Roman Polanski

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

David Chase Achieves His Rock-'n'-Roll Dreams

The Houston Symphony: Disney Live in Concert: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Paramount Turns 100

On Its Centennial, Paramount Pictures Celebrates Its Peak: The 1970s

The Rolling Stones, King Zog: 5 Famous Exiles, in Honor of Napoleon

This week marks the 198th anniversary of Napoleon being exiled to Elba, a move celebrated by palindrome fans everywhere. (Able was I ere I saw Elba," you know. Exiles have been around forever, people forced to leave their country of choice for one reason or another. Sometimes it's worked out well, ... More >>

Family Court

You are the judge in the high-stakes Iranian legal drama A Separation.

White People Problems

The parental rage of brownstone Brooklyn in Carnage.

Purple, Possessed & Pervy: Rock's Top 10 Houses

harleyslist.blogspot.comJohn Lennon and Yoko Ono in a happy pose in front of their home (and future site of Lennon's assassination).​Celebrity homes will always be a source of fascination, offering a glimpse at the intimate, private side of those who live their lives in the public eye. And it' ... More >>

Paul Revere & The Raiders: From Batman To Manson

​With their bright Revolutionary War-style outfits, tri-cornered hats, and energetic antics, Paul Revere and the Raiders were certainly one of the most visual pop/garage rock bands of the 1960s. But beyond that aspect laid a tight, five-piece combo who notched up a string of hits ("Kicks," "Hu ... More >>

Karina Longworth's Top Ten Movies of 2010

J. Hoberman's Top Ten Movies of 2010

Rock Stars' Troublesome Family and Friends

​Wednesday, the NAACP released an extensive, in-depth study of the main six groups which provide the lion's share of support for the infamous Tea Party movement, and the results of their study are not encouraging. It chronicles a great deal of cross-pollination between Tea Party and white supr ... More >>

Preemo's Flight 713: Houston Underground Rap's Newest Star

Larami SerranoPreemo at Kobain, 2010 Houston Press Music Awards showcase​Preemo has earned a ton of praise this past year; and rightfully so. Concrete Dreams, his first proper full-length showing, remains to be one of the year's three best Houston rap albums. So when he let loose that he was ... More >>

Five Musicians Who Can Help Mel Gibson Reform His Image

​Just in case you haven't heard the audio tapes of famed actor/ultra-religious headcase Mel Gibson unleashing slur-filled invective at his wife Oksana Grigorieva, you can listen to them here, but you've got to be warned, it is not even remotely safe for work unless you work in a Neo-Nazi biker ... More >>

Pop Rocks: With Friends Like These

​Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski remains under house arrest in Switzerland, awaiting possible extradition to the United States for fleeing sentencing after pleading guilty to "unlawful sex" with a 13-year old in 1977. His attorneys are, naturally, fighting this possibility, while a numbe ... More >>

Oscar Time

The 2010 Academy Award-nominated Shorts screen at the Angelika.

Memorial High School Keeps It Classy, Plus, Lessons We Learned from the T-Shirt Fiasco

Highlights from the Blog at HOUSTONPRESS.COM

Flashforward, Episode 3

If nothing else, at least there's eye candy...​Oh, FlashForward. If you were a person, you would be the really eager dyslexic kid who wants to make daddy proud but just can't make the homework make sense. And just like that situation, there's a way to fix the problem and make everything work, ... More >>

Memorial High: Staying Classy As Ever With The Stratford Rivalry

​Memorial High, the west-side bastion of education for suburbanites, is riling up the women at the website Jezebel.And with good reason.Someone sent the site a t-shirt apparently produced for their annual game with Stratford: It features two horses (Memorial's teams are the Mustangs) having se ... More >>

We're Not That ACORN, Dammit

​They say that any publicity is good publicity, so since KTRH-AM spends 15 hours a day talking about ACORN, it must be a good thing to have a business in Houston named Acorn International, right?Apparently not.Acorn International, which is a consulting firm, has posted a new message on its website ... More >>

Family Business

Papa Coppola returns, successfully, to the clan in Tetro.

Remembering 1969, Part 1: Altamont, Rosemary's Baby, Santana at Woodstock and More

1968 might have been - at least politically - one of the most turbulent years of the '60s. Students rioted left - specifically, the Left Bank in Paris - and right against the war in Vietnam, while back home racial tensions escalated, especially after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The po ... More >>

Summer of Salvation

The Terminator is back. Plus lots of other movies we can't wait to see this season.

To The Shores Of Tripoli: Five Pirate Movies

We're not saying the Somali pirates are bad at their job, exactly; just that it doesn't take a lot of skill to take over ships when you're the only guys with guns. They showed the extent of their foresight most recently by hijacking some American ships, thus rousing the sniper-y might of the United ... More >>

Chinatown

Web exclusive!

How Quantum of Solace Stacks Up

As you may have noticed, a new James Bond movie opened last weekend. Sony executives are celebrating Quantum of Solace's $70 million opening - the biggest for any Bond movie - by snorting gold-plated cocaine atop a palanquin borne by castrated former Viacom employees, but we at Hair Balls are qu ... More >>

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired Argues the Case...

Was Polanski a pedophile or merely a patsy?

Sesame Street: Old School Volume 2, Chinatown: Special Collector's Edition, Sicko: Special Edition and Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who

The Kids Were Alright

Polish Film Festival

Poland’s most notable directors share their recent works

The Passenger

MFAH caps off film series with a little Jack

The Popcorn King

Rush Hour 3 director Brett Ratner has been called a fauxteur, a womanizer and, worse, over budget. Why you should take him seriously anyway.

Rush Hour 3

The third time's the guilty pleasure for Tucker and Chan's buddy-cop franchise

Knife in the Water

Roman Polanski’s debut is a thriller

Thank Hell for Little Girls

Hard Candy turns the tables on an online pedophile

Artful Dodging

Polanski's Oliver Twist misses the grit of Dickens's classic

Ghost in the Machinist

Christian Bale chases phantoms and loses sleep in Brad Anderson's latest

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Old News

Reissues dominated, but an international crop of films yielded a good harvest

Dead Weight

Kathryn Bigelow gets Water-logged with too many plots

Blood Brothers

Albert and Allen Hughes deliver a sensuous but grisly message From Hell.

Better in Pairs

Generally a letdown, the year in film offered some well-crafted works that are best viewed as double features

Catherine the Great

Deneuve shows the depth of her talent in Place Vendême

Scary Carrey

The Cable Guy reveals Jim Carrey's dark side -- but not enough of it

Moving History

Camp Vamp

Mel Brooks' Dracula isrise-from-the-dead funny

Death Done Wrong

Polanski's Passion

Roman returns with a sexy, stylish thriller