Thinking Outside the Multiplex in Indiana (August 31, 2012)
by HELEN GEIB
The Keystone Art Cinema confounded my expectations by opening all five of the movies that had been announced as starting this weekend. Indianapolis is the place to be over the holiday weekend if new American indies is your thing. The list and the rest of this week’s outside the multiplex offerings after the break.
Note: For trailers, cast and crew, and suchlike follow the title link to the movie’s official website. For showtimes and directions for the non-multiplex venues, follow the links under “Outside the Multiplex” in the sidebar.
OPENING THIS WEEK IN LIMITED RELEASE
2 Days in New York- “2 Days in New York is director/co-writer Julie Delpy’s deliciously witty follow-up to her film 2 Days in Paris. …With their unabashed openness and sexual frankness, the triumvirate is bereft of boundaries or filters… and no one is left unscathed in its wake.” It opens today at the Landmark Keystone Art Cinema in Indianapolis.
Celeste and Jesse Forever- “Celeste and Jesse Forever transforms the conventional romantic comedy with a bracingly honest real-life vibe, exploring both the comedy and complexity of love and friendship.” It opens today in Indianapolis at the Landmark Keystone Art Cinema, the Regal Village Park 17 in Carmel, the Rave Cinemas Jefferson Pointe 18 in Fort Wayne and Metropolis 18 in Plainfield, and at these AMCs around the state: Evansville 16, Honey Creek 8 in Terre Haute, Schererville 16, and South Bend 16.
Cosmopolis- David Cronenberg’s latest psychological drama stars Robert Pattinson as a paranoid financier. Cosmopolis, based on a novel by Don DeLillo, starts today at the Landmark Keystone Art Cinema in Indianapolis.
Killer Joe- Matthew McConaughey stars as a contract killer in this controversial and violent (reflected in its NC-17 rating) indie. “Based on the play by Pulitzer and Tony Award winner Tracy Letts, Killer Joe is a garish, provocative black comedy from Academy Award-winning director William Friedkin.” It opens today at the Yes Cinema in Columbus and Landmark Keystone Art Cinema in Indianapolis.
Robot & Frank- And also opening today at the Landmark Keystone Art Cinema in Indianapolis is this indie drama with a sci-fi twist. Frank Langella plays a retired cat burglar who presses his new robot butler into service as his assistant in crime.
THEATRICAL HOLDOVERS (AND “RE-OPENINGS”)
Beasts of the Southern Wild- “In a forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee, Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis), a six-year-old girl, exists on the brink of orphanhood.” Beasts of the Southern Wild has been receiving rave reviews for the individual vision of its first-time writer-director and the performances by the non-professional cast. It opens at the Cinema Center in Fort Wayne.
Ek Tha Tiger- This Bollywood thriller, set in Dublin and starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif, has a few more shows this weekend at the Republic Theaters Georgetown 14 in Indianapolis.
Farewell My Queen- This period drama set in the court of Marie Antoinette follows the career of a calculating lady-in-waiting on the eve of the French Revolution. Diane Kruger co-stars as the doomed queen. It holds over at the Landmark Keystone Art Cinema in Indianapolis.
FESTIVALS, REPERTORY SCREENINGS, AND MORE
Indianapolis and Central Indiana
The 2012 Summer Nights series at the IMA concludes tonight with The Sound of Music. On Thursday, there is a free showing of the documentary Women in the Dirt: Landscape Architects Shaping Our World; there is a (also free) pre-film reception and an “on-stage conversation” with local landscape architects will follow the screening.
Southern Indiana
The IU Cinema’s retrospective of the work of Czech animator Jan Svankmajer continues today with a shorts program and the feature Lunacy. The Cinema is closed for a few days for the holiday, re-opening Tuesday with the documentary Broadway Idiot, a profile of the singer-songwriter behind the rock band Green Day, and Cuban family drama Habanastation. The docudrama The Killing Floor, about black workers in the Chicago stockyards during WWI, and the new documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry will be shown Thursday (and next Friday).
The Well Digger’s Daughter, Take This Waltz, and The Queen of Versailles are the weekend movies in the Ryder repertory series in Bloomington.
Northern Indiana
School is back in session, so film programming is underway again at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center at Notre Dame. Italian comedy The Salt of Life and the incredible Indonesian martial arts sensation The Raid: Redemption have one evening show each, today and tomorrow. The Classic 100 series resumes Tuesday with F.W. Murnau’s great silent drama The Last Laugh.
The Cinematheque for All repertory series in West Lafayette continues Wednesday with the acclaimed Romanian film The Death of Mr. Lazarescu; fall season full lineup.
NEXT WEEK AND BEYOND
The IU Cinema’s Werner Herzog program is in full swing next week with showings of a number of his films (Fata Morgana, Land of Silence and Darkness, Aguirre Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans, Grizzly Man, Nosferatu the Vampyre, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, Into the Abyss) between September 8 and 16. Herzog is scheduled to attend several of the screenings and to give two lectures and a public interview as part of his visit to IU. Full details here.
The weekend of September 14 presents an embarrassment of riches for B-movie lovers. The annual B Movie Celebration, now in its sixth year, is September 14-16 at the Yes Cinema in Columbus; visit their website for this year’s lineup of movies, none of which I’ve heard of, which is good news for B movie lovers, no doubt! The same weekend and not far distant, Shelbyville’s Strand Theatre and Skyline Drive-In host “Super Monster Movie Fest” of classic horror and sci-fi movies on September 14 and 15. Likewise on September 14 and 15 and not far distant, you can see Gila, a remake of the 1958 “classic” The Giant Gila Monster, at the Artcraft Theater in Franklin- the town where the movie is set and was filmed.
Journeys Neil Young is now listed for September 14 at the Keystone Art Cinema. Another concert movie, Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live in Budapest is scheduled to play three shows at the KAC, on September 20, 32, and 27.
Films and events scheduled for next Friday:
Raiders of the Lost Ark at IMAX theaters
The Thin Man at the Artcraft
Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview at the DeBartolo
The Killing Floor and Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry at the IU Cinema
Take This Waltz, The Queen of Versailles, the Imposter at the Ryder
For later this week, Manoranjaninc’s site says (in the center column) that the Telugu-language film Shirdi Sai will be “releasing with subtitles” on either Wednesday or Thursday, depending “on print arrival” for the Wednesday show. In the left-hand column of the page, however, the language is just “Telugu”, with no mention of any kind of subtitles. So maybe the print that will be shown at the Georgetown 14 will be subtitled in English (or possibly some other language)- or maybe it won’t be.
For next week, both the Filmjerk site’s Early Report (for August 14) and a review on the Dove Foundation’s site say that a movie called Southern Girls will be released in Indianapolis (among other cities) on September 7- but I could find no release information (dates, cities, or otherwise) on the film’s page on the site of its production company:
http://carljacksonentertainment.com/Home.html
And also next week, several theaters in the Goodrich chain, including four in Indiana- the Eastside 9 (Lafayette), the Hamilton 16 IMAX (Noblesville), the Portage 16 IMAX (Portage), and the Wabash Landing 9 (West Lafayette)- will kick off a series called “Documentary Days”. The docs will be shown at these theaters on the second and fourth Mondays of the month, from September through November (and the first part of December), at 5 and 7 PM. Those show times aren’t that great- why couldn’t they make the second show start at, say, 7:30?- but the lineup of films looks good; I saw two of them- Detropia and Side by Side- at the Indianapolis International Film Festival and would highly recommend both. First up is We’re Not Broke, on September 10; the full list of titles can be found here:
http://www.gqti.com/documentarydays.aspx