Traci Lords Halts The Devil Tonight At Texas Theatre

The devil must have been really busy in the early ’90s; there were a lot of trends and careers who’s successes could only be attributed to fiery soul relinquishment. Angel Martin in Shock ‘Em Dead, tonight’s Tuesday Night Trash movie at Texas Theatre, is no exception. Played by Stephen Quadros…

55 Movie Trends That Need to Die Now

There’s an over-arching theme in the show Battlestar Galatica that is an apt metaphor for Hollywood: “It happened before and it will happen again.” The “it” in Battlestar is the whole Machines-Become-Sentient-and-Kill-Humans-thing. But the catchy, ominous phrase could be viewed as a metaphor for Hollywood’s persistent ability to repeat mind-numbingly…

Deep Thoughts With RoboCop At the Texas Theatre

You a big fan of the cinematic sweet spot that existed between 1985 and 1995? Like, say, B-grade, man-in-fishmonster-suit horror? How ’bout tiny buzz-saw robot slashers? Pesticide-tripping exterminators uncovering secret insect intrigue? Yeah? Well, your Jesus was at Texas Theatre Saturday — looking rangy and awesome, wearing smoky, round, actor-emeritus…

DIFF Guide for Friday, April 20: Our Must-See Picks

If you’re still hanging on to that DIFF laminate after a week of intensive film screenings, we are so proud of you. Also, maybe take a shower and call a family member, because you probably smell like buttery popcorn substitute and those closest to you are concerned about your absence…

Dispatches From DIFF: Don’t Miss This Movie

Earlier this week I said Brooklyn Castle was probably the best film of the festival — well, I may have to amend that statement. While still topping the documentary charts, another horse has pulled ahead in the over-all category: the Korean blockbuster My Way. Selected as one of the festival’s…

DIFF Guide for Thursday, April 19: Our Must-See Picks

Hoodie? Check. Popcorn? Check. Complete list of films to see today at DIFF, seasoned with links to background information and brief descriptions of content? Double check! We’ve got our DIFF picks for Thursday, so prepare your cinematic socks to be rocked…

Lovers Try To Stay Above Water in The Deep Blue Sea

The Deep Blue Sea, the first fiction feature in a dozen years from the visionary British director Terence Davies, is a film about love that in no way reassures that love conquers all. Plumbing disquieting depth, Deep Blue Sea investigates the insoluble dilemma of romantic love: the expectation, contrary to…

Marley Stirs It Up

I spotted a bottle of something called Marley’s Mellow Mood, “a new line of 100 percent natural relaxation beverages,” in my neighborhood deli just a few hours after seeing Kevin Macdonald’s documentary on the reggae and Rasta emissary — a reminder of just how crassly the Jamaican star, who died…

Dispatches From DIFF: Reviews Of Yesterday’s Picks

So, we’re halfway through DIFF. Surely by this point you have your favorite seat in each theater (no, I won’t tell you mine, otherwise there will be a popcorn fight) and you’ve made friends with your fellow fest-goers. If not, you still have five more days and dozens of movies…

DIFF Guide for Wednesday, April 18: Our Must-See Picks

Let the rest of the world bitch about Hump Day, you’re taking a bit of You Time and cozying up with the best independent cinema this side of the Mason/Dixon. Whether you’ve joined the Occupy DIFF movement or just plan to grab a casual post-work seat, we think you’ll like…

DIFF Guide for Tuesday, April 17: Our Must-See Picks

If you’ve been camping out in theaters for the last five days with your G Chat set to “unavailable”, we salute you. Living la vida DIFF isn’t for the faint of heart, or stomach for that matter. I’m curious: what’s the largetst thing you’ve smuggled into a theater by now?…

DIFF Guide For Monday, April 16: Our Must-See Picks

Are you a die-hard, complete immersion festie? Did you take the week off of work so that you’d be able to see all of these great movies? We salute you. Whether you’re planted in those seats from beginning to end, or just catching what you can this evening, we’ve got…

The Sunday DIFF Guide: Our Picks For You

It’s the perfect day to hunker down at DIFF, so our staff crunched the schedule and created a game plan. Here’s your guide to today’s indies, docs and features. Click the film titles for background information…

11 Must-See DIFF Films: Trust Us, We’re Professionals.

The Dallas 2012 Dallas International Film Festival kicks off its boots tomorrow and starts that film ferris wheel a-rolling for 11 days of features, docs, shorts, animated films, awards, Q&As, talk shows, panels and of course plenty of star spotting and people watching (it is Dallas after all). Here are…

Built to Impress, Cabin in the Woods Doesn’t

At the end of The Cabin in the Woods, the world is destroyed by an apocalyptic hand of fate — an actual hand, mind you — yet that is not a spoiler, not really. The real spoilers in the film are in the tricky mechanics crafted by writers Joss Whedon…

Keyhole: A Dream-world of Ideas, Bolted Shut

The latest phantasmagoria of cinematic quotation from Canadian director Guy Maddin, Keyhole is an extremely loose adaptation of the Odyssey. Jason Patric plays Ulysses Pick, leader of a two-bit gang who, carrying a nearly drowned girl on his back, returns home after a long absence. With his criminal accomplices confined…