There are first films like Citizen Kane or Breathless, which, as radically new and fully achieved as they are, unfairly overshadow an entire oeuvre. And then there are first films, perhaps even more radical, which haunt an artist’s career not through precocious virtuosity but because they have an innocence that…
The idea of “getting axed” is exploited for maximum double-entendre value in Severance, a grisly horror-comedy from the U.K. that has its tongue planted so firmly in its cheek that you half expect it to pop out the other side. Yes, heads (and, in one indelible bit, a severed foot)…
CANNES, France—The world’s preeminent film festival celebrated its 60th birthday party — the opening banquet catered by the world’s hippest, or is that once-hippest? — filmmaker. Hardly the disaster many feared, but far from the triumph others anticipated, Wong Kar-wai’s first English-language feature, My Blueberry Nights — starring Norah Jones…
CANNES, France—The Cannes Film Festival is chiefly revered as a showcase for prolific, careerist auteurs, so the appearance of Savage Grace, the first feature in 15 years by New Queer Cinema co-instigator Tom Kalin (Swoon), was certainly striking — not that a film in which Julianne Moore stars as a…
Cannes, FRANCE — Sometimes the competition is actually competitive. No one disputes that the official section at the 60th Cannes Film Festival has been the strongest in recent memory. The heavy favorites are the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men; Julian Schnabel’s surprisingly restrained and bizarrely chic French-language adaptation…
I never gave much thought to the subject of health insurance until, in October of 2005, an odd swelling in my groin prompted me to make one of my infrequent trips to the doctor’s office. A referral to a urologist and one ultrasound later, the diagnosis was indisputable: testicular cancer…
Cannes, FRANCE —”Whaddya love about it so much?” Abel Ferrara — director of the strip-club-set Go Go Tales, my favorite film at Cannes — is interviewing the interviewer. Well, I say it’s consistent with the Ferrara oeuvre — King of New York, Bad Lieutenant, Dangerous Game, et cetera — in…
My, my, Michael York looks happy. Why shouldn’t he? He’s starring in a national tour of Camelot, getting away with sleepwalking through a role for which he’s 30 years too old. But he’s famous! He’s charming! He’s British! That appears to be enough for York and for his languid King…
Hannibal Rising (Weinstein) Pointless beyond belief, Hannibal Rising serves more as a cautionary tale than horror story. Made for $50 mil, the movie pocketed half that during its U.S. run and likely wound up in the red–an appropriate adios for a franchise starring a peripheral character better served by shadows…
Dating games have come a long way since the days when Chuck Woolery invited mullet-sporting contestants to bump uglies on Love Connection. In Japan, the “dating simulator” video game craze has raged stronger than a schoolboy’s hormones since the early ’90s. But here in America — where our gaming interests…
Above the Law (Genius) The Andy Griffith Show: Complete Series Collection (Paramount) Big Train: Seasons One and Two (BBC Warner) Biography: Legends of the Silver Screen (A&E) Circle of Iron: 2-Disc Special Edition (Blue Underground) The Closer: The Complete Second Season (Warner Bros.) Drive Thru (Lionsgate) The Foursome (Universal) Free…
Two weeks ago, I trekked out to Frisco with a small soccer, er, futbol-lovin’ posse to watch Oduro, Gbandi, Toja and the rest of the FC Dallas smoke out Real Salt Lake with two of the sweetest goals this season. We cheered. Loudly. We ate elote and hot dogs. Drank…
As much as I’d like to think that all the best music happened in the ’60s, it has to be conceded that one or two good things happened after the first Star Trek series went off the air. In recognition that maybe not all the musical highlights of Star Trek…
Sure, the Irish can throw a mean parade, but can they throw a telephone pole? While wearing a skirt? Probably not, I say. We Scots have to make do year-round with the concessions our Irish friends are willing to make to the shared elements of our culture—sure, they’ll put on…
Ah, the Ice Queen with the hidden, passionate, horny heart of fire; the bookish woman who whips off her glasses, shakes the bun out of her hair and growls. Keep your Madonnas and your whores, your bleached bims and skeletal supermodels; for sheer hotness, nothing beats Marian the Librarian with…
If it wasn’t for my phobia of popping noises, I would go see Chicago with Lisa Rinna and Tom Wopat. I don’t think my ears or heart could handle all the shooting though. Kids’ birthday parties are a bitch with all those balloons. And the gunshots in my neighborhood are…
I’ve always had mixed feelings about A Few Good Men. Rob Reiner’s major motion picture adaptation of the Aaron Sorkin Broadway play gave me more reasons to hate Demi Moore and Tom Cruise, while giving everyone else yet another Jack Nicholson impression to beat to death. The truth indeed. Yet…
Child actress Kaitlin Cullum played Libby Kelly on the mid-’90s sitcom Grace Under Fire, acting as the freckle-faced foil to recovering alcoholic Brett Butler and her gaggle of Everyman blue-collar suitors. Then, presumably, young Cullum went on to an adolescence plagued with drug addiction, promiscuous sex, convenience store robberies and…
Gay film festivals are the best. Oh wait, GLBTQI film festivals are the best, to be politically correct. Although, might I suggest to the community a more marketable, minimally syllabic identity? Just saying. Even after years of pseudo-acceptance by the community at large, “gay” is still a huge resource of…
Dallas has certainly seen its share of film festivals this year. The AFI was amazing (though I still want my two hours back from that Hal Hartley movie), the USA Film Festival showed some real gems, and the Asian Film Festival is yet to come. And yet, despite all of…
When in doubt, craft a play about writing the life story of a South African student. By all means, include dance numbers. Make sure to have an emotional battle between that oh-so-elusive fame and a satisfying home life. Bruce Graham did those things and created According to Goldman, and now…
One of my favorite childhood activities was looking for shapes in the clouds. I had a similar sensation while viewing a few of Brent Kollock’s paintings. “Is that a mouth? Are those fingers? Is that a five-legged gnome with wings?” Whether you like it or not, Kollock’s work demands a…
