Written and directed by Paul Weitz, Being Flynn is an adaptation of Nick Flynn’s 2004 memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, which explored the author’s pivotal experience working at the Boston homeless shelter where his down-and-out dad, Jonathan, was a frequent guest. In the movie, Paul Dano and Robert…
The foundations of Silent House are laid atop La Casa Muda, a nil-budget 2010 Uruguayan horror film that enjoyed an afterlife in international film festivals. It is not surprising that La Casa Muda was hastily snapped up for an English-language remake, for the concept is the sort of low-overhead, trend-conscious…
Trench coat? Check. Mustache? Check. Seven minute long chase scene with wheel-mounted camera shots, ala Bullitt? Yeah, it’s got that, too. It’s gotta be Violent Rome, the 1975 gutter classic, screening tonight at Texas Theater. It’s this week’s pick for Tuesday Night Trash, the curated series appropriate for anyone who…
Everyone loves healthy competition, especially when it doesn’t involve any physical athleticism. Now in its 11th year, the 24 Hour Video Race has opened registration for this year’s event. Only the first 100 teams who have filled out their forms and paid will be able to participate, so don’t be…
In Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, Tilda Swinton lives out an urban bohemian’s worst nightmare. Forced to give up her independence (and downtown loft) when a reckless night with schlubby photographer flame Franklin (John C. Reilly) results in accidental pregnancy, free-spirit travel writer Eva becomes an unhappy…
Holocaust culture has proven to be essentially infinite — almost 70 years since the end of World War II, and untold stories of decimation and survival are still hitting the mainstream with no light at the end of the tunnel. Agnieszka Holland’s new film, In Darkness, opens a scab perhaps…
Authentic Entertainment, the company behind Flipping Out, Ace of Cakes — and yes, Toddlers in Tiaras — picked up the webisode White Collar Brawlers and is in the process of turning it into an AMC reality show. It is actively searching for cubicle-dwelling would-be stars so it can begin season…
You’ve probably seen the photo (above) pinging around the Internet recently of the panel of old men making some pretty important decisions about women’s health in the ongoing fracas about contraception. Here are five men sitting at the power table, while the women watch, waiting for a decision that will…
Hollywood’s brightest stars will twinkle this Sunday for the 84th annual Academy Awards, to pay their respects to the best films of 2011 … at least the “best films” to a bunch of old white guys according to a recent and ‘shocking’ study by the Los Angeles Times. But regardless…
Hey everyone, who’s ready for the annual Hollywood stroke-a-thon hosted by Billy Crystal! Clapping! Mild tears! Montage of people who died! Anyway, Billy Crystal’s skeleton is hosting this year’s Oscars. We’re sure it’ll be a barn burner of joke delight, as the best of Hollywood comes together in their gorgeous…
“There’s no one way to live our lives,” hopes the displaced, adrift couple at the center of Wanderlust. Shopping between the prefab identity options available to them — squeezed, stressed urban professionalism; suburban McMansion soul death; rural counterculture opting out — George and Linda (Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston) are…
Act of Valor is, according to the opening titles, “based on real acts of valor,” whatever that means. It stars real active-duty Navy SEALs and, as the uniformed representative of the New York Coast Guard, 9th Regiment, who introduced my screening explained, much of it was filmed with live-fire ammunition…
When cartoonist/illustrator/story teller Don Hertzfeldt spoke at Texas Theatre last Friday, he mentioned what he likes to watch at film festivals. Surprisingly, it isn’t other animated shorts or even feature buzz-heavy full-lengths; he watches the documentaries. His logic was sound: “You realize that if you watch a feature film and…
Act of Valor is a fictional film that uses currently serving U.S. military to express the daily struggles endured by our camouflaged men and women through dramatic reenactment. It premieres this evening at Cinemark West Plano and will be presented by Congressman Pete Sessions, Councilmember Sheffie Kadane and U.S. Navy…
Every year, you enter your office’s Oscar pool and carefully select the major categories while haphazardly guessing the minor ones (Animated Short, Makeup). Every year, you lose. Why? Because you’ve got it backward: Oscar pools are always decided on the margins, where information is sketchier and outcomes are harder to…
Yes. Friday Night Lights’ executive producer Peter Berg sat down with MTV and said that he’s “not done with Friday Night Lights.” This comes as incredible news, because even after five seasons of television, which were based off a movie, which was based off a book, we’re not done either…
Welcome to DOGTV, a “scientifically developed” channel created by humans for dogs. Focusing on three central themes: Relaxation, Stimulation and Exposure, the digital channel is designed to act as Fido’s ultimate babysitter so that you, the self-centered human, can go about your daily life while your retriever’s brain atrophies to…
So, the narrator of Rupert Holmes’ 1979 hit, “Escape (the Piña Colada Song),” finally heads over to O’Malleys to meet up with the mystery chick he’s been groovin’ on from a personal ad. But, wouldn’t you know it – when she arrives, it’s his own “lady,” of whom he’d “grown…
Tonight select Dallas theaters will participate in the one night exclusive showing of Re:Generation, a pumped up intellectual look at how today’s top DJs deconstruct music into polyphonic fractions, permute and then reassemble them so your eardrums never grow stale. It’s this quest for new sounds that leads each DJ…
Directed by Oren Moverman (The Messenger) from a script by Moverman and L.A. noir master James Ellroy, Rampart tracks the downward spiral of LAPD cop Dave Brown (Woody Harrelson). A Vietnam vet whose personal code allows for extreme bad behavior in the name of a hazily defined greater good, Brown…
Hostilities in This Means War are declared as two workmates compete for the affection of the same woman. The contested objective is Lauren (Reese Witherspoon), a product tester who decides to apply comparative shopping techniques to dating. Her would-be beaus, FDR (Chris Pine) and Tuck (Tom Hardy), are best friends…
(Clip from Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best) The Dallas Film Society announced the first 15 entries to be officially accepted into this year’s Dallas International Film Festival, which occurs from April 12 to the 22.While many so far are documentaries, a few feel-goods have weaseled their way in, and so…
