Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein 1948, NR, 83 min. Directed by Charles Barton, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi. This is one of the best of all the Abbott and Costello features. The pairs meet up not only with Frankenstein, but also the Wolfman, Count Dracula,…
Films by Local Filmmakers
Films by Local Filmmakers G. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Several suspense, thriller, and horror films made by local filmmakers will screen. Contact Philip Goetz at 486-1271 for more information.
La Bête
La Bête 1975, X, 93 min. Directed by Walerian Borowczyk, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Roland Armontel, Pierre Benedetti, Lisbeth Hummel, Elisabeth Kahson, Sirpa Lane, Guy Tréjan. Controversy has dogged this frankly erotic work by the Polish former animator-turned-live-action director Walerian Borowczyk. The movie is a blatantly sexy reworking of The Beauty and…
Twilight People
Twilight People 1972, PG, 84 min. Directed by Eddie Romero, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Pam Grier, Charles Macaulay, Jan Merlin, Pat Woodell, John Ashley. This Seventies Philippines action movie has a former SS doctor performing mad-scientist experiments that involve melding man and beast in an Island of Lost Souls plot redux.
Strange Fruit (2001) and the House I Live in
Strange Fruit (2001) and the House I Live in 1945, G. Directed by Joel Katz, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Billie Holiday’s famous song about lynching (written by Bronx Jewish schoolteacher Abel Meeropol) is examined by contemporary artists and scholars, who comment on the history of black and Jewish relations in America.…
Fright Night
In this hybrid comedy/horror film, a suburban teen is convinced there’s a vampire living next door.
The War Report: Reportage From the Front Lines
The War Report: Reportage From the Front Lines NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Police chiefs and their wives, in Waikiki circa 1968, discuss Black Panthers, the Chicago Democratic Convention, and the latest weaponry in Richard Leacock’s rarely screened short “Chiefs” (18 min.). Library of Congress footage of bombing…
The Thing
The Thing 1982, R, 108 min. D: John Carpenter; with Kurt Russell. Carpenter remakes this 1951 sci-fi classic about shape-shifting aliens from the Antarctic. Much grislier than Howard Hawks’ original, Carpenter’s version is also more a study of internalization than group dynamics.
The Komediant
The Komediant 1999, NR, 80 min. Directed by Arnon Goldfinger, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . This documentary on the life of Pasach Burstein and his legendary family theatre family also provides a history of the Yiddish theatre and its evolution and decline in the 20th century.
To Your Health
My bowel habits have been poor all my life, and seem to worsen as I get older. I am well aware of the importance of good elimination. How can I do better?
Phases and Stages
Peter GabrielUp (Geffen/Real World) It’s been 10 years since Peter Gabriel’s last full-blown commercial release, Us. Instead of staying home to count royalties from prior albums, the former Genesis frontman has been busy as a producer, soundtracker (Rabbit-Proof Fence), label chief of distinguished international imprint Real World Records, and co-founder of the human rights organization…
Naked City
Quote of the Week: “Maybe insurance companies are like men. The worse you treat them, the more they come back.” — State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, on why insurers give her campaign cash when she typically supports pro-consumer measures Early voting for the Nov. 5 election starts this Saturday, Oct. 19 (see…
It’s a Wrap
Freedom HighwayD: Philip King; with Tom Waits, Ani DiFranco, Jonas Gwangwa, Dick Gaughan, Elvis Costello, Pete Seeger. Documentary Series Music is as much a means of inspiration as it is one of expression, and there’s so much to be inspired by in the “songs of resistance and liberation” discussed and performed in this documentary: Tibetan…
The Ring
An urban myth about a videotape that causes the death of anyone who watches it is given a good workout in this American remake of the Japanese horror sensation.
Fierce, Fierce Beauty
The title for Keith Carter’s exhibition at the Austin Museum of Art, “A Poet of the Ordinary” describes the photographer to a tee, a man who takes subjects from the everyday world and takes pictures of them that tell their story with the distilled purity of expression that characterizes great poetry.
About AIDS
Nonoxynol-9 doesn’t prevent HIV or STDs! Ever have a topic that acts like a vampire? It keeps rising from the dead-issues file to bite once again? I feel that way about Nonoxynol-9, or N9. N9 is an effective spermicide for birth control, widely used in vaginal foams, sex lubricants, and lubed condoms. Early in the…
Phases and Stages
Terrastock 5The Axis, Boston, Mass., October 11-13 It was still early in the scheme of things during Austin reps ST 37’s Friday afternoon Terrastock set. What a way to kick things off, though. “Discorporate” was the perfect gathering hymn, a spiritually infused number about setting aside differences and coming together for a greater good. And…
Naked City
Advocates and opponents of Austin’s holiest parking garage will gather at the Travis Co. Court House today (Thursday) at 2pm for the latest legal contretemps between Hyde Park Baptist Church and the city of Austin. The church is suing the city, saying Austin’s denial of its planned multistory parking garage violates both state law and…
It’s a Wrap
Lost in La ManchaD: Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe. This might have been just another the-making-of documentary, had Terry Gilliam actually managed to make his film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. But as the documentarians continue to circle the cast and crew it becomes increasingly clear that we’re witnessing the production’s unmaking instead. Haunted…
Knockaround Guys
Knockaround Guys 2001, R, 93 min. Directed by David Levien, Brian Koppelman, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Tom Noonan, John Malkovich, Dennis Hopper, Andrew Davoli, Seth Green, Vin Diesel, Barry Pepper. They’re fish out of water, these junior mobsters from Brooklyn skulking around a sleepy Montana town trying to recover some missing loot.…
Being Edmundo
In her new cabaret performance piece Edmundo, writer and actor Jennifer Haley dallies with a man who needs to have it all.
Letters at 3AM
The Pacific Coast Highway: What Randolph Bourne wrote in 1917 could have been written today: “The government of a modern organized plutocracy does not have to ask whether the people want to fight or understand what they are fighting for, but only whether they will tolerate fighting. … Responsibility lies always on the shoulders of…
Phases and Stages
Bloods or Crips, dirty cops or Rodney King, OJ or Dr. Dre; whatever misconceptions exist about L.A., they’re no threat to the hip-hop sextet Jurassic 5, who’ve taken charge of quality control for the new L.A. sound. Painting a beautiful landscape of the valley’s good life, the chemistry of four MCs and two producing DJs…
Naked City
“Ms. Cloud, this meeting never happened.” According to the just-resigned Texas Lottery Director Linda Cloud, that’s what Gov. Perry’s chief of staff Mike McKinney told her when they met last February to discuss sexual harassment allegations against former Lottery Commissioner Walter Criner. So, when asked about the allegations by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Cloud said…
It’s a Wrap
ManfastW/D: Tara Judelle; with Lala Sloatman, Jeremy Sisto, Klea Scott, Bruce Davison, Ethan Embry. Competition Film As if men don’t already have enough trouble persuading the fairer sex into bed, here comes a group of twentysomething women who decide to go completely without men for 100 days. No talking, no flirting, no touching, and of…
Ted Bundy
Ted Bundy 2002, R, 96 min. Directed by Matthew Bright, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Steffani Brass, Boti Ann Bliss, Michael Reilly Burke. I can praise this latest effort by screenwriter and cult filmmaker Bright, whose dark, satirical urban fairy tale Freeway gave Reese Witherspoon a well-deserved leg-up into stardom. But I can’t…
Piece of Work
A row of shining tines, wrought like the iron spire fences hemming in 18th-century churches, but burnished to blinding brilliance in ultra-modern stainless steel, stand at attention on the wall of D Berman Gallery, and the clash of the familiar and the novel is disarming.
The Cheese Stands Alone
Cheese, in all of its artisanal, aromatic glory, takes its rightful place at Austin’s tables.
Phases and Stages
A Hard Day’s Night (Miramax Collector’s Series) This nearly definitive DVD reissue of the Beatles’ debut film contains a terrific documentary and an entire second disc that features modern-day interviews with nearly everyone connected with the film (excepting the Beatles themselves), illustrated by 30 minutes of exclusive backstage and rehearsal footage. Add to that, glorious…
Naked City
Health care advocates, HIV/AIDS activists, gay and lesbian citizens, and others will gather to “Rally For Our Lives” on Sat., Oct. 19, 4-7pm on the south steps of the Texas Capitol. The rally protests recent Texas Dept. of Health cuts in AIDS funding (see “ALLGO’s HIV Funding Fight,” facing page). The 15th annual AIDS Walk…
It’s a Wrap
R.S.V.P.W/D: Mark Anthony Galluzzo; with Jason Mewes, Majandra Delfino, Glenn Quinn. Competition Film R.S.V.P.’s setup is a genre staple: A handful of partygoers, gathered at one house, are picked off one by one by a killer (killers?) among them. They don’t know who the madman is, but we soon do, a plot turn that diminishes…
The Last Kiss
The Italian film which was adapted for the American remake starring Zach Braff.
Articulations
Ballet Austin buys itself a new home downtown, and Shakespeare at Winedale founder James Ayres receives UT’s prestigious Civitatis Award.
The Cheese Library
Virginia B. Wood checks out the cheese library.
Dancing About Architecture
Another festival weekend, this time jazz; plus Mars Music not going under, and Bill Hicks — still dead, more CDs.
Naked City
There is arguably no issue that ranks higher on the Legislature’s priorities than education, and Austinites got to hear where local candidates stand at a forum Oct. 10 at the Austin Independent School District’s meeting chambers. They didn’t get to hear much — candidates were limited to 45-second answers as they whipped through a host…
It’s a Wrap
Searching for ParadiseD: Myra Paci; with Chris Noth, Susan May Pratt, Jeremy Davies, John Pierson, Laila Robins, Josef Somer. Competition Film Writer-director Myra Paci makes a strong feature filmmaking debut with this understated story about a recent college graduate who deals with her father’s death by seeking out the movie star (Noth) with whom she…
Exhibitionism
With The Incubus Archives, playwright David Hancock, director Vicky Boone, the show’s designers, and a group of actors as fierce and committed as they come have crafted a theatre-sized dreamscape, in which subjects seem to bubble up from the darkness of the subconscious and bizarre images erupt into view to ponder the nature of evil.
Pure Luck in Armenia
Sarah Bolton lost her luggage on a cheesemaking trip to Armenia, but she gained some priceless knowledge and relationships.
Running to the Middle
Part II of the Chronicle’s preview of the Nov. 5 general election
Naked City
Austin drivers saw an Amber Alert in action last week; Texas Dept. of Transportation billboards broadcast information on a truck carrying a kidnapped 14-year-old from Nevada (and her biological mother, whose parental rights were terminated, and her boyfriend, who’s on probation on a felony assault charge). The system worked — a trucker saw the white…
It’s a Wrap
Washington HeightsD: Alfredo De Villa/W: Alfredo De Villa & Nat Moss; with Tomas Milian, Manny Perez, Danny Hoch, Jude Ciccolella, Andrea Navedo, Bobby Cannavale. Competition Film Set in north Manhattan’s Dominican/Puerto Rican neighborhood of the same name, Washington Heights presents a stirring, slice-of-life sketch of its main character, aspiring comic book artist Carlos Ramirez (Perez).…
Exhibitionism
If director Don Toner’s staging of Copenhagen, a drama about 20th-century physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, is good but unexceptional, the trouble may lie in Michael Frayn’s script, which is full of intriguing ideas but less than satisfying as a story.
Food-o-File
Virginia B. Wood’s on her way to the Southern Foodways Alliance symposium in Oxford, Miss., but she still finds time to take you out to dinner and a movie in this week’s “Food-o-File.”
Weird, Spooky, and Rich
David Dewhurst runs against everybody but money.
Naked City
State environmental regulators granted Texas’ most famous prairie dog colony a temporary stay of execution last week, rescinding the city of Lubbock’s highly controversial plan to kill the animals that city officials claim are the cause of groundwater pollution. Early last week, seven environmental and animal rights groups filed a lawsuit in Travis Co. district…
It’s a Wrap
On Inspiration “Again and again, what I come back to when I try and sit down to write a movie, is this fucked-up relationship thing — what makes people stay together and what tears them apart.” — Austin Chick, writer/director (XX/XY) “When you’re sixteen it’s all about sex, and it still is. It’s good to…
Exhibitionism
In Charlie Victor Romeo, New York City theatre company Collective: Unconscious acts out in-flight catastrophes mined from actual Cockpit Voice Recorder transcripts, and it’s effective beyond all hype, beyond any amount of technical chicanery enjoined to provide fright in more fabricated productions.
Liquid Assets
Wine and cheese: Wes Marshall outlines the ultimate pairing.
“It’s Extremely Easy to Frighten People”
Insightful foreign policy critic Noam Chomsky explains the upcoming war, previewing his Austin appearances.
Naked City
Sixth Street in East Austin may soon become a quite busy construction zone. Architect Richard deVarga and Larry Warshaw, ex-Mayor Kirk Watson’s former chief of staff, have announced plans for a mixed-use “live-work” project at Pedernales and East Sixth, while a few blocks west at Robert Martinez Street is the proposed site of UT’s new…
Short Cuts
SXSW entry deadlines, more classes, congratulations, and a whiff of debauchery
Bouchercon 2002
Previewing the World’s Premier Mystery Convention
Cumbia Sobre El Rio
Monterrey’s Celso Piña and his 21st Century cumbia
ALLGO’s HIV Funding Fight
New state funding systems leave Austin’s largest Latino HIV-prevention program in danger of shutdown.
Capitol Chronicle
The new Congressional districts alter the political makeup of Central Texas.
Video Reviews
History, they say, is written by the victors, so it can be enlightening to revisit it through the eyes of the vanquished –as is the case in this affecting post-war drama.
Punch-Drunk Love
Sandler plays a socially inept, outwardly calm warehouse worker who harbors a maelstrom of rage.
The Man Who Made It Happen
Willie Siros still runs his Adventures in Crime & Space bookstore online at CrimeandSpace.com, but his storefront on Sixth Street closed last year. He’s serving as co-chair of Bouchercon 2002 along with Karen Meschke, and sat down for a few minutes to discuss the convention.
Latin Beat
The Latin beat is nothing if not hybrid, like the whorey old cliché about the Aztlan nation: La Malinche lying down with the man from La Mancha. Like the culture, la música lays down irresistible, indigenous rhythms on top of which Western conventions do the nasty. Two years ago, for instance, the Nortec Collective led…
Unclear Air: Taggers vs. SUVs
There are people who find daily life unbearable without a cell phone stuck on one end and an SUV on the other. Now some Austinites want to stick it to them — or at least to their SUVs. They are the local chapter of a group called Changing the Climate. It’s the sort of ad…
Austin @ Large: Austin at Large
Everybody suddenly wants to take credit for commuter rail.
TV Eye
Belinda Acosta has been having trouble watching television lately. It’s what isn’t on television that’s keeping her up at nights –the conspicuous absences, the loud silences.
The Latest in Paper
“Like Imperial Rome, Ode to a Banker is a sprawling, remarkable event masquerading as a trade paperback murder mystery,” writes Marc Savlov of Lindsey Davis’ novel, now in paperback.
Monterrey Bound
The most hassle-free way to get to Monterrey is by bus. The Americanos bus line leaves from the Greyhound station at 916 E. Koenig about every two hours. If the person working the counter is in a good mood, they’ll tell you when the next Americanos bus comes, and they’ll sell you a ticket beforehand.…
SBOE: A Green Challenge?
Green Party candidate Lesley Ramsey aims to bring progressive values to the right-wing State Board of Education.
The Hightower Report
Awash in Money; Fighting FrankenFish
‘Chasing the Dime’ Reviewed
Harry Bosch is gone, but Michael Connelly introduces us to Henry Pierce in his latest L.A. noir, Chasing the Dime.
WWJD?
Jesse Sublett’s insider guide to Bouchercon.
Omaggio a Tropicalista
Putting Brazil’s musical poet laureate in his place.
County Jail: Not So Bad
After a decade of violating rules imposed by the regulatory Texas Commission on Jail Standards, Travis County’s jail system is finally in compliance. But will the good times last? Travis Co. Sheriff Margo Frasier seems confident the days of overcrowding and understaffing are over; at a Monday press conference held at the Travis Co. Jail,…
The Whole Schmear
The First Annual Austin Jewish Film Festival
‘Bad Boy Brawly Brown’ Reviewed
Has Walter Mosley’s seventh novel in the Easy Rawlins series lived up to its predecessors? Jesse Sublett lets you know in his review of Bad Boy Brawly Brown.
Amy’s Orgasm
Amy’s Orgasm 2001, NR, 85 min. Directed by Julie Davis, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jennifer Bransford, Mitchell Whitfield, Jeff Cesario, Caroline Aaron, Nick Chinlund, Julie Davis. She’s a “feminist icon” with a best-selling self-help manual and hordes of Ellen Jamesian-like fans who wear baby-Ts emblazoned with slogans proclaiming their independence from men.…
Short Third-Degree Sessions
Jesse Sublett gets personal with four of Bouchercon 2002’s featured authors.
Sheet Music
Tropical Truth: A Story of Music & Revolution in BrazilBy Caetano Veloso Alfred A. Knopf, 354 pp., $18.50 This is the book we all wish John Lennon had written about the Beatles, a thoughtful, meaty, intellectual examination of the social, political, and artistic undercurrents that fueled a groundbreaking musical movement. Our fascination should be focused…
King Inquiry: What Next?
On Oct. 10 Police Monitor Iris Jones, flanked by members of the police Citizen Review Panel, announced the panel’s unanimous vote calling for an independent investigator to review the police shooting of Sophia King. “It is my duty to concur with this recommendation or reject it,” Jones read from a prepared statement. “Based on my…
A Little Eclectic
Texas Documentary Tour brings Immy Humes to town.
After a Fashion
THE GEN ART GENERATION Here in Austin, we certainly seem to be getting our fair share of national recognition for creativity. Our latest brush with fame involves the events brought to us by Gen Art. Founded in 1993, Gen Art is a nonprofit arts and entertainment organization dedicated to showcasing emerging fashion designers, filmmakers, musicians,…
Phases and Stages
Delbert McClintonRoom to Breathe (New West) There are no gambles with a career like Delbert McClinton’s. He’s a cottage industry with nothing to prove to anyone except that he can smoke the competition in a flash. His 40 years in the business resonate on Room to Breathe, an album that raises a beer mug to…
Weed Watch
An overview of the latest developments on drug policy across the nation
It’s a Wrap
Film reviews from the 2002 Austin Film Festival, and lessons learned from the biz’s top talents.
Second Helpings: Sandwich Boards
They say that lunchtime is the right time.
Day Trips
Lone Star Legacy Weekend comes around annually during one of the most beautiful times of the year, and with a beautiful bonus: free parking and no admission fee to state parks and historic sites. The free weekend — this year Oct. 19-20 — was launched in 1998, as a way to entice Texans to explore…
Phases and Stages
James Luther Dickinson Free Beer Tomorrow (Artemis) You may know Jim Dickinson as the daddy of those North Mississippi All-Stars, producer of the Replacements’ Pleased to Meet Me, or the guy who played piano with the Stones on Sticky Fingers and Dylan on Time Out of Mind. For others, he’s the white cat out of…
Sour Notes For Robert Rodriguez
Robert Rodriguez runs into conflict with the Austin musicians’ union over scoring his new release.
It’s a Wrap
Angels CrestW/D: J. Michael Couto; Christopher Bauer, Currie Graham. Competition Film It seems like a regular Monday morning as two friends share a ride to work in writer/director Michael Couto’s Angels Crest. Christopher Bauer (of television’s Third Watch) plays a heavyset human resources geek named Teddy whom, when he utters the first line of the…
Scarlet Diva
Scarlet Diva 2000, NR, 91 min. Directed by Asia Argento, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Vera Gemma, Jean Shepard, Joe Coleman, Asia Argento. Cinematic Self-Destruction for Fun and Profit 101: That’s Scarlet Diva in a nutshell, although the directorial debut from the progeny of Italian horror maestro Dario Argento and actress/author Daria Niccolodi…
Wish You Were Here
Snapshots from the 2002 Austin Film Festival.
Mr. Smarty Pants
In 1958, General Mohammad Khatami, commander of the Imperial Iranian Air Force, was killed in a kite accident.The enclosure or pen where platypus are kept is known as a platypussery.One theory as to the origin of hamburgers is they first appeared in Baltic seaports and German sailors brought them back to Hamburg, where they became…
Phases and Stages
Doug MartschNow You Know (Warner Bros.) When a guitarist like Doug Martsch, the man behind indie rock institution Built to Spill, starts messing around with a musical form as distinct as Southern blues, something’s bound to happen. What’s happened is Now You Know, his first solo album, a collection of tunes inspired by a fleeting…
The Chronicle Endorsements, Nov. 2002
The Chronicle endorses for the 2002 November general election
It’s a Wrap
Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part HarmonyD: Lee Hirsch. Documentary Series The history of apartheid in South Africa is an ugly story, but one that needs to be told. The documentary Amandla! finds a way to impart this sad history while raising our spirits at the same time. The movie examines the integral role music…
Secretary
Secretary 2002, R, 104 min. Directed by Steven Shainberg, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Lesley Ann Warren, James Spader, Jeremy Davies, Maggie Gyllenhaal. Secretary is a testament to the importance of tonality in telling a story. The filmmakers take tricky subject matter – mutually consenting sadomasochism – and shape a movie that is…
