The Ruling Class
The Ruling Class 1972, R, 154 min. Directed by Peter Medak, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Peter O’Toole, Alastair Sim, Harry Andrews, Coral Browne. Nutty black comedy ensues when an heir to a British lordship thinks he’s Jesus Christ. Outrageous in its time, the film’s eccentricities (characters burst into song and dance) are…
The Long, Long Trailer
The Long, Long Trailer 1954, NR, 103 min. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Marjorie Main, Kennan Wynn, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz. In this feature-length comedy, Lucy and Desi play caricatures of their TV personas as a newly married couple who drive cross-country to California with their brand new home…
Six in Austin
Six in Austin 2002, NR. Directed by Kat Candler, Gonzalo Gonzalez, Geoff Marslett, Wyatt & Zack Phillips, Bob Ray, David & Nathan Zellner, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Inspired by the omnibus film Six in Paris (which will screen next Saturday, Aug. 3), six familiar Austin filmmakers and/or filmmaking-brother teams were commissioned…
Desk Set
Desk Set 1957, NR, 103 min. Directed by Walter Lang, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy. One of the great Tracy-Hepburn pairings, this adaptation from the Broadway stage focuses on the love that grows from the contentious relationship between an efficiency expert and the head of the TV research department…
The Ultimate Lebowski Experience
The Ultimate Lebowski Experience R, 117 min. Directed by Joel Coen, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jeff Bridges. This is so much more than a parking-lot screening of the wonderful Big Lebowski. In addition to the outdoor screening of the film, the ticket price allows patrons to bowl for two free hours after…
Full Frontal Preview
Full Frontal Preview R, 107 min. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Blair Underwood, Julia Roberts, Nicky Katt, Catherine Keener, David Hyde Pierce, David Duchovny. Soderbergh returns to a more experimental mode after his recent success with Erin Brockovich and Traffic. The screening is a benefit for the Austin Film…
The Apple Dumpling Gang
The Apple Dumpling Gang 1975, G, 100 min. Directed by Norman Tokar, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Tim Conway, Don Knotts, Susan Clark, Bill Bixby. This comic Disney Western is at its best when Don Knotts and Tim Conway are onscreen as the bumbling bandits who try to steal from a bunch of…
River of No Return
This is a swell CinemaScope movie that shows off the landscape and Marilyn Monroe to their best advantages. It’s fun watching Mitchum and Monroe heat things up in the Old West; Monroe is at her most luminous as a saloon singer with a heart of gold.
Mako: The Jaws of Death
A man takes revenge on the unscrupulous scientists who exploit his shark buddies.
Coach’s Corner
Why you want to read about golf, Coach’s great metaphor for life
Phases and Stages
The radio plays ’em, they’re on MTV and in the clubs, and at some point, we’re humming them and buying the album. Then, of course, there’s the remix. That’s old news for Bad Boy producer P. Diddy Combs, ’cause he “invented the remix.” Well, maybe not, but his entitlement has produced We Invented the Remix…
Naked City
The City Council is slated to decide whether to adopt recommendations proposed by the city’s Transportation, Planning and Sustainability Dept. that would significantly alter the face of downtown Austin’s traffic patterns.
K-19: The Widowmaker
K-19: The Widowmaker 2002, PG-13, 126 min. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson, Peter Sarsgaard, Christian Camargo, Joss Ackland. In the wake of last August’s Russian naval disaster — during which 118 sailors aboard the nuclear submarine Kursk perished in the Barents Sea while the Russian…
¡Más Comida!
It’s no secret that Austin is well-known for the caliber and sheer number of Mexican restaurants located in the city. According to Texas Restaurant Association statistics, Austin boasts 168 Mexican restaurants — excluding fast-food chains — and the number swells to nearly 250 when chains are included. Our local family of Mexican restaurants posts some…
Imminent Harm
The city plays a high-stakes, high-risk game with Stratus Properties, while the citizens look on
Naked City
Houston activist Ken Crowley is sentenced to six months in federal prison and $1,000 in fines for repeated civil disobedience at the School of the Americas.
South of Heaven, West of Hell
South of Heaven, West of Hell R, 174 min. Directed by Dwight Yoakam, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Warren Zevon, Joe Ely, Scott Wilson, Luke Askew, Bo Hopkins, Michael Jeter, Bud Cort, Paul Reubens, Peter Fonda, Bridget Fonda, Billy Bob Thornton, Vince Vaughn, Dwight Yoakam. Not reviewed at press time. Dwight Yoakam’s elegiac…
Food-o-File
Happenings at Matt’s El Rancho, Boggy Creek, Basil’s, and more.
How Easy Is Austin?
The end is near. Austinites may interpret that expectation in opposite ways, in light of the arguments both for and against the Stratus Properties development agreement. The City Council is expected to wrap up additional tinkering and possibly cast a final vote today (July 18) on a contentious deal that more than 500 people spoke…
Austin @ Large: Austin at Large
The council surrenders to Stratus and abandons its “Green” credentials
Lovely & Amazing
Lovely & Amazing 2001, R, 91 min. Directed by Nicole Holofcener, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Catherine Keener, Brenda Blethyn, Emily Mortimer, Raven Goodwin, Dermot Mulroney, Jake Gyllenhaal, James Le Gros. Every child is entitled to a parent’s unconditional love, to grow up feeling lovely and amazing. Yet neuroses and self-doubt have a…
Mini-Review
Claudia Alarcon writes why Foods of the Maya brings it all back home.
Slusher vs. Bunch
The following is a capsule version of opposing views on the proposed Stratus development agreement, as presented by two former environmental allies: Council Member Daryl Slusher (for) and Save Our Springs Alliance director Bill Bunch (against). Their comments are drawn and summarized from their respective analyses of the proposal, edited for clarity and brevity. (Complete…
The Hightower Report
George W.’s corporate scolding reeks of hypocrisy; the Pentagon buys into Hollywood.
Family Fundamentals
Family Fundamentals 2002, NR, 75 min. Directed by Arthur Dong, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . How families reconcile their ideological dissonance is the unspoken subject matter of Family Fundamentals. This documentary looks at the lives of three gay adult children of Christian fundamentalist “families.” Or is it fundamentalists with gay offspring that’s…
Will Travel for Food
Central Market’s Jane King visits the gentrified Grassmarket area of Edinburgh and the used-cookbook store of Clarissa Dickson Wright, formerly of Two Fat Ladies.
Strange Bedfellows, Stranger Enemies
The Stratus Properties controversy has generated strong emotions on every side, and has also created increasingly bitter splits among Austin environmentalists. The level of vitriol is well illustrated by a recent e-mail that escaped its sender and receiver (as e-mails tend to do) and has been making the rounds of local political circles. The message,…
Game Boy
Local development company Game Titan grows up, but stays young at heart
Stuart Little 2
Stuart Little 2 2002, PG, 78 min. Directed by Rob Minkoff, Narrated by , Voices by Michael J. Fox, Nathan Lane, Steve Zahn, Melanie Griffith, James Woods, Starring Hugh Laurie, Geena Davis, Jonathan Lipnicki. So I’m a sucker for talking animals. Stuart Little 2, and its enormously popular predecessor, 1999’s Stuart Little, fudge a bit…
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.
O Brother
How a bluegrass soundtrack turned out to be the biggest music business success story since Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction.
Not Quite No-Kill — Yet
As the Town Lake Animal Center nears the target date to complete its No-Kill Millennium plan, launched in 1997, most observers agree the situation has improved. Chances of meeting its goals, though, remain slim.
Kind to Be Cruel
It’s all Lovely & Amazing to actress Catherine Keener.
Eight Legged Freaks
Giant spiders invade a small town in this fun B-movie throwback.
Articulations
The stage musical version of The Lion King finally lands in Texas, and even four years into its Broadway run, the show still truly creates a world of wonders.
O Sinner, Where Art Thou?
The people who applaud the music from O Brother, Where Art Thou? as a return to old-fashioned values and wholesome morals have obviously been smoking some of that Big Rock Candy Mountain. Why? Because … “Po Lazarus” — High sheriff’s command to bring him the fugitive Lazarus “dead or alive” is an example of unconstitutional,…
Another Drug War Casualty
Testimony continues this week in the capital murder trial of 23-year-old Edwin Delamora, accused of firing the fatal shot that killed Travis County Sheriff’s Deputy Keith Ruiz in February 2001.
The Internet Drops Trou
You wouldn’t believe how an ass or two spruces up that corporate gray.
Exhibitionism
The popular interactive theatre piece Late Nite Catechism thrives on the interaction between the audience, cast as students in a course of religious instruction, and the actor who plays the nun teaching it. In the touring production, Amanda Hebert is amazing in the role, playing Sister with perfect presence and timing.
Welcome to the Underground
David Baerwald goes from Boomtown to bust-town, Austin.
When Malls Attack
We sure are getting a lot of malls.
Short Cuts
Ron Howard back to The Alamo?
Exhibitionism
The dirigo group production of Sam Shepard’s True West sees Corey Gagne and Judson L. Jones swapping the roles of petty criminal Lee and screenwriter Austin every other night. While both are exceptional actors, offering plenty of sharp character work, both versions bring that pervading sense of threat that gives the show the violent inevitability…
Baerwald Reviewed
David BaerwaldHere Comes the New Folk Underground (Lost Highway) Baerwald, of David & David fame, has apparently made himself welcome here in the bust-town; the Austin version of his New Folk Underground that includes local luminaries like Redd Volkaert, Mark Addison, Hunt Sales, Bukka Allen, and Charlie and Will Sexton, spreads his gospel with moody…
Old Homes = New Yuppies?
The City Council places a 90-day moratorium on new historic zoning cases in the Eastside and creates a task force to examine the relationship between historic zoning and gentrification.
TV Eye
Keeping one eye on television and the other on pop culture.
Upcoming …
We survey the landscape of upcoming literary events and author appearances.
How I Spent My Last 20 Years
Gretchen Phillips pays her last respects to the Hole in the Wall
Taking the Fifth?
The battle lines form over the Bush nomination of Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Video Reviews
In his seventh starring turn with noted alpha-male auteur Anthony Mann, Jimmy Stewart is aging third baseman “Dutch” Holland — 152 RBI last season and a brand-new $70,000 contract, to boot — whose country wants him back in the USAF.
Page Two
Saving what we can of Barton Springs — most recently threatened by a proposed development deal between the city and Stratus Properties — requires pragmatism and compromise.
Dancing About Architecture
Emo’s turns 10.
Naked City
Stratus Properties and the city entered the final stretch of negotiations this week, with both sides still in dealmaking mode as the Chronicle went to press. At last call, the city and the developer were moving closer to settling how Stratus would be compensated if the city ever decided to downzone the property, returning some…
Mr. Smarty Pants
There’s someone listed in the Pell City, Ala., phone directory as Lights Harbor.Harvard researchers found introducing TV to remote parts of Fiji resulted in eating disorders of teen girls. In 1995, there were no girls who self-induced vomiting to control their weight. Three years after introducing TV, the figure had reached 11%.When they first started…
Un-Limited Fun In the Park
Here’s the lineup for the big Austin City Limits music festival in Zilker Park on September 28-29, announced at last! Acts in no particular order: Emmylou Harris, Ryan Adams, Wilco, String Cheese Incident, Pat Green, Nickel Creek, Gillian Welch, Blind Boys of Alabama, Patty Griffin, Jayhawks, G. Love & Special Sauce, Shawn Colvin, Asleep at…
Naked City
The Bush administration has nominated Texas Railroad Commissioner Tony Garza to be the new U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. Garza is one of three elected railroad commissioners (who actually regulate oil and natural gas production, not railroads), and is the grandson of Mexican immigrants. — L.N. The nationally syndicated radio program Latino USA, produced in partnership…
Second Helpings: Slices of Life
Erin Mosow throws a pizza party in this week’s “Second Helpings.”
After a Fashion
If you ask Stephen out on a date and he tells you that he has to do his Hair, don’t be offended, he’s just obsessing about the new production at Zach Scott.
Phases and Stages
Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Max RoachMoney Jungle (Blue Note) It has been hailed by some as “one of the greatest piano trio recordings in jazz history,” but no matter what your take is on this historic reissue from 1962, Money Jungle commands attention for no other reason than it brought together a triumvirate of jazz…
Naked City
Has the Libertarian Party dismissed copy editing as yet another oppressive form of regulation? In an e-mail announcing its upcoming Bill of Rights rally in Wooldridge Square, the local chapter refers to itself as the “Livertarian Party,” and names a place called “Capital Hill.” (Then again, considering how much capital lobbyists shuffle off to our…
Day Trips
Storm’s Drive-In in Lampasas looks about the same as it did in 1958 when Elvis Presley drove his Cadillac under the awning and ordered a strawberry shake over the crackling speaker. Robbis Storm was a 12-year-old carhop when the King of Rock and Roll pulled into his family’s restaurant. “I was real intimidated by him…
Phases and Stages
ECM :rarum The name says it all. Not ECM, “Edition of Contemporary Music,” one of the most artistically independent labels in music. Rather, the name to remember here is :rarum, or better yet, its secondary title, Selected Recordings. Plumbed from ECM’s deep and sonorous mostly-jazz vault, “Selected” refers to the redactor who matters most, the…
Naked City
Environmentalist George Cofer asks the “silent majority” to speak up for the Stratus deal. But so far it’s a “majority” of one — and 99 against.
To Your Health
I get confused about the various kinds of vitamin E on the vitamin labels. Why can’t labels just say “tocopherol”?
Phases and Stages
Robert Randolph & the Family BandLive at the Wetlands (Dare) Finally. After enduring more than a decade’s worth of teenage guitar messiahs with character and soul to match their hairless faces comes a true prophet. Like a heavenly parade of American music’s immortal black performers, Robert Randolph, a 24-year-old Jersey boy, is a product of…
Naked City
The Hyde Park Baptist Church is in state district court against the city of Austin, seeking to expand its proposed parking garage.
The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course
The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course 2002, PG, 89 min. Directed by John Stainton, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Steve Irwin, Terri Irwin, Kate Beahan, Steve Bastoni, David Wenham, Magda Szubanski, Lachy Hulme, Bindi Sue Irwin. If you watch cable television, you know that Aussie outdoorsman Steve Irwin is one of two things: He’s…
About AIDS
Project Transitions Invites You to Party at Oilcan’s The question is often asked, “What can I do to help?” Currently, one really easy answer is, “Help out by having a good time at a fundraising event!” One upcoming event will help raise money for the programs of Project Transitions, which provides helpful housing for people…
Phases and Stages
BruteCo-balt (Widespread) A strange pairing, sure, but diminutive songwriting genius Vic Chesnutt and beefy jammers Widespread Panic have been connected since at least 1993, when they teamed up for the first release under the Brute moniker, Nine High a Pallet. Where that one was quirky and full of odd little tunes, Co-balt is fairly polished…
Naked City
On July 12 a Travis County District Court jury found Marcus Green guilty of practicing medicine without a license, and he was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Halloween: Resurrection
Halloween: Resurrection 2002, R, 85 min. Directed by Rick Rosenthal, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Daisy McCrackin, Sean Patrick Thomas, Bianca Kajlich, Busta Rhymes, Brad Loree, Jamie Lee Curtis. Rushing out the latest in this perrenial fall franchise during the sweat-soaked dog days of summer makes about as much sense as releasing Friday…
