Preston Barta

3 days ago | dallasobserver.com | Preston Barta

Nestled in the heart of North Texas’ music mecca, Thin Line Fest will transform the streets of downtown Denton into a living, humming embodiment of creativity from April 23-27. Part showcase, part spectacle, this festival harmonizes the art of live music with film and photography, creating a sensory feast for the curious, the reflective and the adventurous.But it’s thethat truly pulses as Thin Line’s beating heart.

1 week ago | dentonrc.com | Preston Barta

Departing from the bloated clichés of the genre, Warfare embraces a stripped-down, raw approach that feels agonizingly real. For Garland and Mendoza, they’re not interested in showing soldiers reminiscing on home-cooked meals or awaiting love letters from home. The film zeroes in on the gritty minutiae of war that often go unspoken. The waiting, the fleeting moments of levity, the sheer banality punctuated by bursts of sheer terror. Warfare doesn’t strive to entertain; it strives to immerse.

1 week ago | dentonrc.com | Preston Barta

Horror is a beautiful beast. It’s the shadow that shares truth, the ghost that gnaws at the edges of our understanding and at the same time, the roar that unites us in fear. For lovers of the macabre in Denton, the year’s spookiest season truly ignites not in October’s crisp leaves, but in the anticipation-laden halls of Texas Frightmare Weekend.

3 weeks ago | dentonrc.com | Preston Barta

Turning the wildly open-ended world of Minecraft into a logical, story-driven movie is no easy task. Enter A Minecraft Movie, a colorful, chaotic attempt that’ll dazzle its core audience (kids who live and breathe Creepers and crafting) while leaving parents longing for a clearer blueprint. For my seven-year-old son, this film was everything. He laughed, he quoted lines, and he may or may not have whispered, “Best movie ever” on the car ride home. And really, mission accomplished, right?

3 weeks ago | dallasobserver.com | Preston Barta

Jeff Swaney was there at the beginning of Deep Ellum's birth as a center of live music in the '80s and '90s. Now he's back in town with a book recounting his and the 'hood's history.