Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2007 > February > 15
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Sazon, Future Clouds, ‘Idol’ and the beach
Food: I notice that Dale Rice’s review of Sazon was among the most e-mailed from the Austin360.com site today. No wonder the place was sizzling when we dropped by in the early evening. Here, it’s all about the food. Everything that we ordered was prepared, seasoned and executed at least one step beyond other interior Mexican restaurants in its class.
Music: It’s coming out soon: The new Future Clouds and Radar CD is complex on a level that few Austin area acts have ever accomplished. Wait for it.
TV: Sad that San Marcos Jimmy didn’t make further it on “American Idol.” It’s strange how one gets caught up in ups and downs of these contestants. Not like “Project Runway” but still compelling in a spotty way. Pasadena Civic Auditorium looks a bit like Hogg, doesn’t it? Just please, please stop the melismas.
Travel: We’re off to the beach for our annual Reading Week. So we’ll switch to the low-impact photo blog every day.
Permalink | | Categories: By Michael Barnes
Wrestling with “Half-Nelson”
Movies: Idealistic white teacher. Tough black teen. Drugs, danger, street life, struggling schools.
“Half-Nelson” carries with so much familiar baggage, one is tempted to pop out the DVD after the first 15 minutes. That would be a mistake.
The teacher, not the teen, is an uredeemable crack head. Yet mostly sympathetic. The teen might be tough, but her smile would melt an iceberg, and she quickly learns to balance the street and the classroom. Where is this film going?
Nowhere, slowly, for the most part, which is good, because “Half-Nelson” (2006) tracks life more accurately than the formulaic melodramas about failing schools that clot our small and large screens.
Does ex-Young-Hercules Ryan Gosling deserve his Academy Award nomination? You bet. Almost everything he does as the scruffy, dialectics-driven teacher surprises you.
Oh, and ex-Austinite Starla Benford, also seen in “United 93” in 2006, enjoys two brief scenes as the bristling school principal. You might remember her from roles at Cap City Playhouse and other theaters during the 1980s and ’90s. She’s always deserved a bigger career.
Permalink | | Categories: By Michael Barnes