3/18 It was that low-speed car chase in the ever-recognizable white Bronco that first introduced us to Los Angeles trial lawyer Johnnie Cochran. Critics claim he was the first attorney who dealt the “race card” when he defended O.J. Simpson. And whether or not you think he’s a monster for…
3/20 We advise you to be careful when you tell potential roommates, landlords or dates that you have 1,203 pets. Because while most people will tolerate your grouchy cat, overactive dog and long-lived betta, they freak a little when you tell them you keep 1,200 worms in a big plastic…
3/19 Politics have become as ubiquitous among Texas women as big hair. It’s at dinner meetings, cocktail parties and salon visits, sitting alongside the heavy-duty hair spray and combs. At 7 p.m. Friday, you can check out the queen of Texas politics (and queen of big hair) when former Texas…
3/19 On every urban street corner, huddled outside office buildings like knots of Afghan women under the Taliban, today’s smokers are a dying breed. They fight extinction by adapting to a hostile environment. They’re socially shunned outcasts, driven to maintain a pack-a-day habit outside, fighting human nature, braving the elements…
If you were a college-aged East Berliner in October 1989, chances are that your time was occupied by one of several things. Protesting comes to mind, as does hacking at long-reviled concrete. Perhaps you caroused, or lit fireworks, or sang with joy as you coursed through the newly open streets…
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in which a man has recollections of a soured relationship erased from his brain, may be the most romantic movie in recent memory, if you will pardon the unforgivable pun. Written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry, it’s about many things–how we’re…
Remember Omar Sharif? He’s been all but absent from the silver screen in recent years (though he has been seen–or at least heard–on television). According to the actor, he left the trade by choice: “Let us stop this nonsense, these meal tickets that we do because it pays well, unless…
It’s a bit unorthodox to ladle superlatives all over a film in the opening paragraph, but The Reckoning deserves them. Moving, gripping and powerful, suspenseful, stylish and literate, this exploration of justice and art may be set in 1390s England, but it resonates today. This is a brilliant and unpretentious…
The problem with Spartan isn’t so much that it’s mediocre, but that it could be a whole lot better. Unlike writer-director David Mamet’s last movie, Heist, a film with such a generic plot and predictable Gene Hackman performance that it never had a chance, Spartan has a reasonably compelling story…
If you were expecting the first film to emerge from Afghanistan since the defeat of the Taliban to be even remotely celebratory, you’ll have to adjust your expectations. Radically. In Osama, filmed in 2002 and 2003 in a “suburb” of Kabul, writer-director Siddiq Barmak is not interested in showing us…
Dave Allen was, and will be again, the bassist for one of the most beloved, revered and imitated band of the 1970s, Gang of Four, and he would like you to do something for him. He would like you to steal his music. Take it without asking, without paying for…
The Devil is in the details in plays sharing the three stages at WaterTower Theatre’s annual Out of the Loop Festival in Addison. He’s also a big influence on some of the plots. Take Baptized to the Bone, a strange, uneven Southern gothic farce written by Dave Johnson, directed by…
“There’s no shame in it,” we’ve said over and over. “Women will still find you attractive,” we’ve stated, with an assuring grin. And occasionally we’ve declared desperately, not sure what else to say, “No, you’re not losing your hair.” Some male friends want an honest assessment, but most simply want…
Thursday, March 11 Flashback to when social outings were contingent upon drink specials, and local music was a religion with mass almost every night. Back then, a quiet, unassuming band called Course of Empire played lighthearted romps with acoustic instruments and one snare. Well, not exactly. Try two drummers and…
There’s been a lot of talk about Jesus lately. Maybe you’re sick of hearing about Jesus. Or perhaps it’s just a momentary Jesus overload. Well, buck up. We’ve just started the season of Jesus. There are months and months ahead of talking about Jesus. There’ll be discussions of his passion,…
3/14 Dallas hosts a few official parades on St. Patrick’s Day, but there’s something to be said about the best unofficial parade in town. See, Lower Greenville’s bars have hosted years of late-night St. Patrick’s Day festivities. Though the ruckus may not seem comparable to a parade at first glance,…
3/13 First things first: If you want to be an organ donor–and why wouldn’t you?–have a chat with your family. Let them know your wishes right now, because chances are you won’t be able to tell them when the time is at hand. Oh, and get that organ donor card…
3/13 Denim, we love you, but sometimes we just don’t understand the things you let people do to you. Love jeans that fit without that crotch bulge; hate stonewashed tapered styles, especially paired with a braided belt. Love a vintage indigo miniskirt; hate pearl-and-puff-paint-bedecked vests. Love low-rise boot-cuts, but denim…
3/11 There are blond jokes (Jessica Simpson on reality TV; Britney Spears on reality altogether: witness her 30-second Vegas marriage to a high school honey) and there are blond jokesters (Ellen DeGeneres in Finding Nemo; Joan Rivers in Finding Her Face). But the blonde who likely created the blond bombshell…
Maybe the most amazing thing about the big-screen version of Starsky & Hutch is how much smaller it feels than its predecessor, the William Blinn-created, Aaron Spelling-produced cop series that ran on ABC from 1975 to ’79. Everything about this cineplex variation feels rinky-dink, like some extended variety-show skit that…
At first glance, Hidalgo seems to be nothing more than an old-fashioned, flat-footed adventure epic plunked down on a vast stretch of desert and amply furnished with the usual Hollywood conventions–a strong, silent cowboy on horseback, a couple of villains with nasty black mustaches, a killer sandstorm and a cloud…
It is so very nice when a movie completely outstrips the expectations conjured by its trailer, as is the case with The Dreamers. At first blush, this tale of three passionate youths caught up in the late-’60s Parisian countercultural revolution looked downright trite. Never mind that esteemed veteran director Bernardo…
