Robin and Marian
Robin and Marian 1976, PG, 106 min. Directed by Richard Lester, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Audrey Hepburn, Sean Connery, Robert Shaw, Richard Harris, Nicol Williamson, Denholm Elliott, Ian Holm. Frequently underrated, Robin and Marian is a revisionist telling of the familiar tale with the famous couple seen in middle age and abundantly…
Superfuzz
Superfuzz 1980, PG, 107 min. Directed by Sergio Corbucci, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Terence Hill, Ernest Borgnine, Joanne Dru. Italian cop buddy picture features Terence Hill, whose encounter with a nuclear reactor provides him with super crime-fighting abilities, telekinesis, and mind control.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 1954, NR, 127 min. Directed by Richard Fleischer, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, Peter Lorre. One of the all-time great fantasy-adventure films, this widescreen Jules Verne submarine tale overflows with great performances and set-pieces. The movie won Oscars for art direction and…
Return of the Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe
Return of the Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe 1974, NR, 84 min. Directed by Ves Robert, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Pierre Richard, Mireille Darc, Michel Duchaussoy, Jean Rochefort. The sequel to the popular French comedy continues the spy spoof.
Eve
Eve 1962, NR, 120 min. Directed by Joseph Losey, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jeanne Moreau, Stanley Baker, Virna Lisi, Nona Medici. In its review, Variety described this little-seen Losey work as “a sleek, mannered look at an affair between a cold, almost psychotic, call girl and a writer, who is fraught with…
Manhunter
Thomas Harris’ first serial-killer film adaptation.
The Wizard of Oz Summer Sing-Along
The Wizard of Oz Summer Sing-Along 1939, G, 101 min. Directed by Victor Fleming, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Frank Morgan, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton, Charley Grapewin, Munchkins. When it comes to things cinematic, “there’s no place like home” and the audience will sing it…
Journey to a Hate Free Millennium
Journey to a Hate Free Millennium 1999, NR, 80 min. Directed by Martin Bedogne, Brent Scarpo, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . This documentary explores the reasons why people hate and commit hate crimes, and seeks solutions to this ever-growing problem within our society. The filmmakers investigate the murder of Matthew Shepard, the…
High Society
High Society 1956, NR, 107 min. Directed by Charles Walters, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Celeste Holm, John Lund. A musical remake of The Philadelphia Story, High Society features Cole Porter tunes, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, and Grace Kelly in her final acting role.
Twenty Flight Rock
The Life and Times of Robert Fraser
To Your Health
My 3-year-old daughter likes to eat dog biscuits. I have been hiding them from her, but she occasionally finds them anyway and helps herself. Is there anything wrong with this?
Naked City
Farewell to ECB, Return to Tulia, APD Extends Knee, Ramping Up I-35, AAN Awards and Slacker Editor
Flicker #four
Flicker #four NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Flicker No. 4 is the latest installment of the bimonthly film festival that features short films by local and national filmmakers who submit works via mail. Flicker guarantees an array of projects and intriguing juxtapositions at every screening, with linear narratives…
Twenty Flight Rock
Film Composers Talk About the Art, Craft, Blood, Sweat, and Tears of Writing for the Cinema
About AIDS
African Bishops to Discuss Lifting Ban on Condoms
Naked City
The Austin Museum of Art chalked up another loss late last week with the resignation of Executive Director Elizabeth Ferrer, who will leave her position July 31. Ferrer’s announcement did not come as a complete surprise, given the rumors that had been circulating for weeks about her impending departure. The resignation follows a round of…
The Odd Couple
The Odd Couple 1968, NR, 105 min. Directed by Gene Saks, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Herb Edelman, John Fiedler, Monica Evans, Carole Shelley. Neil Simon’s original play was the source material for this movie, which went on to inspire the successful TV series and a movie sequel. Felix…
Twenty Flight Rock
Scenes From the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991
Coach’s Corner
I am a bottom-feeding commentator on the world of sports. This is noted with little of the bitterness of a younger Coach, certain the next week would surely bring a call from a senior editor at Sports Illustrated politely inquiring if I’d consider joining their writing staff in whatever capacity might suit me. No, he’d…
Naked City
In keeping with downtown advocates’ desires to make the East Sixth Street entertainment district a more “user-friendly” environment (see “Who Owns Sixth Street?,” May 4), the Austin Police Department has joined with the Downtown Austin Alliance and the Friends of Sixth Street to create a place for public restrooms on the popular street. The idea,…
National Lampoon’s Animal House
The Johns – Belushi and Landis – both achieved their first huge film success with this popular hit.
Twenty Flight Rock
Burton Wilson’s photos of old-world Austin and An Album of Texas Songwriters
Star Billing
What is Star Canyon without its creator, Stephan Pyles?
Naked City
Just east of Pleasant Valley Road, in the heart of the Govalle neighborhood, there’s a zoning battle bubbling on narrow, tree-lined Tillery Street. At issue is whether a warehouse at 618 Tillery should be the subject of “rollback” zoning, which would change the 80,000 square-foot site from light industrial zoning (LI) to single family zoning…
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers 1980, R, 133 min. D: John Landis; with John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd. Landis, Belushi, and Aykroyd flesh out the fictional Blues Brothers, and in the process created just about the only Saturday Night Live skit that makes a successful transition to a feature-length comedy.
The Big Day
The Big Day NR, 85 min. Directed by Ian McCrudden, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Julianna Margulies, Ivan Sergei, Dixie Carter, Kevin Tighe, Andy Buckley, Clayton Rohner, Alanna Ubach, Cch Pounder, Kathleen York, Charlie Robison. Not reviewed at press time. Originally titled We Met on the Vineyard, this indie film never saw a…
Twenty Flight Rock
The True, Tough Story of Women in Rock
Food-o-File
As a birthday gift last week, my family and friends treated me to a plane ticket to Greensboro, NC, so I could attend a Southern Foodways Alliance field trip investigating the foods of the Carolina Piedmont.
Naked City
One month after Seton Health Networks announced that it would no longer be able to offer services contrary to Catholic teaching at Austin’s Brackenridge Hospital, women’s groups across the city are joining forces to ensure that Austinites can obtain reproductive services. Local chapters of national groups, such as the Texas Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action…
The Apartment
Lemmon plays a company man who tries to climb the corporate ladder by loaning out his bachelor pad to illicitly trysting higher-ups. As usual, office politics makes for some strange bedfellows in this comedy.
The Princess and the Warrior
The Princess and the Warrior 2000, R, 130 min. Directed by Tom Tykwer, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Franka Potente, Benno Fürmann, Joachim Krol, Marita Breuer, Jürgen Tarrach, Lars Rudolph, Melchior Beslon, Ludger Pistor. German director Tom Tykwer’s third film to secure a U.S. arthouse release is closer in spirit to 1997’s claustrophobic…
Second Helpings: Ice Cream Parlors
Ice cream parlors in this week’s “Second Helpings”
Postscripts
What to look for in new fall titles
Mini-Review
World Beat Cafe 600 W. MLK Blvd., 236-0197 Mon-Thu, 11am-9pm; Fri-Sat, 11am-10pm; Sun, noon-6pm Lawrence Eguakun is a Nigerian who has blessed Austin with one of the more interesting additions to our ever-expanding world of diverse ethnic dining. He operates the World Beat Cafe at the corner of MLK and Nueces (next to Bert’s BBQ),…
The Hightower Lowdown
The Hightower Lowdown
Jurassic Park III
Jurassic Park III 2001, PG-13, 91 min. Directed by Joe Johnston, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Téa Leoni, Trevor Morgan, Alessandro Nivola, Michael Jeter. I don’t remember anyone clamoring for a new dino sequel, do you? Have it we do, though, whether we were jonesing for it or…
Almost Famous
Three years after leaving Austin for Hollywood, comics Chip Pope and Howard Kremer still aren’t celebs, but with pilots for HBO and Comedy Central and a willingness to schmooze, they’ve come agonizingly close.
Readings
Doghouse Roses Stories by Steve Earle Houghton Mifflin, 207 pp., $22 Fans of Steve Earle’s music already know the Texas native is a hell of a writer. From his early years fronting the Dukes on through the wasted days and wasted nights of Copperhead Road (which, fittingly, featured a track teaming Earle with that other…
Mini-Review
Pirates in Rockport Every year in early June, Chris Winslow, our pal and fishing buddy, gets a little bit older, but only according to the calendar. His mind stays as childlike as ever and never seems to mature. We have a tendency to celebrate his annual aging at Rockport, bouncing around in a boat on…
Small-Gauge Samurai
Super-8 enthusiast Cory Ryan brings Flicker to town.
Lost and Delirious
Lost and Delirious 2001, NR, 100 min. Directed by Léa Pool, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Piper Perabo, Jessica Paré, Mischa Barton, Jackie Burroughs, Graham Greene. Prep school girls in knee socks … and nothing else! Lost and Delirious could have come off like a fetishist’s fantasy or the stuff of late-night scrambled…
Articulations
Executive Director Elizabeth Ferrer resigns from the Austin Museum of Art, and Allen Robertson’s Jouét flies again at Louisville.
Readings
The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapusinski; translated by Klara Glowczewska Knopf, 325 pp., $25 For those of us inclined to complain about the blight of American-style capitalism on other cultures, Ryszard Kapuscinski’s latest book is a reminder that we’re not the first bullies in world history. Nor is the current globalism the only…
You Can Leave Your Hat On
The ballad of Mambo John Treanor
The Blue Theater
“It had always been a dream of mine to have a place to make theatre and art and show films,” says bespectacled Blue Theater owner Ron Berry. “I had been talking with a friend from Blue Genie Art, and so when the vacant garage next to them became available we jumped on it.” The space…
Come Undone
Come Undone 2000, NR, 100 min. Directed by Sebastien Lifshitz, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Réjane Kerdaffrec, Nils Ohlund, Laetitia Legrix, Dominique Reymond, Marie Matheron, Stéphane Rideau, Jérémie Elkaïm. If the sensitive coming-of-age love story is a well-worn tradition in gay cinema, Come Undone is at the very least a superior example of…
Exhibitionism
The characters in Kenneth Lonergan’s This is Our Youth are coping with the fallout from having grown up in dysfunctional families and tangled in friendships that were often abusive reiterations of those families, and Saints and Poets Theatre bring them to pure, unfiltered life, every twitch and slouch, every blame and whine and burst of…
Readings
The Best of ‘The Nation’ Selections From the Independent Magazine of Politics and Culture edited by Victor Navasky and Katrina Vanden Heuvel Thunder’s Mouth Press/Nation Books, 607 pp., $16.95 (paper) The 89 pieces from throughout the 1990s collected in this book remind me of the pleasures — including, sometimes, teeth-gritting rage — that arise from…
Dancing About Architecture
Ken say “blah blah blah”
Thank God It’s Friday
UT grad Christian McLaughlin discusses Spyder Games, his MTV “soap opera on crack.”
Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade 1998, NR, 102 min. Directed by Hiroyuki Okiura, Narrated by , Voices by Michael Dobson, Colin Murdock, Doug Abrahams, Moneca Stori, Starring . These days, with the eye-popping Final Fantasy blurring the line between the natural and the man-made, calling a Japanese anime technically impressive is akin to saying Walt Disney…
Exhibitionism
The Vortex Summer Youth Theatre production of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac plays up the comic elements of the story, mostly to good effect, without ever losing touch with its romantic theatricality and verve.
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
Jeff Whittington, 1955-2001
Three weeks ago, I was reminiscing about Sara Clark, an editor at the Austin Sun in the Seventies, who died recently. In her passing, I discovered she represented a great deal in my life. It was the same wistful revelation that occurred when Louis Black called me Sunday afternoon to say that Jeff Whittington had…
Short Cuts
Busted legs galore and more on the Texas Production Filmmakers’ Fund panelists.
America’s Sweethearts
America’s Sweethearts 2001, PG-13, 100 min. Directed by Joe Roth, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cusack, Billy Crystal, Hank Azaria, Stanley Tucci, Christopher Walken, Seth Green, Alan Arkin. Former Disney Chairman Joe Roth takes the directing helm with this bitchy romantic comedy, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s…
Exhibitionism
More than the life of Will Rogers, The Will Rogers Follies is about production values, singing, dancing — entertainment with a capital “E” — but with its poorly executed set, distracting costumes, problematic lighting and sound, the 43rd annual Zilker Summer Musical production is unable to deliver.
Page Two
We say goodbye to visionary writer and Chronicle co-founder Jeff Whittington, who passed away last week at the age of 46.
Live Shots
Billy IdolStubb’s, July 8 Remember where you were in ’82, the year “White Wedding” came out? Ron ‘n’ Nancy were in the White House (Dubya Sr. & Babs nearby), Charles ‘n’ Diana were in Buckingham Palace (or wherever), and Luke ‘n’ Laura were on General Hospital (allowing Rick “Dr. Noah Drake” Springfield his fair share…
Video Reviews
John Ford’s Sergeant Rutledge, about the trial of a black Army officer accused of murder and rape, has a striking, formal sort of beauty.
Public Notice
Hey, lookee! More info on the Wizard of Oz Sing-Along and some lowdown on Meals on Wheels beat the heat program.
Live Shots
Ray Wylie HubbardTexas Union Theatre, July 13 Over the course of the past 10 years, Wimberley’s Ray Wylie Hubbard has released a series of albums that prove him to be one of the finest singer-songwriters of our day. For the CD release celebrating his best effort yet, Eternal and Lowdown, two long sets demonstrated Hubbard’s…
Video Reviews
Chuck & Buck is often disturbing, but remains watchable thanks to director Arteta’s fine blend of urban horror and dark humor.
Twenty Flight Rock
The Eddie Cochran story
Letters at 3AM
The Holocauust reminds us that in order to save ouselves we must know ourselves
Live Shots
Bobby Blue Bland, The Blues SpecialistsVictory Grill, July 14 It was only a matter of time until the fire marshal showed up. The poor woman at the door, fanning herself with a “reserved” placecard, said, “You’re from the press, you tell ’em we’re packed and I’m about to fall out.” With every available inch of…
TV Eye
No Emmy nominations for Buffy
Twenty Flight Rock
A novel for music critics.
After a Fashion
What’s this we hear about a new studio next to the Continental Club, and what well-known out-of-towner is involved?
Pride of the Yankees?
Evan Smith translates a New York pedigree into the editorship of Texas Monthly.
Mournful Indifference
Mournful Indifference 1987, NR, 100 min. Directed by Alexander Sokurov, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Ramaz Chkhikvadze, Alla Osipenko, Irina Sokolova, Tatyana Yegorova, Vladimir Zamansky. This adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Heartbreak House is an early film by the celebrated Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov, who was a protégé of Andrei Tarkovsky. Sokurov uses…
Twenty Flight Rock
The Art of Bob Dylan; The Life and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez-Fariña and Richard Fariña
Day Trips
Babe’s Chicken Dinner House in Roanoke
The Plumber’s Publisher
Mike Levy stays in the background as Texas Monthly’s publisher, but takes center stage as a one-man activist group.
Coal Miner’s Daughter
Wonderful performances (Spacek won on Oscar) anchor this biopic of country star Loretta Lynn’s rise to fame.
Twenty Flight Rock
Ralph Ellison’s Jazz Writings
Mr. Smarty Pants
The data dump in your mind’s vast landfill
Burka on Bush
How did Texas Monthly’s Paul Burka, a Democrat, end up becoming one of George W. Bush’s biggest fans in the press corps?
Mommies & More: Baby Night
Mommies & More: Baby Night NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Baby Night happens the last Wednesday of every month at the General Cinemas Barton Creek Square 14. It’s not so much an event for babies as it is an oasis for their parents. One of the theatre’s regular…
