There are two kinds of despair in literature–mature and immature. Immature despair is a cry for attention disguised as a suicide attempt–it’s easily dismissed, even satirized, because the author cannot contain his or her narcissism for long. What might begin eloquently as a lament for the fragile human condition eventually…
It’s no secret that the “new” Jackie Chan releases in the U.S. aren’t really new at all. In fact, they’re not even showing up in chronological order: While New Line is issuing Jackie’s more current stuff in order, Miramax is putting out the star’s relatively recent back catalog out of…
Not satisfied with the president you have? Here’s Harrison Ford’s James Marshall in Air Force One–Vietnam war hero, straight as a ramrod, devoted husband and father. We first see him delivering a speech before a roomful of Russian dignitaries. Departing from the prepared, wishy-washy text, Mr. President fire-breathes his new…
Mrs. Brown (a Cannes hit and Miramax release) is dignified to the dead max–brownish-gray in mood and look and spirit. It’s based on the true story of the platonic but controversial bond between Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) and a Highlander named John Brown (Billy Connolly), who had been the devoted…
thursday july 24 Oh, Say Can You See…: The Dallas Poets Community couldn’t let July pass without staging its own skewed commentary on Independence month and the whole rocky love affair an individual has with his or her country. While there will doubtlessly be no burning flags displayed in “Oh,…
Since there’s no theater district in this town, the intrepid Dallas stagehound must sometimes endure a symphony of city noises–auto traffic, low-flying planes, construction equipment, etc.–to get a fix. But based on my recent experience at Theater Too, the small but surprisingly effective basement space of Theatre Three in the…
Writer-director Finn Taylor is a young filmmaker who’s smart enough to steal from the best, even if his precocious talent doesn’t always use what he’s swiped effectively. Dream With the Fishes is Taylor’s debut feature, a tightly executed, occasionally contrived study of two men trying to outrun death. The movie…
What must those poor guys in Insane Clown Posse be thinking? After all, the sad white rap act only made a record that included profanity, and still they got drop-kicked off a panicky Disney-owned Hollywood Records, a label whose greatest catalog asset is Queen. Martin Lawrence, on the other hand,…
thursday july 17 Second Annual Have a Ball: Over 40 artists from North Texas and around the country swoop in to contribute work for a very good cause–the continued health of Dallas’ McKinney Avenue Contemporary, the artspace dedicated to nurturing theater, poetry, film, and visual art from Dallas and around…
A lot of ink has been shed in the press lately about the “seriousness” of the new Robert Zemeckis film Contact, starring Jodie Foster as an astronomer who receives humankind’s first extraterrestrial message. Forrest Gump made Zemeckis a guru; now he’s being primed as a philosopher king. Is it rude…
At first glance, the new Japanese comedy Shall We Dance? appears to be an Asian remake of the Australian hit Strictly Ballroom–but, in fact, the similarities are only surface-deep (and just barely that). Part of the difference is rooted in the cultural gap between the two countries, but wider yet…
thursday july 10 Mark Curry: Basketball coach Mr. Cooper, of the five-season ABC-TV show Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper, was more than just a character for comedian Mark Curry–it was an alter ego. Witness Curry’s three-year stint hosting The Jim Thorpe Sports Awards, or his recently completed feature film with Ed…
I’ve long ago gotten over people’s surprised (and sometimes disdainful) reaction when I argue at parties and dinner conversations that Dallas maintains a fertile theater scene despite neglect from the city at large. I’ve come to understand that there are two kinds of people who ignore plays in this city–those…
When I was 12 years old, I went to my first rock concert–at Reunion Arena. My sister and I bought tickets for seats against the back wall of the first balcony–undoubtedly one of the worst deals you can get at Dallas’ almost-dormant downtown arena. Yet the assault of funny-smelling smoke;…
It’s late in the day on June 9, and I’m due to talk to John Woo about Face/Off, his new action film with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. We are meeting at a sound facility in Los Angeles, where the director is only now finishing the final touches. Woo’s still…
One speech and one prop from Men in Black combine to sum up the movie. An alien in four-legged Earthly form delivers the speech: “You humans, when’re you gonna learn that size doesn’t matter? Just ’cause something’s important, doesn’t mean it’s not very, very small.” The most refreshing thing about…
thursday july 3 Sherman: Video Association of Dallas, the acclaimed arts organization dedicated to the notion that TV doesn’t have to destroy your brain cells, kicks off a series called “Frame of Mind” that will take place on the first Thursday of every month. Dallas filmmaker Bob Stevenson’s documentary Sherman…
“I know how the story goes,” says Angus (Michael A. Corolla), a perpetually hopeful if not always realistic Englishman who spent his childhood watching adventures on the movie screen. “They tell each other deep secrets, and the power relationships begin to change.” Angus is talking to three co-workers with whom…
The Van is being billed as “the final chapter in the Barrytown Trilogy,” Irish author Roddy Doyle’s group of novels set in a fictional north Dublin suburb that also consists of The Commitments and The Snapper. That “final chapter” label, courtesy of the production notes, gives The Van the aura…
The title of John Woo’s Face/Off is meant to be taken literally. John Travolta and Nicolas Cage play adversaries who swap faces. Here’s how: FBI agent Sean Archer (Travolta) has been single-mindedly tracking terrorist nut Castor Troy (Cage) ever since Castor’s botched assassination attempt six years earlier, in which he…
Slapstick decadence is the dominant style at the Disney studios this summer, reaching all the way from Touchstone Pictures’ action hit Con Air to the 35th Walt Disney animated feature, Hercules. It’s a moviemaking mode that weds anything-for-a-laugh to anything-for-a-jolt, leaving imagination and authenticity in the lurch. Instead of creating…
thursday june 26 Darrell Kreitz: Leave it to Austin, the Texas city that’s in many ways so unTexas-like, to come up with a festival competition that’s different from practically every other festival in the country. The Austin Heart of Film Competition was founded on the notion that the page is…
