OK, here’s one of those weeks where we’re actually getting some things that people have been asking me about. And once again, I encourage you to get out there and support these movies. It’s in everyone’s best interest to help support quality—or potentially quality—film in Asheville.

As those of you who read these columns reguarly know, I was in Florida last week—in large part to bring a long-lost (well, sort of) friend who hadn’t seen a new movie since probably the early 1990s into the 21st century of films. I discussed the choices—and potential choices—a column back, so it seems only reasonable to bring everyone up to date and how the experiment went.

The big movie this week is Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are—a feature-length adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s very short children’s book. The interest in this ranges from enthused to cautious to downright hostile (one person on the Xpress forums likened the prospect of the movie to having his childhood raped).

Well, we had a pretty decent crop of movies last week. This would be the week to catch up with some of them. How bad are this week’s offerings? Well, I’m leaving town to avoid seeing them. OK, so that’s an exaggeration.

I have a friend who hasn’t actually seen a movie made after 1995. He’s of course heard things about the state of modern film, and what he’s heard hasn’t enticed him to venture into it. Naturally, I’ve taken it upon myself—with his seemingly enthusiastic permission—to bring him into the 21st century of movies. The trick is I have five—maybe six—days in which to do this. The question then is how to do this?