Think Little Miss Sunshine could have used an elastic penis? Behold: Bad Grandpa, in which a widower and an eight-year-old drive across the country hitting on chicks, farting in diners, and getting granddad’s manhood stuck in a vending machine before sending the boy out in drag to perform a striptease…
Although first viewings of most films should be experienced with as little prior knowledge as possible, few benefit as much from walking in cold as The Wicker Man. Newly restored in a “final cut” that’s apparently what the filmmaker originally put together before the distributor trimmed it down for double…
This Saturday and Sunday Texas Theatre will be home to all manner of low-budget shocks and splatters. The DOA Bloodbath Film Festival is back for its fifth year, celebrating the Halloween season with independent horror films from around the world. At a glance one would assume that DOA stands for…
Photo by Jaap BuitendijkChiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave.On this week’s Voice Film Club podcast, Village Voice film editor Alan Scherstuhl and L.A. Weekly film critic Amy Nicholson disagree on Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave — a beautifully shot film, contrasting the all-too-visible evil of mankind…
The Lone Star Film Society has announced the lineup for its seventh annual film festival and its poised to be their biggest year yet. Along with big names like The Book Thief, directed by Brian Percival of Downton Abbey fame, and studios like Fox and Sony Classic Pictures, the 2013…
Being a sensible person, you’ve probably taken a liking to Benedict Cumberbatch, the actor, Dickensian beanpole and banana-fana name-game destroyer who has lately played everyone literate geeks adore: Sherlock, Smaug, Khan. And, as a sensible person, you probably were curious — even heartened — to hear that Cumberbatch would be…
What’s illegal at Disneyland? Dogs, drugs, alcohol, pamphlets, flags and large coolers. Not listed? Secretly shooting a feature-length movie. But Disneyland couldn’t have imagined director Randy Moore would have the courage to film Escape From Tomorrow on location — and that it would be so horny. In the black-and-white theme…
Kimberly Peirce changes almost nothing in her rallying remake of Brian De Palma’s classic about a troubled telekinetic teenager. She doesn’t have to. Yes, now the mean girls who pelt Carrie with tampons upload a cell phone video of the attack, and the well-meaning jock who squires the school outcast…
We love a good movie making contest, as evidenced by the Observer’s critically *acclaimed, *award-winning entry in the 24 Hour Video Race (shown above). Well there’s a new challenge on the table, divined through the intoxicated holy union of the Oak Cliff Film Festival and Four Corners Brewery. It’s called…
Alamo founder and reigning sheriff of Movie Town etiquette, Tim League, scolded Madonna on Twitter Sunday, banning her from all Alamo Drafthouse locations. It was a response to a Daily Mail story that said the pop star was texting aggressively during the NYFF screening of Steve McQueen’s Twelve Years A…
What are we to do without the nail-biting, stress-inducing, emotional roller coaster of Breaking Bad? Why, tune into the flesh-biting, stress-inducing, emotional rollercoaster of Walking Dead, of course. Walter White meet Rick Grimes. He’s not afraid to cry. And we drink to that. In fact, we drink to everything. We…
Tom Hanks has built a career out of playing aggressively noble roles, so it’s only natural to want to see him taken down a peg. But it’s no fun to watch him suffer at the hands of Somali pirates in Paul Greengrass’ true-life adventure Captain Phillips. Hanks plays the commander…
During his 2012 presidential campaign, Republican candidate Herman Cain rhapsodized about the fence he’d build on the U.S.-Mexico border: 20 feet tall with barbed wire, electricity and a moat. “And I would put those alligators in that moat!” he cheered. For Machete Kills, Robert Rodriguez built that fence but left…
Something’s seemed different about No. 1 American-born action hero Bruce Willis lately. His action movie output in recent years has mostly been stunt casting in mediocre sequels (The Expendables 2, G.I. Joe: Retaliation), or supporting roles in little-seen B-movies (Setup, Catch .44, Fire with Fire), as if he’s in a…
There are definitely some geeks out there who are worried about Zero Charisma. Does the movie take a lot of cheap shots, or does it for once accurately show what it’s like to be a geek? Zero Charisma is more of a nuanced character study than a broad comedy, and…
“If you don’t want to see sex with a duck, leave about an hour and 10 minutes in,” says Bart Weiss, Dallas VideoFest’s organizer and programmer. We’re eating a sensible breakfast in Oak Cliff as Weiss describes a historical documentary called Natan, which screens this weekend at VideoFest. It’s about…
Long before The Daily Show became the most trusted name in fake news, including the one with the smarmy guy from Sportscenter who threw away his late night career to star in a Rob Schneider movie, and even long before the first season of Saturday Night Live gave a much…
*Editor’s Note: Nobody in Dallas is showing Teen Witch? IT’S HALLOWEEN MOVIE SEASON PEOPLE. GET EXCITED! In Dallas, theaters have rolled out the orange carpet to usher in a season of gore, spoof and general Halloweenocity. ( Movie Tavern in Denton The college town go-to hosts a Retro Cinema series…
AMC’s original-drama wave crested over the weekend, when a record 10 million people bid a Badfinger-scored farewell to Walter White and Breaking Bad. Walking Dead (which returns next weekend) and Mad Men (next year) will keep things going, but fans will of course want more-more-more. The network is hoping a…
Blue Caprice looks for sense in what, to all other appearances, was a senseless moment in recent history. Over the course of three weeks in October 2002, John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo terrorized citizens of the Washington D.C. area, and America as a whole, by randomly sniping at least…
Does anyone else notice how much modern horror movies suck? Sure there’s an occasional creative hit like the first Paranormal Activity or The Cabin in the Woods, but the second a horror movie shows a modicum of popularity, Hollywood runs into the dirt with an endless series of pointless sequels…
GravityOn this week’s Voice Film Club podcast, the Village Voice’s Alan Scherstuhl and Stephanie Zacharek both praise Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity (starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock), saying the director exhibits a “lovely human touch” with film, which is set in space, and that it’s “so different than anything else he’s…
