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Movies This Week: December 21-27, 2012
Like the family members you may be visiting for the holidays, this week's new releases are an odd assortment. Judd Apatow fans can get their comedy fix with This Is 40; Quentin Tarantino fans can get...
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Review: Django Unchained
Django Unchained is every bit a Quentin Tarantino film.Whether this is a compliment or a criticism depends, of course, on your opinion of Quentin Tarantino films. If you adore Tarantino's cinematic...
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Review: Promised Land
The politically charged Promised Land is a far better movie than it could have been, given that issue-oriented "message films" are sometimes little more than preachy, plot-thin polemics.Fortunately,...
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2012 in Review: Don's Top 10 and Other Lists
Here are my top ten and other notable films from last year. To be eligible for my list, a movie had to release in the U.S. in 2012 and screen in Austin in 2012 also. (Some well reviewed 2012 releases...
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Lone Star Cinema: Brewster McCloud
The Brewster McCloud DVD cover advertises the movie as "A different kind of film from the director of M*A*S*H."Different. Now, there's an understatement.Robert Altman's 1970 avian-themed follow-up to...
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Movies This Week: January 18-24, 2013
It's January; we know this because the temperature sometimes dips below balmy, but also because great new movies are rarer than a Panhandle Democrat. The esteemed Rust and Bone is required viewing this...
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Movies This Week: January 25-31, 2013
Oh, if only Movie 43 had screened for press before it opens this weekend. The premise -- a search for the world's most banned movie -- and cast are tantalizing. (Dennis Quaid, Greg Kinnear, Seth...
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Movies This Week: February 1-7, 2013
As a public service, I must open this week's column with a follow-up to the opening of last week's column: Despite its parade of stars, Movie 43sucks. I know you're shocked.Most of this week's new...
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Lone Star Cinema: Baby, the Rain Must Fall
Baby boomers and younger fans of Sixties pop music may remember folk singer Glenn Yarbrough's "Baby, the Rain Must Fall," a major 1965 hit that remains a staple of oldies radio station playlists.Less...
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Movies This Week: February 15-21, 2013
In the interest of brevity, I'll ignore this week's new releases (helpful hint: you should, too!) and go straight to the impressive lineup of special screenings.Few film franchises are more impressive...
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SXSW Review: Imagine
The aptly titled movie Imagine is about blind people imagining what they cannot see, but it also encourages sighted people to imagine what life is like for the blind.Set and filmed in Lisbon, Portugal,...
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SXSW Review: euphonia
We live in a noisy world, but how often do we really listen to the noise?The unnamed teenage protagonist of euphonia listens often, to the point of distraction and obsession. Writer/director Danny...
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SXSW Review: Getting Back to Abnormal
In New Orleans, we have some of the blackest white people and some of the whitest black people you're ever going to meet.-- Ninth Ward resident Henry Irvin, Getting Back to AbnormalWhether narrative or...
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SXSW Review: Before You Know It
You never think about getting older when you're younger. But before you know it creeps up on you, and you're there already.-- Robert Mainor, Before You Know ItOld age can be hard enough for anyone...
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SXSW Review: Loves Her Gun
Yeah, she loves her gun all right.Well, not really the gun itself. What the protagonist of Loves Her Gun really loves is the feeling of security and power a gun gives her. She sleeps better at night...
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SXSW Review: The Bounceback
The Bounceback could have been just another clichéd romantic comedy about angst-filled twentysomethings looking for love. (Okay, let's be honest: they're looking for sex.) But thanks to Austin...
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Review: West of Memphis
The history of American criminal justice abounds with cases of justice denied, delayed and miscarried, but there are few cases more egregious than that of the West Memphis Three.The three men were...
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SXSW Review: The Retrieval
I've been a fan of Austin filmmaker Chris Eska's work since 2007, when his beautifully shot and quietly affecting feature August Evening became one of my favorite Texas films. So I had high hopes for...
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SXSW Review: Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton
James Broughton's epitaph says about all you need to know about him: Adventure -- not predicament.For those who want to know more, the splendid documentary Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton is...
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SXSW Review: Swim Little Fish Swim
Anyone pursuing a career in the arts will appreciate Swim Little Fish Swim, a film about the perennial battle between art and commerce, between dreams of success and the unkind reality that shatters...
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