It's official: With the launch of the UT Film Institute, Austin is now the filmiest place in America this side of a Houston windshield in August, barring heavy hitter Hollywood, of course.

BY MARC SAVLOV

Short Cuts

The Austin film community activates its turbo boosters.

BY MARC SAVLOV

Screens Reviews

Hiroshima Mon Amour

When it comes to Alain Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour, "such a film about the darker side of love, much like the darker side of war, should not be ignored," writes Eli Kooris.

Film Reviews

Ali G Indahouse

Unlike its televised predecessor, Ali G Indahouse just isn’t that funny.

The Animation Show

Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt inaugurate a new annual series of animation collections.

Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star

There’s something about the smarmy David Spade that brings out the worst impulses in a person.

Herod's Law

Unflinching satire is diminished by overwritten messages.

The Secret Lives of Dentists

Alan Rudolph's new movie offers a well-performed portrait of decency that's much less sexy than its title.

Step Into Liquid

Surf's up! It's The Endless Summer: The Next Generation.

arts & culture

Turning Tricks With The Amazing Ray

With nothing up his sleeve, Esther's Follies resident magic man Ray Anderson pulls wonder -- and laughter -- out of thin air.

BY ROBERT FAIRES

Quasar, Brazil's most celebrated modern-dance troupe, brings its ferocious athleticism to Austin to launch the UT Performing Arts Center's new ArtesAméricas initiative spotlighting artists of Latin America.

BY BELINDA ACOSTA

Articulations

This fall, one of the city's most active and daring improv companies is calling it quits (or quilts, as their Web site has it): well hung jury is breaking up.

BY ROBERT FAIRES

Arts Reviews

'José Toirac: "Sacrifice"'

The Gallery 106 exhibition "Sacrifice" features images and text painted in red wine by José Toirac that draws mythic connections between wine and blood and also asks us to reflect on mortality and death as it is paid for the freedom of others.

K2

Director Blake Yelavich opens his production of K2 with an image that is theatrical in the extreme, powerful and breathtaking, but sadly his Arts Entertainment Group production has no thrills left after that, leaving the show to the mercies of Patrick Meyers' long, tedious, sometimes silly script.

columns

Page Two

Harvey Pekar's two Chronicle covers have been a rare, and deserved, exception to our 22-year focus on local news, culture, and events.

BY LOUIS BLACK

Postmarks

Our readers talk back.

Mr. Smarty Pants Knows

BY MR. SMARTY PANTS

Daytrips

BY GERALD E. MCLEOD

To Your Health

Why can't nutritionists make up their minds about whether fat is good for you or not?

BY JAMES HEFFLEY, PH.D.

The Common Law

I'm renting an apartment and have eight more months left on the lease. I'm planning to travel over the next four months and want to rent the apartment to a friend while I'm gone. Do I have the right to rent the apartment to someone else?