Cinema

​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…

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​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…

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​‘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)…

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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…

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Fargo Film Festival: The Biggest and Best Yet

March 9th, 2016

Filmmakers, actors, award-winning works, more than 100 films

by Kaley Sievert

It’s that time again, when the Fargo Theatre attracts flocks of moviegoers and a variety of directors and actors who have submitted their films to the 16th annual Fargo Film Festival.

Pounds of popcorn will be munched as film fans come to enjoy the beautiful stories that adorn the theatre’s screen. Laughter, sniffles, crunching and applause will come from the darkened auditorium as the movies capture the…

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​Seeing the World

March 7th, 2016

WARNING: The following review reveals key plot information. Read only if you have seen “The Witch”

Near the thrilling, ecstatic conclusion of first-time feature director Robert Eggers’ “The Witch: A New-England Folktale,” our young protagonist Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), having endured unspeakable horrors, demands that family goat Black Phillip, a possible vessel for the Devil himself, converse with her. The resulting exchange, a pulse-quickening negotiation that maneuvers…

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​‘Iron-Jawed Angels’ on International Women’s Day

March 7th, 2016

In observance of International Women’s Day, March 8, the North Dakota Women’s Network (NDWN) will host a special screening of the historical Women’s Suffrage film, "Iron-Jawed Angels" at the Fargo Theatre.

According to Shelly Carlson, event coordinator and a long-time member of the NDMW, this film was selected because the group wanted a film to highlight an important time in women’s history, in honor of both Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day. “Iron-Jawed…

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​Documentary Looks at the Amazing Life of Norman Lear

February 27th, 2016

As sharp and entertaining as the man it examines, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You” is a substantive chronicle of one of the most influential television creators/producers in the history of the medium. While some degree of hagiography is inevitable on the heels of Lear’s 2014 memoir “Even This I Get to Experience,” the filmmakers handle several delicate and/or controversial public and private themes important to Lear’s biography.…

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There will be blood

February 26th, 2016

Really bad movies can be a really good time. And when it comes to so-bad-it’s-good films, it’s hard to beat the 1982 movie “Pieces.” How much fun is it to watch an insane serial killer trying to create a human jigsaw puzzle using body parts, and college students — specifically young co-eds on the tennis team — are his main target.

According to Randal Black, who is one of the people behind Grindflick’s Movie Night at the Aquarium series, “Pieces” is a “strange, singular…

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Sickle and Sandal in “Hail, Caesar!”

February 18th, 2016

By Greg Carlson

In the days leading up to the nationwide release of Joel Coen and Ethan Coen’s “Hail, Caesar!,” clickbait slideshows far and wide competed to sort the oeuvre of the siblings. This week, “Slate” culture blogger Gabriel Roth filed a short article laying out a six-point theory to answer his title question, “What Is It About the Coen Brothers’ Movies That Makes Everyone Want to Rank Them?” And now that the film has been met with the kind of public indifference…

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