March 14th, 2018
A captivating lead performance by Lene Cecilia Sparrok anchors the stout and handsome “Sami Blood,” winner of the award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2018 Fargo Film Festival.
Set principally in the 1930s, director Amanda Kernell’s inaugural feature film identifies fiercely and intimately with Sparrok’s teenage Elle-Marja, who plots to leave her family and way of life for a different future in the city.
A member of the indigenous Scandinavian people known as the Sami,…
March 7th, 2018
Iconic feminist and women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred is the subject of Sophie Sartain and Roberta Grossman’s “Seeing Allred,” now on Netflix Instant Watch following its debut at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. documentary competition.
The veteran filmmakers craft an unapologetically worshipful highlight reel of Allred’s life and career, successfully recontextualizing the widespread public and media perception of the lawyer as a publicity-seeking celebrity…
February 28th, 2018
Considerably less accessible than his directorial debut “Ex Machina,” veteran writer Alex Garland’s “Annihilation” very loosely adapts Jeff VanderMeer’s novel into a demanding thought experiment bound to frustrate viewers counting on some of the trailer’s promise and premise.
As multiple critics have pointed out, the new film owes a thematic debt to Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Stalker,” a movie that Alissa Wilkinson suggests is, like “Annihilation,” about the…
February 21st, 2018
Hungarian filmmaker Ildiko Enyedi, whose 1989 debut "My Twentieth Century" won the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, achieved another career highlight recently with an Oscar nomination for her most recent feature. "On Body and Soul"has been selected to compete for Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards. The movie is currently available to view on Netflix.
Despite the bloody immediacy of the film’s slaughterhouse setting, "On Body and Soul" is an often ethereal…
February 14th, 2018
Given the film’s somewhat odd marriage of style -- the personality-driven presence of chatty neophyte documentarian Bryan Fogel -- and substance -- the ugly realities of the longtime Russian doping program for Olympic competitors -- the inclusion of “Icarus” as one of the five Oscar-nominated nonfiction features came as something of a surprise.
But as the winter games get underway in Pyeongchang, South Korea on February 9, coverage of the Russians continues to dominate headlines in…
February 7th, 2018
Of the great designs in the history of movie monsters, there are few as satisfying as Universal’s stunning Gill-man. First envisioned by William Alland by way of Gabriel Figueroa’s Amazonian campfire story, the look of the Creature from the Black Lagoon belongs principally to Milicent Patrick. Christened “The Beauty Who Created the Beast” for a promotional tour, Patrick’s contributions to cinema iconography were unfairly squashed by jealous makeup artist Bud Westmore, who…
January 31st, 2018
A delectable and devilish exercise in exquisite restraint, “Phantom Thread” offers compelling evidence that Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis can do quiet and still as effectively as the thunder and lightning they made together in “There Will Be Blood.”
A supremely funny homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca,” the new movie Day-Lewis claims will be his last sets the table for yet another master class in screen performance. The leading man’s perfectly monikered…
January 26th, 2018
Making its way to Netflix a year after debuting at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, "The Polka King" is the fictionalized version of Ponzi schemer Jan Lewan’s jaw-dropping journey from bandstand to prison cell. Played with his usual antic panache by Jack Black as an optimistic entrepreneur with mostly benevolent intentions, Lewan is an American dreamer by way of Poland, in way over his head.
Filmmaker Maya Forbes, whose semi-autobiographical first feature Infinitely Polar Bear earned…
January 17th, 2018
Now playing on Netflix Instant Watch, Voyeur is the curious story of strange bedfellows Gay Talese -- the once influential and celebrated journalist -- and Gerald Foos, a creepy peeper who spied on the guests at his hotel, chronicling their behavior, erotic and otherwise, in a quasi-scientific record book.
Filmmakers Myles Kane and Josh Koury don’t entirely corral the lurid proceedings into a fully satisfying examination of any given one of their smorgasbord of themes, but the…
December 27th, 2017
The indomitable Laura Poitras adds to her fascinating filmography with “Risk,” a years-in-the-making (and unmaking) portrait of WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange, beginning prior to his retreat into the embassy of Ecuador in London under threat of eventual extradition to the United States.
Less immediate and urgent than her Oscar-winner “Citizenfour,” “Risk” continues the filmmaker’s investigation of the post-9/11 conditions of the widespread and largely unchecked illegal…
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By Bryce Vincent Haugenbrycevincenthaugen@gmail.com Audra Maurer never used marijuana until Minnesota businesses started to sell low-dose hemp-derived THC products. “The first time I was pain free was using legalized hemp…
By Michael MillerAs the holiday season approaches, I extend Yuletide Best Wishes and a special “Weihnachten” greeting to you and your family. I would like to share with you Christmas memories from our Germans from Russia…
Saturday, January 31, mingling at 6:15 p.m. and program at 7 p.m.Fine Arts Club, 601 4th St. S., FargoThe FM Symphony is getting intimate by launching a “Small Stages” chamber music series and it's bringing folks together via…
By Darrell Dorganddorgan695@aol.com I’ve been digging around for information on a company called High Plains Acres. High Plains, which has a presence in Jamestown, Bismarck and five North Dakota counties, owned thousands of acres…
By Ed RaymondWe have millions of candidates from 108 Billion people on EarthWith population experts estimating that at least 100 billion Homo sapiens have lived and died on earth, that means we have had millions of blessed and…
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 Mandy Dolneymandy@ksbsyndicate.com This cake will be on the menu at Nova Eatery through Thanksgiving served with maple crème anglaise Ice cream. It uses pumpkin pie pumpkins grown locally at Ladybug Acres and local apples grown…
By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com Dakotah Faye is a hip-hop artist from Minot, North Dakota, and he’s had a busy year. He’s released two albums. This summer he opened for Tech N9ne in Sturgis and will be opening for Bone…
By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.com Available on Netflix, Marshall Curry’s “The New Yorker at 100” takes the measure of the venerable publication as a compact primer aiming to please longtime readers and potential new…
The holidays are fast approaching. If you’re on the lookout for finding your loved ones something truly special and unique, we sought out some of the area’s independent and creative hotspots.VINTAGE AND ANTIQUESMoorhead Antique…
Press release“Shakespeare with a sharpened edge.” To launch its 2025 – 2026 season, Theatre NDSU is thrilled to team up with Moorhead-based organization Theatre B to perform a co-production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and…
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 Ellie Liveranieli.liverani.ra@gmail.com At the beginning of the movie “How the Grinch Stole Christmas," the Grinch is introduced as having a smaller than average heart, but as the movie progresses, his heart increases three…
By Alicia Underlee NelsonProtests against President Trump’s policies and the cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are planned across North Dakota and western Minnesota Friday, April 4 and…
By Chandler Esslinger Across North Dakota right now, a familiar conversation is resurfacing. We hear the argument that harm reduction “enables” people, that syringe access encourages drug use, that naloxone keeps people…
