If you go to Rotten Tomatoes, the Web site that compiles more than 100 film critics’ reviews each week, you will find at the top of the “Certified Fresh” list a single movie that was the very best-reviewed of 2005. It was not a remake or a sequel, nor did…
It’s an unavoidable trend–if two movies make a trend, that is–so much so that if you Google the phrase “return of the R-rated movie,” the first hit takes you to the tsk-tsking Family Media Guide’s article on the very topic, along with its list of some 3,000 titles touted as…
When your movie critics’ tastes range from Jane Austen to Rob Zombie, there’s bound to be some turbulence come award time. Perhaps not surprisingly, determining the year’s best films is something of an imprecise science here: Our top movie was anything but a unanimous pick among the five critics–Luke Y…
War is hell, but it can also be high drama. In boots-on-the-ground documentaries like Gunner Palace and Occupation: Dreamland, we got a discomfiting look at the brutal realities and moral ambiguities of America’s war in Iraq, where the death toll rises along with the administration’s rhetoric. “I want some answers,”…
What a difference a year makes. In 2004, Michael Moore’s Bush-bashing Fahrenheit 9/11 was not only the most-watched and most-debated doc in release, but also among the highest-grossing movies of the year. This year’s most-watched and highest-grossing documentary was, of course, March of the Penguins, which was about as contentious…
This year may be the last hurrah for this generation’s aging consoles, but sugar, they’re going down swingin’. The PlayStation 2, Xbox and Game Cube age gracefully, pushing their hardware to the limit one last time and developing some brilliant games in the process–from tear-jerking, giant-slaying adventure to piss-in-your-pants zombie…
The sky outside is cloudy over the old Parkland Hospital building at Oak Lawn and Maple avenues. A chilly wind sends dry, dead leaves skittering across the pavement of the basketball court once used when the building was a low-security jail. The gray side door set into the building’s stately…
For the first time in years, Angela Shaw feels more secure living at the Waterview Park Apartments at the University of Texas at Dallas. But Shaw says poor maintenance remains a major problem at Waterview, the nation’s largest private dorm. “They always try fixing things, but you can’t fix it…
At least it’s work: Exotic butterflies dance around in my stomach as I wait in the lobby of Hotel Zaza, where apparently someone has let Pier 1 puke its North African imports rack all over the place. At any moment, Kato Kaelin, professional houseguest, will appear from behind the elevator…
Unholy Hip-hop The devil’s music: As both an observer of and participant in evangelical Christianity for a long time, this former long-haired hippie type found this article both disturbing and amusing (“Hip-hop’s Public Enemy,” by Jesse Hyde, December 8). On the one hand history does repeat itself with frightening regularity…
One small head start for woman. One giant step backward for women. You know something’s screwy when the first runner to cross the Dallas White Rock Marathon finish line isn’t the winner. And when, in an era of monumental gains by female athletes on the cusp of competing against males…
I was wrong. There, I said it. Wasn’t so bad. Humbling but not horrible. Therapeutic even. Won’t you join me, Bill Parcells? Because you, too, are wrong about Drew Bledsoe. After the Giant debacle two weeks ago I prematurely kick-started the annual Cowboys mystery, “Who’s Next?” As in, the next…
January-March Lisbon/lesbian. Get it? Democrat Lupe Valdez is sworn in as Dallas County sheriff, becoming the first Latina and first homosexual–as far as we know–to hold the job. News of her sexual orientation comes as a belated shock to her political supporters in the sheriff’s office. “What, she’s gay?” one…
For the crime of driving with a suspended license, Rhenia Chavers lost the ability to walk. She’s usually confined to a wheelchair, although on a good day she can navigate her mother’s apartment with a cane. Nine months ago, Chavers’ misdemeanor offense led her to spend six days at the…
For most, last month’s decision in Washington to exempt Missouri from the Wright Amendment was good news. Southwest Airlines was suddenly allowed to fly nonstop to Missouri, and overnight, the bottom dropped out of fares. For American Airlines, however, the move placed the company in the uncomfortable position of both…
Bad to Badu Poor judgment: When is alleged racism ever funny? After reading the article “By the eBay” by Sam Machkovech (December 1), I was quite disturbed for one main reason. Freedom of speech is one thing, but it must always be tempered with humanity and societal responsibility. Mr. Machkovech’s…
Where are your old baseball cards? I know, silly question. In this interactive era of Madden on your Xbox and madmen chewing buffalo bladders on your TiVo, spreading out sedentary sports cards on your bedroom floor sounds about as entertaining as playing Marco Polo with Helen Keller. Marco!… Marco!… Marco?!…
The relationship between Dr. Rebecca Bridges and the woman known as Jane Doe is by all accounts a troubled one. Describing it any further becomes a challenge, not because of a lack of apt labels, but because of an overabundance of them. Depending on whom you ask, the duo could…
It hasn’t been a good couple of months for Sipango founder Ron Corcoran. After closing the restaurant last June after a heady 10-year run, he filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy on October 10, listing roughly $532,000 in assets and $564,000 in liabilities, only to have it dismissed on December 2…
Toy story: It’s hard to say what’s more embarrassing for Dallas vice officers: that they would go through the trouble of conducting an undercover sting on a man who was selling lingerie and sex toys or that the defendant would walk away two years later paying a mere $50 fine…
Sea of Miracles Whatever it takes: Thank you for covering this incredible effort spearheaded by Dave and Anne Peterson (“Hotel Katrina,” by Rick Kennedy, December 1). I was at the hotel for several days of the operation and had the experience of standing in a sea of miracles. As soon…
Katie Neason sat with her sisters Helen, Dorothy and Pat in the dining room at the Quality Inn, her expression grave. The day before, the four sisters had watched in horror as their native New Orleans was consumed by the waters of Lake Pontchartrain. Now, on an incongruously sunny Tuesday…
