Film & TV
January 27, 2022
The Funniest Scene in ‘Licorice Pizza’ Almost Didn’t Happen
Harriet Sansom Harris, who plays an unhinged talent agent, had to be convinced to emerge from her pandemic quarantine in the woods.
Film & TV
Incisive criticism, features, and news related to Texans on the screen—and behind the camera
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201-250 of 984 Articles
Film & TV
January 25, 2022
Are Chip and Joanna Gaines Too Big to Flop?
Magnolia Network, helmed by Waco’s First Family, has already weathered its first scandal. Viewers will keep tuning in.
Film & TV
January 25, 2022
The Chart-Topping Songs of Disney’s ‘Encanto’ Give Latino Families a Voice
The characters might be fictional, but to the Latinos who see their own families reflected in them, it’s a relief to see them say what we wish we could.
Sports
January 22, 2022
Director Eva Longoria Bastón Opens Sundance With ‘La Guerra Civil’
For the Corpus Christi native, the story of the 1996 championship bout between Oscar De La Hoya and Julio César Chávez was also her story.
Books
January 21, 2022
Texas Monthly Recommends: A True-Crime Tale of Two Murders
‘Blood and Money’ has it all: new oil money, an equestrian heiress, a handsome plastic surgeon, River Oaks mansions, and gossip-worthy trials.
Film & TV
January 19, 2022
‘Cheer’ Season Two Is Almost Unrecognizable
The popular Netflix cheerleading docuseries, set in Corsicana and Athens, takes a nosedive from feel-good to deeply disturbing.
Film & TV
January 19, 2022
Edi Patterson Is the Holy Terror of ‘The Righteous Gemstones’
The Texas City native and star of the hit HBO comedy series talks Judy Gemstone, ham slices, and why there’s nothing worse than someone trying to be funny.
Film & TV
January 18, 2022
‘How I Met Your Father’ Is a Casualty of the Nostalgia Machine
The gender-swapped sequel will be an easy watch for sitcom fans, but the callbacks and in-jokes tip into the saccharine.
Film & TV
January 13, 2022
Goodbye to ‘Search Party,’ the Show That Satirized a Generation
Comedies must choose whether to punch up or punch down; watching ‘Search Party’ has always made me feel like I’m punching myself.
Film & TV
January 6, 2022
The New ‘Queer Eye’ Season Is a Healing Work of Pandemic Art
Can the Fab Five help a society ravaged by grief recover? The answer is yas.
Film & TV
January 5, 2022
‘Yellowstone’ Is the Country’s Biggest TV Sensation. Why Are Critics Shrugging?
The Yellowstone prequel series ‘1883’ was a smash hit—and just the beginning for Taylor Sheridan’s western empire. Only viewers seem to care.
Film & TV
December 21, 2021
Ten Notable Performances From Texan Actors in 2021
From newcomers to reliable veterans to a pop star remaking her TV career, these were the actors worth watching this year.
Film & TV
December 17, 2021
Texas Monthly Recommends: A Contemplative, Beautifully Shot Western
‘The Power of the Dog,’ featuring Dallas-born Jesse Plemons, is well worth your time.
Film & TV
December 17, 2021
HBO and HBO Max to Get First Dibs on Texas Monthly Stories
The premier entertainment brands are entering a three-year deal with the National Magazine of Texas that gives them a “first look” at articles and podcasts they’re interested in adapting as TV series.
Music
December 17, 2021
The Texan Who Saved the Beatles
In Peter Jackson’s documentary ‘The Beatles: Get Back,’ Houston-born pianist Billy Preston makes a strong case for himself as the fifth Beatle.
Film & TV
December 17, 2021
‘The Tender Bar’ Pours Out a Warm, Flat Coming-of-age Drama
Texas actor Tye Sheridan stars alongside Ben Affleck in the sentimental yet skippable story of an aspiring writer, directed by George Clooney.
Film & TV
December 14, 2021
‘The Novice’ Puts a Nightmare Spin on the Traditional Sports Movie
The unnerving feature debut from Red Oak native Lauren Hadaway plumbs the gloomy depths beneath a college rower’s quest for greatness.
Film & TV
December 13, 2021
There’s Nothing New About ‘Twentysomethings: Austin,’ and That’s Precisely Its Appeal
The cringey Netflix show strikes the classic reality-TV balance of being both hard to watch and impossible to turn off.
Film & TV
December 9, 2021
Texas Could Sure Use a Man Like Hank Hill, I Tell You What
Twenty-five years later, Mike Judge’s ‘King of the Hill’ still captures something essential about Texans and Texas life. But are there any Hank Hills left?
Film & TV
December 8, 2021
‘The Chosen’ Is Christian TV That Even Heretics Can Get Behind
The streaming phenomenon, produced just outside of Dallas, is winning converts with its ‘Friday Night Lights’ spin on faith.
Film & TV
December 8, 2021
Skip ‘The Freak Brothers,’ and Read the Original Comics by Its Texan Creator Instead
The new show has a strong premise that’s derailed by cheap laughs. But cartoonist Gilbert Shelton’s counterculture strips are still great.
Film & TV
December 3, 2021
Filmed During Lockdown, ‘Red Stone’ Is a Return to Normal, Mediocre Thrillers
Fort Worth writer-director Derek Presley overcame unprecedented odds to make his otherwise unremarkable thriller about a tormented hit man.
Film & TV
December 1, 2021
Sean Baker’s Provocative ‘Red Rocket’ Gets Down and Dirty in Texas City
The latest from the director of ‘The Florida Project’ sees a scheming former porn star wash up along Texas’s Gulf Coast.
Film & TV
November 19, 2021
Season Two of ‘Love Life’ Has Nothing New to Say
Dallas native William Jackson Harper is a romantic lead who's prone to repeating mistakes and slow to mature.
Books
November 19, 2021
How the Alamo Drafthouse Turned Trash Cinema into a Cultural Institution
A new book tells the sweeping tale of the Alamo’s Weird Wednesday series, the American Genre Film Archive, and Austin’s custodians of cult.
Film & TV
November 19, 2021
Mckenna Grace Is the Only Thing Alive About the New ‘Ghostbusters’
The rising Grapevine star brings fresh spirit to a movie that’s fatally preoccupied with reviving the dead.
Libations
November 19, 2021
Escape to the Tropics at Austin’s Tiki Tatsu-Ya
Indulge in over-the-top cocktails like the Skeleton Cruise, which comes in a boat with dry ice and activates bar-wide light and sound effects.
Film & TV
November 16, 2021
The Legendary Flop of ‘The Legend of the Lone Ranger’
How an Amarillo oilman stole the mask right off the Lone Ranger’s face, and made one of film’s most infamous failures in the process.
Film & TV
November 11, 2021
How the Pandemic Showed Me a Different Way to Watch Movies
Over one hundred movies later, a virtual movie club learned some surprising things about classic movies—and about friendship in dark times.
Film & TV
November 3, 2021
‘The Harder They Fall’ Is a Fun, Stylish Revisionist Western
Dallas-raised actor Jonathan Majors leads a star-studded cast as outlaw Nat Love seeking revenge.
Film & TV
October 29, 2021
Richard Linklater’s ‘Waking Life’ Is Still a Long, Weird Trip Worth Taking
He made the low-budget film at a low point in his career—but twenty years later, it stands the test of time.
Film & TV
October 28, 2021
‘Student Bodies’ Remains Texas’s Strangest Contribution to Horror Movie History
The 1981 slasher spoof prominently features Houston and a future Texas politician, but that’s not all that’s notable about it.
Film & TV
October 21, 2021
‘The French Dispatch’ Is Wes Anderson at His Most Self-indulgent
The Houston filmmaker’s latest is a valentine to defiantly idiosyncratic storytellers like Wes Anderson.
Film & TV
October 15, 2021
‘Halloween Kills’ Time and Patience
The sequel to David Gordon Green’s franchise reboot is all filler, same old killer.
Film & TV
October 12, 2021
‘Hard Luck Love Song’ Is A Tune You’ve Heard Before, But It Hits All the Right Notes
Austin-raised writer-director Justin Corsbie’s debut about a down-on-his-luck troubadour feels as warmly familiar as the Americana songs that inspired it.
Film & TV
October 7, 2021
Apple’s ‘Foundation’ Is Dull, but Lee Pace Is Our Intergalactic Emperor Daddy
The Houston-raised actor shines as a pompous space tyrant in the otherwise dreary Isaac Asimov adaptation.
Film & TV
October 6, 2021
Fifty Years On, ‘The Last Picture Show’ Is an Indelible Texas Movie
There may be no more powerful film about growing up with nowhere to go.
Business
October 5, 2021
At Heritage, Pokémon Cards Are the New Bitcoin
The collectors are younger, the payouts are bigger, the collectibles are … nerdier. Dallas-based Heritage Auctions has entered a wild new era.
Film & TV
September 30, 2021
‘Venom 2’: Let There Be Confusion
Woody Harrelson’s talents are buried under the film’s unwieldy plot.
Film & TV
September 28, 2021
NBC’s ‘La Brea’ Is Silly, but It Gives Natalie Zea an Overdue Spotlight
The Monahans-bred actor elevates this loopy, Lost-like sci-fi drama about a mom fighting her way out of a mysterious primeval world.
Film & TV
September 24, 2021
Dale Brisby’s Netflix Show Teaches Viewers How to Be Cowboys for the Instagram Age
The rancher and self-proclaimed rodeo legend has an ego the size of Texas, and he uses it for the good of the “cowboy cause.”
Film & TV
September 20, 2021
David Lowery Has a New Film About the Pandemic Already
The Dallas-based director's short is inscrutable, arty, and part of the excellent anthology ‘The Year of the Everlasting Storm.’
Music
September 16, 2021
‘The Nowhere Inn’ Delves Into St. Vincent but Leaves Plenty of Vacancies
Dallas’s mercurial pop phenom writes and stars in this loosely autobiographical satire that raises questions it doesn’t deign to answer.
Film & TV
September 14, 2021
‘Necessary Roughness’ Made Texas Football Into a Joke. But It Also Moved the Chains.
Kick off the football season with this underappreciated, Denton-filmed comedy, which captured some truths about Texas football that later, more-serious movies would expand on.
Film & TV
September 1, 2021
Was ‘Star Trek’ Creator Gene Roddenberry Really a Texan?
Roddenberry may have eschewed identifying with the state, but the stories he told carry a Texan DNA.
Film & TV
September 1, 2021
Your Comprehensive Fall 2021 Texas Film Guide
Cowboys, ghostbusters, and aliens, oh my! The autumn months are abloom with Texas actors, filmmakers, and locales on the big (and small) screen.
Film & TV
August 23, 2021
‘Only Murders in the Building’ Sends Up Our True-Crime Obsession
Helmed by Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short, the show parodies and subverts the tropes of the true-crime genre.
Film & TV
August 21, 2021
Dennis Quaid Is the True King of the Sports Movie
Forget Kevin Costner. The Houston native best captures the complex glory of American sports.
Film & TV
August 11, 2021
A User’s Guide to Austin’s New B-List Celebrities
Is that a Hollywood newcomer or just someone who works out a lot? How to tell the difference.
Texas History
August 6, 2021
In Memoriam: On MTV’s Fortieth Anniversary, Don’t Forget to Thank Michael Nesmith
The Texas native helped make the music video into an art form, and was instrumental in creating the network that defined a generation.