Editor's note:Another week has come and gone, and there's a lot we all probably missed. But we're looking out for you, kid. Here are the most popular stories from this past week:
1. Beloved Dallas chef Randall Copeland has died. The well-liked chef and co-owner of Restaurant Ava died on Tuesday morning. According to a spokeswoman for his restaurant, Copeland died in his sleep; the cause of death was not known. He was 39.
2. Pennsylvania brewery Sly Fox changes the world with 360 Lid. From the demigods at Sly Fox Beer in Pennsylvania comes the greatest evolution in canned beer since the stay-tab. And if that invention was the blunderbuss of cans, this is the Colt .45. This is how the West is won, y’all.
3. Restaurant Ava in Rockwall closes. With the tragic death of its chef and co-owner Randall Copeland, Restaurant Ava in Rockwall has closed down for good. Patrick Davalos, a friend of Copeland's and investor in his Bishop Arts restaurant Boulevardier, remembers Copeland and Ava fondly.
4. Suspected murderer and accomplice escape from North Texas jail. Around 8:30 am on April 2, two inmates escaped from the Hopkins County Jail in Sulphur Springs. John Marlin King, 39, and Brian Allen Tucker, 44, were on the lam for two days before being caught in the city of Cooper, about 20 miles away from the jail.
5. Get your grub on with the 5 best burgers in Dallas. A couple of criteria: These joints had to be from Dallas originally, so places like Hopdoddy’s were out, even though Hopdoddy’s could’ve made this list. The other criterion was that we made sure to not put your favorite burger joint on here. Just because.
Restaurant Ava co-owner Randall Copeland (center), pictured here with Ali Morgan and chef Matt McCallister, passed away April 2.
There are few directors more adept at moving between genres than Steven Soderbergh. Throughout his career, he has made dramas and comedies, heist films and thrillers, films with serious topics like drug trafficking and films with frivolous subjects like male dancers. He’s also dipped his toe into horror on occasion, something he does again with Presence.
However, typical of the hard-to-pin-down filmmaker, this film is not your typical ghost story, as its plot is told from the perspective of the presence itself. With the camera as its “eyes,” the audience sees a family of four move into an older-but-updated home: Mother Rebekah (Lucy Liu), father Chris (Chris Sullivan), son Tyler (Eddy Maday), and daughter Chloe (Callina Liang). The family dynamics are established early, as Rebekah favors Tyler and pins her hopes and dreams on him, while Chris has a strained relationship with Rebekah and tries to protect Chloe from stress, who has recently gone through a trauma.
The family’s various issues keep the atmosphere tense, and for the most part the presence is merely an observer to their conversations and activities. But Chloe can sense it whenever it’s close to her, and this connection leads it to sometimes announce itself via physical interactions with objects in different rooms. As the other family members gradually become aware of it as well, the story’s supernatural aura starts to increase.
Working from a screenplay by David Koepp, Soderbergh does a kind of switcheroo on audience expectations. In your typical haunted house story, the mystery of the ghost(s) is what drives the plot and keeps things scary. But since the audience, in essence, is the ghost, we know everything it is doing at all times. Instead, the suspense comes from the family itself, who have backstories that make the whole clan dysfunctional, at best.
Story elements are brought in through different ways than your typical film, with little hints being dropped along the way about various things that have happened in the family’s recent past. Why Tyler seems to be angry with Chloe all the time, or why Rebekah and Chris never seem to be on the same page with anything the family is dealing with are equally as interesting as anything the presence is doing.
The first-person perspective (used in a much different way than in the recent - and now Oscar-nominated - Nickel Boys) gives an intimacy to the film that is sometimes invasive, sometimes disorienting, but always engrossing. Soderbergh, who acted as the cameraman himself, takes the camera to almost every nook and cranny of the house, often getting so close to the actors that it’s uncomfortable. The constant, silent movement of the presence/camera makes for great viewing, lending the audience a knowledge they rarely have.
Liu is given a meatier part than she’s had in recent years, and she plays the complicated role for all it’s worth. Sullivan, best known for his role on the NBC TV drama This is Us, is equally good, with a demeanor that’s slightly at odds with his stature, but in a good way. Both Liang and Maday have light resumes (this is Maday’s first credit of any kind), but their performances are what make the film as effective as it is. With the presence more interested in her character than anyone else, Liang is asked to do a lot, and she is especially memorable.
While more of a family drama than a true horror film, the paranormal aspect of Presence gives enough of a spooky vibe for it to qualify. The highly successful film demonstrates that, 36 years after his breakthrough, Soderbergh remains one of the more fascinating directors out there, willing to try different projects instead of doing the same thing over and over again.
