Cinema

Biblical spectacle shines in new Blu-ray

May 21st, 2015

Released to Blu-ray last March in a limited edition of only 3,000 copies was the classic spectacle “Solomon and Sheba.”

Historical epics, especially biblical epics, sometimes get a bad reputation. Many rely on the spectacle of exotic settings and costumes, a few large-scale action sequences and overblown romantic melodrama with only a faint resemblance to historical facts or biblical accounts. Cecil B. DeMille was the master of the popular epic film, biblical and otherwise, but…

Katelyn Whitehead Q&A

May 13th, 2015

Discussing “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck”

Fargo-Moorhead native Katelyn Whitehead moved to Los Angeles after completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota. She is a talented artist, cutting her filmmaking teeth in Fargo 48 Hour Film Project competitions with collaborators, friends and fellow Moorhead Spuds Johan Anderson and Dan Bock. Whitehead enthusiastically endorses “Back to the Future” (“the Holy Grail of how to make a great studio film”), “The…

About a boy: Kurt Cobain subject of audiovisual odyssey

May 13th, 2015

Veteran documentary filmmaker Brett Morgen’s years of hard work pay off in “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck,” a stunning biographical portrait of the artist and musician. Morgen’s film, made with the full cooperation of Cobain’s survivors, includes Frances Bean Cobain as an executive producer. The director’s “all access pass” to the comprehensive Cobain archive brands his movie as the closest thing to a definitive treatment, and the arresting animation that illustrates a…

Ghost in the Living Machine

May 10th, 2015

Self-conscious, geeky coder Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) wins a contest to visit the sprawling, private compound of his boss Nathan (Oscar Isaac), a computer genius using his billions to pursue artificial intelligence in the form of an erotically charged machine named Ava (Alicia Vikander).

Screenwriter/novelist Alex Garland makes his directorial debut with “Ex Machina,” the alternately intriguing and infuriating result of Nathan’s scheme to use Caleb as human bait in a twisted…

Culture and karma in two Japanese classics

May 7th, 2015

Earlier this year the Criterion Collection released Blu-ray editions of two Japanese classics from the 1960s: Yasujiro Ozu’s intimate family comedy-drama “An Autumn Afternoon” (1962) and Kihachi Okamoto’s samurai epic “The Sword of Doom” (1966).

Both appear at first glance to revolve heavily around specific elements of Japanese culture and history, yet each transcends time and culture to depict universal realities of human nature.

“An Autumn Afternoon” was Ozu’s final…

Local feature length mob film, ‘Aura,’ comes to life

April 30th, 2015

Actor/director/writer Charles Mauk talks creative process, learning curve

Local musician Charlie Mauk is best known for his hip-hop music, but he has recently taken on an entirely new project.

Mauk is serving as actor, director, writer and director of cinematography for his first full-length feature film “Aura.”With the help of his longtime friend Bjorn Pedersen, who also acts in a leading role, Mauk has been able to bring his own mob film to life. It has been seven months since…

Growing Older and Growing Up - ‘While We’re Young’

April 29th, 2015

Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts are Josh and Cornelia, married New Yorkers rocketing through their 40s.

Childless and conflicted about it, the pressure from old friends/new parents Marina (Maria Dizzia) and Fletcher (Adam Horovitz) doesn’t exactly help. Josh is a documentary filmmaker whose current project has consumed nearly a decade of his life. And he’s still shooting footage while his editor Tim (Matthew Maher) toils away without a paycheck.

Cornelia’s father Leslie (Charles…

Looking for Fargo in ‘Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter’

April 26th, 2015

The erroneous report that a Tokyo office worker died near Detroit Lakes, Minn., in 2001, looking for money buried in the snow in Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Fargo” forms the basis of David and Nathan Zellner’s haunting, original “Kumiko the Treasure Hunter.”

Starring Rinko Kikuchi as the title character, the Zellner brothers’ movie projects a heady metanarrative that is as much a consideration of our relationship to cinema as it is an elegy for its (presumably) doomed…

The Good Lie at the Fargo Theatre

April 23rd, 2015

On Saturday, April 25, the public is invited to attend either of two free screenings of “The Good Lie,” starring Reese Witherspoon, at the Fargo Theatre. The screenings will be held at 1 p.m. and again at 7 p.m. and will be followed by Q&As with co-star Kuoth Wiel and others.

In addition, local organization African Soul American Heart will feature other events that day that include opportunities to meet actress Kuoth Wiel, ASAH Ugandan director Aja Galuak, and others.

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Earth Day Entertainment: Fargo Theatre screens ‘Cowspiracy’

April 16th, 2015

By Suzanne Hanson

Spring is a time when we look forward to the future and plant the seeds for growth, which is no doubt why it seems a natural fit that we celebrate Earth Day every April 22.

According to Earth Day Network, Earth Day was founded by a group of students in New York in 1970 as a means to draw attention to pressing environmental concerns and the need for proactive public policy and change.

Nearly half a century later, we’re not doing so hot, or rather, quite the opposite. We…