What sets H.P. Lovecraft ahead of other horror and science fiction writers is his means of setting up a story. He drops a pin early in The Call of Cthulhu, his 1926 short work with this: “We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas…
See also: The Films Opening in Dallas This Week If you’re a lifelong horror fan like me, then ParaNorman is your kind of haunt. Chocked full of 70s/80s genre nostalgia, homages to the creepy classics, and a great social commentary, the stylish stop motion flick from writing-directing duo Sam Fell…
We were under the impression that The Hunger Games was something that happened during sorority rush at SMU. Actually, it’s another one of those kids’ books that adults have commandeered as “dystopian literature.” Apparently it was also made into a movie with a hosts of hot young stars and also…
In Celeste and Jesse Forever, the titular, newly separated female protagonist’s un-flamboyant queer co-worker (Elijah Wood) tells her “it’s time to get your fuck on,” and then immediately apologizes: “Sorry, I was trying to be your saucy gay friend.” Co-written by and starring Parks and Rec straight-woman Rashida Jones, Forever…
In anticipation of the remake of the 1976 girl-group melodrama Sparkle (which didn’t screen in time for our deadline), Whitney Houston’s posthumous film appearance and her return to movies after a 15-year absence, we look back at the handful of celluloid performances by the woman once known as “the Voice.”…
Ever do a search for “movies opening this weekend” only to find that none of the good ones are actually playing in Dallas? We’re here to save you from that disappointment. Wednesday 8.15 The Odd Life of Timothy Green Peter Hedges (author of What’s Eating Gilbert Grape) pens the screenplay…
A&E’s Storage Wars: Texas is adding two new faces during this season’s premier on Wednesday at 8, both of whom are local businesswomen. Mary Padian of Mary’s Finds on Market Center Boulevard and Jenny Grumbles of Uptown Country Home on Milton Avenue join RiverRegency proprietor and colorful Storage Wars veteran…
While promoting their new film The Campaign, funny men Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis stopped by Ft. Worth’s Naval Air Station to salute the troops, participate in an old fashioned tug-o-war, and answer my questions about who historically has the sexiest presidential mustache. Oh, and in true political fashion, kiss…
The Bourne films have more than just overstayed their welcome and outlasted the Ludlum books — they’ve been Van Halenized, with an abrupt change of frontman and a resulting dip in personality. The only big-ass popcorn franchise of the past decade to have not been spawned on computers, the series…
The Campaign begins with an on-screen quote attributed to Ross Perot: “War has rules. Mud-wrestling has rules. Politics has no rules.” The Texas billionaire/private-campaign-financing pioneer dropped this truism not during his historic third-party run for the presidency in 1992, but in the midst of his far less successful 1996 campaign…
“I don’t want to give you lessons in self-denial and social responsibility,” an art dealer tells her billionaire boy client in Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis, by way of refusing to entertain his demand to buy the Rothko Chapel. “Because I don’t believe for a second you’re as crude as you sound.”…
Exploitation Film
Like antidepressants, artificial sugars, Botox, and other miracle inventions of the past century, corporate culture became an omnipresent fact of life before anyone could know how it would affect the human body and brain on an extended timeline. One way to look at writer/director Craig Zobel’s second feature, Compliance—a pot-stirrer…
Just because it made loads of money, stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, and features a three-titted mutant doesn’t mean Total Recall isn’t ruggedly individualistic art. Just look at its outsider pedigree: Total Recall was loosely based on a 1966 short story from the flushed mind of Philip K. Dick, produced by the…
Julie Delpy Rocks New York
“My son is sick right now, covered in zits. It’s not contagious—I mean, it’s contagious, but don’t worry: Grown-ups don’t catch it. It’s called mouth-foot-and-butt disease or something.” Julie Delpy materializes on the patio of Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont on a wave of nervous energy. Hair pinned up away from her…
Known for its unexpected music/film mashups, it seems all-too-fitting that the Texas Theatre would round out the summer with its just-announced “Dark Side of the Rainbow” screening on August 24. If you somehow missed this party in college, here’s your chance. We’re assuming that everyone discovered the alleged phenomenon when…
Jeremy Renner has been mighty busy of late: Already a two-time Oscar nominee for 2008 Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker and 2010’s The Town, the 41-year-old actor most recently costarred in Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol and was the purple people shooter Hawkeye in one of the biggest movies of…
Ever do a search for “movies opening this weekend” only to find that none of the good ones are actually playing in Dallas? We’re here to save you from that disappointment. The Bourne Legacy This freestanding installment in the Bourne series has a new plot line and hero with actor…
If you tuned in to last season’s land of up-and-downs and barracuda smiles, then you know there’s a new addition to the cast of Big Rich Texas. And boy does she have a laugh. DeAynni Hatley doesn’t look or act quite like the other women on B.R.T. A little rough…
Ever do a search for “movies opening this weekend” only to find that none of the good ones are actually playing in Dallas? We’re here to save you from that disappointment. Killer Joe It’s the story of a Texas drug dealer who hires a hitman to kill his momma, but…
While some of us still have the tote bags from 2012’s Dallas International Film Fest taking up space in our cars, it’s officially time to start thinking about next year’s fest. They’ve opened the door for submissions to April’s 7th Annual Dallas International Film Festival, and you can now submit…
Chinese artist, activist and antagonist Ai Weiwei became a worldwide cause celebre last April when he was arrested by authorities at the Beijing Airport, detained in an undisclosed location for nearly three months, and released after allegedly confessing to tax evasion. The Sundance-feted documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry concludes shortly…
At one point in Killer Joe, a hideously funny tabloid noir set on the outskirts of Dallas County, Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch) is let into the family double-wide by a relation whose face has just been pummeled into a Rorschach blot of dried gore. He doesn’t stop to ask what…
