Paper Chairs' Poor Herman

Elizabeth Doss' new play shows the literary lion Melville to be just like one of us

"...turns out that it was also the story of Herman Melville – yeah, the same guy your high school..."

May 20, 2016 Arts Review by Robert Faires

Melville in Cubicle Hell

Tyro film director Jonathan Parker brings "Bartleby the Scrivener" back to the future. And who better to ride shotgun than freaky, geeky Crispin Glover?

"...the peculiar titular character in Bartleby, Parker's modernization of Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby the Scrivener." (Bartleby screened at..."

June 14, 2002 Screens Feature by Sidney Moody

In the Heart of the Sea

Ron Howard sets sails with that famous Nantucket whale story

"...fate of Essex, her captain, and crew partly inspired Herman Melville to write Moby-Dick; or, the Whale in 1851...."

Dec. 11, 2015 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Pola X

Carax's follow-up to The Lovers on the Bridge is based on Herman Melville's novel Pierre, or the Ambiguities, and is rich in images and ideas. A man who shuffles between the houses of his mother and fiancée becomes involved with a woman who says she is his illegitimate sister.

"...again with Pola X. The film is based on Herman Melville's novel Pierre, or the Ambiguities (curiously, it's the..."

Oct. 27, 2000 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Bartleby

"...desk and apparently subsists on Handi-Snacks alone. In adapting Herman Melville's 1853 short story "Bartleby the Scrivener," debuting writer-director..."

June 14, 2002 Movie Review by Marrit Ingman

Beau Travail

Claire Denis' deceptively dreamlike film about a French Foreign Legionnaire in Northern Africa

"...to isolate their meaning. Denis' story is inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd. Like the Melville story, Beau Travail..."

July 28, 2000 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

A Whale of a Tale Goes 21st Century

The Fuse Box Festival hosts a Herman Melville Hoot Nite

April 25, 2008 Screens Feature by Kimberley Jones

Moby's Play

Playwright Kirk Smith talks about trying to squeeze a great white whale into a tiny theatre with his adaptation of Moby Dick for Vortex Repertory Company's Summer Youth Theatre.

"...Summer Youth Theatre with a new dramatic version of Herman Melville's masterpiece. He's found a way to squeeze not..."

July 19, 2002 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Mixed Metaphors

These craft cocktails are for the books

"...Book: Moby Dick by Herman Melville..."

June 17, 2016 Food Feature by Brandon Watson

Invasion of the Kiddie-Lit Plays

Characters from children's literature storm Austin-area stages in July.

"...stages the premiere of Kirk Smith's new adaptation of Herman Melville's novel, in which minimalist design and stylized movement..."

July 5, 2002 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

(Untitled)

High art is both lampooned and championed in this knowing satire that stars the ever-eccentric Adam Goldberg.

"...nonconformist Bartleby in Parker’s 2001 film rendition of the Herman Melville story. “I would prefer not to” is Bartleby’s..."

Nov. 6, 2009 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

The Dying Gaul

Playwright and screenwriter Craig Lucas debuts as a director of his own material with this nasty little story about interpersonal deceptions and Hollywood ethics.

"...mind of the viewer. It’s only then that the Herman Melville quote that precedes the film begins to make..."

Nov. 25, 2005 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Billy Budd

With its exploration of men's actions in the midst of war, Herman Melville's Billy Budd could not be more timely and relevant, but while Mainline Theater Project's production is perfectly cast, poor artistic choices cause the show as a whole to fall flat.

"...story imaginable, and it is the essence of this Herman Melville tale, adapted for the stage by Louis O...."

Nov. 15, 2002 Arts Review by Barry Pineo

Moby Dick

In Kirk Smith's stage adaptation of Moby Dick, language comes forth in great waves, in storms of words, soaking our brains with images of the sea, of a white whale, and of a mad captain's pursuit of it, and while the Vortex Repertory Company Summer Youth Theatre production may not always convey every nuance of every line, it does communicate the feel of a life at sea, danger and dread, and the roles played by Destiny and Death.

"...In Kirk Smith's adaptation of Herman Melville's masterwork, language comes at us in great waves,..."

July 26, 2002 Arts Review by Robert Faires

Doug's First Movie

"...the name that they give to the monster -- Herman Melville -- will go over the heads of most..."

March 26, 1999 Movie Review by Steve Davis

Elizabeth Crook’s The Which Way Tree

Chasing revenge on the Texas frontier in this remarkable new novel from the author of Monday, Monday

"...about as far as you can get physically from Melville's Ahab, but in her fierce temperament and single-minded resolve..."

March 9, 2018 Books Review by Robert Faires

Mastodon

Record review

"...the overwhelming idea of the great whale himself," wrote Herman Melville in Moby Dick 155 years ago. "Such a..."

Sept. 10, 2004 Music Review by Raoul Hernandez

SXSW Film Reviews

One can safely assume that Herman Melville never imagined the title character of his dark tale "Bartleby the Scrivener" in an episode of The Drew Carey Show.

"...One can safely assume that Herman Melville never imagined the title character of his dark..."

March 16, 2001 Screens Feature by Robert Faires

Office Space

Mike Judge's overlooked gem Office Space.

"...(1999); with Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, Gary Cole, David Herman, Ajay Naidu, Stephen Root, Diedrich Bader. Yesterday, Ken Lieck..."

Sept. 17, 1999 Screens Review by Louis Black

Terry Allen Reels in Moby Dick for His New Album

The multimedia conceptualist's first new studio album since 2013 sets sail

"...The endurance of Melville's mythic beast embodies an important sense of momentum for..."

Feb. 7, 2020 Music Feature by Doug Freeman

Letters at 3AM

Freedom is beautiful and dangerous: That has been the theme of American writers since the beginning

"...Then excerpts of Moby-Dick, Herman Melville (1819-1891). He says it's chaos out there!..."

May 11, 2007 Column by Michael Ventura

Postmarks

Notes on the music scene, the music seen, the music herd, and the music heard.

"...some hope. It began with a short bio of Herman Melville, famous writer of adventure novels who lost it..."

March 30, 2001 Column

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Writer

"...Herman Melville: Moby Dick, The Confidence Man, and Pierre or..."

Aug. 16, 1996 Column by Michael Ventura

Paper Chairs Makes Theatre With a Little Lone Star Surregionalism

The Texas premiere of Will Arbery’s Plano play knows place like home

"...who's even leveraged her heritage as a great-great-great-grandchild of Herman Melville for a couple of scripts and who's directed..."

Sept. 20, 2019 Arts Feature by Wayne Alan Brenner

Mr. Smarty Pants Knows

"...Before he became an author, Herman Melville was an enthusiast for "tenpins" bowling and worked..."

May 1, 2020 Column by Mr. Smarty Pants

Welcome to Night Vale The Novel

Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor move the strange little desert town of their wildly popular podcast to the printed page

"...Cranor says, "The joke was: 'As the great Herman Melville once said, "Call me."' Every other place, that..."

Nov. 6, 2015 Arts Feature by Michael Berry

War and Pieces

Mayor's Book Club takes on Kevin Powers' 'The Yellow Birds'

"...the name Bartle to evoke "Bartleby the Scrivener" [the Herman Melville story]?..."

April 30, 2013 Books Post by Amy Gentry

Somebody Up There Likes Bob Byington

The writer-director talks about his fifth feature

"...I'm reading Bartleby the Scrivener by a writer named Herman Melville. It's a novella. I assume you've read it...."

April 5, 2013 Screens Feature by Shawn Badgley

Awesome Overload: Alamo Does the Kobayashi Maru Class of '82

Alamo Drafthouse screens 1982 30 years later

"...John "God of Testosterone" Milius's Conan the Barbarian, Gary Sherman's rarely re-screened Vice Squad, Cold War overview Rocky III,..."

April 16, 2012 Screens Post by Marc Savlov

Letters at 3AM: Behold The Maslin

The Maslin is not a person but, rather, a function of virtually every book-review staff in the Western world

"...OK for foreigners and dead Americans (Zora Neale Hurston, Herman Melville), but if The Maslin scents a whiff of..."

Jan. 29, 2010 Column by Michael Ventura

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