The taste remains the same
Release Date: 2003-01-02 There ought to be a statute of limitations for posting reviews in restaurants; unlike evaluations of movies or books, there is a relatively short shelf life for these transitory treatises. A good case in point is Mesón European Dining. Upon entering the restaurant recently, I noticed a review I had written years…
STILL PLAYING
DIE ANOTHER DAY “One of the better ones” Dir. Lee Tamahori; writ. Neal Purvis & Robert Wade; feat. Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens, Rosamund Pike, Rick Yune, John Cleese, Judi Dench, Michael Madsen (PG-13) From the credits sequence, which mixes fear with the expected T&A, onward, this is a Bond flick willing to tweak…
IMPOSSIBLE EMBARGO
Voices in the Wilderness, a U.S.-U.K. campaign to end economic sanctions against the people of Iraq, has maintained a presence in Iraq since 1996, primarily through civilian delegations that deliver donated medical supplies to hospitals and clinics. But their humanitarian efforts are being penalized: Also known as the “Iraq Peace Team,” the group is facing…
ANARCHY IN SA
In other news that week, it was announced George Gervin had just been picked for the NBA All-Star team. Henry Cisneros was a young city councilman. And 25 years ago this week, it was not yet possible to drive from the River Walk to the airport in 15 short minutes because McAllister Freeway – U.S.…
ALL EARS
IS “FEY SUPER-GROUP” AN OXYMORON? Yet the songs are written by one man, Gary Lightbody, and the pictures they paint – of long-lingering broken hearts and slowly decaying romances – are too specifically evocative to get lost amid two dozen musical personalities. Those collaborators are sensitive, anyhow, and would never get in the way; for…
JOE STRUMMER R.I.P.
Strummer was born John Graham Mellor in Ankara, Turkey, and spent his early years living in Mexico City, Cypress, and Cairo before settling permanently in England. He picked up the name “Joe Strummer” busking in the London subway as a teen, and after brief and moderate success fronting a pub-rock band known as the 101ers,…
CHOICE CUTS
THE HARDEST WORKING MAN IN SAENGERHALLE BY JOHN DEFORE 2002 was a busy year for our man Alejandro. He became a theater impressario – or at least co-wrote and performed a play about growing up the son of a Mexican immigrant (called By the Hand of the Father), which was well received in a number…
EVERYBODY MUST GET CLONED
RAINY DAY BABIES #12 & 35 I met Boisselier at Las Vegas’ Bellagio Casino in October to talk about progress on the human cloning front. She explained Raelians beliefs: that humans were created by extraterrestrial scientists thousands of years ago, and our ultimate goal lies in cloning ourselves in order to download our memories and…
THE YEAR THAT WAS
After the usual disclaimer – some of these haven’t yet/won’t ever open in SA, but they have all played somewhere within a few hundred miles – here are the films that meant the most this year: 1) Punch-Drunk Love: Well-praised by some but still horribly underrated, P.T. Anderson’s visually thrilling film did what romantic comedies…
THE TOPS OF 2002
Unfortunately, neither Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s Kandahar nor Nanni Moretti’s The Son’s Room tarried long in south Texas, except in my memory, indelibly. Both were technically 2001 releases, although they did not come to town until last year. Once upon a time, San Antonio cinephiles could rely on a repertory house (the Olmos, then the Central Park…
NEW REVIEWS
ANTWONE FISHER “Assuaging black rage through psychotherapy” Dir. Denzel Washington; writ. Antwone Fisher; feat. Derek Luke, Joy Bryant, Denzel Washington, Salli Richardson, Earl Billings, Kevin Connolly, Viola Davis (PG-13) Throughout much of Antwone Fisher, Antwone Fisher (Luke) maintains a state of violent denial. “I don’t have no problems,” he insists, refusing to speak with the…
