Notícias

I truly set out to make a definitive, objective list of the biggest cult films from the last five years today. However, pinning down a usable definition of "cult film" with a truly workable set of criteria was not just challenging, but nearly impossible. The one constant in definitions for cult films, however, was that they are movies that failed commercially, not just at the box office, but often in DVD sales, yet eventually found a successful second life after their initial release.

The best I could do was to spend way more hours than I expected to researching DVD sales, rental charts, and Netflix rankings from the last five years and combine those with my own anecdotal observations as a movie critic. There's no way to implement an algorithm to determine the standings (and actual figures are often very hard to come by), but in piecing together the evidence...

Jan. 9

7:30 p.m.

The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Zilkha Hall

800 Bagby St.

Houston, TX 77002

Hosted by: Aurora Picture Show

The Aurora Picture Show and Musiqa, the contemporary music group, present a night of film, music and lighting. The film portion of the night will include two short films. The first is the 2005 collaboration between director Miguel Arteta and writer Miranda July. The film is Are You The Favorite Person of Anyone?, in which John C. Reilly asks three people — Mike White, Miranda July and Chuy Chavez — the titular question.

The second short film is the disarmingly charming People in Order, directed by Lenka Clayton and James Price. I’ve seen it and it’s a wonderfully simple concept executed perfectly: 100 people, ordered according to their age of 1 to 100, stand simply in their own solitary frame, state their age and bang a drum. Sounds simple, but really fascinating.