The thing that’s so difficult about Cowboy del Amor–a richly layered documentary by Israeli filmmaker Michèle Ohayon–is the same thing that makes it an accomplished work: It refuses to take sides. Ohayon presents Ivan Thompson, a.k.a. “Cowboy Cupid,” an aging Texan who has made it his business to fix up…
The press notes for Pulse would have you believe that it predates many of the recent Japanese horror films that have been remade for American audiences, but that doesn’t seem to be true. It predates the U.S. remakes, yes; but according to the Internet Movie Database, Pulse came out in…
If you’re a parent trying to teach your sullen teenage kids that movies with subtitles aren’t all bad, try taking them to see Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor). Like Christophe Gans’ The Brotherhood of the Wolf or Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, this is a foreign-language film that proves that…
What do little girls want? If we are to follow the emotional heart of Aquamarine, a new film about two 13-year-olds who help a runaway mermaid fall in love, the answer is…bling. Hailey (Joanna “JoJo” Levesque, pretty much a Lindsay Lohan ringer) and Claire (Emma Roberts) are best friends in…
Robert Ryman Though working with an economy of means, Ryman’s cup runneth over. Ryman has been painting white squares in various sizes and formats with innovative modes of installation for 50 years. This might sound humdrum, but it’s not. You’ll want to return to this show to peruse and scrutinize:…
Aida Uptown Players present the Elton John/Tim Rice musical loosely based on the Verdi opera about a beautiful princess enslaved by an Egyptian pharaoh. When naval hero Radames (Gary Floyd) dumps the pharaoh’s daughter Amneris (Patty Breckenridge) to pursue Aida (Kia Dawn Fulton), it’s a classic love triangle. The syrupy…
Walk the Line (Fox) No matter what a junkie does with his spare time — say, redefine country music, or forge one of history’s most enduring personas — movies about junkies are a drag to watch. So it’s too bad this Johnny Cash biopic is a by-the-numbers fall-and-redemption tale. A…
Last fall, Microsoft hyped its pricey Xbox 360 by promising to reinvent gaming as we know it. The blockbuster “next generation” titles were supposed to harness the machine’s awesome power to deliver high-definition graphics and impossibly realistic action. But a funny thing happened on the way to the future. The…
Annie Duke’s Conquering Online Poker (Big Vision) The Avengers: The Complete Emma Peel Megaset (A&E) Battle’s Poison Cloud (Cinema Libre) Bleak House (BBC Warner) Camara Oscura (Warner Bros.) Charmed: The Complete Fourth Season (Paramount) Death Tunnel (Sony) The Hobart Shakespeareans (Docurama) The Ice Harvest (MCA) The Lords of Discipline (Paramount)…
It’s hardly a stretch to call Emily Braun, a professor of art history at Hunter College, a Renaissance woman. After all, she’s published works on late 19th-century European painting,’20th-century American art, women’s studies, (be patient) Jewish history, contemporary sculpture, (not there yet) modern Italian art, fascist culture and Renaissance architecture…
When Kermit the Frog sang, “It’s not easy being green,” he obviously wasn’t talking about being a transplant in Dallas. Every hockey season since 1995 (except for the sadness that was last year’s lockout), I’ve found myself swimming in a sea of green while staying true to the red and…
If you’re a woman seeking international prominence, it wouldn’t hurt to have had a close relative killed in the 1973 Chilean military coup. Just look at Michele Bachelet. Her father Alberto was “disappeared” by the Pinochet regime, and presto, she was elected president of Chile last month. Then there’s Isabel…
You’ve seen London. You’ve seen France. But you haven’t really seen anything until you’ve experienced a century-old German farce performed on the Southern Methodist University campus. Enter: The Underpants. Originally written by Carl Sternheim in 1910, the play has been adapted by actor/comedian Steve Martin (currently starring in the equally…
The late, great Townes Van Zandt was born in Fort Worth in 1944. He died on January 1, 1997—44 years to the day after his hero, Hank Williams. It’s been said he even predicted his own demise, telling friends he would die of a heart attack at age 52. Like…
Much to our surprise, riverdance.com is a gold mine of statistics, tour journals and history that we find totally enthralling. Apparently, Riverdance companies have used 32,000 boxes of tissue, 40,000 gallons of Gatorade, 10,000 stage lighting bulbs, 9,000 costumes, 12,000 dance shoes, 38,400 rolls of self-grip tape and 17,500 years…
Cowgirls aren’t easy to love, and they’re harder to hold, but it’s that rebel, pioneer spirit that keeps the West just a little bit wild. You may not be able to lasso one of these ladies, but you can take a gander at their culture and lifestyle during the National…
Vote on the worst-dressed. Throw popcorn at long-winded winners. Goggle at starlets who forget to wear their bras. In short, get on the A-List for the 78th Annual Academy Awards by attending one of 46 Academy-Sanctioned Official Oscar Night® America Parties. Telecast on a theater-size screen courtesy of WFAA-Channel 8,…
Roundabout Oscar week tie-in: Amy Adams is nominated for best supporting actress for her role in the independent film Junebug, about a New York gallery curator who connects with her new husband’s rural family while on a trip to the South to wrangle up a folk artist in poor mental…
Ah, the mid-life crisis. When men may turn to speedy sports cars and hair replacement therapy to replace their dwindling testosterone. When women may spend hours at Curves, squeeze into a pair of high-waisted, too-tight tapered jeans purchased in approximately 1988 and spend their Tuesday nights with girlfriends at the…
There are two kinds of kids in this world: kids who dig bugs and kids who are scared shitless by them. When they grow up, they will be further sorted into the two kinds of adults in this world: people who understand deep, troubling irony and people who do not…
Just about every city has a river road race…and even though Dallas doesn’t really have a real river, the Trinity River Levee Run is a real race. Really. A 10K race that will wind downtown and along the levee, the Trinity River Run promises to be a fast and competitive…
I was so miffed that I couldn’t write about Oscar-watching parties, I had to take the closest thing to satisfy my penchant for cinematic blurbs. And thus I was presented with Simply Streisand. A film festival? Oy! I hoped not. But rather, a concert presented by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra…
