OUDaily.com | Dusty Somers

Top films of 2010

December 13, 2010 | 0 comments

The Daily’s Life & Arts staff voted on the best films of 2010. Some expected contenders for the list, including “Black Swan” and “True Grit” had not been screened in Oklahoma by press time, which accounts for their absence. READ MORE

Comedian more than just a 'clean' alternative

December 2, 2010 | 0 comments

Brian Regan has built a career on pointing out the ridiculousness inherent in everyday life, from the overly specific directions on Pop-Tarts packaging to the knee-jerk social reactions that make people say stupid things in public — like exclaiming “You too!” to the waiter who just told you to enjoy your meal. READ MORE

State Question 744 (public education funding) fails in landside Tuesday night

November 3, 2010 | 1 comment

Oklahoma voters overwhelmingly rejected State Question 744, a ballot initiative that would have required the Legislature to increase funding for public education. The measure failed in a landslide, with 81.41 percent of voters voting “no,” with 100 percent precincts reporting. READ MORE

SQ 744 proposes increases in education spending

October 25, 2010 | 1 comment

Oklahoma State Question 744 is a proposed constitutional amendment that, if passed, will require the Oklahoma State legislature to increase funding for public education. If the measure passes, it will require the Oklahoma state budget to fund public education to, at minimum, the per-student average of six neighboring states — Missouri, Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, Colorado and New Mexico. READ MORE

Oklahoma elections: Different perspectives on job responsibilities separate treasurer candidates

October 23, 2010 | 0 comments

Republican state Rep. Ken Miller and Democrat Stephen E. Covert are facing each other in the race for state treasurer. Miller, who defeated former state Sen. Owen Laughlin, R-Woodward, in the July primary with 63 percent of the vote, said he is most qualified because of his background in economics and his experience working with the state budget. READ MORE

Oklahoma elections: House District 44

October 23, 2010 | 0 comments

Democrat Emily Virgin and Republican Kent Hunt face each other in the race for the House District 44 seat. District 44 encompasses the heart of Norman, including OU. The position was previously held by Bill Nations, D-Norman, who is vacating the seat because of term limits. READ MORE

Book Review: 'A Week at the Airport'

October 22, 2010 | 0 comments

For most of us, the airport is a necessary evil. A gateway to better things. A holding pattern until we’re at the place we really want to be. READ MORE

'Rocky Horror Show' gleefully flouts good taste

October 18, 2010 | 0 comments

The delightfully weird sheen of Richard O’Brien’s “The Rocky Horror Show” hasn’t dulled with age, and nearly 40 years after its London premiere, the show marches on with its tuneful melodies and brazen humor — impervious to self-parody or good taste. The Lyric Theatre production, now on stage through Oct. 30, embraces the show’s inherent campiness with conviction and delivers a theatrical experience that should please “Rocky” virgins and veterans alike. READ MORE

'Never Let Me Go' illustrates bleak tale of human connection

October 15, 2010 | 1 comment

“Never Let Me Go” looks a lot more like Merchant Ivory than Philip K. Dick, but make no mistake, this is a science fiction film, albeit with barely a single trapping of the genre. READ MORE

'The Social Network' succeeds as courtroom drama and character study

October 4, 2010 | 0 comments

My expectations of "The Social Network" changed immediately upon viewing its first theatrical trailer — a haunting, melancholy piece scored with a Belgian female choir singing Radiohead's "Creep." That trailer is practically a short film on its own, exploring the modern psyche that thrives on recognition — any recognition, even if it's artificial and comes at the expense of once-valued privacy. Heady stuff for a two-and-a-half minute promo. READ MORE

'Rent' defuses cynicism with resonant love stories

September 27, 2010 | 1 comment

In this age of irony, what’s a show like “Rent,” with all of its unabashed earnestness, to do? Four Tony Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and 12 years on Broadway later, the show now exists in a world that’s rather removed from the unmistakable ’90s setting of the rock opera. Today, the themes of the show are riper for parody than for the heartfelt reflection of a song like “Seasons of Love.” Instead, we have “Everyone has AIDS!” from “Team America: World Police” or “Avenue Q,” which is effectively “Rent” restaged with vulgar puppets. Irony is a cultural commodity, and “Rent” rarely pauses to stop taking itself seriously. READ MORE

Q&A with Ben Kweller

August 27, 2010 | 3 comments

Singer-songwriter Ben Kweller has been making music since he was 12, first performing with the band Radish, and later building a solo career that has seen four full-length albums released. The Daily’s Dusty Somers spoke to Kweller about his musical sensibilities and his optimistic outlook. Kweller performs for free 8 p.m. Friday on the East Lawn of the Oklahoma Memorial Union. READ MORE

Iron Man lives again

May 7, 2010 | 0 comments

It couldn’t have taken long for the “Iron Man 2” assembly line to get fired up after the surprise success of the first film, which was a solid blend of competent action excitement and irrepressible snark. So I guess we can be grateful that the sequel doesn’t come off entirely as some kind of blockbuster mill progeny — shiny and fun on the outside with a genetically degenerative pair of hips. READ MORE

Rousing execution makes for strong university musical

May 3, 2010 | 2 comments

Hopes and dreams coalesce with fear and rejection in “A Chorus Line,” the Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning musical that remains as potent today as it was in its Broadway debut in 1975. READ MORE

Alumnus leads broadway classic to campus

April 30, 2010 | 0 comments

It’s a cutthroat world for performers of musical theater, where rejection is often just another audition away. That’s the way it is for the characters in “A Chorus Line,” and likely will be for the students playing them after graduation. READ MORE

Hilarious Hitchcock work goes pleasingly over-the-top

April 28, 2010 | 0 comments

One of Alfred Hitchcock’s early British films gets re-imagined in a stage adaptation that pumps up the comedy while thinning down the cast, and the resulting “The 39 Steps” is a comedy cyclone. READ MORE

Original work 'ready' to entertain

April 23, 2010 | 0 comments

Paul Stuart is a self-professed musical theater lover, but despite his high school experience in a number of musicals, he never was cast in one at OU. Now, Stuart, a drama senior, is at the helm of his very own musical, “Ready,” which he wrote and directed. READ MORE

Staged classic is a pleasant enough drive

April 20, 2010 | 0 comments

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the basis for a Best Picture Oscar-winning film, “Driving Miss Daisy” owes a great deal to its pervading niceness. The off-Broadway play by Alfred Uhry casts a warm glow over an era that was anything but, and it hasn’t grown any less docile over the years. READ MORE

Summer movie season offers wealth of options

April 16, 2010 | 0 comments

Summer comes early for college students and movies alike. Forget the solstice — the beginning of May means summer at the box office. READ MORE

Comedy goes 'Live!' after years of work

April 14, 2010 | 1 comment

Wayne Rawley knows what it’s like to work a dead-end job behind a counter — the boredom, the interminability, the soul-crushing weight of mediocrity. READ MORE

Slight sins atoned for with strong performances in 'Heaven'

April 9, 2010 | 0 comments

Life in a Shaker community sure is a paradise. READ MORE

'Runaways' lives rock 'n' roll, but through a biopic lense

April 9, 2010 | 0 comments

At its best when it’s flaunting a grimy, down-in-the-dirt rock ’n’ roll attitude, “The Runaways” is half unhinged, maniacal fun and half treacly biopic convention. READ MORE

Students spin, sway in festival ballet

April 2, 2010 | 0 comments

The modern, traditional, elegant and whimsical converge in Oklahoma Festival Ballet, now on stage at the Rupel Jones Theatre through April 11. READ MORE

War drama remains as harrowing as ever

March 29, 2010 | 0 comments

The façade of American suburban placidity comes crumbling down in Arthur Miller’s masterwork, “All My Sons,” now on stage at Carpenter Square Theatre in Oklahoma City. READ MORE

Comedy jets out with gags but struggles to keep head above water

March 26, 2010 | 0 comments

“Hot Tub Time Machine” gets points for its fearlessly blunt title; too bad it oversells the fun quotient by about a mile. READ MORE

Excitement soars in fiery cartoon flick

March 26, 2010 | 0 comments

DreamWorks Animation sets itself a new benchmark with “How to Train Your Dragon,” a disarmingly fun and exciting romp in a world of dueling Vikings and dragons. READ MORE

Uninteresting rom-com comes up empty-handed

March 23, 2010 | 0 comments

When some distant civilization discovers cultural artifacts from this decade, we can only hope they don’t find “The Bounty Hunter.” READ MORE

Coming to the marquee today

March 12, 2010 | 0 comments

“Remember Me” is a film drunk on its own self-seriousness, but somehow, that seems to matter less and less and it progresses. READ MORE

Suggestive stage production loaded with laughter

March 9, 2010 | 0 comments

“That’s what she said” jokes may not be very mature, but man, can they be funny. Such is the case with “Lysistrata,” an update by Oklahoma City University alum James Tyra of the ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes. READ MORE

Ensemble cast far from its 'finest'

March 5, 2010 | 0 comments

“Brooklyn’s Finest” is an epic tragedy of basic cable proportions. It feels like it belongs within the confines of your home screen, with the remote close at hand so you can switch back to “Dancing with the Stars” or “Jersey Shore” after the commercials — either one would be a better option. READ MORE

Boren contributes to OU theater rendition of an ’80s favorite

March 3, 2010 | 0 comments

Emotions run high and the hair even higher in “Steel Magnolias,” the weepy drama about the joy and sorrow of friendship in 1980s small-town Louisiana. OU Lab Theatre’s production of the beauty salon-set play opens tonight. READ MORE

Superstar magician reappears back home

February 19, 2010 | 0 comments

Rob Lake didn’t get an acceptance letter from Hogwarts on his 11th birthday, so he had to make his own magic. READ MORE

Mind-bending thriller shows Scorsese still has it

February 19, 2010 | 0 comments

For film fans, a Martin Scorsese picture released in the middle of February is like manna straight from heaven. READ MORE

Stellar cast complements already strong script

February 15, 2010 | 1 comment

Despite the familiarity of its story, “To Kill a Mockingbird” is no less engrossing at the hands of University Theatre, which is staging the play through Sunday. That’s as much a testament to the acting prowess of OU’s drama students as it is the timelessness of the novel by Harper Lee, the racial themes of which don’t seem nearly as outdated as one might hope. READ MORE

American classic sees its way to the stage

February 12, 2010 | 4 comments

For director Tom Huston Orr, staging “To Kill a Mockingbird” presented a number of challenges. The biggest — a six-letter word that starts with “n.” “[I thought],’ We have to deal with this word for the next five weeks — how do we do this?” Orr said. READ MORE

Theatrical clip show shares the memories, both good and bad

February 8, 2010 | 0 comments

The varied and extensive songs of Grammy and Academy Award-winner Stephen Schwartz come together in “Snapshots,” an apt title that accurately describes the way in which we see his talents — briefly. READ MORE

'Wicked' composer explains his method, songwriting process

February 8, 2010 | 0 comments

The key to writing a good song for Stephen Schwartz is thinking like an actor, he said Saturday after a performance of his latest musical, “Snapshots,” at the Lyric Theatre in Oklahoma City. READ MORE

REVIEW: Film reads as sincere, if sappy, love letter

February 5, 2010 | 0 comments

Hankies will be in abundance at movie theaters this weekend with the opening of “Dear John,” the latest weeper based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, the man who has unleashed “A Walk to Remember” and “The Notebook” on the world. READ MORE

Oscar nominations' hits and misses

February 3, 2010 | 1 comment

The Academy Awards took another step toward foregone conclusions Tuesday, announcing the list of nominees in yet another year where there aren’t likely to be any surprise winners in the major categories. The most any film fan can hope for is a Best Picture victory for the “The Hurt Locker,” the only respectable film standing in the way of the dread “Avatar.” READ MORE

Review: 'Crazy Heart' lacking despite Bridges' strong performance

January 29, 2010 | 0 comments

Life’s rough for Bad Blake, the erstwhile country music star Jeff Bridges plays in “Crazy Heart” — he’s got a quartet of divorces, very few pennies to his name and a codependent relationship with a bottle of whiskey. This guy’s a country western song personified. READ MORE

On the road toward Broadway

January 28, 2010 | 1 comment

Students in the School of Dance will see their creations come alive tonight at the opening of the Young Choreographers’ Showcase, a blend of ballet and modern dance conceived, choreographed and performed entirely by students. READ MORE

Top 20 flick picks of 2009

January 22, 2010 | 1 comment

2009 wasn’t an especially bountiful year for cinema, but audiences lapped up the slop that Hollywood plunked down into theaters all the same, with the top two box office grossers being two of the worst films of the year. READ MORE

REVIEW: Clever quirks give drama unique charm

January 20, 2010 | 0 comments

The world of stamp collecting doesn’t offer a very deep pit to mine theatrical gold from, but “Mauritius” digs deep and finds enough material of interest to fuel both its comedic and dramatic ambitions. READ MORE

The Decade's Best: Movies of 2000s

December 11, 2009 | 1 comment

50. “The Dark Knight” (Christopher Nolan, 2008) 49. “Waking Life” (Richard Linklater, 2001) 48. “Rachel Getting Married” (Jonathan Demme, 2008) READ MORE

The Decade's Best: TV series of the 2000s

December 9, 2009 | 2 comments

15. “Andy Richter Controls the Universe” (FOX, 2002-2003) 14. How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 2005-Present) 13. “This American Life” (Showtime, 2007-2008) READ MORE

Movie Review: Everybody's Fine

December 4, 2009 | 0 comments

It’s been a rough decade for Robert De Niro. The two-time Oscar winner and star of American classics like “Taxi Driver,” “The Deer Hunter” and “Raging Bull” has lately lent his talents to fare like “Showtime,” “Godsend,” “Meet the Fockers” and last year’s abominable “Righteous Kill.” READ MORE

'Tom, Dick and Harry' attempts to inspire laughs

November 30, 2009 | 0 comments

Fast-paced, but only intermittently funny, Carpenter Square Theatre’s production of “Tom, Dick and Harry” has a laughs-to-jokes ratio that is positively woeful. Proof positive that rapid-fire gags don’t necessarily equal rapid-fire chuckles, this screwball comedy could use some more time back on the old drawing board. READ MORE

‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ an animated jewel

November 24, 2009 | 0 comments

There’s a common criticism of Wes Anderson’s films — that they’re all hopelessly twee mope-fests filled with characters who get by on their ironic self-referential quips and father issues. Anderson’s visual panache aside, the criticism sticks, and I say that as an admirer. READ MORE

Good Evening New York City

November 24, 2009 | 0 comments

Nearly 45 years after the culturally indelible Beatles concert that christened Shea Stadium in New York City, Paul McCartney returned for the inaugural concert at the new stadium right next door to Shea’s former home. READ MORE

Aged production doesn't endure

November 23, 2009 | 0 comments

One of a series of plays about life in fictional small town Tuna, Texas, “A Tuna Christmas,” has been a holiday regional theater staple for close to 20 years. Maybe it’s time for a new tradition. READ MORE

Articles by Dusty Somers