The X List: The National Society of Film Critics' Guide to the Movies That Turn Us On
Its reach is ambitious, covering films from the mainstream and the fringes, from the buddy flick to good, old-fashioned hard-core porn.

BY MELANIE HAUPT

In Print

The Big Book of Porn: A Penetrating Look at the World of Dirty Movies
Like the titillating genre, the book is loaded with enticing eye candy and a fun, flirtatious layout – imagine Skinemax doing a VH1 special:'Behind the Porn,' in book form

BY KATE X MESSER

Monthly aGLIFF Program Launches With Celebration of Raval

P.J. Raval the first to be fêted

Crime, Punishment, & Country Music

'Lifers' premieres locally at Ruta Maya

South by Southwest Film Passes

Now on sale

TV Eye

Stop me if you've heard this one before: A Latino goes to an audition but doesn't get the job because he's too ethnic

BY BELINDA ACOSTA

Screens Reviews

La Bête Humaine

Jean Renoir shot it in 1938, just as Hitler's troops were occupying the Sudetenland and Neville Chamberlain and his band of appeasers were bending Europe's back to the whims of the Third Reich. So, you'll forgive him for making such a dark picture.

Film Reviews

Ballets Russes

Majestic movie about once celebrated, now long defunct ballet company that changed the face of modern dance.

Caché

In this challenging, tension-agitating film a privileged French couple become vulnerable when menaced by an unseen observer who constantly watches them.

Eight Below

We smell penguins, even though Eight Below's animals are really a pack of sled dogs in a wonderful man-and-dog movie.

Firewall

This high-tech heist thriller is like a For Dummies guide to the genre.

Freedomland

This Richard Price story about simmering racial tension that boils over during the course of a police investigation is choppy and erratic.

arts & culture

The Next Steps

Ballet Austin seeks out tomorrow's Balanchines with a new and unique choreographic showcase

BY ROBERT FAIRES

La Follia's Musical Moonlighting

In the concert Musical Moonlighting, Baroque ensemble La Follia focuses on compositions by people who spent their days working in fields other than music

BY BARRY PINEO

State Theatre Company

It's a new year, and the State Theater has a new artistic director, who has announced some new additions to the theatre's season

BY ROBERT FAIRES

American Repertory Ensemble

Figuring dance and music to be great tastes that taste great together, American Repertory Ensemble aims to bring those art forms together in an organizational peanut butter cup

BY ROBERT FAIRES

Stella Adler and the American Theater

UT's Harry Ransom Center, which acquired the complete archive of Stella Adler, celebrates her impact on American acting in the symposium Stella Adler and the American Theater

BY BARRY PINEO

Arts Reviews

Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh!

The Jewish Community Association of Austin production of 'Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh!' is that rare revue where you actually care about the characters and what happens to them

Rosita's Jalapeño Kitchen

In Teatro Vivo's staging of 'Rosita's Jalapeño Kitchen,' a full cast acts as ingredients for recognized recipes to Mexican life

Oh Mother

'Oh Mother' is refreshingly eclectic in its celebration of its theme, its dances as individual as the children of the women who dance so eloquently in it

'In Between'

The art show 'In Between' provides the viewer with a rare opportunity to interact with the ideas that inform the exhibited works

columns

Page Two: Dial 1-800-Bentzin

How a rejected candidate can win back hearts and minds

BY LOUIS BLACK

Postmarks

Our readers talk back.

Letters at 3AM

Our national self-doubt and self-conflict are nothing new, but what is new, in the last 40 years or so, is a state of confused and conflicted values. It is the signature of our era that we live in a world so unstable that its limits may be tested merely by a bumper sticker.