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….

Adaptation – The multi-part installation continues for another week at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Arts at Notre Dame Kids World Film Festival – This festival of films by and about children from all over the world takes place July 23-25 at the University of Notre Dame’s Browning Cinema in South Bend, IN. More information here and here.

Away We Go – Continues for another week at the Keystone Arts in Indianapolis.

Bay Area Cypher – This “performance documentary” about the hip-hop scene in San Franciso (official site) plays at the Earth House Collective on Thursday, July 30, at 7 PM.

The Best of the 2008 Indianapolis 48-Hour Film Project – This event with the self-explanatory title takes place Wednesday, July 29, at 7 PM; the location is the Central Library in downtown Indianapolis. More information at the official site.

The Brothers Bloom – Starts Friday at the Cinemark in Greenwood.

Cheri­ – Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathy Bates and company are in Plainfield, Lafayette, Columbus (IN) and Fort Wayne this week, as this lesser film from Stephen Frears opens at (respectively) the Rave Metropolis 18, the Goodrich Eastside 10, the Yes Cinema and the Cinema Center. Click on the links in the sidebar for show times at the last two locations.

The First Annual James Dean Amateur Film Festival – A local film festival this Saturday at 6:30 in downtown Marion. Festival fare includes six Dean-themed short films, a 1956 half-hour fan-made version of Rebel Without a Cause, and home movies filmed by the man himself in New York in 1954 and on the set of Giant in Marfa, Texas in 1955. More information at this page of The Star Press online newspaper.

[500] Days of Summer – This romcom starring Joseph-Gordon Levitt and Zoey Deschanel opens at the Keystone Arts on Friday; I saw a free preview the other night that left me pretty lukewarm about the film itself, but very positive on the work by the two leads. It has been receiving some pretty solid reviews, though, so maybe I’m wrong here.

The Great Buck Howard – Showing through Monday at the Lotus Petal Cinema in Nashville; see their site for information about showtimes.

Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go – A documentary about a school for emotionally disturbed children in Britain; it will be showing at 6 and 8 PM on Tuesday, July 28, at the Lotus Petal Cinema in Nashville.

The Hurt Locker – The extremely-well-reviewed film from director Kathryn Bigelow finally opens at the Keystone Arts.

Il Barbiere di Siviglia – An “encore presentation” of Rossini’s opera will be shown at several theaters in Indianapolis and around Indiana on Wednesday, July 29, at 7 PM; click on the Fathom Events link in the sidebar for more information.

The Indianapolis International Film Festival – The 2009 festival comes to a close at the Indianapolis Museum of Art on Friday night; click on this link for more information about the festival’s schedule, and click here for info on closing night feature Racing Dreams, the closing night party, and the 2009 IIFF Awards Ceremony.

Moon – Continues for one more week at the Keystone Arts theater, but with only two shows per day.

Outrage – Continues for another weekend at The Ryder in Bloomington.

The Owl and the Sparrow – Also continuing for another weekend at The Ryder in Bloomington.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show – Rocky and his friends bring their innocent, good-old-fashioned 1970s style fun to the Indianapolis Museum of Art this week, where Rocky Horror is part of the IMA’s Summer Nights film series.  While most movies in the Summer Nights series start at dusk, The Rocky Horror Picture Show screening is at midnight; the gates open at 10 PM.

State Fair – The 1945 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway musical will be shown at 2:30 and 7:30 on Friday and 7:30 on Saturday on the big screen at the historic Artcraft Theatre in Franklin, IN.  See the Artcraft’s link in the sidebar for more information.

Whatever Works­ – Woody Allen’s latest continues for another week at the Keystone Arts in Indianapolis, for two shows a day, and opens at the Cinema Center in Fort Wayne as well.

OPENING ELSEWHERE – Of all the films opening outside of Indiana this week, only one of them, Adam, has an opening date in Indianapolis (on August 21), but I would guess that the very well-reviewed In the Loop will most likely make its way to the Keystone Arts as well.  Of the other titles below, only The Answer Man and Surviving Crooked Lake have more than an outside shot of making it to a big screen in Indiana.  If I had a choice, I would most like to see Loren Cass, Surviving Crooked Lake, You the Living, In the Loop, Luck, How to Be a Serial Killer, The English Surgeon, and California Company Town in a theater here in Indianapolis – how about you?  And yes, I know that my list is about 70% of the movies below – but this looks like a good crop, so I wasn’t very choosy.

Friday, July 24:

The Answer Man – Romantic comedy with Jeff Daniels and Lauren Graham starts in NYC and Los Angeles.

California Company Town – A documentary about abandoned industrial towns in Californ-eye-eh opens at the Anthology Film Archives in NYC.

Deadgirl – In which two dudes find the body of a dead young woman. It will have midnight shows this weekend in eight cities across the US; Chicago and St. Louis are the cities closest to Naptown, for those of you who are in the mood for a road trip.

The English Surgeon – A documentary about a British neurosurgeon who has been trying to help the patients at a rundown hospital in the Ukraine for nearly two decades, it starts in New York.

How to Be a Serial Killer – Dark comedy that has been receiving a number of good reviews online starts at one theater in San Diego.

In the Loop – A British-made political satire with James Gandolfini, David Rasche, Steve Coogan, Gina McKee and Anna Chlumsky in the cast, it starts at theaters in and/or near Boston, Chicago, LA, NYC, San Francisco and Washington, DC.

Loren Cass – Long-in-the-works Florida-set drama which has received many positive reviews and has had a fair amount of film festival play; opens in NYC.

Luck – A Bollywood action/adventure film, it opens at several theatres across the country in the Phoenix Adlabs chain – and elsewhere, perhaps (?). (Additionally, the Tamil-language film Aiyantham Padai and the Malayalam film Bhramaram start in at least one theatre each in the Phoenix Adlabs chain.)

One Minute to Nine – Documentary about a woman with an abusive husband, and the consequences of her attempts to escape him, opens for a one-week Oscar-qualifying run in LA.

Paraiso Travel – John Leguizamo is in the cast of this drama about immigrants from Colombia trying to make their way to the US; it opens on several screens in LA and NYC.

Shadowland – This St. Louis-made horror film – which has played at a number of festivals – makes its theatrical debut in its home city this week.

Shrink – Kevin Spacey plays the title character in this comedy, which starts Friday in NYC and LA.

Surviving Crooked Lake – A Canadian film receiving a 19-screen release in Colorado (a test for a possible wider release later on?), at first it sounded like it might be a reworking of Picnic at Hanging Rock, but the film’s official site compares it to Deliverance (with four teenage girls in place of Burt Reynolds and company) and Open Water.

Wednesday, July 29:

Adam – A romantic comedy about a young man with Asperger’s Syndrome who falls for his new neighbor; opens in LA and NYC on Wednesday and according to the film’s official site is scheduled to hit Indianapolis on August 21.

You, the Living – If you saw writer/director Roy Andersson’s Songs from the Second Floor at the late Key Cinemas a few years ago, you probably have a pretty decent idea of what to expect from his latest film, which starts Wednesday in NYC.

NEXT WEEK AND BEYOND – Food, Inc. has been delayed aga- Nope, just kidding; the much-praised documentary finally starts at the Keystone Arts on July 31.  As for the four other films that used to be on the Landmark’s schedule for July 31 (Lemon Tree, Academy Award Best Foreign Film winner Departures, Francis Ford Coppola’s self-distributed Tetro, and Robert Pattison going all arty in Little Ashes), they now have apparently joined Adoration and Rudo y Cursi in “opening date to be determined later – if they open here at all” limbo.  Since summer has only about a month or so to go, here’s hoping that the decreased number of would-be blockbusters dominating the nation’s theater screens means that the Keystone Arts will finally have room for these six movies, and other artier fare as well.  (For whatever it’s worth, all of the above titles were on an e-mail received today from the Landmark, under the heading “coming soon”.) In non-Landmark news, the Bollywood romantic comedy Love Aaj Kal from Imtiaz Ali, director of the enjoyable Jab We Met, is scheduled to start a six day run at the Georgetown 14 according to the distributor’s site manoranjaninc.com.