by MIKE MACCOLLUM
Not much new this week – just the one movie, in fact – and on top of that, a number of limited-release holdovers from weeks past are now gone from Indiana theaters. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like next week will offer much relief. As of now, it looks like we’ll have to wait for January 8 (with The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and – maybe – Red Cliff) for that. To see just how bare the limited-release/art film cupboard is in Indiana this week, read on below….
LIMITED RELEASE THEATRICAL FILMS OPENING IN INDIANA THIS WEEK
The Young Victoria – Emily Blunt plays the title role in this film about the early years of Queen Victoria. Blunt plays the monarch from the age of seventeen – when she is first in line for the throne, and a number of people (both in and out of the palace) are trying to get on her good side, and/or control her – through the early years of her marriage to Prince Albert (Rupert Friend). Jim Broadbent, Miranda Richardson, Paul Bettany and Thomas Kretschmann are also in the cast of the film, which was written by Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) and directed by Jean-Marc Vallee (C.R.A.Z.Y.). The Young Victoria starts Friday at the Keystone Arts in Indianapolis and the Village Park 17 in Carmel.
THEATRICAL HOLDOVERS, FILM FESTIVALS, REVIVAL SCREENINGS, AND OTHER SPECIAL SHOWINGS IN INDIANA THIS WEEK
Arya 2 – This Telugu-language romantic comedy returns to the Georgetown 14 this week for one showing, at 5:30 PM on Sunday, December 27.
Black Dynamite – Plays four times this week at the Cinema Center in Fort Wayne; go to the Cinema Center site (see link at right of page) for show times.
Cosi fan tutte – This new production of Mozart’s opera – as staged for the 2009 Salzburg festival – will be screened at the Rave Jefferson Pointe 18 in Fort Wayne on Sunday, December 27, at 1 PM. (Does anyone else out there find it puzzling – or at least interesting – that the Rave theater in Plainfield, the Metropolis 18, does not show these operas, while the Rave Jefferson Pointe 18 does?)
Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas/Olivia: Winter Wonderland – This double-feature for children will be shown at 1 PM and 2:40 daily this week at the Georgetown 14 in Indianapolis, and at 11:10 AM daily at the Showplace Cinemas East in Evansville; there will also be Saturday and Sunday showings at 1 PM at the Studio 10 in Shelbyville, at 11:25 AM at the Jefferson Pointe 18 in Fort Wayne, at 12 PM at the Carmike 20 in Fort Wayne, and at 1 PM at the Encore Park 14 in Elkhart.
An Education – Continues for another week at the Cinema Center in Fort Wayne.
Mall of America and 0% Down – These two short films by Josephine Meckseper will be shown simultaneously (on different walls of the same gallery) at the Indianapolis Museum of Art through February 7, 2010.
Me and Orson Welles – Ouch! Richard Linklater’s film holds over at the Keystone Arts this week – but for only one show per day, at 3:50 PM. And while it will also hold over at the Cinema Center in Fort Wayne this week, it will be gone from the other commercial theater in Indiana at which it opened last Friday. That fast fade might lead some to think that this is a bad movie, but it isn’t – and while it also isn’t a great film, it is still well worth seeing to catch the amazing Christian McKay as Welles. Others in the cast – especially James Tupper as Joseph Cotten, and Ben Chaplin as George Coulouris – turn in noteworthy performances as well, but McKay is the real reason to see the film. He and the screenwriters present a mesmerizing portrait of Welles as a young genius/monster. It may not be entirely true to life, but it sure seems like they captured a plausibly “real” Orson Welles, circa 1937.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – Franklin’s Historic Artcraft Theatre continues its series of holiday-related films with this 1989 film, which will be shown at 2 and 7:30 PM on Saturday, December 26; it will also be shown (at the same times, presumably, although they aren’t anywhere that I could find them on the Artcraft’s site) on Sunday, December 27.
Omer Fast: The Casting – This fourteen minute, four channel video installation continues at the Indianapolis Museum of Art through February 21, 2010. The piece intercuts excerpts from the artist’s conversations with a soldier about to leave for his second tour of duty in Iraq with footage of actors mimicking the dialogue.
Paa – According to manoranjaninc.com, this Indian film will have two showings at the Georgetown 14 this week, on Sunday, December 27, at 2 and 9 PM. (The movietickets.com page for the G14 claims that Paa will also be at that theater from Monday through Thursday nights at 8 PM. That might be correct, or it might be a glitch; call the theater, and/or check the manoranjan site and the movietickets.com’s G14 page, if you are thinking of seeing this after Sunday.)
Pirate Radio – Starts Friday at both Indianapolis area Cinemarks, the Washington Market and the Greenwood Corners. Considering that it didn’t make a lot of money in first run theaters, this will probably be its only week at these second-run houses.
The Road – As with Me and Orson Welles, this one looks like another candidate for “Hello, I must be going” status, as it holds over at only eight of the nine Indiana theaters it played at last week….and at five of those theaters (the Stadium 16 in Evansville, the Carmike 20 in Fort Wayne, the Honey Creek West 8 in Terre Haute, the ShowPlace East 11 in Bloomington, and the ShowPlace 7 in Muncie), it’s down to just two shows per day. It did fare better at some other theaters, however – the Showplace East in Evansville will have three shows per day this week – although that’s down from five per day last week – and both the Keystone Arts in Indianapolis and the ShowPlace 16 in Schererville will have four shows per day this week. Maybe grim post-apocalyptic dramas just aren’t huge at the box office, even with the likes of Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce and Charlize Theron in the cast….
The Rocky Horror Picture Show – The seventies cult fave returns to the Georgetown 14 in Indianapolis this Saturday night at 10 PM – or maybe it doesn’t. The movietickets.com page for the G14 says that it will be at that theater not only on Saturday, but on Sunday through Thursday at 10 as well. I strongly suspect that those Sunday through Thursday showings are incorrect – especially since the theater’s own weekly e-mail doesn’t say anything about the film being there at all this week, even on Saturday. (Then again, the Indian films that will be there this week also aren’t mentioned in this email.) Your best bet: calling the G14 to see what’s going on here.
3 Idiots – This Indian film holds over this week – through at least Tuesday – at the Georgetown 14 in Indianapolis. That “at least” is in there because Tuesday is the last day for the film at the G14 on the manoranjaninc site – or it was the last day the last time I looked, on Thursday evening. The movietickets.com page for the G14, on the other hand, says that 3 Idiots will be there through Thursday. (Since no new movie seems to be starting at the G14 on Wednesday, maybe 3 Idiots will be there through Thursday- but you never know….). Also, one correction to last week’s entry for this movie: the book it was based on is actually five point someone, not Five Point Somewhere, for whatever it’s worth.
NEXT WEEK AND BEYOND
There’s only one update regarding upcoming limited release films on the Keystone Arts’ page this week – the local opening date of A Single Man has been pushed back from January 8 to January 22. The Lovely Bones has also been added to the page, as a January 15 opener – but that one will be in wide release by then.
(And while there was still nothing about Red Cliff on the Keystone Arts’ web page the last time I checked, the film’s “play dates” page on the official site of US distributor Magnolia Pictures claims that it will be opening at the Keystone Arts on January 8. My fingers are crossed…. especially since I think that the odds are good that the Keystone Arts will have at least two movies leaving by January 7 – which would mean that both The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Red Cliff could open on January 8.)
The manoranjaninc.com site has no updates regarding new Indian films for the Georgetown 14 this week.
To close out this week’s column, the US website for the just-opened Romanian film Police, Adjective claims that it will be at the “Keystone Art” [how did they know that the plural is oft-times inappropriate these days?] starting on March 12. The distributor, IFC films, usually puts more emphasis on the Video-On-Demand availability of their films than on their theatrical play, but they seem to be giving Police, Adjective more of a theatrical push than they do for most of their movies, so it just may make that date. And the reviews so far have also been extremely good, which can’t hurt.
