Thinking Outside the Multiplex
by MIKE MACCOLLUM
Several interesting movies arrive in the Indianapolis market this week after long delays – and a number of other interesting films are showing in the city and around the state as well. For more information – and the complete listing of arthouse and limited release films opening around the US this week – read on below…. Read more 
Movie Review – Moon (2009)
by NIR SHALEV
In Moon, director Duncan “Zowie” Jones, who also has a screen credit for original story, has concocted an ingenious film about a man who has lived on the moon for three years. It’s been a long time since a science fiction film boggled my mind with ideas about isolation, routine, and the popular ideal of being human. Read more
DVD of the Week – Watchmen (2009)
by HELEN GEIB
If you want to own, or for that matter to rent Watchmen you have several options. If you’re simply looking for the movie you saw- or missed- in the theater, there’s a bare bones single disc DVD release of the theatrical cut. If you’re looking for the director’s cut or you like some special features with your movie, there’s a two disc DVD release. Read more
Movie Review – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
by TOM NIXON
Moments before David Yates’ masterful Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix started to turn nasty, there was an innocuous moment of fond fire-lit banter which broke the heart, a touch of natural adolescence made tragic and haunting by its placement in this world where the kids must be adults, when even adults won’t do. There are two coming-of-age films in Yates’ follow-up Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince; one which hopes to carry on this magical interweaving of dark and light, and the other, dominant film, which would rather spend its time indulging in gratuitous charm and whimsy. Read more
Thinking Outside the Multiplex
by MIKE MACCOLLUM
It may be a slow week in Indianapolis, what with the Indianapolis International Film Festival closing down on Friday, and only two new movies opening at the Keystone Arts. However, there is much, much more going on throughout Indiana, including several interesting film festivals. Read on below for more…. Read more
Movie Review – Bruno (2009)
by NIR SHALEV
In 2006, actor Sacha Baron Cohen disguised himself as Borat Sagdiyev, a man from Kazakhstan who flew to America to document his travels and his discoveries about cultural differences and the underlying theme of intolerance. Critically, the film struck a great chord and audiences worldwide laughed themselves silly. The film observed that the average human being is afraid of what he does not understand. Read more
Movie Review – Sita Sings the Blues (2008)
by HELEN GEIB
Sita Sings the Blues is a captivating re-telling of the Indian epic poem the Ramayana from the point of view of the hero’s wife Sita. Sita the film is the idiosyncratic, original, inspired work of an American animator named Nina Paley. Read more
DVD of the Week – Review of Coraline (2009)
by NIR SHALEV
Coraline Jones and her parents had just moved into a new house and she is instantly bored. Surrounded by wet woods and mud, to escape the rainy weather she explores her new home and finds a secret door in which a portal appears; but only at night. Traveling to the “other world” she notices that it’s very similar to the “real world” only better. Read more
Movie Review – Becket (1964)
by NIR SHALEV
King Henry II of England surprises the country by naming his best friend Thomas Becket, a Saxon, as Chancellor, one of the most important positions in the English government. This is shocking because the king and the nobility are Normans; commoners and clergy are Saxons. What it means is that Becket now bears a ring that holds power over the country of England and that the king trusts a Saxon to rule over the Church. Henry doesn’t hate the Church for religious reasons, but he despises their need to rule over everything. They do not believe in equilibrium so he figures that if anyone is going to rule the country it should be the monarch. Read more
Thinking Outside the Multiplex
by MIKE MACCOLLUM
The people who scheduled this year’s Indianapolis International Film Festival must have amazing psychic powers, since most of the festival is taking place during what would otherwise be a very dull week, movie-wise, in Indianapolis. Either that, or they looked at the film release schedule for 2009, noticed when the latest Harry Potter movie would be opening, and correctly guessed that this would create a void of interesting new movies in central Indiana that week. Whatever the reason, anyone seeking something a little bit offbeat on the big screen this week should head on over to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Since Food, Inc. got postponed (again) to July 31, the only new movie opening at Indy’s Landmark this week is… the latest Harry Potter. Read on below for more…. Read more
