2010 Year in Review (and Two Top Ten Lists) by Helen Geib
by HELEN GEIB
THE YEAR IN REVIEW
I went to the movies 78 times. That counts three second viewings (of The Secret of Kells, The Secret in Their Eyes, and Red Cliff). It also counts a few revival screenings at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (including favorites The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Topsy-Turvy).
Around a dozen were last year’s year-end releases or foreign films in trickle-down distribution. The Secret in Their Eyes officially closed out the 2009 movie year in May, 2010.
I saw seven movies in other states. In six of those cases, I was there anyway for work or vacation- although getting to The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans was no mean feat even so. The seventh was when I drove to Minneapolis to see Warlords. Read more 
Thinking Outside the Multiplex in Indiana (December 31, 2010)
by MIKE MACCOLLUM
So this week is about as bad as it gets- there’s only one movie opening in the state this week, and I’m being pretty generous with the term “movie” here. Once again, though, the real gold is over the hills* and in future weeks, as noted in “This Week and Beyond” below…. Read more
DVD of the Week – Review of The American (2010)
by NIR SHALEV
On the surface, The American is a film that stars George Clooney who plays an assassin, but deep down inside it’s a quiet film that contains gorgeous compositions in every shot and has almost no action sequences. It’s a film, structured like a Western, that’s about a killer who seeks redemption and in turn becomes one of the very best movies of 2010. Read more
Thinking Outside the Multiplex in Indiana (December 24, 2010)
by MIKE MACCOLLUM
As you might expect, the holiday rush/screen shortage once again means that there isn’t much new in the way of limited release movies coming to Indiana theaters this week- and there isn’t much holding over, either. Still, we will be getting one movie that’s getting a lot of award buzz this week- along with a romantic comedy from India. At least some relief is coming in January, however- see “Next Week and Beyond” for more- although (as of now) next weekend looks like a complete washout in terms of new movies. Dive into this mixed bag by reading on below…. Read more
Movie Review – The Fighter (2010)
by HELEN GEIB
The Fighter fits under several category headings. Firstly it’s a biopic of “Irish” Micky Ward, a welterweight boxer out of Lowell, Massachusetts. The film picks up his story when he’s about 30. He’s been boxing professionally for a decade, but his career never took off and is going nowhere. (He makes a poor living doing seasonal construction work.) Some bad things happen close together and he stops boxing for a time. However, his passion for the sport soon pulls him back into the gym. Read more
DVD of the Week – Easy A (2010)
by NIR SHALEV
Emma Stone plays Olive, a high school student who helps a gay friend of hers to lose his reputation of being a homosexual by pretending to have sex with him at a weekend party. With the quick use of handheld technology, rumor spreads across the entire school that Olive is a slut. So, borrowing from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, Olive decides to wear a red “A” on every article of clothing that she owns. Read more
Movie Review – The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)
by HELEN GEIB
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the third film in the series based on the popular children’s books by C. S. Lewis. On par with the good parts of the first film and a marked improvement over the second, Dawn Treader is the best of a decidedly uneven series. Read more
Thinking Outside the Multiplex in Indiana (December 17, 2010)
by MIKE MACCOLLUM
Three movies open in limited release in Indiana this week, although most holdovers from previous weeks now have vanished- kicked out of the theaters where they had been playing by the avalanche of upcoming holiday releases. But while it may be a slow week for art house fare (and other limited releases) this time around, it looks like we have a better idea of when some potential awards winners will arrive in our fair state…. Read more
Best of the Decade – 2009
by HELEN GEIB
Winner: THE HURT LOCKER
Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow
Written by: Mark Boal
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty Read more
DVD of the Week – Review of The Trotsky (2009)
by NIR SHALEV
The Trotsky is a Canadian comedy centered on a 17 year old boy name Leon Bronstein (Jay Baruchel). At the start, Leon organizes a hunger strike at his father’s (Saul Rubinek) warehouse because the employees are not unionized. Also, Leon believes himself to be the reincarnation of the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. Read more
