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An unusual, lightly surreal, and unorthodox documentary by Jarred Altermann, Convento takes an unconventional approach that accentuates its subjects, and never exploits them. The short doc (roughly an hour in length) follows the Zwanikken family (mother Geraldine and her sons Christiaan and Louis) as they farm a vacant, 400-year-old monastery in Portugal. They’ve lived there since the … Continue reading
Though he worked almost exclusively in television, Allen Baron made a name for himself writing, directing, and starring in the Blast of Silence, an obscure indie gem made during the brief gap between the film noir cycle of American post-war cinema and the French New Wave. A de facto hybrid of the two, it is a haunting … Continue reading
Arguably the best movie about baseball since Robert Redford nailed the stadium lights in The Natural, director Bennett Miller’s Moneyball combines the great American pastime, the unlikely dramedy duo of Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, and analytical statistics into a formula that works improbably well. At its core it is a classic sports underdog story, … Continue reading
Heist movies have become increasingly tired and rote, yet with Drive Danish director Nicholas Winding Refn gets plenty of stylized mileage out of a reinvented wheel. Loosely adapted from James Sallis’ novella by Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Hossein Amini, it’s an instant cult classic. Ryan Gosling stars as Driver (like many a movie gunfighter and samurai, his true … Continue reading
Had it been released at a more halcyon time, The Ides of March would likely be dismissed as a self-indulgent political drama. As a cynical movie for an increasingly cynical age, however, its frank look at American politics, especially the double-dealing and backstabbing employed to win an election, couldn’t come at a better time. The movie is … Continue reading
The Dallas International Film Festival has announced a 25th anniversary screening of the classic science fiction satire Robocop as the closing night event of its 2012 festival. Filmed in Dallas by director Paul Verhoeven, Robocop quickly became a cult classic. (A remake starring The Killing‘s Joel Kinnaman is currently in the works.) The screening will be … Continue reading
The Texas Theatre’s Kimono Club series — featuring the best in Japanese cinema, bad karaoke, Kirin and sake bombs — continues unabated with the grindhouse action-crime drama classic Sex and Fury (1973), 9pm, March 11, at the theater. Details — The Magnolia’s The Big Movie classic films series continues its Great Directors showcase with … Continue reading
Dallas-based filmmaker and playwright Eric Steele, Second Thought Theatre, and Aviation Cinemas have combined their might to produce a unique combination of stage and screen, The Midwest Trilogy, with preview performances at 8pm, March 15-17, and regular performances Thursdays-Sundays, March 22-April 8, at the Kalita Humphreys Theatre. The evening centers around two short films by … Continue reading
His first movie in since Sideways (2007), writer-director Alexander Payne’s The Descendants (based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings) is also perhaps his best movie to date. That’s saying a lot, considering the rest of his filmography includes Citizen Ruth (1996), Election (1999), and About Schmidt (2002). It’s delicate blend of drama and comedy … Continue reading
Anyone who felt cheated and pandered to after seeing Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-bait movie War Horse or disappointed by the fizzle of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull pay heed: The Adventures of Tintin (his first CG-animated escapade) is quintessential Spielberg, an action-packed ride steeped in old-fashioned swashbuckling adventure that recalls Raiders of … Continue reading
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