This fall, the roll call of gigantic ghosts inhabiting cinematic biographies continues unabated, with Joaquin Phoenix as a shrunken Johnny Cash in Walk the Line, David Strathairn as an inscrutable Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck. and Philip Seymour Hoffman as the ambitiously manipulative Truman Capote in,…
When we first see the protagonist of North Country, a working-class heroine portrayed by a deglamorized Charlize Theron, she’s sporting a black eye and a slight limp, the results of an encounter with her abusive husband. We soon learn that Josey Aimes is only now beginning to take her lumps…
DreamWorks is so anxious to have you believe in its latest family movie that the words “Inspired by a True Story” are actually part of the title. Yep, Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story is the proper name, and publicists have been well-coached to say and write out the whole…
Bill Owens: Leisure So that’s the way we all became the Brady Bunch. Bill Owens’ black-and-white and color shots illustrate what makes American life so distinctively indistinct: the leisurely whiles of suburbanites on vacation and everyday events of not-so-edgy life on the urban edge. Though hokey to some, the captions…
Crowns Regina Taylor wrote and directed (with an assist from Rene Moreno) this musical about African-American women and their Sunday hats. Six women, ranging in age from teen to grandma, step forward to share their stories about headwear, anecdotes that offer peeks into the history of a culture that believes…
Miracles abound in Crowns at Dallas Theater Center and Handler at Quad C Theatre in Plano, two shows that explore faith, love and redemption. DTC’s cast of seasoned Equity professionals (including two local favorites) gets into the old-time religion with foot-stomping renditions of gospel tunes and broadly acted stories about…
Whether you love him or hate him, you have to marvel at Jesus, the revolutionary of revolutionaries. A poor guy from the country who presented such a challenge to the mighty Roman Empire he had to be taken out. His radically different teaching significantly threatened the political and religious authorities…
Thursday, October 20 We love peanut butter, and we love chocolate. So it makes sense that we love those peanut-butter-covered-in-chocolate creations such as Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. We hope the same applies for this tasty combination: The Rocky Horror Picture Show plus Young Frankenstein equals Plano Children’s Theatre’s Frankenstein Follies…
Under the Veil Literally under Main Street in Deep Ellum, director Katherine Owens and the rest of Undermain Theatre are striving to make their 22nd season less realistic. It sounds strange for a company to aim for something less lifelike, but after last season’s assault of super-serious drama (A Number…
More shocking than the ticket price I’ve been online lately looking for a costume that hits the perfect Halloween trifecta: clever, cute and cheap. What I’ve found instead is a selection of women’s costumes that is truly frightening to anyone who prefers to stay mostly clothed. One in particular stands…
Hoof it over to the West End Cows are a little bit like your mom–and who doesn’t like Mom? Cows provide milk, they look creepy if they’re too skinny, and they sure do have purty eyes. Chickens, on the other hand, are more like annoying younger siblings; you don’t want…
Halloween’s gone to the dogs Cujo it ain’t. But this Halloween you can give your dog the chance to bark up a scare at Stratos, a Greek restaurant and tavern. “In America, you have Halloween. In Greece, we have Howloween,” Stratos owner Nick Rizos says. And according to Rizos, Greeks…
Romeo and Juliet brings out the dead–dances with them Is there anything better in the world than men in tights? How about a man in tights, dancing with a dead girl in a crypt? This is not the necrophilia that it sounds like. But it is the most striking pas…
Arrested Development: Season Two (Fox Home Entertainment) The best show on TV–which you’d know, if you actually watched the thing–also serves as one of the best reasons for the existence of DVD; no show has ever rewarded multiple viewings the way Arrested Development does. The second season of the dysfunctional…
Waking from a trance, you find yourself in the restroom of a diner. You just stabbed a complete stranger to death as he urinated. Blood is on everything — including you. And to make matters worse, a police officer is sitting outside, drinking coffee. Should you take the time to…
Alicia Keys: Unplugged (J) Audioslave: Live in Cuba (Sony Music) The Best of the Chris Rock Show: Volumes 1 and 2 (Warner Bros.) Bomb the System (UMVD) The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Warner Bros.) The Dresden Dolls: Paradise (Fontana) 11:14 (Warner Bros.) The Ellen DeGeneres Collection: The Beginning/Here &…
Good Night, and Good Luck, a riveting movie that’s as entertaining as it is socially and politically important, could not have come at a more propitious time. But more than just the right film at the right moment, George Clooney’s sophomore directorial effort is dynamic filmmaking: brilliantly conceived, visually arresting,…
It happened almost with the first step off the airplane at the Toronto airport last month. Someone, a friend or merely a concerned stranger, would stop to warn you of impending peril. They would plead with you to avoid the danger ahead in Elizabethtown, the Cameron Crowe film that screened…
It’s the cover-up, stupid! It doomed Nixon during Watergate, got Clinton impeached, inspired outrage against the Catholic Church and apparently it’s just part of the day-to-day operations at places like Enron and Tyco. The initial crime is bad enough, but the conspiracy to hide it always ends up hurting more…
Is there anything more tedious than the guy who complains and complains about something he knows nothing about? Danish cinema auteur Lars von Trier has never been to the United States because he’s afraid of flying, yet he seems determined to keep making movies about how horrible this country is…
Its always hard to pan an earnest film, especially one by a first-time director. And The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, a plucky striver if there ever was one, cant find a single cynical note on the scale. Essentially a hagiography in praise of Evelyn Ryan (Julianne Moore), a woman…
Wicked The story of the Wonderful Wizard of you-know-where is re-imagined as a lavish musical by composer Stephen Schwartz and writer Winnie Holzman (adapted from Gregory Maguire’s novel, which was based on L. Frank Baum’s books). Now the focus is on the ladies. We find out why Glinda the Good…
