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Recommended happenings for your calendar's enjoyment

"...Catholicism-obsessed little freak who’s fed up with her mother’s manic pixie philandering ways that land them in a new..."

May 16, 2025 Arts Feature by James Scott

AFF Review: Grapefruit

Rosanna Arquette is tenderly flawed in this addiction dramedy

"...Billie, on the other hand, is the most stock manic pixie dream girl to grace our screen in years...."

Nov. 1, 2023 Screens Post by Matthew Monagle

Shortcomings

Randall Park's social satire centers on self-sabotaging hypocrisy

"...women that he thinks he can form-fit into his manic pixie idealizations. In reality, they come with all the..."

Aug. 4, 2023 Movie Review by Trace Sauveur

Josee, the Tiger and the Fish

Anime adaptation of bittersweet romance adds a little honeyed soap

"...Seiko Tanabe’s 1984 short story could have fallen into manic pixie dream girl tropes amplified by the narrative of..."

July 9, 2021 Movie Review by Richard Whittaker

Long Weekend

Downcast drunk meets manic pixie girl. Can true love prosper?

"...and mysteriously has broken her cell phone. She’s a manic pixie dream girl, with emphasis on the dream...."

March 19, 2021 Movie Review by Jenny Nulf

Yourself and Yours

Korean master Hong Sang-soo's understated dissection of how men only see women as they want

"...Hong’s film. Min-jung attracts men because she is borderline manic pixie dream girl. She floats through Yourself and Yours..."

June 26, 2020 Movie Review by Jenny Nulf

UT Theatre & Dance's 12 Ophelias (a play with broken songs)

In a work more poetry than story, playwright Caridad Svich has drowned Ophelia resurface, freed from Hamlet's shadow

"...the stick in Shakespeare's grand tragedy. Arguably the original manic pixie dream girl, Ophelia goes mad after Hamlet's betrayal..."

Oct. 11, 2019 Arts Review by Elizabeth Cobbe

Burning

Extraordinary Korean drama adds emotion to the thriller equation

"...should have been wary of all along? Seemingly the manic pixie perfect dream girl type, when she disappears there..."

Nov. 9, 2018 Movie Review by Jenny Nulf

Zach Theatre's Heisenberg

In Simon Stephens' play, we observe the unlikely pairing of two people as an experiment in risk and change

"...and authenticity; her Georgie seems almost like a reformed "manic pixie dream girl" with whom life has had its..."

July 6, 2018 Arts Review by Shanon Weaver

Ready Player One

Video gaming and Eighties culture get the Spielberg treatment

"...cooler-than-thou revolutionary Art3mis. In the book, she's basically a manic pixie gamer Princess Peach, but here Cooke embodies the..."

March 30, 2018 Movie Review by Richard Whittaker

Follow

Austin's own Owen Egerton directs his first movie

"...most transparent in Thana, who remains an enigma, a manic-depressive pixie girl into whom Applegate can only layer so..."

Sept. 30, 2016 Movie Review by Richard Whittaker

I Like to Watch: Roadies

Showtime series becomes a summer favorite

"...ago, and we've all learned a lot about the Manic Pixie since then...."

Sept. 2, 2016 Screens Column by Jacob Clifton

DVDanger: Follow

Owen Egerton on VOD, plus Antibirth

"...most transparent in Thana, who remains an enigma, a manic depressive pixie girl into whom Applegate can only layer..."

Aug. 27, 2016 Screens Post by Richard Whittaker

I Like to Watch

Finding the heart in Syfy's The Magicians

"...to Nick Hornby and Cameron Crowe, he imagines the Manic Pixie into the eternal sunshine and then cruelly denies..."

April 8, 2016 Screens Post by Jacob Clifton

SXSW Film Review: Before the Sun Explodes

A weird and crazy night in West Hollywood

"...Explodes is lodged in one such uncertain territory: between “manic pixie dream girl” romantic comedy and stalker thriller...."

March 15, 2016 Screens Post by Michael Agresta

Chronicle Recommends: Films of Love

Romance is in the air in this month's movie picks

"...for successful cougaring. 74-year-old Ruth Gordon plays a 79-year-old manic pixie dream girl to a baby-faced, 20-ish, death-obsessed Bud..."

Feb. 15, 2016 Screens Post by Chronicle Film Staff

DVDanger: The Harvest

Is it finally the Henry successor we wanted?

"...packaging. She's two inches away from being a teen manic pixie girl, while Andy is so fragile that his..."

Sept. 18, 2015 Screens Post by Richard Whittaker

DVDanger: Cult Film Corner

Burying the Ex and Patch Town

"...behind her. She could have played Olivia as a manic goth pixie girl, but she and Yeltsin have the..."

Aug. 18, 2015 Screens Post by Richard Whittaker

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

This indie hit is sweet and funny

"...a white lead’s epiphany: the Magical Negro and the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. But I think that misses the..."

June 26, 2015 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Spring

A genre-tinged story about a love affair abroad keeps us guessing

"...for Hilker, the burden falls to infusing a potential manic pixie dream girl with equal volatility and vulnerability. Both..."

March 20, 2015 Movie Review by William Goss

Good Eye: Tales From the Quirky Box

More side-eye examination of "quirky" female film roles

"...what might otherwise be seen as originality to a manic-pixie stereotype...."

Feb. 27, 2015 Column by Amy Gentry

In Real Life: Cory Doctorow

Wearing goggles or not, he's in town for the Texas Teen Book Festival

"...Good is the best rebuttal – to that whole manic pixie dream girl thing – that you’re ever likely..."

Oct. 15, 2014 Books Post by Wayne Alan Brenner

DVDanger: Identity Crisis

The Double, Filth, and Moebius melt minds

"...crumple-suited Gatsby, and Mia Wasikowska plays her as the anti-manic pixie dream girl. Her casting seems part of a..."

Aug. 30, 2014 Screens Post by Richard Whittaker

Kids These Days

Growing up on 'Looking' and 'Girls'

"...– if not always coherent – dive into the manic, punishing psyche of young creatives. (May we forever look..."

Jan. 18, 2014 Screens Post by Aleksander Chan

Wrapped in Plastic

'Once You Leave' web series

"...imaginary Central Texas, encountering Zen ranchers and a particularly manic pixie dream girl along the way. But when Kayla..."

Sept. 28, 2012 Screens Feature by Brandon Watson

The Luv Doc: Magic Pixie Dream Girl

It’s the classic dichotomy: Boat or anchor; gas or brakes, branches or roots …

"...that shit and I don’t like what I found. Manic Pixie Dream Girl? First of all, a manic is..."

July 20, 2012 Column

Down By Law

Criterion releases Jim Jarmusch's jailbird gem on Blu-ray.

"...also on the jury that year was the Italian manic-pixie-nightmare boy Roberto Benigni. As Jarmusch tells it, they bonded..."

July 20, 2012 Screens Review by Marc Savlov

Safety Not Guaranteed

Love and time travel commingle in this debut feature which stars Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass.

"...Darius' endless emotional pall. A sly variation on the "manic pixie dream girl," Plaza plays Darius opposite from the..."

June 15, 2012 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

SXSW Thursday Picks & Sleepers

Thursday blurbs slim down from the Wednesday bloat

"...Clive Bar Grimes, aka Claire Boucher, is the ultimate manic pixie, producing art and music with odd but entrancing..."

March 16, 2012 Music Feature

The Names of Love

This French romantic comedy is a gratifyingly grown-up kind of love story.

"...strong evidence the French have gotten into the so-called Manic Pixie Dream Girl market. (Then again, all those wide-eyed..."

Oct. 21, 2011 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

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