—seemed poised to bring their…
How are you ringing in 2008? With some ridiculously unachievable and unfun resolutions involving The Zone diet and wheat germ? You do that every year. Why not try something new and different? Like theater. Like theater with cross-dressing and thick Texas accents. At 8 p.m. Wednesday make your yuletide gay…
The holidays couldn’t exist without a bit of twinkle. But what about a whole bunch of it? Nothing says Christmas like “aloha,” and Aloha Adventure Park is saying it with their Grand Festival of Lights, boasting more than a million lights in fabulous holiday fashion. Just don’’t tell Al Gore…
I must really be getting old, because I no longer understand MTV. For instance, I’m still not really sure who Nick Cannon and Tila Tequila are and why they are famous. I also don’t watch Wild ‘N Out, which is basically a whole show devoted to improvised insult comedy and…
What would the new year be without dead bodies, werewolves and ancient curses? No, we’re not talking about your love life (if we were, we’d include slipper socks and Cheese Whiz), we’re describing a night with one of Dallas’ most favorite fictional gumshoes, Harry Hunsacker, who’s back to solve another…
If there’s a better place to celebrate your blackness than Plano, we certainly haven’t found it. After all, we’ve never been to Africa or Harlem, the only real competition to speak of. From 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. this Sunday, the Stephanie Ward Gallery, 920 18th St., hosts a Kwanzaa…
What could be better to gear up for the New Year than a good ol’ Bing Crosby/Fred Astaire movie like Holiday Inn? Irving Berlin wrote it (and its many classic songs), and you can watch over steak and wine under the Dallas sky as singer Jim Hardy (Crosby) and dancer…
I always wondered about the veracity of stories about kids who ran away from home to join the circus. To me, the circus sounds like a terrible way of life—all trailers, animal manure and creepy clowns. I see the appeal, though, on an abstract level. It’s all about contorting reality…
Excited about going to the Hippie Circus this year? No, not the one at your freaky in-laws’ “ranch” out in the country. That’s no circus. That’s just illegal in most states. The Hippie Circus is an evening of retro music and fun with an MC who is famous for wearing…
Comedian Ralph Harris has appeared on Seinfeld and in the film Dreamgirls. He has a Comedy Central special and an HBO special. You may have seen him on Late Night With Conan O’Brien or The Tonight Show too. But most recently, Ralph Harris was on Last Comic Standing. WTF? This…
There has been much heated discussion through the ages over what film should hold the title of “best Christmas movie ever.” Cups of eggnog have been spilled and families have been torn apart because of this. Old-school die-hards still insist that It’s a Wonderful Life is the only holiday film…
Trans-Siberian Orchestra serves up insane symphonic Christmas cocktails that are equal parts string sections, blistering guitar solos, pyrotechnics, laser lights and billowy, unbuttoned tuxedo shirts. If you’ve never been fond of TSO’s particular brand of cock rock caroling, a cursory viewing of their concert performance might provoke you to ask…
