THE JOY OF TEX by Hilliard Pruitt   Woodward Maurice ‘Tex’ Ritter was born on January 12, 1905, in the small East Texas town of Murvaul. He is considered an early trailblazer of American country music, a celebrated singer and actor entertaining audiences over three decades spanning from the mid-1930s to the 1960s, as well as the patriarch of the Ritter acting family. Tex spent much of his formative years juxtaposing the burdens of helping to maintain the family farm in East Texas while studying as an elementary student in Carthage, Texas. Not long after, his family moved to SETX, where h ..read more

RED ROCKET SCIENCE by Christopher Dombrosky America’s Gulf Coast isn’t known for tornadoes, but production of the Southeast Texas-shot independent motion picture dramedy RED ROCKET was a whirlwind. When acclaimed multi-hyphenate auteur Sean Baker, maker of 2015’s TANGERINE and 2017’s THE FLORIDA PROJECT, found his 2020 work in Canada scuttled by pandemic, he pivoted from the Great White North to the Lone Star State in search of the right setting to make a movie so small that it could fly beneath the cloud of covid. Baker quickly found such a backdrop amid the flame capped refineries and coast ..read more

Grab the Gator & Cocaine: Beaumont’s Own Texas Godfather by Justin Norris Truly, there is nothing cooler than seeing a town/city/state that holds a special place in your memory appear in a movie. The magic of recognition can elevate even the most forgettable or terrible films when that jolt of energy rushes through your body as you recognize the characters on film eating at the same McDonald’s you do. For this third entry of mine in collaboration with the Boomtown Film and Music Festival, getting the opportunity to watch a seemingly “lost” film from the ‘80s involving drug smugglers shoot ..read more

THE IDIOTIC AND INNOVATIVE STUDENT BODIES by Justin Norris Lost to time and memory, STUDENT BODIES is something of a strange marvel. It stands out first for being filmed in and around the Houston area, particularly in the Richmond and Katy areas. Folks over in Port Arthur get something to point out in this film as the 1980 Thomas Jefferson High School Yellow Jackets (who in real life faced off against the Odessa Permian Panthers of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS fame) appear in this film as a ferocious and over-powered visiting football program. Conceived and created during a writer’s strike, STUDENT BOD ..read more

WIM WENDERS’ TRANSFIXING PARIS, TEXAS by Justin Norris The great state of Texas is magical. It’s a state where its many diverse qualities converge to form a state undoubtedly unique and, in a way, something more mysterious. North, South, East, and West, the state of Texas offers residents and vagabonds alike a chance to experience something different, to change their whole life even at just the turn towards a direction. Truly, under those radiant night skies of Texas, you can choose to be anyone… or no one. Travis Henderson (Harry Dean Stanton), the elusive protagonist of German director Wim ..read more

By Bryan Lee You’ve heard of the Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, and Amazing Stories, right? Well Black Mirror is the spiritual successor to those shows for a modern audience. From the great mind of Charlie Brooker comes a Christmas masterpiece with special episode of “White Christmas”. This has Christmas written all over its stories. The episode starts on “Christmas Day” with the two main characters Matt (Jon Hamm) and Joe (Rafe Spall) in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. For there four stories are interwoven from an a guy trying to score a date at a Christmas party, an affluent woman ..read more

by Justin Norris The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is not a Christmas movie. It’s not even Christmas adjacent, ala Die Hard or even Iron Man 3. In fact, there is not a single scene in David Fincher’s underrated masterpiece that displays even an ounce of the holiday. The only connection between the film and Christmas is the release date, December 25, 2008. But The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a Christmas movie to me, not because of the date it was released on, but because of the “spirit” of the holiday that it carries within. The film itself, the story it tells (bas ..read more

by Lane Fortenberry Since 1997, A Christmas Story has played on a 24 hour continuous loop (TNT ran it from 1997 through 2004 before TBS took over), and odds are your family and friends have tuned in at least once every year. Why have we done this for so many years? Aren’t we sick of it? Of course not – because it’s the ultimate holiday classic. There’s simply no other holiday movie like it. While we lounge in the comfort of our cozy Texas living rooms, the film makes it feel cold and snowy outside. It has heart and a plethora of laughs. It also makes us remember the disappointment we all felt ..read more

by Christopher Dombrosky Watch this, not that. It’s what I tell anyone who says that “Christmas in Connecticut” is among their annual rotation of classic holiday movies. Swap it, I tell them, with the less famous but far better Barbara Stanwyck Christmas flick “Remember the Night.” I confess that I originally watched “Remember the Night” because its title seemed to be telling us that nights are things not to be wasted; a racy reminder for 1940. And while one scene, shot entirely in silhouette, is among the sultriest moments ever committed to celluloid, “Remember the Night” is in fact a heartwa ..read more

by John Jones Ah, Christmas. One of the most beloved and celebrated holidays in the world. And for good reason to! While presents are thrown about like Oprah on speed, Christmas is a day for quality time with friends and family. At least if you have any friends left and if Susan didn’t take the kids with her to Europe even though it was my weekend! But, besides all that, what a jolly holiday. So, for the few drinking more egg nog alone than usual, why not shake things up a bit and watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas? No, not the classic 1966 one or that new Cucumberpatch one, but the Academy ..read more