Yes, it’s hard to imagine wanting to watch 11/8/16 today. The film, a sweeping survey documentary created and produced by Jeff Deutchman, follows 16 Americans from across the country on election day of 2016: a Sikh New York cabdriver, a “Dreamer” in San Jose, a Massachusetts dad in a MAGA…
The Dallas Observer has stepped up its commitment to multimedia reporting in the last few years and is hosting a free festival celebrating the short films we’ve produced in collaboration with our fine team of freelance videographers. Join us at the Texas Theatre on Tuesday, Nov. 21. The festival takes place on…
This fall, mainstream films are subverting expectations all over the place. Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! proved too much for some audiences looking for a moody drama who were then shocked by gory, allegorical narrative. Blade Runner 2049 sloughed off most of its predecessor’s lower-brow populist action for a somber tone and…
It’s not enough that the sitting president will hate Rob Reiner’s LBJ, but that’s not nothing, either. Here’s a portrait of a resolutely unlovable vulgarian who, due to a cruel accident of history, ascends to the Oval Office. But it’s the distinctions that will sting: In the opening moments, a…
If you’ve been to a fan convention, a special movie screening or any gathering of fanboys and girls in a public place, then chances are that you’ve seen the goateed face or heard the booming voice of Devin Pike. The host, emcee and program director at the online radio station…
A few years ago, photographer Takiyah Wallace was searching for a dance studio in Dallas for her 3-year-old daughter, who had expressed an interest in ballet, when she noticed something. “One of the first things that jumped out to me in visiting local studios here was that there were not…
With all of the sexual harassment allegations surfacing in the news, it’s appropriate that Nicole Stewart, founder of the storytelling series Oral Fixation, devoted the show Friday, Nov. 3, to women who have taken big risks. The theme for the program is “Jump Off a Cliff,” and former Fox News…
Thursday Three Dog Night had an incredible run of hit singles in the late ’60s through the ’70s, with such tunes as “One,” “Joy to the World,” “Mama Told Me Not To Come” and “Easy to Be Hard.” Its pop-friendly take on R&B and rock translated to millions of records…
It’s November! Which means that we’ve almost survived this year and I think that calls for a little celebration. How should we celebrate? Probably with lots of liquor. It’s been a tough one, but also TV! Nov. 2: Young Sheldon, CBS And on the seventh day, God planted the idea…
Jane arrives in theaters on October 20 On Sept. 11, 2001, renowned primatologist and environmental advocate Jane Goodall was in New York on business. She had planned to catch a flight out to visit a high school to give a talk on how we can find a reason to hope…
When I first saw Brett Morgen’s 2002 documentary The Kid Stays in the Picture, I was shocked that the film somehow matched the rollicking, mercurial energy of its subject, producer Robert Evans. Morgen reimagined the use of archival footage and voiceover, and the style he pioneered has now been mimicked…
Like most of the better Marvel efforts, Thor: Ragnarok feels like the work of a unique sensibility instead of a huddle of brand managers. While the studio’s films demonstrated plenty of comic flair right from the start of its shared-universe experiment, with 2008’s Iron Man, recent efforts have veered too…
Ethan and Chantra Briggs of Burleson were just a few weeks into a year’s worth of wedding planning when they got an email that would let them bump up the date. The only catch? They’d have to get married at the amusement park Six Flags Over Texas, and they’d have…
The pages of Abandon Me, a collection of essays by Melissa Febos, are filled with extraordinary and honest details of the author’s traumatic past. Febos, who will read from and discuss her work at The Wild Detectives on Thursday, takes us on her journey to find her birth father and…
This piece has spoilers for the first six episodes of the second season of Stranger Things. Look, I like the show, but the title is a lie. Seemingly inspired by that one line from Hamlet that I kept hearing in presentations the time I reported on a UFO convention, the…
When you think of Saudi Arabia and its people, a great sense of humor probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind, but last week The Middle East Institute was in Dallas to prove that the country has actually produced some fine comedians. The institute sponsored a free, hourlong…
Kitchen Dog Theater launched its 27th season this week with the regional premiere of Ironbound, Polish-born playwright Martyna Majok’s sobering look at the plight of immigrants in America. Ironbound follows immigrant Darja (Karen Parrish) during three periods of her life. The play begins with a scene between Darja and Tommy…
The Funky Knuckles Sundown at Granada 3520 Greenville Ave. 10 p.m. Monday Free The Funky Knuckles have been together for over six years. The fusion jazz band released an album called Meta-Musica in 2014 that climbed to No. 1 on iTunes’ jazz charts on the first day of its release…
Netflix’s Stranger Things is one of those rare television phenomena that TV executives dream about having on their schedule. Not only is the Duffer brothers’ ’80s throwback horror story about dimension-bending Demogorgans and the plucky small-town kids who fight them an unexpected hit (almost no one in Hollywood wanted to produce it)…
Friday Forth Worth art gallery Neighborhood Cult tears down taboos and embraces unconventional art experiences through quarterly conceptual events. Just in time for Halloween, the collective is hosting its Taboo event, where donning a disguise and embracing the seven deadly sins is mandatory. You’ll become a work of art through…
Sean Baker’s The Florida Project, the follow-up to the breakout indie comic drama Tangerine, sparkles with joy and hope even as it tells a not-so-hopeful story. In the film, little Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) and her mother Halley (Bria Vinaite) reside in Kissimmee, Fla., in a rundown motel that’s as colorful as…
The last few months have seen some welcome innovation in the cry-along subgenre of dramas about finding the will to keep living after bodily catastrophe. First, in the notably sincere and unsensational Stronger, director David Gordon Green and his crew strove to strip away as much of such films’ usual…
