Music
Joshua Boydston
Norman Music Festival 5
Thursday-Saturday
downtown Norman
normanmusicfestival.com
free

Thriller
Rod Lott
All the way back from 1935, While the Patient Slept begins with a logo stating it's a Clue Club Picture. Was that a regular picture-show "thing"? The Clue Club? Because if it was, I would've been a faithful follower, just based upon this good-natured mystery, recently released by Warner Archive.

Thriller
Rod Lott
It's not often one sees the credit "completed by" in a film or TV series, but not many never-finished novels are even considered worthy of adapting to screen. However, most authors aren't the legendary Charles Dickens.

Action
Rod Lott
Set in South China 1919, the China/Hong Kong blockbuster Let the Bullets Fly slaps the viewer to attention with a bravura beginning: an action set piece in which masked robbers on horseback use the most ancient of technologies (the ax) to stop a train by flipping it over. With that opening, comparisons to South Korea’s The Good, the Bad, the Weird are inevitable, right down to the needless bloating running time.

Horror
Rod Lott
Can director Darren Lynn Bousman survive in a post-Saw world? After the grating steampunk musical misfire Repo! The Genetic Opera, I would have said "no way," but my mindset has been reversed by Mother’s Day and, to a lesser degree, 11-11-11. Ironically, not only were both films denied anything beyond a blip of a theatrical release, but now — insult to injury — they have to compete against one another on home video.

Drama
Rod Lott
Our daily life is defined by rituals. For you, that may mean a morning cup of coffee or a quick jog before bed. For Brandon Sullivan, the New York City-based protagonist of Shame, it means masturbating at work.

Horror
Rod Lott
Continuing the recent revival of horror anthologies is The Theatre Bizarre, helmed by seven directors. With so many contributing to the recipe, results are expectedly varied, but with enough good to outweigh the bad.

Indie
Joshua Boydston
With its self-titled debut EP, it’s not hard to see Stillwater rock outfit Admirals wears its influences on its sleeve.

Horror
Rod Lott
An SUV full of beautiful young people sets off on a road trip to — yeah, yeah, I know, I know. Madison County is another one of “those” horror films, where every step of the wilderness trail is paved with predictability — so much so, that it’s filled with lines like this:

Thriller
Rod Lott
As if Warner Archive hasn’t re-released enough murder mysteries on MOD DVD lately, here’s another helping, pairing 1949’s The House Across the Street and Homicide on one disc overflowing with film noir. I gladly made room for it.