Optic Nerve #12

Floppy is as floppy does

"...Who needs it hard all the time?..."

Sept. 30, 2011 Books Post by Wayne Alan Brenner

Nerve

An online game of "Truth or Dare" turns dangerous

"...game in which its adrenaline-kick participants accept increasingly dangerous challenges at the bidding of the anonymous voyeur-participants posing them...."

July 29, 2016 Movie Review by Steve Davis

Having the Nerve to Speak Up

"...Dear Editor, Re: “Angry All the Time” [Earache Music blog, Aug. 13]: Bravo, Jim..."

Aug. 14, 2008 Postmarks

All Light, Everywhere

Chilling and insightful look at the birth of our surveillance culture

"...college, I would often write sprawling essays that only nominally conformed to the “intro/thesis statement/support/conclusion” format, much to the..."

June 18, 2021 Movie Review by Josh Kupecki

Creativity! Uniqueness! Nerve! and Talent!

RuPaul's Drag Race episode 2 recap and comments.

"...more to the couch: Germanic beauty Katja Rivera, and gallery-owner Katie Geha! Ka-Pow!..."

Feb. 10, 2009 Qmmunity Post by Andy Campbell

Spanked All Over

Top Ten Environmental Stories of 1995

"...war in the Atlantic Ocean. And politicians continued playing football with the Barton Springs Salamander. Yes, it was quite..."

Jan. 5, 1996 News Feature

We Were Right About Hillary All Along

"...Dear Editor, I am flabbergasted at the nerve of he-who-shall-remain-nameless. Give Florida and Michigan a full vote?..."

Aug. 4, 2008 Postmarks

All the Way to State

A high school play contest might not sound like a big deal, but it is to the 18,000 students in 1,200 schools across Texas who participate in the state's UIL one-act play every year -- and here's a look at why.

"...well, home. It's a simple yes or no question, really. Will Bowie advance or not? Will he be hugging..."

May 12, 2000 Arts Feature by Sarah Hepola

Love Is All Around

Tracking Sonny Curtis and his tall, West Texas tales

"...three months and through as many states, following phone calls, e-mails, rendezvous hit and missed, onstage and off, over..."

Oct. 15, 2004 Music Feature by Raoul Hernandez

The White Crow

Biopic of the great dancer Rudolf Nureyev rarely finds its feet

"...Ballet only has meaning if there is story to connect..."

May 17, 2019 Movie Review by Richard Whittaker

The Gambler

Mark Wahlberg has one of his juiciest roles ever as a creative-writing professor by day and a compulsive gambler by night.

"...but the game remains – mostly – the same: nerve-wracking, perverse, and sinfully exhilarating. (The original film’s producers Robert..."

Dec. 26, 2014 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

First Snow

A moody thriller that tries to thumb its nose at fatalism, First Snow features another great performance from Guy Pearce.

"...performance by Pearce, whose slick salesman Jimmy has the nerve to challenge his fate. While waiting for his car..."

April 20, 2007 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Wah-Wah

The death throes of an empire are are practically nothing when compared with the twitch of the marital death nerve in Richard E. Grant's semiautobiographical directorial debut.

"...rainbow compared with the twitch of the marital death nerve in Richard E. Grant's semiautobiographical directorial debut. Grant, the..."

June 16, 2006 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Spun

"...being, cranks it into overdrive, and lets the pieces fall where they may. In addition to director Åkerlund's creative..."

April 4, 2003 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Changing Lanes

"...I seen a film so willing to champion the fallibility of the human heart. Hollywood, after all, has never..."

April 12, 2002 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

I Am Sam

"...way, I Am Sam recounts the story of a mentally retarded man's legal fight against the system to retain..."

Jan. 25, 2002 Movie Review by Steve Davis

Six-String Samurai

"...But with the feral genius of a comics-steeped mind, ballyhooed young director Lance Mungia has managed to wring some..."

Sept. 18, 1998 Movie Review by Russell Smith

U.S. Marshals

"...manhunt movie focusing on U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard, Jones' stoically relentless flatfoot character from the original 1993 megahit. But..."

March 6, 1998 Movie Review by Russell Smith

2018 Oscar-Nominated Short Films: Live Action

Compassion, grace, and humor distinguish the Oscar hopefuls

"...for a complete stranger. In the tense "Watu Wote: All of Us," based on an actual event more than..."

Feb. 9, 2018 Movie Review by Steve Davis

Transpecos

Border-patrol officers get in way over their heads

"...film does not answer easy questions, and the subsequent fallout is intense and nerve-racking in all the best ways...."

Sept. 9, 2016 Movie Review by Josh Kupecki

Her

In the near future, Theodore upgrades his operating system and subsequently falls in love; Spike Jonze conceives the romance, Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlet Johansson sell it.

"...a guy perfectly content to stay cocooned in his wallowing...."

Jan. 10, 2014 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Rubber

Rubber is a movie about a sentient, telekinetic, and homicidal tire on a rampage.

"...by virtue of its premise alone – boldly unique. "All great films, without exception, contain an important element of..."

April 1, 2011 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Harsh Times

A gritty drama about a disappointed military vet and his best pal, who are headed in a downward spiral in South Central Los Angeles.

"...with his Sancho, Mike (Rodríguez), riding shotgun, getting into all kinds of trouble – drinking, drugging, fighting, tormenting shop-owners,..."

Nov. 17, 2006 Movie Review by Josh Rosenblatt

Three ... Extremes

This lush and horrific anthology film from three of the finest craftsmen working today – Fruit Chan, Chan-wook Park, and Takashi Miike – is an instantly memorable and squirm-inducing assemblage.

"...genre filmmaking, rendering them relatively limited in audience and, generally, narrative scope. Thanks to the necessarily foreshortened running times..."

Oct. 28, 2005 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Just Like Heaven

This romantic comedy about a winsome, charming ghost and the man who loves her sidesteps abundant potential clichés through sheer dint of the acting skills on display.

"...that tired old Batman/Superman hypothetical – what inquiring minds really want to know is who’d win the Romantic Comedy..."

Sept. 16, 2005 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

K-19: The Widowmaker

"...rigors of waterlogged filmmaking with The Abyss and Titanic) recalls Wolfgang Peterson's grueling sub classic Das Boot. With its..."

July 19, 2002 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

The Dish

"...1969 moonwalk -- is stretching things a bit. After all, very little in the history of mankind comes anywhere..."

April 27, 2001 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Romper Stomper

"...the main character's first line of dialogue is a nerve-rattling “Fuck you!” directed squarely at the audience with all..."

Sept. 10, 1993 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

ACL Interview: The Chicks’ Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer Talk Social Media, Hometown Feelings, and Plans for a Multigenerational Zilker Debut

“It’s always fun, but nerve-racking, to be back in Texas”

"...a happy resolution: headlining both Fridays at ACL Fest. Finally live-staging 2020 comeback Gaslighter, first record in 14 years..."

Oct. 7, 2022 Music Feature by Rachel Rascoe

Tully

Modern motherhood unraveled and rebuilt by the Young Adult team.

"...Mark Duplass, Ron Livingston, Lia Frankland and Asher Miles Fallica...."

May 4, 2018 Movie Review by Richard Whittaker

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