Saturday 18 May
OKG Newsletter
Phil Bacharach
Argo
As a director, Ben Affleck ratchets up the tension in this fact-based thriller.
Thriller
Phil Bacharach
Generating suspense from a story that is a matter of historical record is no easy thing. That was the primary challenge facing Ben Affleck and Chris Terrio, the director-star and writer, respectively, of Argo, a thriller inspired by a real-life covert operation that helped rescue six U.S. embassy workers out of Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis. It's a testament to the skills of the filmmakers that Argo delivers a deluge of suspense even when its ending is never in doubt.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' deftly grasps the pains and joys of high school.
Drama
Phil Bacharach
John Hughes, for all the love people heap on his ’80s teen movies, was far too easy on high school. Maybe your high school experience was different than mine — and, if so, congrats. For many of us, however, those years were a marathon of self-pity, heartache, passion and anything else you’d find on an album by The Smiths.
Searching for Sugar Man
One sweet rockumentary.
Documentary
Phil Bacharach
This is a golden age of documentaries, and I don’t mean the propagandistic variety via Michael Moore or 2016: Obama’s America. Given the pervasive timidity and lack of imagination in Hollywood today, film buffs are well advised to take stock of documentaries, where the most gripping stories are being told.
Looper
It's a real time killer.
Science Fiction
Phil Bacharach
Hurray for movies with ideas. In Looper, writer-director Rian Johnson crams in so many, it initially looks as if this sci-fi actioner might collapse under the weight of them all. Dystopian society, time travel, telekinesis, gangland killings — there are a lot of ground rules to keep track of here, much of them conveyed through the wobbly device of a narrator.
Peace, Love & Misunderstanding
You'll want to punch a hippie.
Drama
Phil Bacharach
Nothing can bring out one’s inner Richard Nixon like a flight of baby-boomer whimsy that rubs your nose in 1960s nostalgia. Peace, Love & Misunderstanding, a gentle-minded paean to the Woodstock generation, might just make you want to punch a hippie.
Blondie has more fun
The tide's still high for Debbie Harry and her iconic '80s band.
Music
Phil Bacharach
Blondie and Devo
7 p.m. Thursday
Zoo Amphitheatre
2101 N.E. 50th
zooamp.com
364-3700
$42.75-$114.75
Still whipped
What decade is it again? When a band as good as Devo comes knocking and rocking, the answer matters not.
Music
Phil Bacharach
Blondie and Devo
7 p.m. Thursday
Zoo Amphitheatre
2101 N.E. 50th
zooamp.com
364-3700
$42.75-$114.75
For a Good Time, Call ...
For a movie about phone sex, 'For a Good Time, Call ...' is surprisingly all heart.
Comedy
Phil Bacharach
Bridesmaids was the shot across the bow, with HBO’s Girls the follow-up fusillade: Women can cuss, drink and drug with the best of ’em. In that spirit arrives For a Good Time, Call …, a comedy with the scenario of what happens when a pair of unlikely 20-somethings start a phone-sex service.
Killer Joe
The trailer-trash noir dares you not to look.
Thriller
Phil Bacharach
Killer Joe is brutal, pulpy and utterly, irresistibly lurid — provided, that is, you like your perversity when it’s deep-fried and extra crispy.
Bill W.
Documentary
Phil Bacharach
Bill W.
7:30 p.m. Thursday, 5:30 and 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
Oklahoma City Museum of Art
415 Couch
236-3100
okcmoa.com
$5-$8
The hell you say
A Prague girl’s use of the word ‘hell’ keeps her from receiving her high school diploma.
News
Phil Bacharach
You'd think a school that proudly claims to be the home of the Red Devils wouldn't be so timid about using the word “hell,” but you'd be wrong.
Secret paroles?
Oklahoma County’s top prosecutor accuses the state Pardon and Parole Board of illegally considering the early release of some inmates.
News
Phil Bacharach
Tim Sharp was shocked when he heard from his aunt last month that the woman who had killed his father in a drunk-driving accident was up for parole. The inmate, Maelene Chambers, had served only four years of a 10-year manslaughter prison sentence for the 2006 death, and Sharp knew that manslaughter was one of more than 20 state crimes in which offenders were required to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence.
The Bourne Legacy
The spy franchise is 'Bourne' again with a new leading man.
Action
Phil Bacharach
Just because you don’t have Jason Bourne, Matt Damon or a Robert Ludlum novel to crib from doesn’t mean you can’t still wring some thrills out of the Bourne franchise. With the dog days of the summer box-office season comes The Bourne Legacy, a respectable spy actioner, even if it falls short of the standard set by its predecessors.
Elena
Money matters within the hierarchy of a blended family go under scrutiny in an icy Russian drama.
Drama
Phil Bacharach
Elena
7:30 p.m. Thursday, 5:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
Oklahoma City Museum of Art
415 Couch
okcmoa.com
236-3100
$5-$8
Sugar sugar
Kids can’t get enough of the Sugar Free Allstars’ ooey-gooey funk rock. Good thing the Oklahoma City duo has a new album to munch on.
Music
Phil Bacharach
Sugar Free Allstars with Heidi Swedberg
2 p.m. Sunday
Cafe Evoke
103 S. Broadway, Edmond
cafeevoke.com
285-1522
free
