Contrary to what you may have read or heard about Charlie Kaufman, the alleged phantom menace of screenwriting, he does indeed exist, so far as one can tell from a long phone conversation with a man said to be Charlie Kaufman by publicists who have no reason to lie. For…
Like many a drinking binge, James McLure’s evening of companion comedies Lone Star and Laundry and Bourbon starts slowly, picks up momentum and ends with a boisterous, boozy crescendo. Now onstage in a cracking production directed by Cynthia Hestand at Contemporary Theatre of Dallas, the pair of related one-acts takes…
Dallas is a city that thrives on the artificial. That bellwether of 1970s and 1980s greed and flaccid angst–and oh, yes, drama–the television show Dallas, long ago put the city’s affaire d’amour with artifice on the map. Dallas proudly told the world that it loved the artificial and did so…
Once upon a time Uptown was a neighborly neighborhood that rolled peacefully from the Hotel Crescent Court north to Lemmon Avenue past the Hard Rock Café, The McKinney Avenue Contemporary and Bread Winners Bakery with that trolley that nobody ever rides. But that was before Post Properties started its endless…
Thursday, March 18 Only the absolutely nerdiest shindigs require their own specialized dictionaries. Latin club, Klingon conventions, Scrabble championships–all havens for people who never got to spend their own lunch money. But they’re also full of people who take themselves very seriously. Just check out Word Wars, the 2004 Sundance…
So we have this pet peeve involving T-shirts. We don’t mind a good vintage one or even an ironic one once in a while. What we loathe, however, is one in particular. In bold letters, it shouts, “One Tequila, Two Tequila, Three Tequila, Floor!” It has a certain fratty and…
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,…
