My Life as an Indy Moviegoer – November, 2011 Recap
by HELEN GEIB
A monthly series in which I relate my reflections on life as an independent-minded moviegoer in Indianapolis, Indiana.
My count for November stands at six, evenly split between new and repertory. New releases I saw Immortals and Hugo-actually the only two Hollywood films I was really interested in seeing this month. Also the indie The Mighty Macs, an enjoyable inspirational sports drama starring Carla Gugino as a pioneering women’s college basketball coach who guided an underdog team to victory in the ’70s. Read more 
Memorable in an Unmemorable Movie?
by HELEN GEIB
This month’s discussion topic is memorable parts of unmemorable movies. The movie might be bad, indifferent, or simply forgettable, but it had something great about it. A wonderful supporting performance (like Ray Liotta’s in Blow, pictured), costumes to die for, a brilliant concept, a wonderful dance number or thrilling fight scene… anything that sticks with you long after the rest of the movie has faded away. Tell us some of your picks for memorable in an unmemorable movie in the comments.
DVD of the Week – Review of Another Earth (2011)
by NIR SHALEV
Rhoda (Brit Marling) was just accepted in the astrophysics program at MIT. She parties a tad too hard and on her drive back home, while listening to the radio she hears that a new blue planet was discovered and that it can be seen with the naked eye, just to the right of the Northern Star. As she admires the tiny blue spec in the night sky she crashes her car, head-on into a parked SUV that contained a husband, pregnant wife, and a child in the back seat. Read more
Movie Review – Hugo (2011)
by HELEN GEIB
A note on spoilers: The plot of Hugo revolves around the young hero’s discovery of another character’s true identity. It is impossible to write a meaningful review and not reveal the secret. If by some chance you don’t already know what it is, and you do already know you want to see the movie, bookmark this review and read it when you get back. Otherwise, read on.
Martin Scorsese’s latest is adapted from the young adult novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick. The recently orphaned Hugo (Asa Butterfield) lives in a forgotten room inside the walls of the grand terminal of a Paris train station in the mid-1920s. His drunken uncle’s job was to keep the station’s numerous, splendid wall clocks running. When his uncle didn’t come home one night, Hugo took over his work. Read more
Rewind: Films of the 60s, 70s, 80s – Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)
by RICHARD WINTERS
Some of my lady friends from the office suggested I watch and review this film for my column as they consider it to be the ultimate Thanksgiving Day movie. If other readers have suggestions for movies for me to see and review that were released between the years of 1960 and 1989, then feel free to drop me a line. Don’t worry, with my “connections” I can probably dig up even the most obscure ones, so go ahead and suggest whatever. Of course, even if you suggest a movie that you really like doesn’t necessarily mean I will like it, but if it helps create the healthy, spirited debate that we have about movies in the office then all the better. Read more
Thinking Outside the Multiplex in Indiana (November 23, 2011)
by HELEN GEIB
More variety than usual in Indianapolis thanks to the continuing crush of new arthouse releases at the Keystone Art Cinema, less variety than usual in the rest of the state due to the university towns shutting down over the Thanksgiving break. What’s on your moviegoing plate this holiday weekend? Read more
DVD of the Week – Movies for the Thanksgiving Season
by HELEN GEIB
This is not a list of “Thanksgiving movies.” The holiday doesn’t appear in any of them, and several are from countries that don’t celebrate it. Rather, this is a list of films that feature family and friends coming together to share a meal- because what could be more seasonal than that? Five unconventional recommendations for your Thanksgiving weekend viewing:
Grand Illusion (1937) and They Were Expendable (1945)
In Grand Illusion, Jean Renoir’s great drama of WWI, food packages prompt reminiscences of home for French prisoners of war; the German commandant dines in lonely state. When the officers in John Ford’s WWII Philippines-set They Were Expendable give a dinner party for the nurse one of them loves, the rituals of the table conjure a connection to the achingly distant homefront. Read more
Rewind: Films of the 60s, 70s, 80s – Avanti! (1972)
by RICHARD WINTERS
Jack Lemmon plays Wendell Armbruster Jr. a conservative, set-in-his-ways businessman who travels to Italy to arrange the return of his father’s body, who died in a car accident. To his shock he finds that his father did not die alone, but instead was with his secret lady lover of 20 years. Apparently they would meet every summer and the two had been carrying on the affair without any of their family members knowing. Juliet Mills plays Pamela Piggott, the daughter of the other woman. She comes to claim the body of her mother and after the two meet a certain romantic spark slowly begins to ignite. Read more
Movie Review – The Rum Diary (2011)
by NIR SHALEV
The setting is San Juan, Puerto Rico; the year, 1960. American journalist and failed novelist Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) arrives for a job interview at the San Juan Star. His toupee-sporting editor, Lotterman (Richard Jenkins) gives him the job, Kemp being the only person to apply for the position. His job is to do rewrites of negative sounding articles to turn them positive, and also to put out the daily astrology section. Read more
Thinking Outside the Multiplex in Indiana (November 18, 2011)
by HELEN GEIB
Three arthouse new releases and three arthouse holdovers at the KAC this week- we must be coming into awards season. Elsewhere, lighter than usual repertory offerings due to the holiday. By the way, next week’s edition of TOTM in IN will be published on Wednesday to take account of the Wednesday-before-Thanksgiving openings, and because there’s not a chance in the world I’ll be alert enough to write anything after the Thanksgiving feast. Read more
