
by Robert McGinnis
On this day, in 1823, Stephen F. Austin first received a grant of land in Texas from the Mexican government. In honor of the 195th anniversary of that momentous event, I picked today’s cover.

by Robert McGinnis
On this day, in 1823, Stephen F. Austin first received a grant of land in Texas from the Mexican government. In honor of the 195th anniversary of that momentous event, I picked today’s cover.
This year, Houston proved once again that Texas is better than the upper 48. In the face of adversity, Texans came together and helped each other out and basically but the rest of America to shame.
Then to top it all off, The Houston Film Critics got together and came up with an intriguing list of the films and performances that they consider to be the best of 2017!
Love you, Houston!
Here are their nominations:
Picture:
The Big Sick
Call Me By Your Name
Dunkirk
The Florida Project
Get Out
Lady Bird
Logan
The Post
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Director:
Guillermo del Toro, “The Shape of Water”
Greta Gerwig, “Lady Bird”
Christopher Nolan, “Dunkirk”
Jordan Peele, “Get Out”
Steven Spielberg, “The Post”
Actor:
Timothee Chalamet, “Call Me By Your Name”
James Franco, “The Disaster Artist”
Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”
Robert Pattinson, “Good Time”
Andy Serkis, “War for the Planet of the Apes”
Actress:
Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water”
Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Brooklyn Prince, “The Florida Project”
Margot Robbie, “I, Tonya”
Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”
Supporting Actor:
Willem Defoe, “The Florida Project”
Richard Jenkins, “The Shape of Water”
Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Patrick Stewart, “Logan”
Michael Stuhlbarg, “Call Me By Your Name”
Supporting Actress:
Holly Hunter, “The Big Sick”
Allison Janney, “I, Tonya”
Dafne Keen, “Logan”
Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”
Octavia Spencer, “The Shape of Water”
Screenplay:
“The Big Sick,” Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani
“Get Out,” Jordan Peele
“Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig
“The Post,” Elizabeth Hanna and Josh Singer
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” Martin McDonagh
Cinematography:
“Blade Runner 2049,” Roger Deakins
“Call Me By Your Name,” Sayombhu Mukdeeprom
“Dunkirk,” Hoyte van Hoytema
“The Shape of Water,” Dan Laustsen
“Wonder Wheel,” Vittoria Storaro
Animated Film:
“The Breadwinner”
“Coco”
“Despicable Me 3”
“The Lego Batman Movie”
“Loving Vincent”
Original Score:
“Blade Runner 2049,” Ben Wallfisch and Hans Zimmer
“Dunkirk,” Hans Zimmer
“The Post,” John Williams
“The Shape of Water,” Alexandre Desplat
“War for the Planet of the Apes,” Michael Giacchino
Best Original Song:
“Evermore” (“Beauty and the Beast”)
“I Get Overwhelmed” (“A Ghost Story”)
“Never Forget” (“Murder on the Orient Express”)
“Remember Me” (“Coco”)
“Visions of Gideon” (“Call Me By Your Name”)
Foreign Language Film:
“BPM”
“Blade of the Immortal”
“First They Killed My Father”
“The Square”
“Thelma”
Documentary Feature:
“Faces Places”
“Jane”
“Kedi”
“Step”
“The Work”
Visual Effects:
“Blade Runner 2049”
“The Shape of Water”
“War for the Planet of the Apes”
Poster:
“Baby Driver”
“It”
“Logan Lucky”
“Mother”
“The Shape of Water”
Texas Independent Film Award:
“A Ghost Story”
“Mr. Roosevelt”
“Mustang Island”
“The Secret Life of Lance Letscher”
“Song to Song”
Two days ago, the North Texas Film Critics Association announced their nominations for the best of 2017!
On twitter, there’s been a lot of speculation as to why the NTFCA totally snubbed Call Me By Your Name in their nominations. Hilariously, some people — all from out-of-state, of course — are assuming that the NTFCA must be made up of evangelical, right-wingers because it’s a Texas organization. Seriously, those people have no idea how left-wing most members of the Texas media are. Texas may be a Republican state but most of our native film critics are somewhere to the left of Bernie Sanders.
Anyway, here are the nominees:
BEST PICTURE
“Baby Driver”
“The Big Sick”
“Dunkirk”
“Get Out”
“The Florida Project”
“Lady Bird”
“Logan”
“The Post”
“The Shape of Water”
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
BEST ACTOR
James Franco, “The Disaster Artist”
Jake Gyllenhaal, “Stronger”
Tom Hanks, “The Post”
Hugh Jackman, “Logan”
Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”
James McAvoy, “Split”
Kumail Nanijiani, “The Big Sick”
Gary Oldman, “Darkest Hour”
Robert Pattinson, “Good Time”
Jeremy Renner, “Wind River”
Andy Serkis, “War for the Planet of the Apes”
BEST ACTRESS
Jessica Chastain, “Molly’s Game”
Judi Dench, “Victoria & Abdul”
Gal Gadot, “Wonder Woman”
Jennifer Lawrence, “mother!”
Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Brooklynn Prince, “The Florida Project”
Margot Robbie, “I, Tonya”
Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”
Emma Stone, “Battle of the Sexes”
Meryl Streep, “The Post”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Mary J. Blige, “Mudbound”
Holly Hunter, “The Big Sick”
Allison Janney, “I, Tonya”
Nicole Kidman, “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”
Tatiana Maslany, “Stronger”
Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”
Octavia Spencer, “The Shape of Water”
Tilda Swinton, “Okja”
Kristin Scott Thomas, “Darkest Hour”
Bria Vinaite, “The Florida Project”
Allison Williams, “Get Out”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Steve Carell, “Battle of the Sexes”
Daniel Craig, “Logan Lucky”
Bryan Cranston, “Last Flag Flying”
Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”
Idris Elba, “Molly’s Game”
Will Poulter, “Detroit”
Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Ray Romano, “The Big Sick”
Mark Rylance, “Dunkirk”
Patrick Stewart, “Logan”
BEST DIRECTOR
Sean Baker, “The Florida Project”
Guillermo del Toro, “The Shape of Water”
Greta Gerwig, “Lady Bird”
Patty Jenkins, “Wonder Woman”
Christopher Nolan, “Dunkirk”
Jordan Peele, “Get Out”
Steven Spielberg, “The Post”
Aaron Sorkin, “Molly’s Game”
Denis Villeneuve, “Blade Runner 2049”
Joe Wright, “Darkest Hour”
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Thimios Bakatakis, “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”
Roger Deakins, “Blade Runner 2049”
Hoyte Van Hoytema, “Dunkirk”
Matthew Jensen, “Wonder Woman”
Dan Laustsen, “The Shape of Water”
Janusz Kaminski, “The Post”
Michael Seresin, “War for the Planet of the Apes”
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“First They Killed My Father”
“In the Fade”
“Menashe”
“Raw”
“The Square”
BEST DOCUMENTARY
“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail”
“Chasing Coral”
“City of Ghosts”
“Cries from Syria”
“An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power”
“Jane”
“Step”
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
“The Breadwinner”
“Cars 3”
“Coco”
“Despicable Me 3:
“The LEGO Batman Movie”
“Loving Vincent”
Hi, everyone! Lisa here with today’s music video of the day!
So, I’ll be honest with you. The main reason that I picked today’s video is because Dallas is my hometown. I love it and I love the fact that this song is not only about Dallas but it was actually filmed here as well.
One thing you’ll notice about any video, movie, or TV show shot in Dallas. There’s always going to be at least a few shots of the Bank of America Plaza in the background. That’s the building that non-Dallasites tend to refer to as being “that big green building.” There have been so many nights where I looked over my shoulder, saw that building behind me, and I somehow knew everything would be okay.
Enjoy!
Happy birthday, Erin Nicole!
That’s right! Today is Dazzling Erin’s birthday! One of the reasons why I love working on this site is because I get to work with my sister. Not only has she always been there for me (which is not as easy as you might think) but she’s always willing to listen to my ideas, no matter how crazy they are, and I know I can always depend on her to either help me make those dreams come true or to patiently explain to me why it might not be a great idea to try to schedule a new film review to post every minute over a 24 hour time period. (That was originally my plan for Halloween until I was gently reminded that would amount to 1440 posts in one day.)
Along with doing artist profiles, Erin is also usually the person who picks our artwork of the day. (Val Troutman was inspired by Erin’s artwork of the day to start our music video of the day feature.) She’s also an excellent photographer in her own right, as you can find out by cliking on this link!
I picked today’s music video because it’s for a song that’s prominently featured in a film that Erin and I absolutely love, 2002’s Bend it Like Beckham. The video for Inner Smile features Sharleen Spiteri, the lead singer of Texas, doing her best Elvis Presley impersonation. The video itself is disguised to look like one of those Elvis documentaries that occasionally pop up on PBS but, if you watch it carefully, there are hints that we’re not actually seeing Elvis. (Keep an eye on the belt that Sharleen holds up at one point.)
This video was directed by Vaughan Arnell, who has been directing videos since 1984! (On the imvdb, he’s credited with 49 videos in total.)
As is noted at the end of the video, this video was actually filmed in front of a live audience with Sharleen in full Elvis costume.
Also, I know someone’s going to say that the main reason that I like this song is because the group is named Texas. Well, sure, that’s definitely not a bad thing. However, the band itself is Scottish.
Enjoy!
Hi there! Lisa here with today’s music video of the day!
This is the video for Rich White’s I’m Looking Up. It’s an undeniably low-budget affair but so what? I love the song and the video actually goes along with it nicely.
By the way, just in case you don’t recognize the capital building in the background or the bars on 6th Street, Rich is walking around Austin.
Enjoy!
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE HOUSTON ASTROS, THE 2017 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!
It wasn’t always an easy journey. When the Astros made the switch from the National League to the American League, it was not always a smooth transition. But this season, the Astros have again and again proved themselves to be the best team in the American League.
And tonight, they are the best team in major league baseball.
It took them seven games to win. The Los Angeles Dodgers proved to be a tough and worthy opponent. Of all the World Series that I have watched, this has been one of the most exciting and unpredictable When the Astros lost Game 6 on Halloween, no one gave them much of chance to win Game 7. They were playing in Los Angeles and everyone said that the Dodgers couldn’t be beaten at home.
Tonight, the Astros did the same thing that they did during the regular season. They played good baseball and the proved the doubters wrong. Tonight, the Astros won their first World Series. For the first time, the World Series has been won by a team from Texas.
Just as people underestimated the Astros this year, people have also underestimated Houston. When Hurricane Harvey flooded the city, it was said that Houston and the people who lived there would never recover. Just like the Astros, both Houston and Texas are proving the doubters wrong.
Congratulations to the Houston Astros! Tonight, the Astros showed the world what it means to be Houston Strong!
181 years ago today, 257 men gave their lives in San Antonio.
Remember the Alamo.
Happy Texas Independence Day!
Down here in Dallas, we celebrate Texas Independence Day by going down to Dealy Plaza and laughing at all the northern tourists sweating and talking about how they’re about to faint because they can’t handle a 75 degreee day.
But, if that sounds a little bit too mean-spirited to you, you can celebrate by watching my favorite scene from Richard Linklater’s Bernie! I know that I’ve probably shared this before but what can I say? I really love this quick lesson about my home state:
By the way, that line about “Dallas snobs,” always got a big laugh from the audiences at the Dallas Angelika. It’s important to have a sense of humor.
Don’t worry, Vermont. You’ll learn how to laugh at yourself someday.
Today’s horror on the lens is Mark of the Witch, a little oddity that was filmed in 1969 and released in 1970. It’s a film about what happens when the spirit of an executed witch possesses a college student.
This is an admittedly low-budget and, some would say, amateurish production but certain scenes have a nice dream-like feel and, in the role of the witch, Marie Santell doesn’t leave a bit of scenery unchewed. I especially enjoy her speech at the start of the film.
Plus, Mark of the Witch was filmed in my hometown of Dallas, Texas!
Enjoy!