Even though we get two mainstream releases—New Year’s Eve and The Sitter—and two art titles—The Descendants and Into the Abyss—plus one impossible-to-classify offering—Anonymous—this week feels like the calm before the storm that is Christmas. And while I can’t say I’m quivering in anticipation for the mainstream titles, I’m pretty happy with the other ones.
Cranky Hanke’s Screening Room: Nymphomaniacs, Nuns, and Messiahs: Ken Russell As I Knew Him
This is far and away the hardest thing I’ve ever had to write. The very idea that Ken Russell could be dead is unthinkable to me. This isn’t just the passing of one of the—not always fully appreciated—true giants of cinema. This is the passing of a friend of nearly 30 years—a man I unreservedly loved. The very fact that I am—for the very first time—writing something that he will not be reading is strange and saddening in itself. And that makes this even harder, making various regrets snowball into something almost paralyzing.
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Nov. 30-Dec. 6: The Melancholia week
The title for this week’s rather short “Weeky Reeler” may be taken figuratively—since the week is inevitably and inextricably marked by the passing of the great British filmmaker Ken Russell—but it’s also quite literally true. The only movie opening locally this week is Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, which comes to The Carolina on Friday. Some times may shift around, but it’s otherwise pretty much the same as last week—apart from the arrival of Melancholia and the depature of The Rum Diary. Considering that last week gave us Scorsese’s Hugo, I’m not complaining about a dearth of product. For that matter, Melancholia is nothing to sneeze at.
Elitist Bastards: The Twiharder they come …
Xpress film reviewers Ken Hanke and Justin Souther review: Like Crazy, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Happy Feet Two and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1.
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Nov. 23-29: Hugo Arthur Marcy May Muppets like crazy
This is an interesting week. Everything—even the art titles—open on Wednesday, which is unusual, Thanksgiving or not. The three mainstream openers—Arthur Christmas, Hugo, The Muppets—are all of the family-friendly persuasion, which isn’t surprising at this time of year. What is surprising is that they’ve all been seen by some critics of note, and have all fared very nicely in the process. It will undoubtedly be noted that the bulk of the Arthur Christmas reviews are from the UK—its country or origin—and are therefore suspect. The problem with that bit of “conspiracy” theory is that the Brit reviewers love nothing better than trashing their own though some weird sense of cultural inferiority. Neither of the art titles—Like Crazy at The Carolina and Martha Marcy May Marlene at the Fine Arts—could even slightly be construed as family-friendly, especially the latter.
Elitist Bastards: The next time you handcuff a man …
In this edition of the Elitist Bastards Go To The Movies podcast, MountainX.com film critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther discuss current releases Jack and Jill, J. Edgar, Immortals and The Skin I Live In.
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Nov. 16-22: Twilight of the Penguin Skin I Live In
OK, I’m not gonna sugarcoat this. If it wasn’t for The Skin I Live In opening at the Fine Arts this week, I’d basically suggest learning mah-jong, searching for a nice shuffleboard tournament, or just plain old hiding under the bed till this week blows over. This, of course, doesn’t apply if you’re what is known as a Twi-Hard who’s been awaiting the wedding of the century. In that case, you’re probably already immersed in the anticipatory showings of the previous Twilight that have been happening, are happening and/or will be happening leading up to the event. Being neither entranced by the soapy antics of Bella and Edward in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 1, nor hugely interested in Happy Feet Two (one was enough), this is not a week for me. Well, apart from the new Almodovar movie, that is.
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Nov. 9-15: Immortal J. Edgar Who Fell to Earth
Before getting down to the full offerings of the week, I want to take this opportunity to remind — or tell — readers that this Wednesday there is one showing of David Bowie in Nicolas Roeg’s science fiction classic The Man Who Fell to Earth in its only playdate in the area. This is the newly restored 35th anniversary print of the full director’s cut. It shows at 7:30, Wed., Nov. 9 at The Carolina. And then there are four new films opening this week. Three of them — Immortals, J. Edgar, Jack and Jill — are mainstream releases and open at most area venues. The fourth — Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life — is in the realm of art house and is at The Carolina. Offhand, I’d say that three of the four have the potential of being at least interesting.
Elitist Bastards: Not in this world, they won’t
In this week’s Elitist Bastards Go To The Movies podcast, Mountain Xpress film critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther discuss Margin Call, The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, In Time, Puss in Boots and The Rum Diary.
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Nov. 2-8: Black Power Margin Call on Harold and Kumar Heist
It’s actually a pretty slow week at the movies. In the area of mainstream releases, all that we’re getting it seems are Tower Heist and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. Don’t those prospects simply make you absolutely giddy with anticipation? I know I can scarcely contain myself. The art scene is a little more interesting. We get Margin Call at both The Carolina and the Fine Arts, and we get the documentary The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 at The Carolina. So far it appears that Anonymous is still M.I.A. where Asheville is concerned. Let the copious weeping begin.
Cranky Hanke’s Screening Room: How I’m spending my Halloween
As it happens Halloween falls on a Monday this year and while that’s a pretty crummy day for Halloween to permit itself the luxury of occuring for most people, it actually works out rather nicely for me. You see, to the degree that I have a day off—and let’s face it, this is generally a seven-day-a-week gig—Monday is that day. At least, I’m not writing reviews and I don’t have to go anywhere, so I can spend this Halloween in the company of my favorite horror movies. Sometimes I’ve been known to take the coward’s way out and just turn on TCM on Halloween, but I’m not that keen on their line-up this year, so I’ve come up with with nine choices of my own (that seems the largest number I might realistically get watched). And being that horror is one of my favorite genres, all this meant was a trip over to the shelves.
Elitist Bastards: Will return attack with compound battery
In this week’s Elitist Bastards Go To The Movies podcast, Mountain Xpress film critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther discuss Johnny English Reborn, Paranormal Activity 3, The Three Musketeers, The Mighty Macs, Love Crime, The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) and Blackthorn.
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Oct.26-Nov.1: A Rum Diary with a Blackthorn Love Crime and More!
Oh, it’s a busy week, but before getting to that, let’s have a moment of silence for the passing of an old friend. Yes, it’s finally happened after 20 weeks—Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris is leaving us. You have till Friday to taken one last look. Otherwise, the week finds us with three for sure mainstream titles—In Time, Puss in Boots, The Rum Diary—and one possible mainstream title—Anonymous (it’s unclear whether its 250 venue release includes Asheville at this point). In addition, we have two art titles with Blackthorn opening at The Carolina and Love Crime opening at the Fine Arts. And then, there’s the impossible to classify The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) play late shows and midnights Friday and Saturday at The Carolina.
Elitist Bastards: The Big Bastards
In this week’s Elitist Bastards Go To The Movies podcast, Mountain Xpress film critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther discuss The Big Year, Footloose, Higher Ground, The Thing, The Way and the “Moroder version” of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.
Check out the new Xpress movie page
MountainX.com has been undergoing a major redesign over the last few months, but we’ve held off updating the movies page. Until today, that is.
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Oct. 19-25: Higher Ground Paranormal English Musketeers in Metropolis
An interesting week—at least in terms of the art side of the ledger. The mainstream side is another matter altogether, and a pretty grim one. Was the world really clamoring for the umpteenth version of The Three Musketeers or a second Johnny English movie or a third Paranormal Activity one? Certainly I wasn’t. On the other hand, we do have Emilio Estevez’s The Way opening at the Fine Arts and Vera Farmiga’s Higher Ground opening at The Carolina, which also has two nights (Friday and Saturday) of the Giorgio Moroder version of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. And there are a couple of four-waller things floating around, too, but that’s another matter altogether.
Elitist Bastards: Silly boy, there aren’t any
In this week’s Elitist Bastards Go To The Movies podcast, Mountain Xpress film critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther discuss Attack the Block, The Ides of March, Mozart’s Sister and Real Steel.
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Oct. 12-18: Big Year of the Footloose Mozart Attack the Block Thing
Another week, another outburst of movies, but no boxing robots this round—and judging by what folks went to see last week, it appears that boxing robots are the happening thing. Go figure. Instead, this week finds us with The Big Year, Footloose and The Thing is the realm of the wide-release, while Mozart’s Sister opens at the Fine Arts and Attack the Block finally makes it to The Carolina. And I sincerely hope they get better moviegoer support than Restless and The Whistleblower did.
Elitist Bastards: The Bastards of March
In this week’s Elitist Bastards Go To The Movies podcast, Mountain Xpress film critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther discuss current films 50/50, Courageous, Dream House, Restless, What’s Your Number? and The Whistleblower.
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Oct. 5-11: Restless Ides of Real Steel Whistleblowers
The mainstream and art titles are evenly matched this week—two of each. On the mainstream side we have The Ides of March and Real Steel. (There are no prizes for guessing who reviews which this week.) The art titles are The Whistleblower at the Fine Arts and Restless at The Carolina. With any luck, this week will fare better than the lackluster last week when no new movie could crack the top three. Audience lack of interest has rarely been so high—which in some instances was understandable. And, guess what? The special two-week engagements of The Lion King enter their fourth week.
Cranky Hanke’s Screening Room: Is 2011 really that bad?
I know there are those who actually believe that 2011 has been a good year for movies. I can’t agree with that—nor it seems can most people. But there’s always the chance that I’ve been forgetting something. With that in mind, I went over all the new films I’ve seen that impressed me enough to get the full five stars. This came up to five titles: The Illusionist, 13 Assassins, Incendies, Midnight in Paris and Point Blank. It’s a point of debate as to whether The Illusionist can technically be counted as 2011, since it opened in limited release in 2010—and since I saw it in 2010. Incendies, on the other hand, counts, since it only opened enough to qualify for Oscar consideration in 2010. So I’ll discount The Illusionist, but keep Incendies as a possible “Best of” contender.