Thinking Outside the Multiplex
by MIKE MACCOLLUM
The French musical drama Paris 36 and the Iraq war drama The Sandbox open at, respectively, Landmark’s Keystone Arts and Republic’s Georgetown 14 this Friday. For more information on those titles, and on other movies and big-screen events playing this week in Indianapolis and throughout the state, read on below.
Adaptation – Six video installations continuing this week at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The description on the IMA’s page here makes it sound fascinating and the review in NUVO made me even more eager to see this. If you are too busy to make it out this week, don’t worry – Adaptation will be at the IMA through August 16.<
The Bracelet of Bordeaux – A family film that will be showing twice a day, Monday through Thursday, at the Carmike 20 in Fort Wayne (along with a number of other theaters across the country). I didn’t recognize any “names” in the cast, but this film has played at several festivals, and received some good reviews, according to this page on the site of distributor Monterey Media.
Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood Live from Madison Square Garden – Kerasotes Showplace 16 and IMAX on Indy’s south side will have this event on one of their screens at 8 PM on Monday, May 18. For more information, go to this site.
Forbidden Lies – This documentary about a con woman (or is she?) will be showing this Friday and Saturday at the Fine Arts in Bloomington as part of the Ryder Series (website). This one sounds great; I can’t see it this weekend, but I definitely will keep an eye out for it, as it sounds like a must-see.
Is Anybody There? – Michael Caine stars in this drama/comedy, playing a second week at Landmark’s Keystone Arts. Caine is excellent, as are the actors playing the family who run the retirement home where he resides. Unfortunately, the script didn’t offer much of anything new, and the music (for the most part) was downright annoying.
La Cenerentola – An encore performance of the Metropolitan Opera’s performance of this work will be shown at four Indy-area theaters (the Castleton Square 14, Galaxy 14, Kerasotes Showplace 16 and IMAX and the Hamilton 16 and IMAX) on Wednesday, May 20, at 7 PM. More info at the Fathom Events website.
Lymelife – Recommended (by me, at least) comedy/drama holds over for two shows a day at Landmark’s Keystone Arts. The film’s official site is here.
Movers & Shakers:Stories Along the Indiana National Road – An hour-long documentary “tells 13 stories of people and places along the National Road” (US 40), according to the film’s official site. This will be shown at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, May 20, at the Knightstown Gym, in Knightstown, IN.
Nero Bloom: Private Eye – To quote Ryan’s description in his comment to last week’s Beyond the Multiplex listings: A “45 minute noirish (or at least a 40’s inspired detective story) directed by Huntington University Digital Media Arts film students Jason Eberly and Nathan Hartman.” This will be showing once a day on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Wednesday at the Cinema Center in Fort Wayne. See the film’s official site or the Cinema Center’s site for more info.
The Parent Trap – The Lindsay Lohan version will be showing twice on Saturday (2 PM and 7:30 PM) at Franklin IN’s historic Artcraft Theatre (website).
Paris 36 – From the preview, it appears that this French musical drama (which starts Friday at Landmark’s Keystone Arts) deals with the political and social tensions in mid-thirties Paris, but also offers some very colorful musical numbers taking place on the stage of a music hall. I think this looks like it could be very entertaining; here is the film’s official US site, if you would like to see for yourself.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show – The cult-film evergreen will have one showing (on Saturday night at 10 PM) at the Georgetown 14.
The Sandbox – When I called the Georgetown 14 the other day, I was told that this was a drama about the war in Iraq. Unfortunately, that’s about all that I know about this one, which starts Friday at the Georgetown 14. I found next-to-nothing about it on the web, even on the site of distributor Monogram Releasing. If anyone else is able to find out more about this one (cast? director?), please post that info in the comments section!
The Secret of Santa Vittoria – This late 60s comedy – set in WW2 Italy – will show Tuesday at 7 as part of the Indiana Film Society’s “Time Capsule 1968-69” series. The location is the Laikin Auditorium at the Jewish Community Center, 6701 Hoover Road. For more information, visit the Indiana Film Society’s website.
Sunshine Cleaning – After playing for several weeks at the Keystone Arts – and a run both last week and this week at the Cinema Grill in Greenbriar – this film continues its westward march on 82nd/86th Street by opening at AMC’s College Park theater. Amy Adams, Emily Blunt and Alan Arkin star. The film’s official site is here.
Thomas and Friends: The Great Discovery – Continuing daily at 1:00 PM this week at the Georgetown 14 as part of the “Kidtoons” series.
Voices from the South – Shows on Tuesday, May 19, at 6 and 8 PM at the Lotus Petal Cinema in Nashville, IN, as part of their “Reel Matters” documentary series. A quote from the filmmaker on the Lotus Petal’s site says that this hour-long doc is an attempt “to explore the effects that Southern Hip-Hop artist[s] have on the younger generation.” More info can be found here.
Wendy and Lucy – Michelle Williams stars in this acclaimed drama from director Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy). It plays twice a day through Monday, May 18 at Nashville, IN’s Lotus Petal Cinema; there will be additional showings from May 21 through May 25.
The Windsong Pictures 2009 Student Film Festival – Takes place Saturday, May 16 at the Neff Hall Theatre #101 at IPFW University in Fort Wayne. According to the schedule at the official site, student films will be shown and an award ceremony will take place from 10 AM to noon. At 2 PM, there will be a screening of Windsong Pictures Film of the Year, The Boyhood of Abraham Lincoln.
Unfortunately, computer problems prevent me from listing films opening in other cities and states this week. As usual, few of these are likely to make it to Indiana/Indianapolis anyway, although The Brothers Bloom at least is currently scheduled to open May 29 at the Keystone Arts.
Can I just say how irksome it is that “Wendy and Lucy” never played Indianapolis?
Wendy and Lucy- Even more irksome is that it has played Bloomington, Columbus and Nashville.
Just got back from seeing Paris 36 at the Landmark. I wanted to like it, but couldn’t (to give the movie its due, everyone around me did seem to be enjoyng it). The film should have spent more time on the music hall stage and less time on… well, everything else.
The trailer package did make me happy, however. Six trailers give or take one and not a multiplex film in the bunch. Mostly foreign films too.
The best thing you can say about many French films is that they are “very French” — films that assume you know their politics, their culture, and their sensibilities. Paris 36 (the theater in the film is actually named the Faubourg 36 and often references that neighborhood) does all that, but it does it with a focus upon recreating the popular culture of that decade — and does that well. If Busby Berkley had been French, he’d have liked it as I did.
In spite of a phone call to the Georgetown 14, an e-mail from them, and a newspaper ad by them, it turns out The Sandbox did not open there this week, and has been rescheduled to next week, as the disc did not show up on time, or something like that.