Cinema

REMEMBERING PRINCE

April 29th, 2016

The first words I wrote for the High Plains Reader covered Prince’s December 8, 1997 Fargodome concert. Editor John Lamb knew I was a big fan, and asked me to say something about the show. John’s gesture meant a great deal to me, and my work for HPR has been an important part of my life ever since that memorable winter.

Purple-blooded followers of the Minnesota Vikings know that their devotion is anything but easy, and after the Revolution disbanded and especially into the new…

SURVIVAL ADVENTURES ON BLU-RAY

April 27th, 2016

While students prepare to survive final exams and end-of-semester projects over the next few weeks, two underrated films dealing with more extreme types of survival just came out on Blu-ray this April 5 and 19.

A British film released in the U.S. in 1955, “The Purple Plain” (1954) is a well-produced and often-moving J. Arthur Rank production starring Gregory Peck as a Canadian pilot serving with the British in Burma during World War II. None of his fellow flyers want to fly with him…

BARK AND BITE: SOLONDZ GETS A “WIENER DOG”

April 20th, 2016

At the Sundance Film Festival, writer-director Todd Solondz described drawing his inspiration for “Wiener-Dog” from an unlikely pair of cinematic hallmarks: Robert Bresson’s “Au Hasard Balthazar” (1966) and Joe Camp’s “Benji” (1974). Solondz’s movie, as dark, hilarious, and observant as any of the features in his deeply impressive filmography, does indeed borrow from those two movies, aligning with Bresson’s unflinching examination of life’s cruelties and Camp’s…

AKERMAN BIDS ADIEU: ‘NO HOME MOVIE’

April 13th, 2016

Following its Locarno Film Festival premiere in August of 2015, the great Chantal Akerman’s final work, “No Home Movie,” now makes its way to limited theatrical release and digital platforms in the United States.

Currently viewable on Fandor – a fitting small-screen residence – the nonfiction meditation featuring Akerman’s mother Natalia in her twilight takes on new shades of meaning and acute pangs of melancholy in light of Akerman’s October 2015 suicide. Natalia died in…

Film enthusiasts can find more on New Blu-rays

April 7th, 2016

For those who were unable to make it to this year’s Fargo Film Festival, two movies released to Blu-ray March 8 by Kino-Lorber Video should prove satisfying. Both had little theatrical play beyond the rounds of film festivals last year.

Sebastian Schipper’s rather audacious slice-of-life heist thriller “Victoria” is most impressive for its concept, the logistics needed to carry it out, and its sustained performances without a single cut. It hopes to involve the viewer as a…

FUTURE IMPERFECT: HERZOG’S ‘LO AND BEHOLD’

April 6th, 2016

Werner Herzog shares another meditation on humanity in “Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World.” Lit with the master filmmaker’s blazing curiosity, the fascinating documentary ponders a wide variety of digital-era conundrums and curiosities via ten chapters.

Bouncing from topic to topic, “Lo and Behold” accomplishes the showman’s trick that leaves the audience salivating for more – many of the sections could sustain feature-length examinations on their own.

From…

ON THE ROAD AGAIN: PEE_WEE’S BACK

March 30th, 2016

At 63 years of age, Paul Reubens completes a minor miracle with the return of beloved, iconic manchild Pee-wee Herman, the eccentric creation whose appeal to grown-ups and children hit the bullseye in Tim Burton’s feature directorial debut “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” and on television in “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.”

“Pee-wee’s Big Holiday” fails to top the 1980s incarnation of the character, but longtime fans will smile at several of the movie’s colorful gags. Produced by…

CLASSIC NEW TO BLURAY HAS REGIONAL CONNECTIONS

March 30th, 2016

Sports fans of the Upper Midwest may have special interest in a classic film released to Bluray this month, since the title is “The Vikings” and one of the sequences features fighting hawks. The Norse setting also depicts the ancient heritage and culture of many North Dakota-Minnesota-Wisconsin families.

Serious analysts might identify some interesting subtext in the 1958 film “The Vikings,” dealing with class, gender, religion, and tribal/cultural relationships to compare…

‘WELCOME TO LEITH’: ESSENTIAL VIEWING

March 24th, 2016

Craig Cobb, the white supremacist who purchased properties in Leith, North Dakota as part of a warped plan to establish a community for like‐minded racial separatists, takes center stage in “Welcome to Leith,” recipient of the Bill Snyder Award for Documentary Filmmaking at the 2016 Fargo Film Festival.

Principally examining the period during which Cobb’s actions and publicity‐seeking behavior ran afoul of the townspeople (depending how you count, not more than two dozen souls)…

Matt Myers Supermoto Interview

March 18th, 2016

by Greg Carlson

Producer Matt Myers and writer‐director Joe Maggio, along with many cast and crewmembers from “Supermoto” will attend the Fargo Film Festival for a special screening of the narrative feature. “Supermoto” will be shown on Saturday, March 19 at 3:15 p.m. at the Fargo Theatre. HPR’s Greg Carlson talked to Myers about the film.

HPR: Tell me a little bit about “Supermoto.”

Matt Myers: “Supermoto” is Joe Maggio’s sixth feature film. It’s about a young woman…