Kim Rosenstock, playwright, is looking at me, but not looking at me. I’m sorry, she says, blue eyes wide. She’s distracted by the weird, floor-to-ceiling circle curtains (they look like someone went nuts with a giant hole punch) obscuring our view out the top floor of the Wyly. They look heavy, but they’re actually made of ultra-thick felt. We shoved them out of the way, revealing an astounding view of downtown, and continued with our conversation. We were talking about ..read more

The Honey Brothers were supposed to arrive at Saturday’s VIP-ish Earth Day Dallas sponsor party in a Fisker. That’s the Porsche of enviro-conscious automobiles, by the way, for those of us who haven’t quite come up with the cash to install solar panels or invest in a zillion-dollar zero emissions vehicle.

Instead, their arrival at the House of Blues-gone-green went like this: members Ari Gold (yes, that’s his real name—he actually inspired the fictional Ari Gold on Entourage) and DS Posner ..read more

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

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

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

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

In the new movie by filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, The Kid With a Bike (opening Friday at the Angelika Film Center), the Belgian brothers find themselves in familiar territory, a quaint, if down-toned Belgian town populated with working class people for whom life is a struggle. The kid in the title is Cyril Catoul (Thomas Doret), a boy around 11-years-old who has been abandoned by his young father, Guy (Jérémie Renier), and is eventually taken in by Samantha (Cécile ..read more

With his latest film, Casa de mi Padre, comedic superstar Will Ferrell takes another career risk, playing a Spanish-speaking character in a movie that is almost entirely in Spanish (complete with subtitles). It isn’t the first time the former Saturday Night Live cast member has reared outside the bounds of the usual SNL alumni spoofs. In 2011, Ferrell appeared in a straight dramatic role (Everything Must Go), and he has also been popping up in a variety of small side ..read more

You remember her. She sat in front of you in high school. You cheated off her. Felt lucky when you were paired up in groups. And even though you would never tell your friends, beneath the rainbow-dyed hair, big headphones, and strange band shirts, you were smitten.

Time passes. Now you find yourself catching up to stay cool, spending hours searching YouTube, trying to devour all the new stuff people are name dropping on blogs, at the bar, the office. Click. Click. ..read more

Did you know that there is a special screening of Deadline at the UA Galaxy Theatre Stadium this evening? No, no. Not the 2009 film starring Brittany Murphy and Thora Burch. This is the new Deadline, starring Eric Roberts and described as a “very strong Christian, redemptive worldview about the search for truth and justice.” So, yeah. You can get tickets to see the show here. There’s also a Q&A at the end with the film’s writer and director. Can’t wait ..read more

Last week, artist Shepard Fairey completed a series of murals in West Dallas and at the site of the Dallas Contemporary, which brought the artist to Dallas for the project. Fairey is perhaps most well known for his iconic “Hope” poster of Barak Obama, which became a calling card for the 2008 presidential campaign and also landed Fairey in a legal battle over copyright with the Associated Press. Fairey is used to legal controversy, not only because he has been ..read more

When Hockaday grad Lisa Loeb’s first single, “Stay (I missed You),” rode the momentum of Ben Stiller’s nineties-defining movie phenomenon Reality Bites to the top of the charts, the song made headlines for being the first number one hit by an artist without a major label contract. That made Loeb an instant indie darling in a decade that coined the word “alternative rock.” It also made the singer-songwriter from Dallas something of a canary singing in a mine of a ..read more

It is easy to get lost in the biography of Mark Bradford when looking at Mark Bradford’s art, on view in a new exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art. That is because Bradford puts it there. The artist’s story, growing up in Los Angeles, helping out in his mother’s hair salon in South Central, the textual debris of the street, the maps of his neighborhoods, his time in New Orleans: all of these things are made present in his ..read more

Tomorrow, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn’s latest movie, Drive, hits theaters. Staring Ryan Gosling, the film is a astute and intense thriller, dripping in stylish eighties throwback appeal, leavened by pulpy flair, and driven by a pounding soundtrack. We spoke with Refn about his new movie, honing its tone, Gosling, and how Hollywood is like “having sex with the greatest call girl in the world.”

Confession time: this interviewer has never seen Freddy Got Fingered.  That didn’t stop us from making a long distance call to Edinburgh to chat with Tom Green, finishing up the international leg of his tour ahead of his shows at Addison Improv this weekend. Luckily, the comedian, who is a master of understatement, is also familiar with at least one of our most eligible residents.

FrontRow: You toured the US then went across the pond. Is there a difference in the audiences?

Tom Green: The similarities are more of a surprise to me. Whether it’s Australia or Canada or the US or Britain, there’s always…it’s always amazing how far certain ideas of things have kind of traveled over the years, and how people are aware of references to so many things that I’ve done. People do really laugh at the same things around the world now.

FR: What or who makes you laugh?

TG: I always like people and movies and films and television that approach comedy from a different perspective, a different angle than I guess is normal. I like things that are a little off beat. Many of the great comedians of the world that I’ve enjoyed watching over the years, and before a fan of the more I do stand up, the more I enjoy looking back at Richard Pryor and George Carlin. And I always enjoyed talk shows, and Johnny Carson…it’s so great now with the YouTube, you can get lost in the world of looking at great comedy routines and shows from the golden age of television.

FR: What about when no one laughs? Have you ever heard crickets? What do you do?

TG: Tell another joke. And you learn pretty quickly how to make that a seamless experience…that really only happens when you’re trying out new ideas and new jokes….And if I ever told a joke that didn’t work I’d probably A) probably never tell that joke again, and try something just keep it moving. You can’t really get too upset about it. You know, people want to see things…people want you to experiment. That’s what stand up is. But that’s not really something that happens that often, to be honest. I have a pretty good idea of what’s funny, how to structure it and tell a joke before I’ve even said it for the first time.

FR: Tell me about growing up— you grew up on a Canadian Army base. Do you remember the first time you got a reaction from someone for something you said or did?

TG: There’s probably something in one those first days of school, you’d always be the new kid in class when you move around. In the military you move every year and I’d always be the new kid every year and I’d have to make new friends. I sort of found pretty early that I liked pushing the buttons of the teacher and causing mild disturbances in order to essentially get a laugh out of my classmates. I used to like crashing into garbage cans for no reason. Just walking down the hallway and crashing into garbage cans, stumbling over things on purpose. I was doing that when I was seven years old. I loved being a goofball.

FR: Were you always outrageous?

TG: I think when I was kid I was more silly and hyperactive. As I got older, I started wanting to actually document some of this stuff and put it on television, on public access TV in Canada where I started my show. That’s when we got a little more edgy and dark with some of it. And it just always appealed to me to get a reaction from the audience. The most important thing was to get the reaction.

FR: Are you surprised that Freddy Got Fingered has such a devoted following now?

TG: It’s amazing. I just realized that this movie has grown into this monster cult hit. People all around the world know every line from the movie and come running up to me on the street, quoting lines from the movie. It’s really been quite…a really fun thing to have made such an outrageous movie and see that it’s living on like that and people are discovering it every day. It’s in its whole other life. It’s been a good time, and part of touring is that I get to connect with people who responded to that crazy movie and enjoyed it.

On Sunday, western swing band Asleep at the Wheel will play the Dallas Arboretum’s Labor Day picnic. We caught up with Ray Benson, the group’s founding member, fresh from a production of his Bob Wills’ tribute musical A Ride With Bob in Ruidoso, New Mexico. Their concert Sunday is the last you’ll see of AATW until December, and if you miss guitarist Elizabeth McQueen, don’t worry. Benson says she’s had her baby, doing well, and she’ll be back on tour in a month.

FrontRow: You’ve played for quite a few notable figures over the course of your career. What’s your proudest on-stage moment?

RB: I would say, many moments with Willie Nelson. Whenever we would do stuff together. That would be my proudest, because I think so highly of Willie. We’ve done hundreds and hundreds of appearances.

FR: What’s it like?

RB: He’s a good friend and a collaborator, so it’s just fun. I really couldn’t put words to it. It’s fun. All I can say is when you’re on stage with someone who you love, respect, and enjoy the music that they make, it’s the best.

FR: And when you’ve been doing something as long as you have, is that how you keep things fresh?

RB: I enjoy playing music. People ask that a lot, like, wow, you must be tired of it. But when I sit at home, I play music. So it’s kind of like, I don’t get tired of it. Sometimes I get tired of the travel. Sometimes I get tired the gig, they want you at this time and you’d rather be doing it another time…the sun’s too hot or…as far as playing music, I always love to pick up my guitar and play the guitar and sing. And that’s how you do it. Otherwise, no, you don’t stick around for 41 years if you don’t love doing it. Because  there are other ways to make a living, and there are other things that this keeps me from doing. You gotta love it, or you’re going to be frustrated.

FR: Is there anything else you could imagine yourself doing?

RB: No, I don’t think so. I started out…I was going to be a doctor, and that lasted about three months. I produce records, but it’s all about music. And I do some acting…but it always come back to, I’d rather be playing music.

FR: Is there anyone that you’d like to work with that you haven’t?

RB: Tony Bennett. And I’ve tried. His manager doesn’t know who I am. I met him once, just very briefly at the Grammy Awards. But he’s one of the guys I’d just really love to work with.

FR: Why?

RB: I’ve just been a fan of his for years, even before his quote resurgence. He’s a singer’s singer. He’s one of those guys…and I love jazz as much as I love country music and western music. He’s a singer’s singer. I just love the way he phrases and love his attitude.

FR: You do a lot of Bob Wills’ music and you’ve done a tribute to him. How do you feel about Texas declaring western swing the official state music?

RB: Well, it’s a double edged sword. As I said to the fellas, I said…I’m greatly honored that you feel the same way as I do about it but Texas has produced so many  kinds of music that I’d hate to make one the official music. I’ll put it this way, I think the legislature did a bunch of stupid things this year. So although I was honored that they recognized the kind of music that I play…what about blues what about jazz what about rock and roll,, Van Cliburn, classical music. This state is too big for one kind of music. And western swing is definitely born and raised in Texas and Oklahoma. If they know their western swing history…Bob Wills had to leave Texas because the governor ran him out of Texas. So Oklahoma is just as viable a home…a birthplace of western swing as Texas. So those guys just don’t know their history. But then again, like I said, I don’t have a lot of respect for the legislature. But in terms of how I feel, I feel very honored that the kind of music that I make has been honored that way, but they should honor all the music. And the other point is, western swing is the conglomeration of western music country music, blues, jazz swing, so how can they…it’s a complicated issue.

FR: Do you have a new album in the works, any new music?

RB: The last album we had, which was only six or seven months ago, was with Leon Rausch, a former Texas playboy who lives in Fort Worth and is 83 years old and still singing great. We did a whole album with him, called “It’s a Good Day.” But what we’re working on right now is a documentary film about the last 41 years. And that’s taken up a lot of time, so we just say hey, we’re not going to make an album for awhile.

FR: Anything about Sunday you’re particularly looking forward to?

RB: Oh yeah. I’ll tell you what, I’m looking forward to it being below 100 degrees. This year, that’s all I care about. Why don’t we dip the temperature a little bit, and everything will be fine.

Local musician and documentarian Ryan Giesecke has been recording most of the shows he’s attended for about a decade now. As such, he has quietly amassed a rather impressive collection, which only continues to grow in value, due to the fact that a large number of these acts and the places in whey they performed don’t exist anymore. Giesecke diligently maintains a blog called Sounded Like This that is, in some cases, one of the only places where you can see or hear certain chapters of DFW music history. Lately he has contributed by way of opening up the garage at his Lakewood residence to both artists and fans. Just a few days ago he hosted a show that featured True Widow. Giesecke recently spoke to FrontRow about his recording activities, his motivations, and how Dallas-Fort Worth music has changed and how it’s stayed the same.

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When director Stan Wojewodski, Jr., first heard of Dallas’ Undermain Theatre, it was nearly 20 years ago and he was 2,000 miles away in New York. “It was the theater in Dallas that we all knew about.” Most of the the writers he was working with had already had their plays produced in the funny space down South, and they would talk, he says, about the Undermain and “how it championed really adventuresome writing.”

When Wojewodski came to town for the first time in 1995 for a Dallas Theater Center production, he stopped by. He continued to do so whenever his job as artistic director of Yale Repertory Theater (and the dean of the Yale School of Drama) or friendship brought him back this way. Wojewodski never had much intention of settling here, or anywhere really, after leaving Yale in 2002. After 25 years of being an AD, he was “merrily freelancing” right up until his 2004 production of The Importance of Being Earnest. It was, of course, at the Dallas Theater Center. And he was, inevitably, asked to give a talk at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts.

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This is the first in summer series focusing on the real characters behind Dallas’ theater scene. To read other installments in this series click here.

Lee Trull woke up at thirty, realized he needed glasses and he was going to die one day.

An aspiring actor in his twenties, for Trull, mortality had not been something he had the leisure to consider. Death was a line in a script; he was invincible. He had to be. As an actor, he lived in expectation of rejection, and becoming unbreakable, Trull says, was “just part of it.”

Now 32, the Associate Artist, Casting Director, and member of the Diane and Hal Brierley Resident Acting Company at the Dallas Theater Center admits it takes a certain kind of person to deal with the type of rejection that comes from endless auditioning. To walk into a room and hand someone a picture of yourself, show them your most vulnerable self only to be told “no thank you” is demoralizing, to say the least.

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Richmond Punch picked up a violin at the age of five and has yet to put it down. He attended Dallas’ Booker T. Washington School of Performing and Visual Arts, conquered Juilliard, and went on to get a Masters of Music at Yale. After spending time traveling both nationally and abroad, Punch now resides in Dallas and is owner of Richmond Punch Productions and is the Artistic Director of the Dallas Uptown Youth Orchestra. We caught up with Punch, who spoke about Dallas’ past and future, his non-profit program, and why we should have faith in the student generation.

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Brandon Freeman grew up in Longview, TX, he went to the University of Texas and then Southern Methodist University for law school. But while he always had an interest in movies, his career took him down a path of high-stakes finances, working for venture capital firms at the height of the dot com boom and then starting his own businesses and managing multiple funds. Then, in 2008, he urged his brother, actor Heath Freeman, and friend from Austin, director Anthony Burns, to finally sit down and write the script they had always talked about. That launched a rapid paced writing process that found the brothers shooting their East Texas in 1983-based script, called Skateland, by the fall, premiering at Sundance a little over a year later.

We spoke to Freeman at his Dallas office about making the film and the mood of the place and the time period he set his first film.

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With the current show, Barry Whistler celebrates his 25th year operating his Deep Ellum gallery. We spoke with Whistler about opening and staying open, the changes in Dallas taste and collector base, and how the local art scene has changed in the past 25 years.

FrontRow: So why did you open a gallery?

Barry Whistler: I was working with Laura Carpenter, and she had opened a gallery in New York, and she later moved to Santa Fe. But she was kind of ..read more

At last year’s Dallas International Film Festival, D Magazine sat down with Brotherhood filmmaker Will Canon and the film’s star Trevor Morgan to discuss their film and Texas filmmaking. The film opens at the Angelika this weekend.

To read the review of Brotherhood, go here.

It’s safe to say that The Gonzalez Family (Father Dennis, and sons Aaron and Stefan) is something of an institution in Dallas, one that bridges the gap between the “high” and “low” cultures of jazz and the extreme hardcore found at house shows and DIY spaces.  Indeed, the family’s openness to many different styles of music is the ultimate critic muzzler. On the one hand, if someone found the racket that the two brothers made in Akkolyte too abrasive, then the boys could counter that they toured in Europe playing jazz with their father. Or since free jazz can be a bit on the cerebral side for some audiences, it could be countered that the brothers also spent a lot of time honing the cathartic blasts that makes up the work of Akkolyte.

As Akkolyte approaches the third decade of existence, I thought it would be helpful to take a step back and consider the career thus far of one of the most influential acts in local music. I asked Aaron about the band’s beginnings, the evolution of Dallas’ underground scene, the troubles that have plagued their recording and release process, and his brother Stefan’s recent move to Austin.

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