Cover Stories
Smoke Signals
Red River’s live music venue owners fear Austin’s newly proposed smoking ordinance – with good reason
Where There’s Smoke …
Across the country, perspectives on the smoking bans offer a very mixed bag
Kicking & Screaming
Will Ferrell, Robert Duvall, and Mike Ditka all appear together in a film that sings the praises of kids soccer and caffeine addiction.
Mindhunters
In this stale thriller, young FBI profilers have a hard time figuring out who is picking them off, one by one.
Monster-in-Law
This banal and lukewarm slice of romantic comedy is as soft and ephemeral as any colorized Ted Turner outing.
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
Well-considered, beautifully made, and often gripping in its narrative, this film examines a man’s complex relationship with a flock of wild parrots.
Memories of Murder
This Korean cop film is based on the country’s first real serial-killer case in 1986, a case that flummoxed the police along with everyone else.
Look at Me
An acute observation of the ways in which we fail to communicate marks this French film, which won the screenwriting award at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute 1974, G, 135 min. Directed by Ingmar Bergman, Starring Ulric Cold, Josef Kostlinger, Eric Saeden, Birgit Nordin. Bergman filmed Mozart’s opera for Swedish television, although the finished film was distributed theatrically in the U.S.
The Magician
The Magician 1958, NR, 100 min. Directed by Ingmar Bergman, Starring Max von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Bibi Andersson. The traveling show of a 19th-century magician and student of Mesmer is halted by the locals who believe the performers to be charlatans. What follows is Bergman’s investigation into the art or magic of entertainment.
The Italian Job
The Italian Job 1969, G, 99 min. Directed by Peter Collinson, Starring Michael Caine, Noël Coward, Maggie Blye, Benny Hill, Raf Vallone, Rossano Brazzi. Theft by massive traffic jam is the central motif of this Italian caper film, which was remade in 2003.
Mask: Director’s Cut
Mask: Director’s Cut 1985, NR, 127 min. Directed by Peter Bogdanovich, Starring Cher, Eric Stoltz, Sam Elliott, Laura Dern. This director’s cut restores the Bruce Springsteen tunes that were eliminated from the original release and a few other scene snippets, but otherwise it remains an emotionally involving story of an unconventional biker mom (Cher) and…
Crash
The paths of a seemingly unconnected, multicultural group of Los Angelenos cross in the most compelling American movie to come around in a long while.
Kingdom of Heaven
Ridley Scott’s Crusades epic is a historical spectacle on the order of Gladiator and a dissection of war, as gritty and illuminating as Black Hawk Down, that takes flight when it becomes a canvas for ideas and ideologies in action.
Walk on Water
A homophobic Israeli assassin insinuates himself into the life of a former SS officer’s gay grandson in hopes of learning the Nazi’s location in a well-intentioned but ultimately simplistic plea for tolerance all around.
Up and Down
Director Jan Hrebejk’s stylishly interwoven tales of modern-day Prague add up to a melancholy, comedic riff on what it means to be European these days.
House of Wax
An occasionally creepy but mostly rote remake of the 1953 horror classic, with some putatively clever jibes at a certain high-profile hotel heiress.
Palindromes
Nominally the story of a 13-year-old girl who longs for a baby, Todd Solondz’s latest is provocative, wicked, even bleakly funny, and ultimately empty.
Cries and Whispers
Cries and Whispers 1972, R, 106 min. Directed by Ingmar Bergman, Starring Harriet Andersson, Kari Sylwan, Ingrid Thulin, Liv Ullmann. In the late 1800s, two sisters and their servant watch a third sister on her deathbed. Through flashbacks and actions in the present, their individual stories unfold and their legacy of deception and callousness emerges.…
King’s Ransom
A mirthless comedy about venal people doing stupid things.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Fans of the novel can exhale, finally; panic is unwarranted. On the other hand, audiences unfamiliar with Douglas Adams’ bizarre world may wonder what all the fuss is about.
XXX: State of the Union
A nonstop orgy of bullets, bombs, and booty that aims low and hits the bull’s-eye with enough firepower to sink the Bismarck.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Oscar winner documents the collapse of Enron in vivid detail and with cinematic flourish.
Oldboy
This 2003 revenger from Korean upstart Chan-wook Park is a multilayered, intensely performed, shockingly violent, and viscerally visual tour de force.
House of D
Here’s an interesting surprise: Dour, dry David Duchovny’s directorial debut is more weepy than creepy, a conventional coming-of-age story that flashes back to 1970s New York City.
Winter Solstice
Neither a change of seasons nor truly wonderful performances can breathe life into the dismally enervated drama Winter Solstice.
Dust to Glory
The Baja 1000, the longest off-road race in the world, is captured on film by Step Into Liquid‘s Dana Brown.
Steel Magnolias
Steel Magnolias 1989, PG, 117 min. D: Herbert Ross; with Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis, Julia Roberts. An all-star cast leads this small-town Southern weepie based on Robert Harling’s play.
Grease 2 Sing-Along
Grease 2 Sing-Along 1982, PG, 115 min. Directed by Patricia Birch, Starring Maxwell Caulfield, Michelle Pfeiffer, Lorna Luft, Pamela Segall, Christopher McDonald, Didi Conn, Sid Ceasar. Sandy and Danny have presumably graduated, but Rydell High and the Pink Ladies keep on ticking.
Kung Fu Hustle
Stephen Chow’s chop-socky offering is a manic, hyperentertaining blend of classic kung-fu tropes, special effects, and outrageous comedy.
The Interpreter
Although The Interpreter is intelligent, intriguing, and topical, it’s hampered by its own good intentions, too many plot convolutions, and character ambiguities that try to pass for suspense.
A Lot Like Love
This Ashton Kutcher/Amanda Peet romance film is a lot like mediocrity.
Dallas 362
The actor Scott Caan makes a strong debut as a writer-director in this atmospheric character study in which he also co-stars with Shawn Hatosy, Jeff Goldblum, and Kelly Lynch.
One Missed Call
Takashi Miike’s latest is a disappointing, second-rate Japanese horror film.
M80
M80 2005, NR, 80 min. Directed by Chris Strouth, Rick Fuller. A concert film of New Wave in its infancy documents the September 1979 New-No-Now-Wave Festival in Minneapolis. Acts include the Fleshtones, Judy Nylon, James Chance and the Contortions, Devo (performing under the name Dove), and much more. The black-and-white footage was lost for years…
Arts Review
The State Theater Company’s ‘Nickel and Dimed’ makes Barbara Ehrenreich’s book about the desperate plight of the working poor flesh and blood, immediate and urgent
¢heap Eat$
Marco Polo Restaurant 2200 S. I-35, 445-5563 Daily: lunch buffet, 11am-2pm (Saturday-Sunday dim sum, 11am-2:30pm); dinner, 5-10pm Really cheap eats are only a bargain if the eats are good. There are too many restaurants that limit their advertising to “all you can eat,” as if quantity alone is what diners seek in a dining-out experience.…
What It Means
The Ballot “An ordinance repealing Austin’s current ordinance relating to smoking in public places and replacing it with a new ordinance that maintains the current prohibition against smoking in most public places, including workplaces, and expands the prohibition against smoking to apply to all bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, and billiard parlors, except for restaurants with…
Point Austin: Smoke This!
Austin voters have a chance to confirm that everybody has a right to breathe free
The Animation Show 2005
This second incarnation of the Mike Judge- and Don Hertzfeldt-produced animation anthology is, if anything, even better than the first.
Arts Review
In two Austin exhibits, Lubbock’s Wheeler brothers offer another tour of burger joints, dry landscapes, girls, advertising signs, and references to famous paintings – mostly of girls – in the Americana narrative of Wheelerville
¢heap Eat$
Amaya’s Taco Village 5405 N. I-35 (in Capital Plaza), 458-2531 Mon-Sat, 7am-9pm; Sunday, 8am-9pm It takes a village to do a lot of things, and there’s a village-worth of cooks and servers who seriously hustle to keep hungry diners happy at Amaya’s. This spacious, no-frills restaurant is a near-northeast Austin institution that is always packed,…
Smokey and the Bandit
If the stronger smoking ordinance prevails at the ballot box May 7, the city will have until Sept. 1 to determine the parameters of the ban’s enforcement. In other cities, enforcement has been somewhat problematic and some bans have even given rise to outlaw establishments or “smoke-easys,” bars and clubs that effectively ignore the new…
Point Austin: Beside the Point
City Council notes
Readings
Is there any quantitative or qualitative way to measure the tremendous, meteoric impact Waukegan, Ill.’s native spaceman has had on American letters, pop culture, and the planet as a whole?
¢heap Eat$
Zen Japanese Food Fast 1303 S. Congress, 444-8081 2900 W. Anderson, 451-4811 3423 Guadalupe, 300-2633 Mon.-Sat., 11am-10pm; Sun., 11:30am-10pm You have to work pretty hard to spend more than $7 at Zen. And if you do succeed in hitting the double digits on your bill, it’s because you were able to put away one giant…
The Prevailing Wage Guessing Game
Trustees worry that doing the right thing might cause bond dollars to come up short
Women and Children Last
When it comes to sharing the wealth, Texas has its priorities top-down
Readings
Wouldn’t it be funny if your name was Arnold Hitler?’ Marc Estrin writes in the follow-up to the acclaimed Insect Dreams: The Half Life of Gregor Samsa,’ and immediately the warning sirens start to wail
¢heap Eat$
Hunan 1940 W. William Cannon (@ Manchaca), 443-8848 Monday-Friday: 11am-9:30pm; Saturday-Sunday: 11:30am-9:30pm Sliding up to a table at Hunan is like slipping on a favorite worn T-shirt: comfortable and predictable. It’s the kind of place where your waitress knows your order when you walk in the door, even if it’s been a while since your…
Is Texas Gas Burning Austinites’ Money?
Energy gadfly says utility may be overcharging customers
Lege Notes
Odds and ends (mostly odds) from the 79th
Page Two
‘Sin City’ may offer almost no suggestion of a moral substructure. But it insists there is morality, no matter how fragmented.
Food-o-File
More puff, pastrywise; plus, Tommy Li, Bollywood, and William Dunmire
Endorsements
Our picks in the May 7 elections
The Hightower Report
Senator takes pity on poor little CEOS; and Propaganda Rules!
About AIDS
Heart disease is the fastest-growing cause of death among HIV-positive people. Today’s powerful anti-HIV medications that make up Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy have enabled poz people to live healthier and longer lives. However, HAART and long-term HIV infection both exact a price in various forms of heart disease. Many HIV medications cause lipodystrophy. Basically, the…
2005 City of Austin Election
Early voting runs Wednesday, April 20 – Tuesday, May 3 City Council Place 1 Andrew Bucknall Lee Leffingwell James Paine Casey Walker Scott Williams Steven Adams(write-in) Place 3 Margot Clarke Mandy Dealey Jennifer Kim Gregg Knaupe Place 4 Wes Benedict Betty Dunkerley Jennifer Gale Phillip Byron Miller John Wickham Proposed Smoking Ordinance “An ordinance repealing…
Singing, Dancing, Kissing, Killing, and Marrying; Blood, Patriotism, Religion, and Tradition
The Austin Film Society’s Bollywood and More: Recent Hindi Cinema
Letters at 3AM
The Oklahoma City Memorial and Ground Zero stir feelings of the dead calling on us to live
Onward Austin, Ho!
When Onward Austin – a grassroots coalition that includes the American Cancer Society, the American Heart and Lung associations, and the Lance Armstrong Foundation, among its members – threw up its collective arms during 2003’s Smoking Task Force meetings, they immediately decided this wouldn’t be the last time concerned citizens heard the words “smoking ban.”…
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
Man on Fire
Mike Henry and the ‘Slam Planet’ recovery benefit
After a Fashion
Where, when, and with whom was Your Style Avatar seen and whom did he see? Hmmmmm? And what about the Pope? Or Prince Charles? Hmmmm?
Texas Platters
Doug Sahm & the Sir Douglas QuintetThe Complete Mercury Recordings (Hip-O Select) The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s neglect notwithstanding, Douglas Wayne Sahm is music history, Texas and otherwise. Rock & roll hippie, country outlaw, R&B hepcat, Tex-Mex pollinator, jazz linguist, Sahm (1941-1999) lives forever as the Johnny Appleseed of Texas Music, hitching the…
Naked City
The Lege kills it, ostensibly to save it
Chile’s ‘Machuca’ Opens Eighth Cine Las Americas
Wednesday, April 20, 7pm
To Your Health
Treatments and causes of asthma attacks
Texas Platters
Maggie Walters It appears Sheryl Crow isn’t just going to ride off with Austin’s most famous cyclist, she’s going to bury her nails into our musicians, too. With time to sink in, though, Walters’ finely honed debut reveals itself a Crow of a different color. Picking up where Patty Griffin and Sarah Sharp leave off,…
Naked City
Texan lawmakers introduce bills for medical pot and industrial hemp
Film News
Summer shoots, Senate bills, and a few film festivals you should know about; plus, Bob Ivy plays with dolls
TCB
Sorting through the spring flood of new records and old festivals, plus a deeper look inside George W.’s iPod
The Common Law
Extension of time to file tax return
Texas Platters
Dao StromSend Me Home This is a story that begins in the Perfume River and ends with Jesus riding in a car. The middle is all broken hearts and broken bottles, the stuff of great country music. Austinite Dao Strom sings a lonely song for the entire world to hear, backed by bassist Kevin Fox…
Naked City
Human rights group holds its annual convention in death penalty-lovin’ Texas
TV Eye
‘If it didn’t happen on television, then it didn’t happen’
Bills Gone Wild!
The good, the bad, and the ugly at the 79th Legislature’s halfway mark
Day Trips
The Stoneleigh Hotel in Dallas has all the charm you would expect from an old hotel
Release Me
MDCMagnus Dominus Corpus (Sudden Death) No one takes on Christianity, corporations, and cops quite like MDC. Formed in Austin, 1980, as the Stains before changing their moniker and relocating to the Bay area, MDC tapped just the right mix of breakneck speed, astute political observations, gut-bomb rage, and black humor. Continuing the rotating acronym meaning…
Naked City
Enviro group criticizes USDA for lax oversight of food supply
The Stage Uncaged
How a performative open mic From Iowa became a theatrical springboard in Austin
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Taxes on hats, boots, beehives, basements, chimneys, birth, souls, and beards
Girlie Action
Spring arrived with Candye Kane’s dandy new White Trash Girl (Ruf), cut right here in Austin. Produced by Mark Kazanoff and featuring Preston Hubbard on bass, Kane also tapped local bassist Sarah Brown to co-write three songs, including “Queen of the Wrecking Ball.” The result is a riotous roots-rock collection about feminine empowerment (“Estrogen Bomb”)…
Naked City
Downtown neighborhood battle ends with a thud instead of a bang
In Memoriam: Boyd Vance
Boyd Vance, founder and director of Pro Arts Collective, acclaimed musical theatre performer, and leader in nurturing and promoting African-American arts for a quarter of a century, has died
Soccer Watch
Attack of the killer soccer fans
Texas Platters
Wammo Lowriders on the Storm (Spanks-a-Lot) Shorty Long Taters (Grumpledump) The Asylum Street Spankers are Austin’s Spinal Tap – in a good way; the vaudevillian institution’s revolving door membership is the result of a decadelong existence. Founding member Wammo enjoys an interesting solo career, including Queens of the Stone Age stealing the concept for his…
Naked City
Basic Needs Report paints grim picture for area poor
The Amityville Horror
A dream home on Long Island is not all it’s cracked up to be: The family inside sees dead people.
In Memoriam: Mitch Hedberg
Stand-up comedy lost one of its most beloved and gifted talents with the March 30 passing of Mitch Hedberg
¢heap Eat$
Hearty, affordable fare that won’t cost more than the pocket change left over after your visit with the tax man
Texas Platters
Andrew DuplantisOnly Funny the First Time (GFY) How Andrew Duplantis found time to make a solo album considering his bass duties with Jon Dee Graham, Alejandro Escovedo, Tia Carrera, and now Son Volt is a mystery. It must be exhausting, but it spells out the musical continuum of Only Funny the First Time perfectly. Working…
Naked City
Despite reforms, Texans still overcharged, groups allege
Chrystal
Billy Bob Thornton plays an Arkansas husband who attempts to redeem himself after critically injuring his wife and killing their son in a car accident four years earlier.
Austin Arts Hall of Fame Class of 2005
The Austin Critics Table has named six inductees for the 2005 class of the Austin Arts Hall of Fame
¢heap Eat$
El Pollo Feliz 6801 Guadalupe, 323-6604 Daily: breakfast, 7-11am; lunch & dinner, 11am-10pm For years, this unassuming frame building at the confluence of Airport and Guadalupe housed one of our city’s favorite burger joints, the Hamburger Haven. More recently, an operator sold both burgers and an Indo-Paki takeout menu. These days, it’s home to El…
Texas Platters
Friends of LizzyPerfect Little Pieces (Fifth Column) For all of the fuzzborn pop bands with a healthy admiration for Weezer, few have the chops to pay proper homage. Friends of Lizzy do, and on “Molly,” the Austin pop/rockers manage their way into a narrative framed by riffs that “weez” while they roll. On the quartet’s…
Naked City
Faith-based environmentalism … and we don’t mean the kind W practices
Dear Frankie
An ad hoc dad turns out to be far better than the real thing in this sentimental Scottish yarn.
Hi, Bob
Onetime Dr. Hartley Bob Newhart, still balding, still grinning, took a sold-out Paramount back to 1972 for just under an hour last Thursday
¢heap Eat$
Java Noodles 2400 E. Oltorf, 443-5282 Monday-Saturday, 11am-10pm; Sunday, noon-9:30pm Paying one’s taxes generally produces depression, and a common reaction to depression is to eat: not for sustenance, but to eat something exotic and different, in large quantities, and for little money. Java Noodles has been one of our all-purpose cures for a number of…
Naked City
Some companies never learn …
The Fearless Freaks
Documentary about the band the Flaming Lips – the crazy/bizarre Oklahoma outfit that, despite itself, rose to national prominence.
Luv Doc Recommends: Austin International Poetry Festival Humor Showcase
Count on this: When the apocalypse finally does happen, it will be brought about by earnest, sincere, well-intentioned people. There’s nothing like a surplus of intellectual and moral certitude to get the ball rolling, so to speak. Sarcasm and ridicule never built a bridge, dug a tunnel, erected a skyscraper, or put men on the…
