Last Saturday, actor Will Ferrell made a quick stop in Austin during a press tour for his new film Semi-Pro. He also attended a sneak preview of the film and did a Q&A session at the Alamo Drafthouse, where attendees were required to dress in 70's basketball attire for admission - you can see the Drafthouse "team photo" here. Austinist's Tom Thornton and Gordon And The Whale's Chase Whale spoke briefly to Ferrell during the media day....

Annie Hall once said of Los Angeles, "It's so clean out here," to which Woddy Allen's character, Alvy Singer replies, "That's because they don't throw their garbage away, they turn it into television shows." Well, apparently since there aren't any TV shows being made right now they are funneling all of that refuse into the romantic comedy market....

Straight out of the suburbs of Atlanta, the young men of Manchester Orchestra have quickly found a spot in the Georgia indie-rock circuit. Guitarist and lead vocalist Andy Hull homeschooled himself his senior year of high school to allow himself more time to focus on his work with Manchester Orchestra. The result of that focus is the band's first full-length. Peppered with references to Woody Allen, the album is full up with moody music that......

This past June, American portrait photographer Arnold Newman passed away in his birthplace of New York City at the age of 88. Four months later, his acclaimed portrait photographs have found a permanent home, where they will share a room with the first-ever photograph and The Gutenberg Bible, at The University of Texas' Harry Ransom Humantities Research Center. Arnold Newman began photography in the mid-1930s as a student during the Great Depression. He spent......

If you miss the old Woody Allen, the incredibly witty one with highly-developed (neurotic) characters experiencing genuine personal conflict supported by crisp dialogue, we suggest you hit up the mini Woody retrospective at the Paramount Theatre this weekend, featuring Annie Hall and Hannah and Her Sisters. If you want to see the aging, trite Woody Allen and his desperate attempts at comedy with his most recent muse, Scarlett Johannson, then you may want to check......

The grammar is atrocious. The plot is absurd. The chronology is jumpy and confusing. The logic has holes big enough to steer an aircraft carrier through. By all rights, we should have flung Christopher Moore’s latest novel across the room and written a scathing review. So why did we stay up way past our bedtime to read just one more chapter—until we were a dozen more chapters in? Why did we sneak in pages while......

So, SXSW Film begins tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow. Austinist realizes that we just freaked you out by saying so. Don't worry, though: we watched about 50 previews for the film festival so that you wouldn't have to. Having emerged a little bleary-eyed, we suggest the following less-heralded films as picks worthy of your time and attention: A/K/A Tommy Chong: Who's in it? Tommy Chong, Cheech Marin, Bill Maher, Jay Leno What's it about? Tommy Chong......

Hurrah, it’s Friday! There’s plenty of stuff going on around town this weekend, but perhaps you can find the time to slip into a cool, dark theatre and enjoy one of this week’s new movie releases. *The New World Another take on the story of Pocahontas, this time by director Terrence Malick. Colin Farrell, Christopher Plummer, and our future husband, Christian Bale, star in a film certain to at least be more historically authentic......

We spent an inordinate amount of time going to movies, shoveling buttered popcorn into our trawls, and drinking Mr. Pibb through red vines (Watch this SNL clip we just referenced if you want to laugh. Crazy funny.) Well, just like with our illegitimate children, we refuse to name favorites, so with that in mind, Austinist presents to you our favorite 14 films of 2005 in no particular order. *UPDATE: A late editorial note, at......

The good folks over at Spider House, in conjunction with the good folks from CarStereoWars, are bringing you Neurotic November. Every Wednesday in November they will be screening a Woody Allen movie for FREE. The movies start at 9:30 and begin tonight with “Bananas,” one of Woody’s very first films. So head down to Spider House each Wednesday this month for a bite or a drink or just to glance lustfully at that wicked......

Duck Soup isn't just that Marx Brothers movie Woody Allen wanders into during Hannah and Her Sisters, it is also, in our humble (well, okay, not so humble) opinion, the greatest comedy of all time. With the sad, but lovable exception of Zeppo (though some disagree), the Marx Brothers are true comedy geniuses. Duck Soup is chock full of memorable quotes, like this exchange: Rufus T. Firefly: Not that I care, but where is......