Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure 1989, PG, 90 min. Directed by Stephen Herek, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin. The boys are back in town – and back in the telephone-booth time machine. As these high school goofballs travel back in time to score some heavy dudes like…
Rififi
This seminal caper film, which is also a quintessential film noir and French gangster classic of the Fifties, is directed by Dassin, who became an American expatriate after being named as a communist during the HUAC hearings.
Le Schpountz
Le Schpountz 1938, NR, 160 min. Directed by Marcel Pagnol, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Robert Vattier, Léon Belières, Orane Demazis, Fernandel. This little-seen movie pairs one of France’s great classical directors, Marcel Pagnol, with one of the great comic talents ever recorded on film, Fernandel. The comedy satirizes the film industry as…
Mes Petites Amoureuses (My Little Loves)
Mes Petites Amoureuses (My Little Loves) 1974, NR, 123 min. Directed by Jean Eustache, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Martin Loeb, Ingrid Caven, Pierre Edelman. This semi-autobiographical study provides a portrait of adolescence in which a boy on the verge of adulthood learns about the realities of love and work. Living with his…
Paragraph 175
From the award-winning documentarians who made The Celluloid Closet comes this examination of that section of the German Penal Code that criminalized homosexuality and was used by the Nazis to justify the extermination of gay men and women as part of the Final Solution.
Explorers
Explorers 1985, PG, 109 min. Directed by Joe Dante, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, Amanda Peterson, Dick Miller, Meshach Taylor, Mary Kay Place. Hawke and Phoenix made their acting debuts in this movie about three kids who invent a spaceship in their backyard and are contacted by aliens. Explorers…
Savage Streets
Savage Streets 1984, R, 93 min. Directed by Danny Steinmann, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Linda Blair, John Vernon, Robert Drye, Linnea Quigley. Linda Blair was nominated for a Razzie for her performance as a girl gangbanger in this Eighties exploitation flick. The rape scene is reportedly long and graphic, but Blair fights…
The Big Gundown
The Big Gundown 1966, R, 105 min. Directed by Sergio Sollima, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Lee Van Cleef, Thomas Milian, Luisa Rivelli. The Alamo’s all-you-can-eat pasta, focaccia, and Caesar salad Spaghetti Western Spaghetti Feast returns with this Lee Van Cleef horse opera about a legendary gunslinger hired to track down a child…
UT Festival of Ethnographic Film
UT Festival of Ethnographic Film 2001, NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . The Festival of Ethnographic Film features selections from film festival sponosored annually by the Royal Anthropological Institute in London. This first annual Austin presentation is the work of a cooperative effort by nine UT departments and centers,…
Readings
Meteor in the Madhouse by Leon Forrest TriQuarterly Books, 254 pp., $26.95 When Ahab went down on his “all-destroying but unconquering whale,” an ironically self-consuming allegory was born — for didn’t Melville’s own career as a writer go down, in the publishing world, after Moby Dick sank without a bubble? There’s a daemonic strain in…
Live Shots
Juvenile, HPC, Black Gold, Botany Boyz, Lil’ Troy, Opposing ThreatThe Metro, April 8 Such a promising start: A “twurk-off,” in which four or five supple young ladies were invited onstage to shake what their mamas gave them. Southern rap may never be politically correct, nor is it terribly long on variety, but when it’s done…
Video Reviews
Joan Crawford plays Congresswoman Agatha Reed in this ridiculous fluff made all the more ludicrous by its attempts at importance.
The Tailor of Panama
The Tailor of Panama 2001, R, 109 min. Directed by John Boorman, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Geoffrey Rush, Pierce Brosnan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Leonor Varela, Brendan Gleeson, Harold Pinter, Catherine Mccormack, David Hayman, Jon Polito. Pierce Brosnan as a suave superspy toiling for Her Majesty’s secret service? Now there’s a stretch. Actually,…
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
Live Shots
The Ramos Brothers UnpluggedAustin Bergstrom International Airport, April 11 The first half-hour is free. The second is $2. After that, every 30 minutes is $1. Since Ruben Ramos’ family reunion ran 4-6pm, the total cost was $4. Of course, if you’d taken an airport shuttle, the show was gratis. Really, though, since the only charge…
Video Reviews
Divine decadence, darling
The Last Resort
The Last Resort NR, 75 min. Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Dina Korsun, Paddy Considine, Artiom Streilnikov, Lindsey Honey. Not reviewed at press time. A festival-circuit favorite, Last Resort is the first film in distribution company Shooting Gallery’s 2001 package tour of films — a package which last year…
Page Two
The real tragedy of downtown construction, the life of Steven Fromholz, and the death of Joey Ramone
Live Shots
Billy Joe Shaver Shady Grove, April 12 The intent of Shady Grove’s Thursday night “Unplugged” series is to provide more free music to a city that just can’t seem to get enough free music. Unfortunately, intentions aside, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. The parking situation on Barton Springs Road is horrendous, forcing…
TV Eye
In anticipation of the upcoming writers’ strike, networks are beefing up their reality programming, including Worst Case Scenario, No Boundaries, and — yep, it’s that bad — another Big Brother.
Public Notice
Free speech, free thought, free kittens … Ah it’s good to be free. It’s good to be Public Notice.
Live Shots
SpeedtruckerABCD’s, April l4 Two guitars, bass, drums, a lead singer, and five straw Resistols bent all to shit — Dallas’ Speedtrucker plays country music with a vengeance. It’s not alternative country, it’s not country rock (yuck), it’s not trucker-punk. It’s country, by gawd, and Speedtrucker plays the living hell out of it. Driven by a…
Keep the River On Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale
Keep the River On Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale 2000, R, 110 min. Directed by Laurie Gwen Shapiro, David Shapiro, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Tobias Schneebaum is an 80-year-old Jewish homosexual cannibal from New York City — or so the Shapiros, this documentary’s brother-and-sister filmmaking team would have us believe.…
Mr. Smarty Pants
The grains of factiod salt on your half-baked pretzel of knowledge.
Deconstructing Downtown
The Economy Sneezes — and Austin’s Central Business District Catches a Cold
Second Helpings: Interior Mexican
The weekly Chronicle feature “Second Helpings” offers readers the opportunity to sample tasty, bite-sized restaurant listings compiled from new and previous reviews, guides, and poll results. This week’s entries were updated by Chronicle Cuisines writer Rachel Feit from an original publication date of 12/24/99. When you need quick, reliable information about Austin eateries, check here.…
After a Fashion
AAF takes a well deserved break at a local spa. Oooooh, that feels goooooood.
The Changing Face of Downtown
For better or worse, there’s still a heap of new downtown buildings and municipal projects well under way, with several set to open soon. Save for the delayed Intel project, here’s what we can look for in the coming days, weeks, months, years, grouped by function (commercial, residential, civic) and whether each is actually under…
Day Trips
San Antonio’s funtastic and 75-years-young Kiddie Park.
The Top 10 Censored Stories of 2000
The news stories that didn’t make the mainstream press in 2000
Give Him Enough Rope
John Walch’s new plays — the monologue The Circumference of a Squirrel and the epic The Dinosaur Within — are inextricably linked: In their ambitious scope, in their genesis, and in the amount of national attention they’re generating for this award-winning Austin playwright.
To Your Health
What is conjugated linoleic acid? I found it on the Internet among the new cancer therapies, but I thought linoleic acid was bad if you have cancer.
The Rest of the Top 25
The Top 25 Censored Stories, Nos. 11-25
Kingdom Come
Kingdom Come 2001, PG, 95 min. Directed by Doug McHenry, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring LL Cool J, Jada Pinkett Smith, Vivica A. Fox, Anthony Anderson, Loretta Devine, Toni Braxton, Cedric The Entertainer, Whoopi Goldberg. For several reasons, it comes as no surprise that Kingdom Come is based on a play (1991’s Dearly…
Love Letter to a Klutz: The Secret Behind John Walch’s Brilliant Plays
John Walch is a terrible dancer. I believe my first fateful experience as John’s dance partner occurred at a Brave Combo show. The initial exchange went something like this: John W.: I’m warning you, I’m a terrible dancer. Lisa D.: [politely] Oh, don’t worry about it. John W.: OK, then … [In a flash, John…
About AIDS
The Potential Criminality of HIV Transmission.
Naked City
Campaign finance reform, Sixth Street recycling and events of the week
Freddy Got Fingered
Freddy Got Fingered 2001, R, 95 min. D: Tom Green; with Tom Green, Anthony Michael Hall, Harland Williams,Julie Haggerty. Freddy’s tagline – “This time you can’t change the channel” – pretty much sums it up. MTV provocateur Green thinks he’s got you where he wants you, but apparently he’s forgotten that even if people can’t…
Articulations
Another Austin theatre company suffers a mid-performance disaster and responds to it with resourcefulness and pluck, and the Austin Community College Drama Department marks Shakespeare’s 437th birth with an all-star “Billy Bash.”
The Zinophiles
The Zinfandel Advocates and Producers Come to Austin
Naked City
Austin and the surrounding cities and counties still have a long way to go before they reach an agreement on reducing ozone emissions that everyone can live with.
Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles
Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles 2001, PG, 95 min. Directed by Simon Wincer, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Alec Wilson, Serge Cockburn, Jonathan Banks, Jere Burns, Linda Kozlowski, Paul Hogan. Thirteen years have passed since the last installment of the Crocodile Dundee series, and one has to wonder: Why now? Why, even, at…
Exhibitionism
This Zachary Scott Theatre Center production of Allen Robertson’s original musical Jouét is a slick theatrical product, with enough gadgetry and opulent design work to fill the space with a rich, powerful sound and imagery, but it’s difficult to sympathize with its diva-ish heroine and her mixed messages about compassion.
Food-o-File
Cuisines editor Virginia B. Wood updates readers on the news from the 16th Annual Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival and mentions upcoming culinary events.
Naked City
Bills that would create a special taxing and development district for Gary Bradley’s Spillar Tract land move forward at the Lege, despite Bradley’s apparent violation of his agreement with the city.
Boys Life 3
Boys Life 3 2000, NR, 79 min. Directed by Gregory Cooke, Lane Janger, Jason Gould, Bradley Dust Gray, David Fourier, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jason Herman, Drew Wood, Jon Polito, Elliott Gould, Jennifer Esposito, Sara Gilbert, Guillermo Diaz, Alexis Arquette. The five short films that comprise Boys Life 3 aren’t going to…
Exhibitionism
For the 10th year, Charles Santos and the Austin Festival of Dance offer a spectacularly diverse evening of modern dance, ballet, and jazz, with plenty of skin and choreographic tricks from rope and trapeze work to strobe lights and shadow play to create an incredible show.
Home on the Ranch
Life at Marbridge Ranch defies rehab and assisted living clichés.
Naked City
Vital Signs Abandoned for more than a decade and boarded up just on the east side of I-35, the old Communications Workers of America (CWA) building on East 12th Street has been an eyesore for years. Previous attempts have failed to either demolish or restore and inhabit the building, which was owned for most of…
Exhibitionism
In Connie Arismendi’s new exhibition “Pasajero” — which can mean “the flight of a bird, a place that is visited frequently, traveler” — the artist simulates the experience of traveling, opening her life to the art tourist in installations of unusual beauty.
Old Man River
Once an outlaw, always an outlaw: The Return of Steven Fromholz
The Hightower Lowdown
Bush’s insane energy policy, Greenwashing on Earth Day, and the Washington Legal Foundation moves in on the White House
Safety in Words
If there is drama in Laura Furman’s stories, Robin Bradford writes, it is not usually the life and death kind. It is the daily, wearing, ineffable drama of living as a human island among others who invariably seem more attractive, more connected, or simply more “normal.”
Extra Jim
Guitarist, producer, and now indie label impresario Jim Stringer is still twanging after all these years.
The Next Step
They’ve made their films. They’ve done the festivals. Now, four filmmakers share stories about finding — and losing — distribution.
Postscripts
This week’s literary events in Postscripts.
Jim Stringer Reviewed
Jim Stringer & the AM Band On the Radio (Music Room) Gawd love Stella. The Carousel Lounge’s feisty, red-haired waitress kicks off On the Radio, Jim Stringer’s second disc, in inimitable Stella style with one of her patented intros, which only makes sense since the Austin set-up bar is the AM band’s regular haunt. From…
Cine Las Americas Film Festival Schedule
Cine Las Américas continues through Saturday with the following films. For more on the festival see last week’s “Screens” section or visit www.cinelasamericas.org. @Millennium Theatre. Thu, 4/19: 7pm: “The Flour Wars” (D: Esteban Zul; U.S., narrative, 8 min.); Piedra Verdes/Green Stones (D: Angel Flores Torres; Mexico, narrative, 80 min., U.S. premiere) 9pm: “El Camino a…
Readings
Birth of the Cool Beat, Bebop, and the American Avant-Garde by Lewis MacAdams Free Press, 288 pp., $27.50 By the time I was born in the late 1960s, the term “cool” already stood for the quiet defiance and restrained desire that marked it for earlier generations who frequented jazz clubs and taverns like Birdland in…
Dancing About Architecture
Joey Ramone is dead
Short Cuts
Austin Studios internship program wins grant from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
