Cinema

The Return of Maude’s Dilemma: “Obvious Child” Makes a Choice

July 17th, 2014

Making her feature debut with an expanded adaptation of her 2009 short, Gillian Robespierre shows plenty of talent and even more promise in “Obvious Child,” a low-budget comedy attracting as much attention for its subject matter as it is for star Jenny Slate’s breakout performance. Slate plays Donna Stern, a smart, underemployed stand-up comic whose candid onstage disclosures drive away an already unfaithful boyfriend. Reeling from the lost relationship, Donna takes refuge in…

Big Tree, Small Axe

July 3rd, 2014

Last April, HPR film editor and Concordia film professor Greg Carlson traveled to Toronto to watch his latest movie in front of a sold out crowd at largest documentary film festival in North America, Hot Docs.

Carlson’s “The Hammer and the Axe” was selected as a top 12 finalist in the International Documentary Challenge, a timed nonfiction filmmaking competition.

Having entered the Doc Challenge once in 2010 without advancing, Carlson said this year’s good news was a “total…

Little Infinities: Adapting “The Fault in Our Stars”

June 19th, 2014

Setting aside the inevitable comparisons to “Love Story” and the less inevitable comparisons to “Dying Young,” Josh Boone’s adaptation of “The Fault in Our Stars” is the most mordant and acerbic kids-with-cancer story to achieve such widespread appeal. Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, who played siblings in “Divergent,” are now star-crossed lovers Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters, the central characters in John Green’s hit novel of the same title. Both…

Meet the new pastry chef

April 3rd, 2014

New York City fine-dining expert Chef Nancy Olson joins Nichole’s Fine Pastry

Midwest-raised, New York City-bred and Fargo-based pastry chef Nancy Olson is helping Nichole’s Fine Pastry maintain and catapult its already stellar reputation in town.

Not just any former NYC pastry chef, Olson has worked for some of the finest restaurants in the urban agglomeration, including Aureole (run by famous chef Charlie Palmer), Django (where she got her first New York Times review) and Peacock…

“Above All Else”: Actress Daryl Hannah chats with HPR about the Keystone

March 27th, 2014

John Fiege and Daryl Hannah / photo by Chris Hennen

What makes the average, everyday person become an activist? How does a Texas landowner go from everyday worries to fighting multinational corporations?

These are questions explored in the new documentary “Above All Else,” which debuted at the SXSW Film Festival this month.

The film follows the story of David Daniel who began to battle the southern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline in east Texas after he found stakes in his land before he even knew about the project.

A former…

Fargo Film Festival sneak peak

February 27th, 2014

Artwork by Bree Reetz

By Brittney Goodman

Spring must be around the corner, as the Fargo Film Festival is coming to downtown Fargo March 4–8, bringing with it the bustle of visitors from near and far, filling up not only the historic Fargo Theatre, but also local restaurants, pubs, coffee shops and hotels.

Even if the temperatures are not yet toasty (but we can hope, can't we?), downtown comes alive during the Fargo Film Festival, and this year's event promises a warm, stimulating and inviting atmosphere…

Addiction and Family

February 27th, 2014

Whether at a brat camp, in lock up, in a recovery center, at home or sleeping in empty train cars, barns or under bridges, Sarah Chatelain has had tremendous difficulty dealing with life.

The young Fargo-Moorhead resident used to see her unhappiness, inability to gel with her family and inability to feel accepted in society as being something she needed to escape from – as fast as possible – rather than something to deal with. Drugs, particularly meth, crack and cocaine, provided…

Coens Make Beautiful Music with “Inside Llewyn Davis”

January 9th, 2014

“Inside Llewyn Davis” echoes several pet concerns previously explored by Joel and Ethan Coen in their impressive body of work. Exquisite period detail evocative of a romanticized past, the struggle for some degree of personal integrity in a marketplace geared toward the lowest common denominator, and a trippy Homeric odyssey infused with highly specific musical annotations are a trio of the new movie’s thematic interests that could be applied to “Miller’s Crossing,”…

Dead Meat

October 17th, 2013

By Rick Abbott

As the leaves change color and the temperatures plummet ever lower, Halloween grows closer. If you’ve yet to get into the spooky spirit, there’s a horror film trailer festival coming to the Fargo Theatre to help.

It’s the second incarnation of Horrorfest, put on by Fargo Grindflicks.

KNDS Radio DJ Randal Black is part of Grindflicks, which started Grindfest, an exhibition of cult and exploitation movie trailers.

Black set up the first Grindfest at the Fargo Theatre in…