It has been a while since Wallace and Gromit creator and stop-motion animation master, Peter Lord, has directed a film. His new movie, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, reaches theaters this weekend twelve years after the release of his critically-acclaimed Chicken Run. It’s not that Lord hasn’t been working, only that he found himself swept-up in a career as a producer.

“I did find myself inadvertently becoming a producer, which I didn’t look for; it just happened,” Lord said during a ..read more

Well, if you aren’t filmed-out (and really, how could you ever be), the USA Film Festival kicks off tonight at the Angelika Film Center. I’ve said all I’d like to say about the festival in this article in the April D Magazine. I do think the festival needs to re-think evaluate its artistic direction, and in light of the continued growth of the Dallas International Film Festival, it needs to find the humility to admit to itself that it needs ..read more

The Bond flick that started it all, Dr. No, is making its way back to the big screen tonight at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Magnolia’s The Big Movie series. We’ve got three pairs of tickets to giveaway (and those come with some popcorn). To win them, just answer the following question in the form below: Who was your favorite Bond girl?

var z7p7w7;(function(d, t) { var s = d.createElement(t), options = { 'userName':'dmagazine', 'formHash':'z7p7w7', 'autoResize':true, 'height':'848', 'async':true, 'header':'show', 'ssl':true}; s.src = ..read more

Actors Angie Bolling and Peter Weller were in Dallas to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Robocop, and they sat down to talk about the production and the film’s legacy. To watch all the interviews from the FrontRow stage, go here.

During the fest, FrontRow interviewed local and visiting filmmakers from around the world who brought their work to the festival. Below, Bradford Pearson interviews the filmmakers behind Qwerty, a feature in which Scrabble plays the “fourth lead,” and the short film, “Raspberry Jam.” For all of our festival interviews, go here.

Whit Stillman is filmmaking’s l’aesthete-terrible, the son of di Lampedusan-esque aristocrats, and a man whose life as an ironic hobnober with the Harvard-educated and the “urban haute bourgeoisie,” was brilliantly and hilariously captured in his quirky, verbose, and neurotic debut, Metropolitan. Because of his three semi-autobiographical films, perhaps more than any other director, Stillman’s person and style come across as a particular and cohesive tableau.

I smiled, then, learning that when Whit Stillman came to Dallas ahead of his new movie, ..read more

During the fest, FrontRow interviewed local and visiting filmmakers from around the world who brought their work to the festival. Here’s all the video.

Whit Stillman’s first movie since 1998’s Last Days of Disco plays almost like an absurdist prequel of his first film, Metropolitan, caught some slightly skewed, alternative reality. Taking place on a college campus, Damsels in Distress is driven by the filmmaker’s characteristic wit and verbosity, a social drama revolving around a pack of snobby, if articulate and well-meaning co-eds. In an interview, Stillman said one viewer described the movie as Animal House meets Jane Austen. It is really is hard ..read more

As the Dallas International Film Festival comes to a close, one of the highlights of the last weekend of the fest is the chance to see films that have won the festival’s various competitions. Stay tuned to the Dallas IFF schedule to find out what films will receieve repeat screenings. This weekend will also see the 25th anniversary of Robocop at the Texas Theater, as well as a screening of Precious with Gabourey Sidibe. And here are some of the ..read more

British director Terence Davies’ first feature film in eleven years, The Deep Blue Sea doesn’t quite reach the same level of exquisite, elegiac nostalgia that have made his greatest films, Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes, beloved cinematic treasures. But the new movie does manage to bring together a compelling mix of social melodrama and a deep-feeling emotional tenor that drives much of the filmmaker’s work.

Set in the early 1950s, Rachel Weisz plays Hester, a woman separated ..read more

Jared Diamond’s great book The Third Chimpanzee notes that because the DNA of humans and chimps is about 98 percent the same, we are (biologically speaking) more like another variety of chimpanzee than we are a completely distinct animal.

The apes in the latest Disney-branded nature documentary certainly are portrayed as human-like, enough to reinforce Diamond’s point. Of course, there’s nothing that exists on this plane of reality that Disney can’t anthropomorphize.

The young star of Chimpanzee is named Oscar. We meet ..read more

In his second film, Italian filmmaker Gianni Di Gregorio plays a middle-aged man taking one last chance at a zesty, extramarital affair. He comes on to his mother’s endowed caretaker, lunches blondes with his licentious lawyer friend, and sips drinks with his hard-partying downstairs neighbor. Literally “Gianni and the women,” in Italian, The Salt of Life feels like a cousin to Di Gregorio’s debut (at age 59, no less), Mid-August Lunch. Rich in the colors of lackadaisical Rome and salted by the details ..read more

At this year’s Dallas International Film Festival, filmmakers will join FrontRow’s movie writers for interviews on a stage adjacent to the Magnolia Theater in the West Village each night of the festival, between 6:30 and 7 p.m. Below, Jason Heid interviews first time Korean filmmakers Jae Soh and Chang-Lae Kim about their zombie thriller, Let Me Out, and the star and co-writer of the Texas-set Sironia, Wes Cunningham. To watch all the interviews from the FrontRow stage, go here.

At this year’s Dallas International Film Festival, filmmakers will join FrontRow’s movie writers for interviews on a stage adjacent to the Magnolia Theater in the West Village each night of the festival, between 6:30 and 7 p.m. Below, Peter Simek interviews Ben Bloodwell, the first-time director of the documentary Biba! One Island, 879 Votes, and the cast of Wolf, directed by UT Arlington’s Ya’Ke Smith, and starting Jordan Cooper, Mikala Gibson, and Irma Hall.

Pictured at top: Ya’Ke Smith

Today may be the single best day of the festival. Here are reviews of movies from yesterday and reviews of films showing today at the festival — and they are nearly all worth seeing. For all our Dallas IFF coverage, go here.

NEW REVIEWS

Luv (Repeats Today, April 19 at 4 p.m. Magnolia 4)

Rating: Worth A Shot

Set in Baltimore, Luv is a day in the life of Woody (Michael Rainey Jr.), a 13-year-old boy. After his uncle Vincent’s (Common) return from prison, the ..read more

At this year’s Dallas International Film Festival, filmmakers will join FrontRow’s movie writers for interviews on a stage adjacent to the Magnolia Theater in the West Village each night of the festival, between 6:30 and 7 p.m. Below, watch Peter Simek sit down wtih Korean filmmaker Je-kyu Kang, whose war drama My Way boasts the largest production of any Korean film in history. Then, Simek speaks with Lisa Immordino Vreeland, whose great-grandmother in-law, Diana Vreeland, is the subject of her documentary ..read more

Today may be the single best day of the festival. Here are reviews of movies from yesterday and reviews of films showing today at the festival — and they are nearly all worth seeing. For all our Dallas IFF coverage, go here.

NEW REVIEWS

The Invisible War (Repeats Today, April 18 at 4 p.m. Angelika 6)

Rating: Go See It

It is difficult to pick out what is the most disturbing statistic revealed in The Invisible War, a documentary about the prevalence of rape in ..read more

Here are reviews of movies from yesterday and reviews of films showing today at the festival. For all our Dallas IFF coverage, go here.

NEW REVIEWS

Maya (Repeats Today, April 17 at 4 p.m. Angelika 6)

Rating: Worth A Shot

Albanian director Pluton Vasi’s second film, Maya, takes place in a remote Albanian town, which Sam returns to rebury his father’s remains. After arriving, he stays, opening up a hair salon and falling for the voluptuous and buxom Maya, the wife of one of ..read more

At this year’s Dallas International Film Festival, filmmakers will join FrontRow’s movie writers for interviews on a stage adjacent to the Magnolia Theater in the West Village each night of the festival, between 6:30 and 7 p.m. Below, watch Bradford Pearson sit down with Japanese horror master Takashi Shimizu (Tormented, Ju-on, The Grudge) and Jason Heid speak with actress Famke Janssen, who wrote and directed Bringing Up Bobby. Keep up with the interviews and all of our Dallas IFF coverage ..read more

Here are reviews of movies from yesterday and reviews of films showing today at the festival. For all our Dallas IFF coverage, go here.

NEW REVIEWS

Mariachi Gringo (Repeats Today, April 16 at 1:30 p.m. Magnolia 4)

Rating: Worth a Shot

Probably goes without saying, but if you hate mariachi music, this movie isn’t for you. I enjoyed this straightforward story of a young man from Kansaswho begins learning the traditional music of Mexicofrom a local immigrant restaurateur and decides to go south to Guadalajarato become ..read more

Here are reviews of movies from yesterday and reviews of films showing today at the festival. For all our Dallas IFF coverage, go here.

NEW REVIEWS

Atomic States of America (Repeats Today, 12:30 p.m. Angelika 8)

Rating: Go See It

Atomic States of America is not a down-the-middle, both-sides-of-the-story documentary. It’s, in the words of grandfathers everywhere, lefty pinko work. That doesn’t mean it isn’t fantastic. Atomic focuses on the public and private nuclear power and research entities throughout the country, of which there are hundreds. ..read more

Here are reviews of movies from yesterday and reviews of films showing today at the festival. For all our Dallas IFF coverage, go here.

NEW REVIEWS:

Shorts 1 (Repeats Today at 12:15 p.m., Angelika 7)

Rating: Go See It 

The first shorts program at the Dallas International Film Festival is diverse and strong, highlights being Ian Harnarine “Doubles With Slight Pepper,” Todd Sklar’s “’92 Skybox Alonzo Mourning Rookie Card,” and Nash Edgerton’s “Bear,” which won’t be surprising to anyone familiar with the Australian director’s ..read more

If there was a real star at the opening night of the Dallas International Film Festival, we really didn’t know who it was until the program already kicked into gear. That’s when Dallas mayor Mike Rawling strutted out onto the stage of the Magestic theater and stole the show, spouting off a string of filmakers with booming confidence.

“I didn’t see my first film until my senior in high school,” the mayor said, receiving a somewhat muddled (dubious?) response from the audience. “But ..read more

French filmmaker Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita, Leon: The Professional, The Fifth Element, Taxi, etc. etc.) gets executive producer and third screenwriter credits on James Mather and Stephen St. Leger’s Lockout, and while it is not clear just how much input the Frenchman had on the film, there is certainly evidence of his fingerprints. There’s the ricocheting dialogue; the terse, cheeky battle of sexes; and the winking, over-the-top action-schlock (we know it is dumb, but it is fun). That stylish ..read more

The tagline for Drew Goddard’s genre-bending thriller The Cabin in the Woods is “You think you know the story.” If you’re a fan of Goddard’s work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer or especially of Joss Whedon, who co-wrote the script with Goddard, certain themes of the story (and faces) will seem familiar. Arbitrary cruelty dealt out by power-mad humans (season 6 of Buffy), our desensitization to suffering in situations that are totally screwed up (the biggest bad of all, it turns ..read more