Last seen this summer in the romantic comedy Mickey and Me, local filmmaker Mickey Reece and his Fall Films repertory company return with a dramatic thriller in A Destructive Manner. This time, however, directorial duties have ceded to the hands of two of his players, James Paulsgrove and Dallos Paz, and Reece takes center stage […]
drama
Posted inArts & Culture
Comes a Bright Day
The story surrounds a hostage situation during the attempted theft of a diamond butterfly broach commissioned by Napoleon and valued at some $1 million and change, and the efforts of a mild-mannered errand runner (Craig Roberts, Jane Eyre) to become a hero in the face of danger. So what if it mostly to impress the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Smashed
Opening today exclusively at AMC Quail Springs Mall 24, 2501 W. Memorial, the indie drama is reminiscent of 1988’s Clean and Sober, also a sturdy-enough addiction movie that lives and dies on its central performance — in other words, one actor shoulders the entire burden, elevating what is otherwise unremarkable (but not incompetent) material. He […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Fred Won’t Move Out
Old age, a spouse suffering with dementia, grown children in the position of caring for their parents — these are tough, complicated themes in Fred Won’t Move Out, which screens Friday through Sunday at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. That might sound like emotionally exhausting stuff, but this small indie has a surprisingly light […]
Posted inFood & Drink
What’s in a name?
At odds are Bud and Barbara Elder, owners of Custino’s Italian Kitchen; and Angelo and Philip Custino, owners of Custino’s Restaurant and Bar. In August, District Judge Lisa Davis rejected an injunction filed by the Custinos seeking to stop the Elders from using the Custino name for their restaurant. The four originally were partners in […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Lincoln
As if the subject alone isn’t worthy of adulation, it comes with a towering pedigree: Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan), Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood) and a script by Pulitzer-winning playwright Tony Kushner. To its credit, Lincoln has lengthy stretches in which it’s as absorbing as it wants to be. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Frankenstein
And, in the early ’90s, he starred as the mad doctor in Frankenstein … for TNT, not Kenneth Branagh. Provided you missed it on during its CableACE Award-nominated broadcast, the better-than-average production is now alive — alive! — on MOD DVD from Warner Archive. Bergin’s Dr. Frankenstein is even more enterprising than in the Mary Shelley […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Magic Mike
To play the titular male stripper nicknamed Magic Mike, Channing Tatum drew upon his own pre-fame experiences as a exotic dancer, and it shows. To put it bluntly, the guy thrusts his pelvis like a pure professional, like a wave lapping the shore. No wonder female audiences ate this movie up. Too bad eye candy […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Safety Not Guaranteed
Feature-debuting director Colin Trevorrow’s Safety Not Guaranteed marks the rarest of indie comedies — the speculative kind — as Jeff, a cocky magazine writer (Jake Johnson, TV’s New Girl) in Seattle, relies on his intern, Darius (Aubrey Plaza, TV’s Parks and Recreation), to use her feminine wiles to get close to the lonely grocery clerk/would-be […]
Posted inArts & Culture
‘Shout’ it out loud
Although we live in Oklahoma — Native America, as the license plates read — many people still believe the popular cinematic images of American Indians as tepee-dwelling folk clad in ceremonial headdresses and quick to dispense ancient wisdom while passing a peace pipe. It’s a stereotype that Lawton-born Kiowa/Choctaw screenwriter Steven Judd, co-writer of the […]