Wes Anderson

Lives at the Crosswalk

Tonight: Margo & the Nuclear So and So's at the Mink

Drenched in Neil: More from the Diamond Mine

Ready for Takeoff

Wes Anderson's Bottle Rocket is a whimsical delight

School Ties

Wes Anderson's Bottle Rocket is a whimsical delight

Rushmore or Less

Murray tries to rescue a comedy stalled in self-importance

Ratatat

Murray tries to rescue a comedy stalled in self-importance

Okkervil River: The Stand Ins

Murray tries to rescue a comedy stalled in self-importance

Rushmore

Wes Anderson’s career-launching film pays homage to his hometown, our town

Not to Be: Hamlet 2

Full of itself and not half as funny as it thinks it is, this movie is simply tragic

Justice League: The New Frontier, The Darjeeling Limited, Death at a Funeral, Beowulf: Director's Cut

Full of itself and not half as funny as it thinks it is, this movie is simply tragic

Rushmore

There’s more to love about Wes Anderson’s 1998 masterpiece than its local connection

Juno

Teen pregnancy, hilarious and sweet, in this indie-licious film

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Mr. Magorium is far less fantastical than its title

Legs to Spare

Mr. Magorium is far less fantastical than its title

The Wendell Baker Story

Wendell Baker is a dysfunctional Wilson family affair

The Kids Are Not Alright

From Dakota Fanning's rape to John Cusack's daddy issues, Sundance 2007 was all about the kiddie porn.

A Family Adrift

The Squid and the Whale finds moments of joy amid the bitterness of divorce

Sea of Loathe

Wes Anderson takes Bill Murray out to sea and strands him there

The Final Cut

DVDs pull back the curtain on the movies, but do you really want to see the Wizard?

Screen Plays

DVDs pull back the curtain on the movies, but do you really want to see the Wizard?

He Said She Said: A Stripper Soundtrack

Rocks Off has a naked lady fetish. It's shameful to admit. We really like seeing naked chicks. It's been something we have dealt with since we were four years old and started sneaking into the women's dressing room when our Mom would go clothes shopping. It's not so cute today, what with the beard ... More >>

The Alabama Bookstop Remembered By 14-year Employee John Cramer

Photo by Jim Parsons​With the exception of legendary one-eyed bookseller Jim Brown, nobody knows the soon-to-shutter Alabama Bookstop better than John Cramer. The curmudgeonly guitarist in local psych-rock bands the Mike Gunn and Project Grimm worked there - mostly as the receiving manager - ... More >>

Adios Bookstop and "Poll" Dancing

Photo by Jim Parsons​With the exception of legendary one-eyed bookseller Jim Brown, nobody knows the soon-to-shutter Alabama Bookstop better than John Cramer. The curmudgeonly guitarist in local psych-rock bands the Mike Gunn and Project Grimm worked there - mostly as the receiving manager - ... More >>

No Rocks Off Movie Night Tonight - We're Saving Ourselves for Urban Cowboy Next Week

Next Tuesday, Rocks Off Movie Night at the Mink returns with the 1980 "classic" Urban Cowboy. Classic if you're from Houston, anyway. The film kicks off our three-week series on movies filmed in and around Houston proper. Ben Stiller's directorial debut Reality Bites and Wes Anderson's hipster-bait ... More >>

What's Wrong with Wes Anderson?

A decade after Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, Generation Y's anointed auteur tries for a comeback with Fantastic Mr. Fox.

What a Fox

Wes Anderson brings his Wes Anderson-ness to animation — and it's a fantastic fit.

He Said She Said: Our 10 Favorite Fictional Bands

​ It's a sad state of affairs when a parody band ends up being funnier/better/more entertaining that the original (we're lookin' at you, The Beatles). She Said started thinking of this list last week after making one in a million lifetime references to the fake band Blues Hammer from the movie Gho ... More >>

A Report From The Houston Film Critics Awards

Last Saturday at the Museum of Fine Arts' Brown Auditorium, the Houston Film Critics Society (of which yours truly is a member) held its third annual awards ceremony. It was a star-studded affair, if you consider the presence of one star sufficient to use the term.Here's a list of the winners:Best ... More >>

Pop Rocks: The Year In Houston Movies

Like most years, 2009 wasn't hugely eventful for Houston as a movie town. There wasn't a big, locally filmed tentpole release like Armageddon, and most news revolved around the death of one of the city's biggest celebrities or, to a much lesser extent, the inaugural Cinema Arts Festival.Some movies ... More >>

Gumby, We Hardly Knew Ye: 10 Stop-Motion Videos for the Late Art Clokey

Late last Friday, Rocks Off learned that Gumby and Davey and Goliath creator Art Clokey had passed away in his sleep at age 88. The pioneering stop-motion animator and his clay work were fixtures in children's television from 1957 on. All of Clokey's characters were moral, fun-loving and devoid of ... More >>

Which Actors Can Hack It As Musicians?

​Hollywood Shuffle got word Thursday that Blues Brother and Saturday Night Live alumnus Dan Aykroyd will be at the downtown Spec's this afternoon from 3-7 p.m. to sign bottles of his new vodka, Conehead Crystal Head. Aykroyd is in town to act as Grand Marshal for Saturday's Art Car Parade. Sat ... 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 >>

Our Eight Favorite Musical Moments From Texas-Shot Films

​If Chainsaws, Slackers and Spy Kids sounds like a titillating title for a book, it's only because the book itself deals with some of the most provocative indie films in recent cinematic history - many of them made by Texas-born filmmakers. The book is the work of Alison Macor, former film cr ... More >>

Unlikely Porn Star

Luke Wilson brings hardcore to the masses in Middle Men.

Reduxion: Talking Kinks With Young Girls' Pete Tijerina

Find Young Girls on Facebook hereYoung Girls, dedicated followers of fashion.​When it comes to the Big Three of the British Invasion, the Kinks were always the Chrysler to the Beatles and Stones' Ford and GM - up there, but not quite that far up there. Nevertheless, among Anglophiles and songw ... More >>

Unlikely Porn Star

Luke Wilson brings hardcore to the masses in Middle Men.

The Top 10 Rock-Musician Film Scores

​David Fincher's Facebook creation tale The Social Network has been the No. 1 film in America the past two weekends, and no doubt it will continue that streak this weekend, barring an assault by Jackass 3-D which comes out today. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone is already hailing Network as a ... More >>

Hayden & Sean: When Your Hip "Save The Date" Wedding Video Goes Viral

The above clip is attracting comments all over the Internet, as an example of either the hippest "Save the Date" video ever, or the lamest attempt at making a hip "Save the Date" video.It's all about the wedding of Hayden and Sean in Austin, and it's pretty much a Wes Anderson movie set to The Crea ... More >>

Bands Named After Movies, Characters & Other Film Stuff

​Ever wonder which of your favorite bands are named after movies? So have we. So we went out and did a little bit of research. BANDS NAMED AFTER ACTUAL MOVIES My Bloody Valentine: The seminal shoegaze act took their name from a low-budget 1981 horror movie about a guy who really, really hat ... More >>

If Your Life Were A Movie, Which Song Would Be The Trailer?

​It started as a whim on Twitter, asking friends what songs would soundtrack the trailer of the movie of their life. Would their life's tale be a rollicking drug-fueled, love-filled adventure backed by the Rolling Stones' "Jumping Jack Flash", or would it be a morose and somber drifting story ... More >>

The Ten Worst Movies of 2011...In Advance

Oh, don't act surprised.​2011 is barely out of the oven and I'm already filled with dread. Could it be the fact I've spent the entire year so far coughing up chunks of green lung tissue? That I've finally despaired of ever finding a writing gig that doesn't involve "Lady Gaga sex tape" Google ... More >>

Texas Independent Film Network

Oh, don't act surprised.​2011 is barely out of the oven and I'm already filled with dread. Could it be the fact I've spent the entire year so far coughing up chunks of green lung tissue? That I've finally despaired of ever finding a writing gig that doesn't involve "Lady Gaga sex tape" Google ... More >>

10 Uncool Artists Primed For Hipster Rediscovery

Tumblr"Aw, dammit, I grabbed Dad's iPod by mistake. Paul Simon... is that one guy, or two Beatles?" ​Remember emo kids? Only a few short years ago, the nation's venues of the nation were filled with kids in all black, wearing ultra-skinny jeans, eyeliner, white belts, and identical chopped-mea ... More >>

Friday Night: Devo At Warehouse Live

Photos by Jay Lee​Devo Warehouse Live March 25, 2011 See more peek-a-boo pics of Devo, openers Octopus Project and their fans in our slideshow. When Aftermath first heard Devo's latest album, Something for Everybody, we listened with a cringe. It had been 20 years since the band had released ... More >>

Beyond "Thriller": Top 10 Zombie Music Videos

​One of Rocks Off's choice ambient/shoegaze artists, Grouper, has just released visuals for her song "Alien Observer" and it's full of (almost) everything that we hold dear: Blood, zombies buried beneath foliage, and girl-on-girl action. Oh, and Liz Harris' haunting voice. It's beautiful; whi ... More >>

Top 10 Texas Movie Soundtracks

​This weekend, as the rest of the world catches Harry Potter mania for (perhaps) the final time, Houston gets a serious dose of Urban Cowboy nostalgia. Theater Under the Stars' production of the Tony-nominated 2003 musical - which The New York Times called "a conclusive demonstration that it's ... More >>

You In Color: The Black Angels' Christian Bland Talks Film Scores

Photo By Craig HlavatyThe Black Angels' Alex Maas at Free Press Summerfest in June​Tomorrow night the Black Angels hit Houston for the third time in about a year, with a gig over at Fitzgerald's with fellow retro-doomers Dead Meadow and Spindrift. The last time the Angels were in Houston it wa ... More >>

The Film Issue: 10 for 2012

Photo By Craig HlavatyThe Black Angels' Alex Maas at Free Press Summerfest in June​Tomorrow night the Black Angels hit Houston for the third time in about a year, with a gig over at Fitzgerald's with fellow retro-doomers Dead Meadow and Spindrift. The last time the Angels were in Houston it wa ... More >>