May 1st, 2019
A true-to-life setting sparks interest in “The Mustang,” a solid man-and-his-horse story from first-time feature director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre.
Anchored by a livewire performance from the compelling Matthias Schoenaerts, the movie uses the Wild Horse Inmate Program, already the nonfiction subject of John Zaritsky’s “The Wild Horse Redemption” and Andrew Michael Ellis’ “The Wild Inside,” as a heartfelt and human endorsement of second chances.
Schoenaerts’…
April 17th, 2019
Harmony Korine keeps a tight grip on his title as one of the most critic/critique-proof filmmakers of recent times with “The Beach Bum,” a sultry companion piece to 2012’s memorable “Spring Breakers.” Not without its own kind of middle-aged charm and a worldview to match, “The Beach Bum” is virtually unthinkable without Matthew McConaughey as priapic poet Moondog, a quintessential stoner icon whose consumption of marijuana is rivaled only by his quest for constant sexual…
April 17th, 2019
The 2019 Fargo Film Festival this February saw huge success, particularly with the appearance of Academy Award visual effects winner Richard Edlund, who received the festival’s Ted M. Larson award for his outstanding career. But Fargo’s wonderful accomplishment of hosting legendary filmmakers doesn’t end there.
Yet another legend will grace the stage of the Fargo Theatre this spring: Academy Award-winning documentarian Frederick Wiseman. Thanks to the efforts of The Fargo Theatre…
April 10th, 2019
Following a world premiere as one of the opening night selections of the Sundance Film Festival in January, conceptual visual artist Rashid Johnson’s adaptation of Richard Wright’s venerable “Native Son” debuts April 6 on HBO. The third big screen version of the story of Bigger Thomas, Wright’s film retains many of the book’s central plot points and its ideological critique of institutional racism. The screenplay, by Pulitzer-winner Suzan-Lori Parks, updates sparingly and,…
April 3rd, 2019
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With enough mirrors, doublings, and doppelgangers to make Hitchcock, Kubrick and Welles proud, Jordan Peele’s “Us” cements the filmmaker’s reputation as a master craftsman and visual stylist. Creepy, funny, and wicked sharp, the film’s genre is horror, the ideas are expansive and the execution clean. An ominous text prologue alludes to the networks of unused and abandoned tunnels snaking underneath the streets and communities of the United States (shortly, a glimpse of the VHS…
March 27th, 2019
Set in the fictional Little Woods, North Dakota -- a small town in the western oil patch not too far from the Canadian border -- Nia DaCosta’s first feature film as writer-director marks an auspicious and confident debut. Recalling some of the same issues explored in Courtney Hunt’s memorable “Frozen River,” “Little Woods” also shares its point of view through the harrowing day-to-day of two working-class women pushed to break the law to survive. While “Frozen River”…
March 21st, 2019
FARGO – Most people know the Trail of Tears that followed the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The U.S. government – under the direction of President Andrew Jackson – forcibly removed tens of thousands of Natives from their ancestral homes.
Thousands were murdered or died along the way west of the Mississippi River.
Less well known is that in 1869 the Xoshga Hidatsa People under the leadership of Crow Flies High and Bobtail Bull, fled persecution and lived along the Missouri River near…
March 20th, 2019
The 19th Fargo Festival begins on Tuesday, March 19th and runs until Saturday, March 23. Continuing a tradition of excellence in local arts programming, the event provides both casual moviegoers and cinephiles with multiple opportunities to see remarkable shorts and features on the two big screens of the Fargo Theatre. Guided by Fargo Theatre Executive Director Emily Beck, organizers work year-round to prepare for the largest annual moving image event in the state of North Dakota.
Many…
March 20th, 2019
Early 1960s Oklahoma is an ideal setting for classic coming of age themes in Martha Stephens’s “To the Stars.” Richer in characterization and emotion than it is in plotting, “To the Stars” capitalizes on Andrew Reed’s beautiful monochromatic cinematography, with inky blacks and shimmering silvers aspiring to the same kind of nostalgia conjured by the legendary director of photography Robert Surtees in “The Last Picture Show.” Shannon Bradley-Colleary’s screenplay…
March 20th, 2019
With the 19th annual Fargo Film Festival underway this week, film lovers and filmmakers are flocking to the Fargo Theatre to catch screenings. One local filmmaker, Steven Warkel, got to see the short film that he wrote and directed, “Small Talk,” come to life on the big screen.
“Small Talk,” which was produced last spring as a student film for MSUM’s film production program, follows a young man through turbulent emotions as he processes the hospitalization and potential death…
By Winona LaDukewinona@winonaladuke.com The business of Indian Hating is a lucrative one. It’s historically been designed to dehumanize Native people so that it’s easier to take their land. ‘Kill the Indian, save the man,”…
By Johnathan Campbell history@nd.gov Since Halloween is just around the corner, I thought I’d share three mysterious — and mildly creepy folktales — that have been shared about the Former Governors' Mansion State Historic Site,…
Thursday, November 7, 8 p.m.The Aquarium above Dempsey’s, FargoThe Minneapolis indie rock duo Bad Bad Hats hits the Fargo stage promoting their brand new, self-produced album titled “Bad Bad Hats.” Their name came from a song…
By Jim Fugliejimfuglie920@gmail.com As a political columnist, I know I should be writing an election preview for the issue of this paper that comes out just a couple weeks before what is being labeled, once again, as “the most…
By Ed Raymondfargogadfly@gmail.comWill We Ever Recover from the Trump Virus of Universal Hate?Just a month ago, the primary doctor of 336 million U.S Americans,U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, issued an advisory on the mental…
By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com Holiday wine shopping shouldn’t have to be complicated. But unfortunately it can cause unneeded anxiety due to an overabundance of choices. Don’t fret my friends, we once again have you covered…
By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com In this land of hotdish and ham, the knoephla soup of German-Russian heritage seems to reign supreme. In my opinion though, the French have the superior soup. With a cheesy top layer, toasted baguette…
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By John Showalterjohn.d.showalter@gmail.com Local band Zero Place has been making quite a name for itself locally and regionally in the last few years. Despite getting its start during a time it seemed the whole world was coming to…
By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.com Writer-director Nicole Riegel’s sophomore feature “Dandelion” is now playing in theaters following a world premiere at South by Southwest in March. The movie stars KiKi Layne as the…
By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com Ted Martin, retired educator and western North Dakota native, currently has his art on view at Mind Virus Counter-Culture Books and Media. The exhibition features Martin’s colorful ink drawings…
By John Showalterjohn.d.showalter@gmail.comHigh Plains Reader had the opportunity to interview two mysterious new game show hosts named Milt and Bradley Barker about an upcoming event they will be putting on at Brewhalla. What…
By Annie Prafckeannieprafcke@gmail.com AUSTIN, Texas – As a Chinese-American, connecting to my culture through food is essential, and no dish brings me back to my mother’s kitchen quite like hotdish. Yes, you heard me right –…
By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comNew Jamestown Brewery Serves up Local FlavorThere’s something delicious brewing out here on the prairie and it just so happens to be the newest brewery west of the Red River and east of the…
By John Showalter john.d.showalter@gmail.comThey sell fentanyl test strips and kits to harm-reduction organizations and…
Rynn WillgohsJanuary 25, 1972-October 8, 2024 Rynn Azerial Willgohs, age 52, of Vantaa, Finland, died by suicide on October 8, 2024. Rynn became her true-self March 31, 2020. She immediately became a vocal and involved activist…
By Dina Butcherdina.wtba@midconetwork.com In 1938, when my parents were living in Germany, my father — along with 30,000 other Jewish men — was rounded up by Nazi Stormtroopers during an event known as Kristallnacht. He was taken…
