Richard Whittaker

Is Texas' lieutenant governor lining up cash for a culture war?

1986, Not rated, 97 min. Directed by Sammo Hung Kam-Po. Starring Yasuaki Kurata, Billy Chow, Dick Wei, Yuen Woo-Ping, Hsaio Ho, Yuen Wah, Haing S. Ngor, Lam Ching-Ying, Joyce Godenzi, Yuen Biao and Samo Hung.

When making a jukebox musical out of the memorable back catalog of American pop sensations the Four Seasons, the easy choice – the lazy choice – for Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice would have been to just concentrate on Frankie Valli. After all, he was the most famous member and voice of the Garden State quartet, their success spurred by the falsetto vocals on “Big Girls Don’t Cry” through a decade of hits like “What a Night” and “Sherry.” But what makes the Tony-winning

Directed by Magnus von Horn. Starring Vic Carmen Sonne, Trine Dyrholm, Besir Zeciri, Joachim Fjelstrup, Tessa Hoder, Ava Knox Martin, Anders Hove, Ari Alexander.

Directed by Sandhya Suri. Starring Shahana Goswami, Sanjay Bishnoi, Sunita Rajwar, Shashi Beniwal.

Ever the contrarian, I prefer The Traitors UK ’s cast of normies versus the U.S.’s bench of backstabbing reality TV all-stars pulled from Survivor, Big Brother, and the Real Housewives

What does Bernard van Orley’s epic 16th century tapestry The Honors have to do with Hobby Lobby, the first woman to graduate from MIT, the Texas Rose Festival, Hansel and Gretel, and methods of execution? The threads that weave them together are explained in this lecture from artist and art historian Suzanne Bocanegra. Except it’s not delivered by Bocanegra but actress Lili Taylor as Bocanegra – or rather,

1959, Not rated, 119 min. Directed by Yasujirô Ozu. Starring Ganjirô Nakamura, Machiko Kyô, Ayako Wakao and Hiroshi Kawaguchi.

90, Rated R, 1989 min. Directed by Hal Hartley. Starring Adrienne Shelly, Robert Burke and Christopher Cooke.

Get ready to RSVP for the can't-miss event of the season. South by Southwest has just announced that Another Simple Favor, the latest movie from festival regular Paul Feig, will be this year's opening night film for the Film and Television Festival (March 7-15).