It’s the week of the “official” beginning of the summer blockbuster season. That means you can expect to see the season’s first Next Big Thing all over the place, but that is not quite the only thing opening locally this week.

In Theaters.  Another week, another five movies — and nothing that appears to offer a serious threat to Furious 7. Word is that the Big Opener this week is going to be Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2. (How depressing is that?) But no one has yet to claim it will knock Furious 7 to curb. […]

In Theaters. On the one hand, there’s probably nothing bigger than Dwayne Johnson and an earthquake, but on the other hand, this week — like last week — is a little shy on the really high call summer items. The next one of those isn’t due till June 12. This is only the Sort of […]

In Theaters.  This is a slack week for the simple reason that the entire world is gearing up for Avengers: Age of Ultron next Friday — excuse me, next Thursday at 7 p.m. (More and more that’s the norm — ever since the studios figured out that more people will go to those than midnight […]

This started out as an easy week — from my perspective at least. Two big mainstream titles vying to knock Age of Ultron off its throne and one art title. Then up crops another art title. Having adjusted to that (more or less), another art title shows up completely out of left field. If anything else happens, I’m going to pretend I don’t notice, but keep that to yourself.

Even though Avengers: Age of Ultron has grossed enough money to buy several small countries, the studios are still on the reticent side about going up against it, so there’s only one mainstream release this week — one not aimed at anything remotely like the same audience.

As promised, here is the place I will comment on the Oscars as they happen. Feel free to chime in throughout the evening…or not. UPDATED:     Well, I said I wasn’t going to do a post-mortem on the Oscars, and I’m really not all that interested in doing one. OK, in my perfect world, […]

There is a sense that 2014 wasn’t a very good year for movies. It’s an idea that I just plain don’t get. I think it was a splendid year for movies — so much so that I find myself unable to be content with a Top 10 list, and have instead gone with a Top 20. This […]

Lisi Russell — widow of British filmmaker Ken Russell (Tommy, Altered States) — will be in Asheville next week to introduce a special Asheville Film Society screening of her husband’s film Mahler on Wed., April 22, at 7:30 p.m. at The Carolina Asheville.

It’s a particularly rich week on the art side — including my vote for first great film of 2015.