Anime Feature Film Review – Porco Rosso (1992)
by HELEN GEIB
Porco Rosso is an anime feature film by writer-director Hayao Miyazaki with the unexpected setting of the Adriatic Sea c. 1930. The film’s hero Porco Rosso is a WWI Italian flying ace in self-imposed exile from his homeland. He lives in a tent on an idyllic secluded beach that he reaches in his seaplane; a generator-powered radio is his only contact with the outside world. He makes his living, such as it is, from apprehending seaplane-borne “air pirates” for the reward money. Most of the money goes toward supplies and repairs for the plane. Read more 
Thinking Outside the Multiplex
by MIKE MACCOLLUM
Wow – two art movies are starting at the Keystone Art Cinema this week, an Indian film opens at the Georgetown 14, several movies (including The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The Young Victoria and The Road) hold over at theaters across the state – and it was just announced that two Indiana theaters will be playing the fourth edition of After Dark’s Horrorfest starting January 29. There really isn’t much to complain about this week (apart from the continuing absence of Red Cliff, The Messenger, and other films from area screens); if only the other fifty-one were this good. For all of this and more cool stuff – including the start of a series of films from the twilight years of East Germany’s DEFA Studios, showing in Bloomington – and the complete listing of limited release films opening around the country, read on below…. Read more
DVD of the Week – Review of The Hurt Locker (2009)
by TOM NIXON
Maybe the most deserving of 2009’s critical darlings, Kathyrn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker is gathering steam as we hurtle towards Oscar season. The wonder is that it’s a film set in the Iraq war that not only dodges sentiment and never, ever feels like it’s pandering, but revolves around a man addicted to war and thrives on breathless set pieces, knife-point tension and exhilarating action. It’s to be expected from Bigelow (Point Break) of course, a director known for her rip-roaring genre pictures about groups of men under extreme pressure, but its release to huge acclaim couldn’t be more welcome in this era of limp-wristed proselytizing from In the Valley of Elah and chums. Icing on the cake then, that this one also ends up doubling as a Wrestleresque existential character study. Read more
Rewind: Films of the 60s, 70s, 80s – Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
by RICHARD WINTERS
Dog Day Afternoon is a 1975 film based on actual events that took place on August 22, 1972. It tells the story of a man by the name of John Wojtowicz who robbed a Brooklyn bank in order to pay for his gay lover’s sex change operation. Here the character’s name has been changed slightly to John ‘Sonny’ Wortzik (played by Al Pacino), but otherwise the Oscar-winning script by Frank Pierson sticks pretty closely to the actual events in this incredible story proving everything that can go wrong will. Read more
Movie Review – Up in the Air (2009)
by NIR SHALEV
Thank You for Smoking (2005) introduced Jason Reitman as a proficient film writer and director, Juno (2007) confirmed that he’s the real deal, and now Up in the Air assures us that he’s here to stay and that there’s no one better at delivering a recognizable, contemporary screwball comedy. This is easily one of the best films of 2009; it carries one its best performances (by George Clooney) and the screenplay is pitch perfect. This is not just a topical film but also an excellent time capsule film; looked back on in twenty years’ time it will remind us what the first decade of the 21st century was really like, technology and language-wise. Read more
Movie Review – Daybreakers (2010)
by NIR SHALEV
In 2003, Australia’s Spierig Brothers wrote and directed a very low budgeted movie called Undead. It was a quirky and gory zombie horror/comedy that I hated because it was far too silly for its own good, although it seemed like everyone else that had heard of it and seen it liked it a lot and it’s since gained a quaint cult status. Now they’ve made Daybreakers, which to my mind is a vast improvement but still not all that good of a movie. Read more
Thinking Outside the Multiplex
by MIKE MACCOLLUM
The good news of the week: Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is opening Friday at four theaters in the Indianapolis area, and at (at least) six other theaters around the state. The not-so-great news is that John Woo’s Red Cliff won’t open anywhere in the state (as far as I can tell) this Friday; instead, it now has a “tentative” opening at the Keystone Art Cinema in Indianapolis scheduled for late January. For news on all of the limited release movies playing in Indiana this week – along with the films opening in limited release elsewhere in the US this week, and the movies that (possibly) will open in Indiana in future weeks – read on below…. Read more
Hollywood Releases Preview – January, 2010
by HELEN GEIB
I’m on a 24/7 assignment in Kentucky this month so from a purely selfish perspective, I’m happy to report there are only three movies on this list I’m really interested in and none I’m desperate to see. Yes, Hollywood’s January lineup this year fulfills its usual promise. I just hope Crazy Heart is still playing at the local arthouse when I get back. Read more
DVD of the Week – Review of Inglourious Basterds (2009)
by RISHI AGRAWAL
I remember hearing Roger Ebert once talking about the Coen Brothers’ amazing film Fargo. Specifically, Ebert was commenting on the scene between Marge Gunderson and a high school classmate Mike Yanagita, who hits on Marge despite the fact that she is married and pregnant. The scene is often criticized for having no connection to the main plot, but Ebert claimed that the scene was integral to the movie. The scene does a lot to play on the recurring theme of isolation in Fargo, but it also gives us a new perspective on Marge Gunderson. But, I think another thing that Ebert was getting at was that films don’t always have to have polished edges. I think this is what I like about Inglourious Basterds. The film isn’t perfect, but that’s part of its charm and makes it a better film overall. Read more
Movie Review – An Education (2009)
by HELEN GEIB
An Education, one of the best reviewed movies of 2009, has justly received critical raves for its performances. The praise typically begins by singling out the career breakthrough performance by a young English actress named Carey Mulligan as 17 year old Jenny, the aspirations-driven heroine of the story, before moving on to the ensemble supporting cast: Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour as Jenny’s parents; Peter Sarsgaard as David, the older man she allows to seduce her; Dominic Cooper and Rosamund Pike as the oddly matched couple they go around with; Olivia Williams as her favorite teacher, who has great hopes for her favorite pupil; and Emma Thompson as the unimaginative headmistress of her school. Read more
