In Theaters. Bong Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer opens this week, and so far as I’m concerned that’s all you need to know, but the dictates of the job require that I mumble a few words — in Esperanto as a preference (except I don’t know it) — about the three other movies that come our way […]
In Theaters. If nothing else, the entire weekend doesn’t revolve around giant CGI toys and explosions. This doesn’t mean that this messy, messy holiday weekend — where some things open on Wednesday, some things open on Friday, and, in one curious case, another opens on Saturday — is necessarily going to be that much better […]
In Theaters. This is an easy week. There is one new art title opening — and it’s a good one — but mostly this is a week devoted to giant robots punching the crap out of each other. If you’re not into that and rampant property damage and bone-rattling noise, this is probably not your […]
In Theaters. From the mainstream standpoint, this is what they call a “soft week,” which means that neither of the wide releases are really expected to be the latest Next Big Thing. Well, when your wide releases are Jersey Boys and Think Like a Man Too, that’s not so hard to understand. At the same […]
In Theaters However it shakes out, it can clearly be said that art titles outweigh mainstream titles this week. There are three of them up against two mainstream offerings. No, of course, they aren’t going to win against the double whammy of How to Train Your Dragon 2 and 22 Jump Street, but they do […]
In Theaters. This is a pretty slack week. We get two mainstream offerings — neither of which is expected to qualify for the latest Next Big Thing — and one art title that probably isn’t poised to set the world on fire. Well, you have to expect this sort of thing even in this fast-paced […]
In Theaters Though it lacks anything that qualifies the new Next Big Thing, this is a pretty rich week — at least artwise. There are only two mainstream entries — Maleficent and A Million Ways to Die in the West — but there are three art ones. Of those, two are truly remarkable, but the third is […]
In Theaters Here we have a fairly slight week. Only three new movies are opening locally — two mainstream ones and one art title (next week will be another story on art titles). But that single art title is a surprisingly good one, and one of the mainstream ones may well be more than […]
In Theaters Now this is a week. This is, in fact, partly the week we were supposed to have last week till the Weinsteins decided to play around with the date on The Railway Man. This week we get not only it, but Jim Jarmusch’s utterly remarkable Only Lovers Left Alive. In the bargain, we […]
In Theaters Here we have a week of some uncertainty and a great many last-minute changes that threw a monkey wrench or two into the whole business. You see, up until Monday at noon, we were set with a movie (and a review and the Weekly Pick) that the distributor moved (tentatively) to May 23. […]
In Theaters This week’s pretty easy, so this’ll be on the short and sweet side — well, short anyway. Apart from the lone brave (or foolish) art title coming to The Carolina, Ernest & Celestine, the week is pretty much all Spider-Man all the time. Screens and screens and more screens of The Amazing Spider-Man […]
In Theaters We have a fairly busy week — three mainstream titles of unknown quality and three art titles (one of unknown quality). It is, of course, the unknown quality aspect that’s the kicker in all this. But, say, isn’t that always the case with these things? Let’s get what I’ve seen and reviewed out […]
This is a really strong week — a remarkably strong week. But the odd thing about that is that its strengths all lie in the art titles. Two of those are among the best things I’ve seen this year — the sort of films that will probably be on my Ten Best list come December (hey, we’re to three now!). The mainstream titles are more problematic to say the least. I have, in fact, been told by one who has seen them that one is not very good, one is just plain not good and one is downright awful.
In Theaters The movies are often accused of a lack of originality — thriving on remakes and sequels. I suppose it is an endorsement of this when you consider that last week’s Big Thing was a sequel, and this week’s Next Big Thing is also a sequel. But it doesn’t end there. A disturbing […]
Captain America: The Winter Soldier crashes, bursts and bludgeons his way into theaters this Friday (or Thursday night for the Truly Dedicated) and no mere mortal mainstream movies dare to challenge his might. Locally, however, no less than four art titles willing to stand up to the onslaught. They won’t defeat him, of course, but they’re willing to give his tights a tug.
Frankly, any week coming after The Grand Budapest Hotel is apt to taste like wax fruit, but we do have four movies opening this week — two mainstream, two art titles (sort of). At least one of the art titles I know to be good, even if it’s the kind of film for which the phrase “not for everyone” was coined. And how.
Like a harbinger of the end of a winter that seemed utterly disinclined to go away — and the typical dead-of-winter parade of dreary movies (at least the ones actually released this year) — Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel comes to town this week. It’s a joy. It’s a wonderment. It’s a delight. It’s a must-see. It’s a film I didn’t mind in the least getting up early Saturday morning to be at a 9 a.m. press screening at The Carolina to see. Oh, yeah, there’s some other stuff opening, too. I’ll get to those eventually.
Where did all these movies come from? That’s a rhetorical question, but there are six of the things this week — six. I know rabbits that don’t breed like that. (And before anybody asks, Veronica Mars is a limited release and to the best of my knowledge is not opening here — at least not this week.) We’ve got three art titles, two mainstream titles and one that isn’t really either one. Come with me and I will explain.
OK, the Oscars — where it was decided that 12 Years a Slave made itself — are over, so now we can start worrying about next year. Something tells me that nothing coming our way this week will be involved. We have but two mainstream titles and one art title, though the art title is so long that it’s in two parts and perhaps should count as two movies. It will, I imagine, come as no surprise that it’s the one film I’ve seen. The other two … well, we’ll see about those. And, no, despite what you may have heard, Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel won’t make it to Asheville till March 21.
I hate weeks like this. Oh, I’m not complaining that I have zero interest in seeing Non-Stop or Son of God (though I do). No, what distresses me is that there are three truly excellent art titles opening this week. Each of them was completely worthy of being the “Weekly Pick.” But more than that, they’re going to get in each other’s way at the box office. Terrific movies are likely to get overlooked for no reason other than there are too many of them opening on the same weekend. My suggestion is see them all, but I know that’s not practical in terms of time or expense for most people.
Thank goodness for art titles. Otherwise, this week would look pretty bleak. At the same time, there are all those titles you possibly missed owing to the weather last week. Today (I’m writing this on Monday) marks the first day it has been possible to get out of my driveway since last Tuesday night. (Yes, I have cabin fever. You are warned.) That also resulted in the first time since I started reviewing for the Xpress in 2000 where some movies didn’t get reviewed.
