TV Eye

In praise of TV that takes its time

"...In The Killing, you can almost feel the mud beneath your feet, the uneven ground. So you are compelled..."

April 1, 2011 Screens Column by Belinda Acosta

Sunsets Explained

"...blaze westward, until an indestructible orange glares up from beneath the Earth's curve. That glow deepens slowly. You can't..."

March 12, 2011 Postmarks

'You Were Our Father, A Veteran and So Full of Desperation'

Short Story Contest: Third place

"...holding his other hand high every time he stepped beneath a paper banner. The glittering paint proclaimed slogans such..."

Feb. 4, 2011 Books Feature by Kyle R M

'Natasha Bowdoin: The Daisy Argument'

A work that takes Lewis Carroll's text undersea and lets us drown in words

"...backgrounds that the artist has painted on the walls beneath these underwater plants are still more, carved out in..."

Feb. 4, 2011 Arts Review by Robert Faires

Anton Chekhov's The Duel

This is an even-handed portrait of discontented lovers: A love that starts out in a fever winds up with lots of pistol-waving.

"...another – oh, but what wild, ragged emotions lay beneath. Kosashvili, the director of the superlative Israeli family drama..."

Sept. 10, 2010 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

The Last Exorcism

This faux documentary pulls few punches in its fresh look at what happens when religion and the secular world collide.

"...Activity). There's a meaty thread of actual argument nattering beneath the twisted B-movie face of the the film, vis-à-vis..."

Aug. 27, 2010 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Despicable Me

Steve Carell provides the voice of the supervillain Gru in this animated movie in which he plots to capture the moon.

"...dart gun is requested. Carell’s vocal delivery is entertaining: Beneath the character’s amusing accent, we can hear intimations of..."

July 9, 2010 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Cult of Personality

Insect Records head and Attack Formation commander Ben Webster has never been photographed with Red River mascot-to-be Butcher Bear

"...Beneath the black mesh between the Bear's pointed teeth, the..."

June 25, 2010 Music Feature by Austin Powell

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Freddy Krueger is back to disturb everyone's sleep.

"...hellish iconography – angular and game actor Robert Englund beneath the battered fedora, the filth-encrused fashion-disaster sweater, the razored..."

May 7, 2010 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

The Box

Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly goes for full-fledged suspense in this studio thriller.

"...doorstep. Atop the box is a big, red button beneath a glass dome. Steward presents the cash-strapped couple with..."

Nov. 13, 2009 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Whip It

Drew Barrymore makes her directing debut with this Austin-set story about the modern age of roller girls.

"...and bruised to the roar of hot metal thunder beneath their feet. As the central character, Bliss Cavendar, Page..."

Oct. 2, 2009 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Halloween II

Rob Zombie's sequel to his 2007 remake of the original Halloween features Michael Myers coming back to town to wrap up some family business.

"...a suicide bombing instead of terrifying like the bomb beneath the table or the knife behind the back...."

Sept. 4, 2009 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

G-Force

In its gadget-lust and obvious Transformers envy, G-Force is a loud and stupid Jerry Bruckheimer production, and its guinea pig spies are similarly crude.

"...and Arnett (in the flesh), wrangling with material so beneath them as to be subterranean, while Favreau and Rockwell,..."

July 31, 2009 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

So a mammoth, a sloth, and a saber-toothed tiger walk into a Mesozoic Age ….

"...discovering a community of perfectly healthy human beings living beneath the late, great planet Earth. Animation is nothing if..."

July 10, 2009 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

The Big Legebowski

The session will be remembered largely as an opportunity lost to partisan displays

"...to raise the state's nonwind renewable energy portfolio died beneath the chubbing. Education (and Guns?)..."

June 12, 2009 News Feature by Lee Nichols

Lauren Levy: Beneath the Palm of My Hand

Levy's latest work is no less compelling for moving from three to two dimensions

"...'Lauren Levy: Beneath the Palm of My Hand'..."

May 15, 2009 Arts Review by Wayne Alan Brenner

Beauty in Trouble

In this Czech film, the tumultuous marriage of a couple, who only stop quarreling for bouts of sex, faces a reckoning.

"...bouts of enthusiastic sex which erupt like little volcanoes beneath a shared life otherwise strewn with the flotsam and..."

April 3, 2009 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Rigoletto

ALO's straightforward staging of the Verdi classic offers the thrill of a tale told well

"...with every halting step, his bitterness salts the ground beneath him. The heavy tread, the surly look, the disgruntled..."

Feb. 6, 2009 Arts Review by Robert Faires

Valkyrie

Tom Cruise seems somewhat out of place as a German officer in this thriller about the attempt on Adolf Hitler's life in July 1944.

"...army against the SS begins to fray, Valkyrie topples beneath the weight of memory, and history. Following Hitchcock's "bomb..."

Dec. 26, 2008 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Let the Right One In

This multi-award-winning Swedish film might be summarized as a vampire tween romance, but that cheap and tawdry sum-up does zero justice to the magnificent emotional resonance of this gem. A discussion of the adaptation follows the film.

"...the point of pure emotional disconnect, she ultimately thaws beneath Oskar's repeated questions about her home life. How old..."

Nov. 14, 2008 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Fly Me to the Moon

This animated film is a simple parable of spirited can-do-ism, in which a trio of young houseflies semiaccidentally tags along on the Apollo 11 moon shot.

"...gravity (but not, surprisingly, Raid) and shoots moonward. Lurking beneath that main story, though, is a number of subplots..."

Aug. 15, 2008 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

The Mayor of Washington Boulevard

The first Beach Boys' solo album, Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue, washes back ashore after more than three decades

"...on a boat in Marina del Rey. He dove beneath it – said to be looking for an old..."

Aug. 1, 2008 Music Feature by Bill Bentley

The Dark Knight

The visuals soar and Heath Ledger's Joker is magnificent, although this Batman movie is grim and chilly, as if made for our age of anxiety.

"...when the mask comes off, sure enough, the face beneath the frown splits into a poorly pancaked rictus, a..."

July 18, 2008 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Hancock

Will Smith is the titular Hancock, a character as befuddling as the odd movie that surrounds him.

"...times you can almost feel the social critique pooling beneath the film's surface. But unless the message is that..."

July 4, 2008 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Red, White, and Reckless

Reckless Kelly's all-American bloodletting

"...four Austin Music Awards for Best Roots Rock act. Beneath the hard-drinkin', hell-raisin', road-runnin' anthems, Willy's songwriting bites with..."

July 4, 2008 Music Feature by Doug Freeman

The Incredible Hulk

Finally, the Hulk is truly incredible. As of right now, it's Marvel's universe; we just live in it.

"...super-soldiers. Hurt gives Ross a genuine streak of humanity beneath all that hardcore hawkishness, but it's clear from the..."

June 13, 2008 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

If you're looking for escape, then the fourth installment in the beloved cliff-hanging archaeological-adventure franchise should fit the bill.

"...giddy to be back, and who can blame her?). Beneath all the derring-do and Indy's patented wry understatement ("this..."

May 23, 2008 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Smart People

Smart people, dumb choices: It's true for both the characters and the filmmakers in this acerbic comedy that stars Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church, and Ellen Page.

"...subplot or something else askew. There's much more roiling beneath the surface of these characters, and it's a shame..."

April 11, 2008 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation

This Brazilian film is set against the twinned, opposing backdrops of the explosive 1970 World Cup and the human toll of the country's brutal military dictatorship.

"...are forced to flee the city as subversives, exiting beneath the doublespeak of "going on vacation" (subbing for extermination),..."

April 4, 2008 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Girls Rock!

"How do you teach a teenage girl how to like herself?" is the key question that drives Portland, Ore.'s Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls, as well as this documentary survey of the experience.

"...without seeming exploitative or insensitive? Don't underlay their images beneath the likes of a busty model in a beer..."

March 21, 2008 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

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