A bellyful on the river
Release Date: 2002-05-30 Don’t let the name fool you; Dolores del Rio is not another faceless Mexican restaurant that lines our tourist-ridden River Walk. Instead, it serves San Antonio’s second favorite cuisine, Italian, and does it the right way, with a few extras: unforgettable entertainment, hospitable service, and an interesting dining atmosphere. While Dolores del…
MIDNIGHT SUN SUSPENSE
This, one would think, is a movie with a lot to prove. A remake of a well-respected Norwegian thriller, it is one of a trio of dark roles in which Robin Williams is trying to regain some of the cred he lost with years of Patch Adams-like material. Most importantly, it is the first studio…
MOM & POP MOVIES
One of the little marks against San Antonio in the Hipster Metropolis category has long been the lack of a great, successful indie video store, one of those places like Austin’s Vulcan Video, where good films take up more shelf space than Dude, Where’s My Car? There may be a light at the end of…
New Reviews
Enough “Overwrought female revenge fantasy” Dir. Michael Apted; writ. Nicholas Kazan; feat. Jennifer Lopez, Bill Campbell, Tessa Allen, Juliette Lewis, Dan Futterman, Chris Maher, Noah Wyle, Fred Ward, Russell Milton (PG-13) A vehicle to promote the career of Jennifer Lopez, Enough is a Sherman tank when a jeep would surely have sufficed. Sleeping with the…
Video & DVD
Fans of Asian action cinema have seen some oddball heroes in recent years: one-armed swordfighters, drunken masters, and the like. But one of Japan’s favorite characters was one of the most unlikely — a pudgy man whose swordsmanship was without equal, who happened to be blind as a bat. Zatoichi, as he’s known, was the…
Special Screens
Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb “Cold war hilarity, still timely” Dir. Stanley Kubrick; writ. Peter George (novel), Kubrick and Terry Southern; feat. Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Slim Pickens (PG) Nuclear annihilation — how do you get your brain around it? Do you bite your…
Still Playing
A Beautiful Mind “Pity, fear, and cognitive reverie” Dir. Ron Howard; writ. Akiva Goldsman, based on biography by Sylvia Nasar; feat. Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany, Vivien Cardone, Adam Goldberg, Judd Hirsch, Christopher Plummer (PG-13) About a Boy “Charming oasis in the blockbuster desert” Dir. Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz; writ. Nick Hornby…
HEY PACHUCO!
Pachuco boogie, the postwar, Mexican-American adaptation of jump blues named after the 1948 Don Tosti single that launched the subgenre, came to fruition in East L.A., but its roots are in El Paso, Texas. In the ’20s and ’30s, “El ‘Chuco,” as it was nicknamed — probably because so many of its residents hailed from…
TOWNES’ BLUES
Texas-born songwriting legend Townes Van Zandt has been more prolific in death than he was in life. About a dozen records have been released since he died unexpectedly on New Year’s Day, 1997: “best of” anthologies, collections of unused studio and documentary material, and enough live discs of varying quality to convince you that he’s…
CD REVIEWS
Art in Heartache #5 “Screwed Blue”/”Halfway There (I’m Gone)” From Welcome to Porter Hall Tennessee Porter Hall, Tennessee (Slewfoot Records) The first song on Porter Hall, Tennessee’s debut is a catalog of the things a rambunctious fella might do to forget his gal (“I been drunk insane/And forgot my name/Stood there naked in the pouring…
MOLE WARS
Joseph J. Trento’s The Secret History of the CIA builds a detailed, 500-page case that this country’s most famous intelligence agency leaks like a sieve. Drawing on investigative journalism plus the testimony of intelligence insiders, Trento argues that “moles” (hostile penetration agents) have always been present within the CIA — to sow disinformation and to…
LEGISLATIVE WATCH
President George W. Bush and his administration aren’t doing any favors for Texas’ welfare reform and child care policies. House Resolution 4700, created by House Republicans and backed by Bush, sets out to undermine the state’s current child care programs. In Texas, HR 4700 would increase child care funds by $10 million each year. But…
