20110217_Pulse

the shorthorn entertainment & dining guidethursday, february 17, 2011 | www.theshorthorn.com

PULSE

Find out if Speedzone crosses the finish line first. Page 2B

Locally filmed Brotherhood is reviewed, along with interview with director. Page 4B

ReviewReview

Gas or Pass

Our critic reviews new supernatural thriller, I Am Number Four. Page 3B

D-FW band stops by The Shorthorn for per-formance and interview. Page 4B

Tiger of Bengal makes noise

The Shorthorn: Stuart Hausmann and Lorraine Frajkor

2B pulse | www.theshorthorn.com thursday, february 17, 2011

BY TORY BARRINGERThe Shorthorn staff

Fun seekers who find them-selves jonesing for amusement during Six Flags’ offseason may find themselves drawn to Speed-Zone. The racing-themed estab-lishment offers its share of attrac-tions, but its offerings come up too short for the hefty price.

Located at Interstate 35 and Walnut Lane, SpeedZone touts it-self as a 12-acre racing park dedi-cated to “speed, racing and com-petition.” The focus on racing is apparent right away. The outside of the park is laden with racing banners and cars — even the door handles are shaped like adjustable wrenches.

General manager Wesley Fain explained that the theme origi-nated in Atlanta, Ga., one of the country’s most active NASCAR fan cities. Although the Atlanta loca-

tion is no longer open, the Dallas park maintains the racing theme and even hosts drivers whenever NASCAR races are in town.

“We partner up with racing teams and bring drivers in to meet people,” Fain said. “That’s some-thing you don’t just find anywhere.”

Inside, the arcade has a number of racing games, arcade shooters and ticket-dispensing competi-tion games. The arcade appeals to younger children with their par-ents, but the real attractions are outside. There, one can find several different go-cart racing tracks to satisfy a wide range of speed de-mons, from the two-seater parent-and-child cars to the dragster races for adults.

There is also a bar for adults who want to make a pit stop. Fain said it’s one of the park’s numerous adult attractions, which includes faster race tracks than those found

at similar amusement centers.The races are sure to satisfy

anyone’s need for speed, but expect to drain your wallet. Prices per race range from $7.95 for single-seater races to $15.95 for three runs on the dragster track. Parkgoer Niko Sweetland said that he and his girl-friend had spent more than $80 in a day at the park.

“[The prices are] a little high, but I guess it’s worth it. We’re hav-ing fun,” Sweetland said.

Several parents at the park with their children agreed with his complaint about the prices. Aaron Eagle, there with his wife and daughter, said he debated with himself about paying for a race.

“[The price] could be lower,” Eagle said. “But, I guess we keep coming back.”

SpeedZone is a good example of getting what you pay for. There was a consensus among attend-

ees that the park was better than similar offerings, like Putt Putt or Mountasia, but all agreed the higher price made the park pro-hibitively expensive. Teri Jaminet, there with her son, said they only visit once or twice a year.

“We would come here more often if they’d shrink the price,” Jaminet said.

SpeedZone offers a deal on Tuesdays, $15 miniature golf and unlimited video games, and Mon-day through Friday has happy hour from 3-7 p.m.

The amusements at Speed-Zone just don’t match up with the price, especially for a college stu-dent looking for a fun, cheap time. Anyone trying to find fun without breaking the bank would be better off passing on this one.

TORY [email protected]

SpeedZone falls short from the fi nish lineThe arcade and racing venue kicks affordability to the curb

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Pulse explores the Metroplex and beyond to find Texas locations that are, or not, worth the fuel.

Pass it, don’t gas it

Where: SpeedZone 11130 Malibu DriveDallas 75229972-247-7223When: Noon to 10 p.m. Monday-ThursdayNoon to Midnight Friday11 a.m. to Midnight Saturday11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday Specials: $15 miniature golf and unlimited video games on TuesdaysHappy hour Monday – Friday 3–7 p.m.

The Shorthorn: Lorraine Frajkor

N

Dallas

Riverside Drive

Northwest Highway

Royal Lane

635

35W

114

161

SpeedZone Dallas

The Shorthorn: Aisha Butt

Orlando, Fla. resident Valeria Mendez races down the turbo track Wednesday afternoon at SpeedZone. “We came here for a conference and decided to come to Speed-Zone. The turbo track is my favorite so far,” Mendez said.

$2 Upcharge applies to all 3D lms.

AVATAR (3-D) [PG13]

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2 x 4”

GNOMEO AND JULIET 3D • 84 mins • G 10:45AM | 1:25 | 3:50 | 6:20 | 9:00No Passes Digital

I AM NUMBER FOUR • 110 mins • PG13 12:00AMDigital

JURASSIC PARK 127 mins • PG139:30Digital

JUST GO WITH IT • 116 mins • PG1312:15 | 4:10 | 7:15 | 10:20No Passes Digital

JUSTIN BIEBER: NEVER SAY NEVER 3D • 105 mins • G 10:30AM | 1:15 | 4:00 | 6:45 | 9:30No Passes Digital

SANCTUM 3D • 109 mins • R11:00AM | 1:50 | 4:40 | 7:40 | 10:40No Passes Digital

THE EAGLE • 114 mins • PG1312:30 | 4:30 | 7:30 | 10:30No Passes Digital

THE GREEN HORNET 3D (2011) • 119 mins • PG13 12:00 | 3:30 | 6:30Digital

THE ROOMMATE • 92 mins • PG1311:10AM | 1:40 | 4:20 | 7:00 | 10:00No Passes Digital

UNKNOWN (2011) • 113 mins • PG13 12:00AM Digital

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17

3Bwww.theshorthorn.com | pulsethursday, february 17, 2011

Concert Corner

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By Tory BarringerThe Shorthorn staff

I Am Number Four has a lot of things working against it: shaky acting, a groan-worthy teenage love story and stereo-typical characters to name a few. It’s almost impressive how it manages to overcome such flaws and hold up as a decent movie.

The story centers on John Smith (Alex Pettyfer), one of a small number of survivors from an alien race called the Lorians. After his people were almost exterminated by vicious mem-bers of the rival Mogadorian race, he and eight other children were brought to Earth to devel-op their powers and learn how to fight back. Three of those refugees were hunted down, and now John is to be the fourth vic-tim. Always aware of the danger he’s in, John frequently moves and changes his identity.

John’s efforts to keep a low

profile take a backseat when he meets Sarah, who, like John, is an outcast at school. After a brief courting period, the two develop the kind of love that only a high school student can experience. The romance is stunted, the actors lack chemis-try and it all seems so familiar. In fact, this movie is Twilight for guys.

Pettyfer’s acting in the lead role ranges from weak to merely mediocre, and he doesn’t start to find his place until later in the movie. Pettyfer’s acting weak-nesses are covered somewhat by his pairing with Timothy Oly-phant as John’s guardian, Henri. Olyphant’s straight-faced per-formance in I Am Number Four is reminiscent of Seth Bullock, his character in the HBO series “Deadwood.” The quiet humor he provides plays well off of Pet-tyfer’s more aggressive role.

Kevin Durand is also good

as the unnamed Mogadorian commander. As the only Moga-dorian who demonstrates the ability to speak a human lan-guage, he taunts his victims and oozes personality in the few lines that he gets. Fans of TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer may notice a resemblance to the villainous Master, in appear-ance and demeanor. With Buffy alumnus Marti Noxon on the writing staff, it makes sense.

Olyphant, with a little help from Durand, is forced to carry the movie through its slow in-troduction and middle, but the rest of the cast picks up the slack in the movie’s final moments. John and his friends fight their way through a small army of Mogadorians in a half-hour of nonstop action scenes. It’s here that number six (Teresa Palmer) is introduced in all her femme-fatale glory. Her developed alien powers provide some awesome

effects and make her interesting — until she opens her mouth and reveals an unfortunate “too hip” personality.

With so many strikes against it, it’s easy to go into I Am Num-ber Four expecting to hate it. For casual cinema fans, though, the movie surprises and enter-tains. Number Four isn’t a bad

popcorn movie, but is far from number one.

Tory [email protected]

‘I Am Number Four’ rates far from No. 1Alex Pettyfer’s new movie is ‘Twilight’ with aliens

I Am Number Four Starring: Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant, Teresa Palmer, Dianna AgronDirector: D.J. CarusoRated: PG-13Release: TomorrowScore: Three out of five stars

Courtesy: Touchstone Pictures

John (Alex Pettyfer) studies his new-found abilities in DreamWorks Pictures’ suspense thriller I Am Number Four.

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BY LEE ESCOBEDOThe Shorthorn Scene editor

The Shorthorn’s new spring 2011 concert series will be hosting perfor-mances by local bands monthly in the newspaper’s office. The first band is noise rock band, Tiger of Bengal, who take influence from Godspeed! You Black Emperor and Mogwai. The band is the brainchild of film senior Sam Dobbin, who took the name from a Fritz Lang film. Dobbin said he was excited about the opportunity to be the first band to play for The Shorthorn’s concert series. None of the other band members attend UTA. The band spoke with The Shorthorn after their performance about it’s for-mation, crazy tour nights and the groupies that love them.

The Shorthorn: How long have you guys been together?

Dobbin: Our first show was Oct. 31.

Sowell: Halloween!

The Shorthorn: Where at?

Michael Moore: It was in Austin at a house party.

The Short-horn: How did you guys form?

Dobbin: We had been play-

ing together for a little bit, and we were looking for a drummer and a guitar-ist. I was

play-ing a

solo show one night

and had a drum set up, and M a t t w a s at the show, a n d I had h i m

j u m p up and

play a song with me. Matt Fjordbak: Let me throw in

there that, when he called me on stage, I had never played drums in front of anybody before — ever. He just called me up, and I was like ‘I don’t want to do this at all,’ but the opportunity came.

Moore: He did that music by him-self, and when you do that music by yourself, it’s much less interesting. I mean, it’s not very energetic.

Dobbin: Yeah, it’s just one guy dicking around with a pedal.

The Shorthorn: How would you guys describe your sound? What do you tell people you guys sound like?

Moore: Well, technically our genre is postrock.

Dobbin: It’s ambient, avant-garde noise.

The Shorthorn: Why did you guys pick this particular style?

Dobbin: I’ve been trying to put something together like this since I was 17.

Fjordbak: He already had, like, six songs written when he asked me to join.

Logan Sowell: It definitely appeals to me because I like the fact that we don’t have any organized lyrics or song names. So basically, we always get lots of different feedback from people at shows, like stuff that we hadn’t heard of.

Dobbin: Yeah, we need to start naming the songs because tonight, when we were picking the set, we were like ‘Let’s do 1,4,5 and 6.’

Moore: It’s like a Chinese takeout menu.

The Shorthorn: Who are some of your influences?

Dobbin: We all come from differ-ent musical backgrounds. I played

in a country band for a while and a really bad pop band for a while, but I always wanted to get back to some-thing with a little more substance in it. I draw a lot from Godspeed! You Black Emperor, British Sea Power- a lot of those kind of acts.

The Shorthorn: Any others?Sowell: Mogwai, for me, that’s a

huge influence.Moore: Well, Matt and I are a little

different. We used to play a lot of metal. We’ve played in a lot of metal bands all through high school, and early college, and we both got sick of it. Well, I got sick of it. I think you did, too.

Fjordbak: Yeah.

The Shorthorn: What are some places you have played in the D-FW area?

Dobbin: The D-FW, we’ve played: Lola’s, Andy’s, The Prophet Bar, City Tavern, the Moon.

The Shorthorn: How do you feel about the local music scene in Ar-lington?

Dobbin: In the Arlington area, there’s not too much around.

Fjordbak: It’s coming back. The scene died a few years ago real hard, it’s starting to make its ascent again.

Dobbin: People are starting to re-open a lot of the Dallas venues, es-pecially that have been closed down.

Club Dada is back open. Trees is back open. Caves is going to start doing shows again.

Sowell: One thing I’ve noticed, too, is that at house shows, a lot of people are starting to go there for the music.

Fjordbak: All the houses around here have nicknames and everyone is going there instead of going to shows.

Sowell: It’s definitely a sign of hope, and encouraging.

The Shorthorn: Do you guys have any interesting performance stories?

Moore: Oh, we can tell that one story! So, we’re partying pretty hard in Austin, I am anyway, they’re all with me. Our shows on Sunday? Was


Tiger of Bengal performs in Shorthorn newsroomTiger of Bengal discusses its world

in an exclusive interview

Concert Corner

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The Shorthorn: Andrew Buckley

Tiger of Bengal performed several songs Feb. 10 at The Shorthorn newsroom. The four-man instrumental band is based out of the D-FW and is inspired by experimental acts and old jazz bands.

Tiger of Bengal — a four-man instrumental band Guitarist: Sam DobbinBass guitarist: Logan SowellGuitarist: Michael MooreDrummer: Matt Fjordbak

Club Dada is back open. Trees is back open. Caves is going to start doing shows again.

Sowell: One thing I’ve noticed, too, is that at house shows, a lot of people are starting to go there for the music.

Fjordbak: All the houses around here have nicknames and everyone is going there instead of going to shows.

Sowell: It’s definitely a sign of hope, and encouraging.

The Shorthorn: Do you guys have any interesting performance stories?

Moore: Oh, we can tell that one story! So, we’re partying pretty hard in Austin, I am anyway, they’re all with me. Our shows on Sunday? Was

it Saturday?Fjordbak: Sunday night.Moore: So, it starts on Sunday

night, and I’m up until nine in the morning partying from Saturday on-ward, and I just crash. [Fjordbak] is up with me. He’s not quite as messed up as I am. I wake up and I’m doing my day, and we get back to the house, and we watch “Family Guy”, and sure enough we pass out. Our friend Bay-lor shows up at like, nine, our show’s at 9:30. He’s like ‘Hey, what are you guys up to?’ We’re like ‘Oh, not much, what time is it?’ He’s like ‘9:05’ we’re like ‘Ahh!’ We jump in the car and get to this venue in downtown Austin in like 10 minuets flat. I park in Jack in The Box and we’re running with

amps across the street.Dobbin: I was running through

the drive-thru with a full drum set. Moore: We got there on time,

though.Dobbin: We had been there for

two hours and we were just like, ‘Where are they? What is going on?’

The Shorthorn: Do you guys have groupies yet?

(All laugh)Moore: It’s not a groupie, it’s like

a joke.Dobbin: She just hangs around all

the time.Sowell: We have a few that always

come to the shows. Moore: They’re definitely our best

fans. At Matt’s house, his roommates claim to be our best fans, but they never pay for our shows. They’re like ‘I see you practice all the time!’ And I’m like, ‘But yeah, it’s because you live here.’

Dobbin: It’s by default.

The Shorthorn: Do you have any CDs coming out?

Dobbin: We have one kind of rough one out right now. We’re plan-ning on recording a couple more. By the summer, we’re releasing an EP called Hunters Lodge Henge.

The Shorthorn: Where did that title come from?

Dobbin: That was me just messing around on Wikipedia one night. I was on my phone, it was like three in the morning. I was trying to fall asleep, and I found a article about an old religious monolith in England called Hunters Lodge Henge.

The Shorthorn: Where can people find your music right now? Online?

Dobbin: You can search for us on Facebook. Just search Tiger Of Ben-gal, I don’t think there’s too many other Tiger of Bengals out there. Also, on MySpace you can search myspace.com/TigerofBengalBand.

The Shorthorn: Did you guys enjoy this set?

Dobbin: It was great. It was a lot of fun.

Lee [email protected]

5bwww.theshorthorn.com | pulsethursday, february 17, 2011

Tiger of Bengal performs in Shorthorn newsroom

The Shorthorn: Andrew Buckley

Tiger of Bengal performed several songs Feb. 10 at The Shorthorn newsroom. The four-man instrumental band is based out of the D-FW and is inspired by experimental acts and old jazz bands.

The Shorthorn: Sandy Kurtzman

Tiger of Bengal guitarist Michael Moore, left, and bassist Logan Sowell performed Feb. 10 at The Shorthorn.

Online exclusive | theshOrthOrn.cOm• The music doesn’t stop in print! Go online to watch the video of the bands performance!

• Want to hear more of what the band had to say? Go online to watch an extended interview with the band.

• Want to put Tiger of Bengal on your MP3 player? TheShorthorn.com has three free MP3s available to download.

Upcoming shows 8:30 p.m. Saturday East Side Isle House Party2806 Loyola Lane, Austin 78723Cost:Free

9:30 p.m. SundayHole In The Wall2538 Guadalupe St, Austin 78705Cost:Free

9 p.m. April 1The Prophet Bar2548 Elm Street, Dallas 75226Cost:$8 21+, $10 under 21

Check Tiger Of Bengal’s Facebook page for more shows in March, including South by Southwest gigs.

By Lee escoBedoThe Shorthorn Scene editor

Small-name actors, an amateur director, fraternity party scenes and a script three-fifths composed of choice four-letter words. Sounds like a direct-to-DVD release, right? It’s easy to imagine it playing in the background of a frat party’s beer pong game, much less in front of an audience at a major awards festival. Well, it did play in front of an awards festival audience — South By South-west to be exact. And in front of a crowd filled not with “dude-bros” but with prominent critics, it won the coveted Audience Award.

How first-time director Will Canon pulled it off is part of his bril-liant cinematic heist. He lures you into the theater, kidnaps your at-tention and when the mask is lifted, you find yourself in the middle of a tense hold-up of America’s ideas on masculinity.

Brotherhood is more than a frat prank gone wrong. It’s about the 21st Century American male’s im-potence toward empathy that’s been made obvious in news articles over the last decade. Verbal, physical and psychological acts of violence, such as the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, Tyler Clementi’s suicide and Jared Loughner’s shooting in Arizona, are a few examples that have desensi-tized America’s reaction to violence into message board styled memes.

The film doesn’t focus on one character. Instead, Canon focuses on each of the main characters’ re-

actions to the gradual dissemina-tion of the fraternity’s botched ini-tiation prank.

Adam, played by Trevor Mor-gan, wants to involve the authorities after things get bloody. The leader of the fictional Sigma Zeta Chi, Frank, played by Jon Foster, holds the good of the brotherhood over the well-being of a single pledge. Situational ethics are confronted as Adam and Frank argue about how to handle the growing repercus-

sions of the failed robbery, which include a hostage, car crash and a dying pledge.

The film disguises itself as col-lege-aged farce to gain a wider au-dience than if it revealed itself as philosophical diatribe. Brotherhood relies successfully on its tough ques-tioning of both the characters’ and audience’s ideologies.



Concert Corner

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Gas or Pass

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By Lee escoBedoThe Shorthorn Scene editor

Less than 100 feet from UTA, Will Canon shot his new thriller Brotherhood at the old Delta Upsi-lon house off Abram Street in Au-gust of 2008. It was a homecoming of sorts for Canon, having grown up in Arlington, serving as the cap-tain of his high school basketball team at Arlington High School, and later attending the University of Dallas. Canon left Dallas for NYU’s film school where he filmed an 8-minute short, Roslyn, which became the inspiration for Broth-erhood. It completes a full circle for Canon, whose film opens to-morrow at the Angelika. Canon sat down with The Shorthorn to discuss the film.

The Shorthorn: Thank you for speaking with us. Your new film Brotherhood was a fantastic sur-prise. I went into it knowing very little except frats, guns and small budget, to being blown away by the intelligence of the film both techni-cally and aesthetically.

Will Canon: Well, thank you for those kind words. I tried to make a film that could be appreciated on different levels.

TS: Talk a little about your background.

WC: Well, I was raised in Ar-lington and was the captain of the basketball team at Arlington High. I attended UD for a year and then Baylor for a year after that. I then transferred to NYU film school and produced an 8-minute short, titled Roslyn that became the basis for Brotherhood.

TS: It’s not every day that a movie is filmed so close to UTA. Tell me a little about what it was like working here.

WC: The city and students were so supportive. Everyone was re-ally excited to film a movie there. One of our producers, Jason Croft, graduated from UTA’s film pro-gram and asked professors to re-cruit students as crew members.

TS: This film could be seen as depicting fraternities in a negative light.

WC: A lot of people have asked if this movie is pro-fraternities or anti-fraternities. Institutions aren’t good or bad. Fraternities are insti-tutions, and it’s the people in them that are either good or bad.

TS: It seems that this film was about views on violence and ethics. Were these themes that you pur-posefully put in the film?

WC: You hit it on the head. I wanted to make a film that had the twists and turns of a thriller, but also have themes in it that were personal to me underneath that. That’s where these issues of vio-lence and ethics come in.

TS: Was it your goal to make a film dealing with these themes in the framework of a thriller?

WC: Most people who make films about this age group are glossy and slick. They don’t have the ethi-cal issues you just mentioned. For me, I wanted to do something that felt like a moral thriller.

TS: Because a lot of people don’t want to see a movie that’s just a heavy drama with a lot of dialogue. There’s not a large audience for that.

WC: The thing you have to do is entertain. If you don’t entertain then the other things, the ethics don’t matter.

TS: One of the leads, Trevor Morgan is best known as the son from Unbreakable. But he was very young in that film, did you see him being able to perform in an older role from Mean Creek?

WC: It’s exactly that film, Mean Creek, that when I saw it, I knew I wanted him to be in the movie. In fact the three leads, Trevor, Jon Foster and Lou Pucci were already friends. So when you have that dy-namic, it’s easy for it to fall in line in the film.

TS: What’s next for you?WC: I’m finishing up a script

right now with Doug Simon who wrote Brotherhood. I have five or six other projects that I’ll be direct-ing but not writing, so we’ll see what’s up next.


‘Brotherhood’ follows through on pledge to please

‘City and students were so supportive’

Despite having little experience, director Will Canon succeeds in hitting the mark

Director dishes about locally made thriller ‘Brotherhood’

Brotherhood Starring: Trevor Morgan, Jon Foster and Lou Taylor Pucci Directed by: Will Canon Distribution: Phase 4 FilmsRelease date: Friday Rating: RScore: Four out of five stars

Courtesy: Will Canon

Locally shot film, Brotherhood, opens Friday at the Angelika. The film is directed by Arlington native Will Canon.

The Academy finally wised up to placating to the younger audi-ence and got hip by hiring two hosts (Anne Hathaway and James Franco) that have more sex appeal than last years hosts (Steve Mar-tin and Alec Baldwin). 2010 was a standout for performance and di-recting, not just for the year, but the decade. Many directors and actors produced their best work this year and will be honored Feb. 27. Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours, David Fincher’s The Social Network, and Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan were land-mark films, while James Franco, Melissa Leo and Michelle Williams finally became household names. Scene editor Lee Escobedo and staff writers, Tesia Kwarteng, Charlie Van and Tory Barringer picked fa-vorites for Best Picture. After the smoke cleared and tempers were quelled, these were the picks.

The Social NeTwork The Social Network is the most

important film of the 21st Cen-tury so far. In scope, it serves as the

Citizen Kane of the Internet Age. Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg in twitchy character-actor form) is an ambitious yet malevolent genius. He constructs an empire out of computer algorithms and speaks in Internet meta-language, even when trying to get a date. The times have changed, Charles Foster Kane was a megalomaniac who ruled in the tangible, Zuckerberg doesn’t control industry as much as synergy. This synergy is one of friends, socializing, and most importantly, ideas. David Fincher fictionalizes the creation of Facebook with Shakespearian pa-thos without stealing what makes this story of American empire rising so grand: not heart but brains.

– Lee Escobedo

iNcepTioN Looking at best picture, some

are picking The Social Network to win, but I feel that the dark horse, Christopher Nolan’s Inception, should be the winner. The film left you on the edge of your seat, had

amazing visual effects and a great story. The overall terrific cast made this movie fun to watch, especially Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. This is Nolan’s best film since The Dark Knight, and that’s saying a lot.

– Charlie Vann

The Social NeTworkThere are so many mind-

bending, special effects-straining films, but none of the stories are as unique as that of The Social Network. The fact that it’s based on a true tale is what makes it even more astounding. The cast, led by Jesse Eisenberg, flawlessly portrays a group of friends and colleagues turned worst enemies as their creation starts to grow larger than they can imagine. It’s the classic story of the broken-up rock band retold in the age of web 2.0. Aaron Sorkin’s screenwriting is the bow on a complete package. While it’s argued that the movie is inaccurate and more dramatic

than the actual history, Sorkin had the experience to recognize a truth that many people miss: Truth shouldn’t get in the way of a good story. Accurate or not, The

Social Network was the best movie of 2010.

– Tory Barringer

iNcepTioNOriginal, inventive and creative,

Inception made a new definition of the word epic. The movie chal-lenged viewers to open their minds to an intricately detailed plot that was a perfect blend of action, sus-pense, drama and emotion. There are not many other films that are as engaging on so many differ-ent levels. The film succeeded at conveying difficult and ambitious themes, and it was a refreshing change from the usual mechanical and senseless summer movies.

– Tesia Kwarteng

7Bwww.theshorthorn.com | pulsethursday, february 17, 2011

‘The Social Network’ and ‘Inception’ go for goldDirectors and actors stood out in 2010 with big ideas and larger than life roles

Online Pulse selects their winners for other catergories including Best Director and Best Actor online. Check it out at theshorthorn.com.

Courtesy: AP Images

Jesse Eisenberg, left, and Joseph Mazzello are shown in a scene from The Social Network.

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THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY

PUB & GRUBA calendar of area

food & drink specials for February 17-23


Pulse’s guide to arts and entertainment in the Metroplex

this weekend. If you know of a cool Arlington event, let us know at features-editor.

[email protected].

MoviesBig Mommas: Like Father, Like SonDirected By: John WhitesellStarring: Martin Lawrence, Brandon T. Jackson and Faizon LoveRated: PG-13When: FridayWhere: Wide ReleaseMartin Lawrence, Eddie Murphy and Tyler Perry are men who love getting “Yucks!” while in fat suits and drag. Lawrence con-tinues the franchise that pays the bills with this sequel about a cop who dons drag to catch criminals.Cost: Varies

BrotherhoodDirected By: Will CanonStarring: Trevor Morgan, Jon Foster and Lou Taylor PucciRated: RWhen: FridayWhere: Angelika Dallas5321 E. Mockingbird Lane Dallas 75206This locally filmed movie was shot partially at the old Delta Upsilon house on Abram Street. The film follows a fraternity that gets into trouble when a hazing goes terribly wrong. Cost: $9.25 Adults/ $6.50 Stu-dents

Events Broken Social Scene with Zeus concertWhen: 9 p.m. SaturdayWhere: House of Blues2200 N. Lamar St.Dallas 75202Cost: $23 — standing room ad-vance$25 — standing room day of showCanadian super group, Broken Social Scene, comes to Dallas to fulfill indie kids’ fantasies with one of the most anticipated shows of the year.

Tapes ’N Tapes with OberhoferWhen: 8:30 SaturdayWhere: The Loft

1135 S. Lamar St. Dallas 75215Cost: $15 advance, $17 day of showBattling with Kevin Love as the darling of Minnesota, Tapes ‘N Tapes will be at The Loft for an intimate show on the balcony. The band is touring in support of its newest album, Outside, which received mixed reviews from Pitchfork and Spin.

Play: True WestWhen: 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays, 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. on Sundays until Feb. 27 (This Thursday sold out)Where: Contemporary Theatre of Dallas5601 Sears St. Dallas 75206Cost: Adult Floor Tickets $32 at door, $33 onlineAdult Balcony Tickets $27, $28 onlineSam Shepard is America’s great-est and most underrated play-wright. This play, which pre-miered in San Francisco in 1980, is one of his best. It follows two brothers whose estranged re-lationship borders on the dis-turbed and tackles themes of identity and masculinity, which remains relevant in an age of mixed martial arts obsession.

EclecticPlay: The Executioner’s Sons When: 8 p.m. Friday and Satur-dayWhere: Bath House Cultural Cen-ter521 E. Lawther Drive Dallas 75218Cost: $20A king’s executioner finds him-self embroiled in a power strug-gle with the government. Set in 1483, this dark play sets man against government powers with a script that harbors traces of modern-day strife.

Comedy: Bob NelsonWhen: 8:30 tonight, 8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Friday, 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Saturday Where: Hyena’s Comedy Club 5321 E. Mockingbird LaneDallas 75206Cost: $10 with two-minimum purchase per personThe comedian who was once known for his dirty mouth de-livers a family-friendly routine at Hyena’s in Dallas. Topics of the night include dumb things that dumb people do and goofy faces.

Thursday Night College Night!$2 U - Call - Its

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