January 11th, 2017
A completely engaging adventure on each of its multiple levels, Otto Bell’s “The Eagle Huntress” combines old-fashioned nature documentary with both a rousing sports competition angle and a front-and-center challenge to gender role expectations that translate universally beyond the remote Mongolian setting. Aisholpan Nurgaiv, a 13-year-old Kazakh girl, is instantly likable: a no-nonsense kid who earns top marks at her boarding school and can pin any and all of the boys at…
December 21st, 2016
Partially avoiding the sophomore slump, renaissance man Tom Ford’s “Nocturnal Animals” is less rewarding and accomplished than “A Single Man.” Adapted by the director from Austin Wright’s 1993 novel “Tony and Susan,” “Nocturnal Animals” is a stylishly designed noir that alternates between the terror of a West Texas road nightmare and the misfortunes of an icy Los Angeles gallerist in a precarious, toxic marriage.
Ford can be commended for allowing the menagerie of…
December 21st, 2016
Although the commercial celebration began the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve is this Saturday night (coincidentally this year, also the first night of Hanukkah). The holiday season of a week or so features religious observances, sharing of traditional activities, memories, food, and fun. It is also typically a vacation time for relaxing with family and friends, often watching movies together.
The various cable TV channels are rife with repeated showings of favorite Christmas…
December 14th, 2016
With the October 2016 announcement that he would no longer attend international shows to meet fans and sign autographs in person, David Prowse closed a chapter of his life that some “Star Wars” aficionados had anticipated since a 2009 cancer diagnosis and a controversial 2014 claim that the Darth Vader portrayer had been suffering from dementia.
Prowse, whose sour grapes and willingness to communicate with the press have run afoul of Lucasfilm gatekeepers on multiple occasions over…
December 14th, 2016
Most fans of international cinema are probably familiar with the names of Luis Buñuel, Pedro Almodóvar, and Alejandro Amenábar. Other important Spanish directors such as Luis García Berlanga, however, are little-known outside of Spain, even though Berlanga’s “Plácido” (1961) was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
The film that Spanish filmmakers, critics, and Berlanga himself consider his masterpiece, “El Verdugo” (“The Executioner”) (1963), recently…
December 7th, 2016
Three Stooges fans probably already know that all 190 of their Columbia shorts are on DVD in a multi-disc collection and in eight individual volumes. Although remastered in HD, sadly none are yet on Blu-ray. That will change next month when the two 1953 shorts they filmed in 3-D will be bonuses on the 3-D restoration of Vincent Price’s “The Mad Magician” (1954), coming to 3-D Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
Meanwhile, last year Mill Creek Entertainment released two triple-feature…
December 7th, 2016
Master filmmaker Kelly Reichardt’s “Certain Women,” based on stories by Maile Meloy, shares the quiet fortunes and misfortunes of three protagonists and the friends, family, and strangers in orbit around them.
Set in Montana, the film moves at the director’s deliberately measured pace, a technique that suits Reichardt’s alliance with the western, the genre that perhaps best describes her body of work.
As taciturn, secretive, and enigmatic as her best films, “Certain Women”…
November 30th, 2016
“The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum” (1939) is an ambitious and idiosyncratic work by master filmmaker Kenji Mizoguchi (1898-1956), based on a stage play adaptation of a novel about Japan’s stylized kabuki theatre. This September the Criterion Collection released to Blu-ray the Shochiku Studios’ new 4k digital restoration of the film.
Mizoguchi was one of Japan’s major directors, making about 75 films from 1923 until his death, but little of his earlier career survives, and he…
November 30th, 2016
Admirers of Barry Jenkins’ excellent 2008 feature “Medicine for Melancholy” waited years for the filmmaker’s next project. “Moonlight,” one of 2016’s finest films, was worth that lengthy silence. In between the two movies, Jenkins made a handful of shorts and directed an episode of a TV series, but one viewing of “Moonlight” will convince anyone who loves the cinema that the prodigiously talented artist should keep telling long-form stories.
Inspired by Tarell Alvin…
November 22nd, 2016
A month ago I reviewed a pair of William Castle horror films released on a double-feature Blu-ray this summer by Mill Creek Entertainment. The same day, Mill Creek released another Castle double-bill with titles that sound like horror films but are really something else, especially the second.
Castle aimed his memorable thrillers “Homicidal” and “Mr. Sardonicus” (both 1961) mainly at teen and adult audiences. Both were serious horror films played straight, except for Castle’s…
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By Bryce HaugenAdditional reporting by Alicia Underlee Nelson Five and a half years later and one mile away from George Floyd’s murder, Minneapolis is once again at the epicenter of a law enforcement-related death that has…
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 RaymondA mind that snapped, cracked, and popped at one hundredI wasn’t going to read a long column called “Centenarian: A Diary of a Hundredth Year” by Calvin Tomkins celebrating his birthday on December 17 of 2025…
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 GionSince the much-dreaded Covid years, there has been much ebb and flow in the Fargo-Moorhead restaurant scene. In 2025, that trend continued with some major additions and closings. Let’s start the New Year on a positive…
Saturday, January 17, doors at 7:30 p.m.The Aquarium above Dempsey’s, 226 N. Broadway, FargoThe Slow Death is a punk supergroup led by Jesse Thorson, with members and collaborators that include members of The Ergs!, Dillinger…
By Greg Carlson Writer-director Naomi Jaye adapts fellow Canadian Martha Baillie’s 2009 novel “The Incident Report” as a potent and introspective character study. Retitled “Darkest Miriam,” Jaye’s movie stars Britt…
By Jacinta ZensThe Guerrilla Girls, an internationally renowned anonymous feminist art collective, have been bringing attention to the gender and racial imbalances in contemporary art institutions for the last 40 years. They have…
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…
