Russian writers get a bad rap. Far from being suicide and samovar-obsessed weird-beards, they are actually rather jolly fellows. Examples? you ask. Well, take Dostoevsky and that funny scene in Crime and Punishment where Razumikhin cracks the old lady’s skull open with an axe and “the blood gushed as from…
There’s a reason why you’ll rarely read about music videos in this space: most of them are so unimaginative and dull that I can barely stand to look at them. Having said that, I’ll now violate my own pronouncement and tell you about a video promoting “Possum Kingdom,” a single…
How come cops always stomp all over the crime scene? How come, every time you watch a criminal trial, there’s some cop who drops a glob of potato salad on the bloody footprint, or leaves the fingerprint cards on the dashboard of his Chevy Nova and burns ’em up, or…
Because I usually enjoy David Letterman’s nightly talk show, I wish I could say he did a great job hosting the 67th Annual Academy Awards. I’ll admit I enjoyed some of his jokes and all of his filmed segments, particularly the “Would you like to buy a monkey” bit; between…
thursday april 6 Fred Curchack: Texas-based performance artist Fred Curchack has traveled the world collecting awards and stunning non-English-speaking audiences with his one-man “revisionings” of some of William Shakespeare’s most elaborate multicharacter fantasies. Curchack accomplishes this through a carefully synchronized combination of masks, light, shadow, sound effect, and, of course,…
Before the Rain, a three-part anthology of stories from the war-torn Balkan nation of Macedonia, is as powerful and passionate an examination of war as Schindler’s List. And although there isn’t a single dull or unoriginal shot anywhere in the picture, and the film is eloquently performed by an international…
On a rainy day at North Loop Dodge in Tarrant County, a car salesman walks in with two huge bags from Sports Town. “Wanna baseball?” he asks the two people in the repair waiting room who are watching the episode of “Family Affair” where Mr. French almost has to marry…
There’s a good reason why the new thriller Hideaway is proudly designated “A Film by Brett Leonard,” a name few casual moviegoers would recognize, let alone regard with high esteem. Leonard, who directed the cyberpunk-revamped movie version of Stephen King’s short story The Lawnmower Man, is a high-tech showman with…
Women are Now. Men are Later. Women wanna talk about it now. Men wanna talk about it later. Women wanna go out to eat Tonight. Men wanna go out to eat Tomorrow. Women wanna go to the beach when they Feel Like It. Men wanna go to the beach when…
In an age when virtually everyone has a prepared statement for the press–if not a calculated, image-reinforcing soundbite–it’s surprising and refreshing to find an artist who’s almost speechless when the time comes to discuss her craft. At first, it was a shock that Miranda Richardson, 1995 Oscar nominee for Best…
thursday march 9 In the Land of the Deaf: A recent Spy magazine essay pinpointed with deadly accuracy the career rewards many Hollywood actors and actresses reap when they portray a character with a physical impairment. While it seems there aren’t enough such roles to go around for performers eager…
Theatre Three producer and director Jac Alder owes Jason Drummond a favor. It seems the young SMU student told Alder to check out the musical release of an unknown comedy, Lucky Stiff. Alder not only bought the music, he staged the play. And it will probably turn out to be…
It’s a good bet that in any packed, claustrophobic gathering of movie buffs, some wiseacre will declare, “This reminds me of the stateroom scene in A Night at the Opera.” The scene, which occurs in the Marx Brothers’ 1935 gem, occurs aboard an ocean liner in which the brothers are…
Writer-director Tim Burton’s recent biographical film, Ed Wood, offers an easy metaphor for the state of the horror film: an elderly, decrepit Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau) dressed in his Dracula getup, now incapable of scaring even an 8-year-old trick-or-treater. The image encapsulates one of the central concerns of Burton’s films:…
This guy got his head cut off by an elevator in the Bronx. Did you hear about this? The guy’s gettin’ off the elevator, it starts to go up real fast while the door is still open. The guy loses his balance, leans toward the elevator, and it cuts his…
Set in 1817 during the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, Colonel Chabert is about a legendary soldier presumed dead who returns home to discover that life has proceeded without him, then struggles to reclaim his identity, causing intense emotional disruptions all around him. The title character is played by the…
It’s pointless to respectfully review a film as ineptly written, indifferently directed, and slothfully performed as Just Cause, the new legal thriller about a Harvard law professor and anti-death penalty advocate (Sean Connery) who heads down south to the Florida Everglades to win freedom for condemned black murderer Bobby Earl…
friday march 3 North Texas Irish Festival: It’s been said that the unhappiest people throw the most elaborate parties. This might go a long way toward explaining the centuries-old reputation the Irish have for celebrating life with raucous music, merry dance, and prodigious drink–when they haven’t been treated like a…
You must picture it first: five Irish sisters, single women in their 30s and 40s, tending assiduously to home and hearth in the small town of Ballybeg. Their only vice–and only an Irish Catholic could consider it such–is a wireless (a.k.a. radio) that plays “Irish dance music all the way…
Subdued, elegant, and directed with disarming simplicity, I, the Worst of All (Yo, La Peor de Todas) is the kind of historical drama whose resonance sneaks up on you. On the surface, it’s an intimate religious drama about a minor figure in Catholic history, a 17th-century Mexican writer and nun…
A distinctive voice in Texas criticism was lost February 16 when Dallas Morning News film writer Russell Smith died in his Dallas home of AIDS complications. He was 38. Born and raised in Dallas, he joined the Dallas Morning News 12 years ago, working as a copy editor and a…
Okay, I’m gonna describe this woman. She’s got fluffy blonde hair–teased, permed, and coiffed–about $300 worth. She’s got a straight nose, thin lips and large bedroomy eyes. She wears tiny pearl earrings and a simple pearl necklace that hangs down onto a tanned neck and chest. Her dress is classic–either…
