A scene from Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess

A few weeks ago, Jason Reimer's lovely teaser for the Oak Cliff Film Festival made the rounds. Today, we finally get some concrete evidence of just what will be screening.

Some highlights include Computer Chess, Andrew Bujalski's wonderfully weird ode to '80s computer programmers; Joe Swanberg's brewery comedy Drinking Buddies; Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, the documentary on Russian feminist collective Pussy Riot, which debuted at SXSW; and a screening of Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller by David Lowery, followed by another Lowery "secret screening" of a newer film that may or may not have been influenced by Altman's movie. Can you guess what it is?

More »

Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher are professional data sifters. You could also say they watch crap for a living.

In fact, let's say that instead.

The pair harvests and compiles snippets from salvaged VHS tapes for their Found Footage Festival, then screens the stuff publicly. It results in analog peculiarity -- old workout tapes, crafting how-tos and home shopping network goofs woven together with riffy dialogue. It's pop culture, shrinky-dinked in nostalgia. Still confused? Think MST3K on hallucinogenics at a rummage sale.

On Thursday they close their tour, ending a road trip that's lasted for more than a year, at Dallas' Texas Theatre. Then, they'll take a thousand showers.

When I rang 'em up, Joe was driving, so Nick and I discussed why VHS has verve, his own secretly recorded life, hiring private investigators and what an outsider can expect from Thursday night's Found Footage Festival. Then he begged for handouts. (Have old, must-see VHS tapes? Donate 'em to the Found mission, says Nick.)

More »

Over at film website Twitch, the first bumper for the second annual Oak Cliff Film Festival was released today. Texas Theatre's Jason Reimer directed the nearly three-minute video, which features a time-traveling Confederate solider planting an OCFF flag by the Trinity River, which naturally leads into a paintball fight. (You might see some familiar faces, too.)

The fest takes place June 6 through 9 at Texas Theatre, with extra-curricular events at El Sibil, Four Corners Brewery and more. Stay tuned for the full list of films, which should be released soon. We do know Bobcat Goldthwait's latest, a found footage movie about Bigfoot called Willow Creek, will be in the house.

Stephen Masker

This charming bunny was a hit at last year's event.

Horror fans, this is your weekend to check out Texas Frightmare Weekend, which has been dubbed "the Southwest's premier horror convention." And with the kind of lineup they have this year, even non-horror fans might find something worth braving.

Here are our picks for the panels and films you won't want to miss over the convention's run this Friday through Sunday. You can see the complete schedule of events here.

More »

Every week, we find you five movies for you to check out over the coming week or weekend, from the latest wide release to weird local screenings to timely classics you can watch on your couch. Did we miss something? Let readers know in the comments.

Iron Man 3
Wide release
Shane Black, the screenwriter of the first Lethal Weapon and the man behind Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, finishes what Jon Favreau began with this third installment in the popular superhero series. Things explode and Robert Downey Jr. makes witty retorts -- what more do you need to know?

More »

Manhunt: Like Zero Dark Thirty, but with less water-boarding and more wall-staring.

Last week, Manhunt, a new documentary, opened the 43rd annual USA Film Festival at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas. Like Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty, it chronicles the CIA's search for Osama bin Laden. But where Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal condensed characters and dramatized history, Manhunt director Greg Barker wanted to create a film that would help audiences get to know what the CIA is like and the people involved in the two decades-long search.

"It plays like a thriller or a spy movie, but these are real people," he said, speaking about the film by phone before its Dallas premier.

More »

"Do I have to wear shoes?"

Every week, we find you five movies for you to check out over the coming week or weekend, from the latest wide release to weird local screenings to timely classics you can watch on your couch. Did we miss something? Let readers know in the comments.

Mud
Opens Friday at the Dallas and Plano Angelika
Director Jeff Nichols has a solid track record so far with two acclaimed films -- 2007's Shotgun Stories and 2011's Take Shelter -- under his belt. With Mud, it looks like a third is on the way. The film, which debuted at last year's Cannes Film Festival, stars Texas actor Matthew McConaughey as a fugitive who turns to two boys for help evading the law and finding the woman he loves (played by Reese Witherspoon). Mud played in town recently as part of the Dallas International Film Festival and it opens at the Dallas and Plano Angelikas this Friday.

More »

Magnolia Pictures

Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams in To the Wonder

You don't have to go far if you want to see Terrence Malick's new movie, To the Wonder, this weekend. You don't have to go anywhere, in fact.

Though the movie, starring Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams, opens at the Dallas Angelika on Friday, you can already watch it in the comfort of your own home. Last weekend, when its limited release began in New York, it also became available for rent on iTunes for $6.99, which is between $4 and $70 dollars less than you'd pay to see it in the theaters, depending on whether you have friends, an appetite or, God forbid, a baby who needs sitting.

More »

Dallas moviegoers this weekend will finally get their chance to see Upstream Color, the sophomore film from DFW-bred filmmaker Shane Carruth, whose first film, a time-travel movie called Primer, won the top prize at Sundance nine years ago. The movie, which is roughly about mind control, opens in Dallas on Friday.

Carruth's films are strange, experimental, anti-Hollywood tales, making him a minor cult hero among film nerds. So with a near-deafening buzz building around the movie -- he broke a record for advanced ticket sales at one New York screening -- we spoke with Carruth about his filmmaking philosophy, filming in Dallas, and his attitude toward Hollywood, his failed project in between Primer and Upstream,and his next project, called The Modern Ocean.

Read our story here, and see the full Q&A below.

You filmed Upstream Color in and around Dallas, including outside your house in Plano. That must be fun.

It's funny. Up until we started talking about where we shot it, I would get a lot of questions -- people thought that it was Seattle or Portland for some reason. They were always saying, 'So what was it like shooting in the Northwest?' 'What? Are you kidding me? No, it was all Dallas.'

More »

Magnolia Pictures

Ben Affleck and Olga Kurylenko in To the Wonder

Every week, we find you five movies for you to check out over the coming week or weekend, from the latest wide release to weird local screenings to timely classics you can watch on your couch. Did we miss something? Let readers know in the comments.

Sunset Boulevard
Screens Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Texas Theatre
Fans of Billy Wilder's classic story about a fading Hollywood actress pining for the good ol' days of silent film will have three chances to see it in 35mm at the Texas Theatre. Wilder made more than his fare share of classics throughout his career, including Double Indemnity (1944), Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960). The late Roger Ebert called this one "the best drama ever made about the movies."

More »