Tag Archives: film

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Films we might see on Saturday, June 7

It is cold. It is rainy.  Good day to see a film in Minneapolis. Here are my choices if you want to stay away from the Big Box Office and if you are going with someone who is not into sex and violence bundled together.

If you have opinions about any of these, let us know.

Also see St. Anthony Main, Film Society. They are showing Finding Vivian Maier which we have seen.

Edina Theater

** Ida at 4:30 (MY PICK. New Yorker liked it.)

Poland 1962. Anna is a beautiful eighteen-year-old woman, preparing to become a nun at the convent where she has lived since orphaned as a child. She learns she has a living relative she must visit before taking her vows, her mother’s sister Wanda. Her aunt, she learns, is not only aformer hard-line Communist state prosecutor notorious for sentencing priests and others to death, but also a Jew. Anna learns from her aunt that she too is Jewish – and that her real name is Ida. This revelation sets Anna, now Ida, on a journey to uncover her roots and confront the truth about her family. Together, the two women embark on a voyage of discovery of each other and their past. Ida has to choose between her birth identity and the religion that saved her from the massacres of the Nazi occupation of Poland. And Wanda must confront decisions she made during the War when she chose loyalty to the cause before family.

Lagoon Cinema

Chef at 5:30

Chef Carl Casper suddenly quits his job at a prominent Los Angeles restaurant after refusing to compromise his creative integrity for its controlling owner, he is left to figure out what’s next. Finding himself in Miami, he teams up with his ex-wife, his friend and his son to launch a food truck. Taking to the road, Chef Carl goes back to his roots to reignite his passion for the kitchen — and zest for life and love.

The Immigrant at 4:30 (my 2nd choice. City Pages liked it.)

Ewa Cybulski and her sister sail to New York from their native Poland in search of a new start and the American dream. When they reach Ellis Island, doctors discover that Magda is ill, and the two women are separated. Ewa is released onto the mean streets of Manhattan while her sister isquarantined. Alone, with nowhere to turn and desperate to reunite with Magda, Ewa quickly falls prey to Bruno, a charming but wicked man who takes her in and forces her into prostitution. The arrival of Orlando – a dashing stage magician who is also Bruno’s cousin – restores her self-belief and hopes for a brighter future, becoming her only chance to escape the nightmare in which she finds herself.

On my Way at 4:20

Now in her early sixties, former beauty queen Bettie finds herself jilted by her lover and left alone to deal with the financial problems facing her family’s restaurant. What begins as a quick drive to clear her head turns into a full-fledged road trip, and along the way there are chance meetings , an ex-Miss France gala, renewed ties with her estranged daughter and grandson, and possibly, at the end of the road, love…

Uptown Cinema

The Dance of Reality at 4:10 (this sounds pretty interesting. 3rd choice)

Produced and directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, this film is his first in 23 years. The legendary filmmaker was born in 1929 in Tocopilla, a coastal town on the edge of the Chilean desert where the film was shot. It was there that Jodorowsky underwent an unhappy and alienated childhood as partof an uprooted family. Blending his personal history with metaphor, mythology and poetry, The Dance of Reality reflects Alejandro Jodorowsky’s philosophy that reality is not objective but rather a “dance” created by our own imaginations.

Heights Theater
Chef at 4:30

 

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Fox paranoia over intellectual property prompts cell phone ban at our film festival. (Plus a review of the film.)

We went to see The East tonight at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival.

Someone is attacking big corporate CEOs and forcing them to consume the harmful products they manufacture. An elite private intelligence firm is called into action and contracts ex-FBI agent Sarah Moss to infiltrate a mysterious anarchist collective, The East, suspected to be responsible.

This was a preview showing for distributors Fox Searchlight Pictures and they were very paranoid of cellphone video recordings. So they had security at the doors and officially you could not bring a cellphone in to the showing. In addition, one of the security guys announced at the beginning of the film that there were other security types in the projector booth with night vision goggles. Given the nature of the movie, it’s possible this was a marketing ploy but the crowd was not happy and one gentleman stood and said he found the treatment offensive. Another asked if there was a SWAT team in the lobby.

By studio request, camera phones and any recording devices will not be allowed in the screening of The East. You will not be allowed into the theatre while carrying a camera phone. Please leave your cell phone in your car. A secure cell phone check will also be available at the theatre door. We greatly appreciate your cooperation!

Whether marketing or true paranoia, the movie just isn’t that good. The trailer below highlights the best scenes but plot believability falls apart quickly. Movies with agents and infiltrators need to be tight and at least 90% believable. I can forgive some plot shortcuts but this one just kept them coming. Sarah in handcuffs is able to pick the locks and escape but the anarchist guy doesn’t notice. Anarchist guy just happens to know which fence section Sarah will be scaling to escape. After being taken in by the anarchists, Sarah spys on their late night ceremony, gets caught, and convinces her captor to not tell the rest of the group. Huh?

If you like tight spy thrillers, wait until this one gets to Netflix streaming. If spy and action films aren’t your regular fare, you might be OK with this one. My partner really liked it but she would never see a Bourne movie (or even Bond for that matter).