Orson Welles

River Phoenix's Dark Blood: Not the Epitaph He Deserves.

Black Dahlia: 5 Songs for a Famous Murder Victim

Sometime between this day and January 15 in 1947, a young woman named Elizabeth Short was brutally murdered in Hollywood. She was nicknamed The Black Dahlia in the papers, who portrayed the 23-year-old aspiring actress as a midnight-party prowler who brought about her own demise through her wanton w ... More >>

Citizen Kane

RIP Ray Bradbury: 5 Musicians Who Love the Sci-Fi Author

Sci-fi fans across the world were saddened when prolific author Ray Bradbury died Tuesday, Wired magazine reported. The typewriter-loving Bradbury was 91 and lived in Los Angeles. Bradbury was best known for writing that set the standard for post-WWII science fiction such as Fahrenheit 451, The Mar ... More >>

10 Hilarious Old Commercials for Terrible Wines, Mostly Aimed at Men Wanting Sex with Drunk Women

By Italian or French standards, Americans still have a lot to learn about wine. But my oh my, how far we've come in the past 30 years. It's hard to fathom how little we must have known about the fruits of the vine if the following ten shockingly terrible ads for abysmally awful wines are any indicat ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

Remember: BestFest is this weekend, so don't fritter it away! Get it, those are corn fritters! Shut up.​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we've been watching My Drunk Kitchen so much that our cooking skills have depleted drastically, while our drinking skills h ... More >>

11 Sultry, Sexy Cowgirls on World War II Planes (NSFW)

One of the great things about World War II airplanes, beyond their role in bringing down two savage dictatorships, was the nose art. Officers were given pretty much carte blanche on what they could paint on the side of their aircraft, and many used women, scantily clad to one 1940's degree or anoth ... More >>

Pop Rocks: It's All Michael Bay's Fault

​Most of my life has been spent seeking out a unifying theory of suckitude in the entertainment universe, "entertainment" in this sense meaning movies, music, and television. Originally, I'd hoped to find someone whose utter horribleness spanned the entire artistic firmament (including literat ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Remake My Day

​When it comes to movie remakes, I always think of Die Hard. Specifically, this Alan Rickman line: Sooner or later, I might get to someone you do care about! Granted, he was trying to force McClane to tell him where his detonators were, but the same sentiment applies to "reimagining" our fav ... More >>

SPECIAL BEST-OF EDITION

Previewing the Year Ahead In Local Releases

​ 2010 looks like it's going to be a banner year for music in general. We can look forward to a new Arcade Fire opus, another Spoon outing, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and a Beach House record that is already getting Animal Collective-like buzz. Rocks Off is chomping a ... More >>

Standing O

Richard Linklater's Orson Welles puts on quite a show.

Bring It On: The 2009 Cinema Arts Festival Houston Starts Tonight

Photo by Sandra Koop​The 2009 Cinema Arts Festival Houston is rolling out the red carpet as we speak, for today's opening night screenings.Over at the Angelika Film Center, the highly anticipated Precious starts at 7 p.m., while over at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the festival's opening nigh ... More >>

Jason and the Argonauts

Ray Harryhausen's special-effects groundbreaker had a little T&A mixed in between the fight scenes

For Cinco de Mayo: Five Non-Mexican Mexicans In The Movies

Cinco de Mayo is a day for Americans of Mexican descent to commemorate their rich history and heritage while at the same time trying to ignore the legions of mouth-breathing Chron commenters clamoring for their deportation. And if being blamed for the H1N1 (don't call it swine) flu outbreak wasn't ... More >>

17 Again Is Less Than Zero

Zac Efron should stick to musicals.

For St. Patrick's Day: The Five Least Convincing Irishmen In Movies

St. Patrick's Day is more than just an opportunity for amateur drunks to get in fights after drinking since noon, it's also when all of us claim (usually bogus) Irish heritage. I can personally trace my Irish ancestry back to the 17th century. Of course, they were Ulster Huguenots and probably not v ... More >>

Monsieur Verdoux

Charlie Chaplin's post-WWII film is a comedy of murders

Very Minor: Miracle at St. Anna

No matter the run time and budget, Spike Lee's WWII drama is an epic bore

There Will Be Blood

An epic gusher strikes oil, and then some

Diva

Theater LaB Houston production gets tripped up by awkward writing

You're Gonna Miss Me

Good Clean Smut

Nostalgia Trip

Steven Soderbergh tries, and largely fails, to make 'em like they used to

The Black Dahlia

True-crime noir goes searching for Hollywood's heart of darkness

Ready for Some Football?

The Houston Symphony sure is

The Illusionist

Eerie melodrama explores the dark arts in turn-of-the-century Vienna

Why Do You Do Your 'Dos the Way You Do?

The Mexican replies

Capsule Reviews

Our critics weigh in on local theater

Soaring Egos

Forgotten theatrical deities play on in the compelling Orson's Shadow

All's Welles

Orson's Shadow gets inside the actors

Kapusta Kristmas

Thanks to the Internet, you no longer have to be on Al Kooper's holiday list to hear some of the funniest tapes in history

Will the Real Blue October Please Stand Up?

Local band suffers identity crisis

Why We Need DVDs

Artsy Ambling

Stomp Around to five gallery openings in one night

Lazarus, Reborn

Peter Bogdanovich wasn't dead. He was just acting like it.

Cat Fight

Peter Bogdanovich works out his demons on Citizen Hearst

Chroniclers of History and Heartbreaks: Tom Russell, Katy Moffatt and Dave Alvin

Saturday, April 20

Tom Russell

Borderland (Hightone)

Kane Mutiny

The industry's initial reaction to Welles's masterwork should serve as a lesson to WorldFest filmmakers

Ambition Overload

Tim Robbins's Cradle Will Rock only feels like it's re-creating the '30s a day at a time

Who R. You?

The enigma that is R. Kelly keeps audiences enthralled, guessing

Year of Yearning

The old were bold in an era of Hollywood mainstream misses

Night & Day

December 17 - 23, 1998

Deja Vu All Over Again

The cocktail party never ends in le cinema du Henry Jaglom

Meaning and the Movies

In a new book, film critic David Thomson shows himself at his best -- and worst

Pulp Without Politics

Can Oliver Stone leave his obsessions behind?

Friends and Fantasy

Adolescent girls, murder, a kingdom of dreams: these are the ties that bind

Good Wood

It's All Great

A finished documentary about an incomplete Orson Welles masterwork