In a summer filled with tent-pole fantasy/sci-fi/horror franchise films and sequels, and kiddie-minded animated comedies, there isn’t a lot of … well, humanity. Not to complain; for this month, I fully intend to check out the Independence Day reboot (Independence Day: Resurgence), The Conjuring 2 (I’m a Patrick Wilson fan) and Free State of Jones
May is always a busy month for movie lovers at the Flint Institute of Arts. Not only is the museum’s Friends of Modern Art film series continuing, but May also brings the annual Karen Schneider Jewish Film Festival of Flint to the FIA Theater. This is the festival’s 12th year, all but the first having
During my years of teaching film appreciation classes at the Flint Institute of Arts, no course attracted as high an attendance as the one I led on the cinema of Alfred Hitchcock. While Hitchcock (amazingly) won no competitive Academy Awards during his half-century career, “The Master of Suspense” did win the respect of the film-going
The push to promote the “summer” movie season’s initial blockbuster didn’t start during the Super Bowl telecast. But if you’d been living under a rock prior to football’s Big Game, you were informed via ample buys of incredibly costly ad time about Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. We use the term “summer” in semi-snarky
Need something to do on Valentine’s Day weekend with your wife, husband, partner, date, parent, close buddy or miscellaneous Significant Other? Hollywood hopes you’ll celebrate by going to the movies, although some V-Day weekends are more consumer-friendly than others. In 2015, the holiday period – lo, the Planet Earth pop-culture discourse – was dominated by
One of the best stories – maybe the best – to emerge from Flint in recent years has been that of “T-Rex” – aka Claressa Shields, the tenacious teen who rose from Vehicle City obscurity to become a pioneering Olympic boxing champion. The life of the athlete known by that endearing, prehistoric nickname is wonderfully
I was recently in an intense discussion – is there any other kind about movies? – regarding the millennial generation’s equivalent to the Star Wars films in terms of popularity and influence. This was an intense discussion not only because it was about movies, but because I, as a hipster-wannabe college student in 1977, so
We knew what was going to happen to Amy Winehouse. With every paparazzi shot of a figure emaciated by drug abuse, eating disorders, a bummer of a love life, and the general stress of being a world-famous pop music star whose every move was being tracked, we hoped for the best (her recovery) and feared
Somehow, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo has lost her way. The much-ballyhooed American screen version of Stieg Larsson’s international bestseller, paired Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara as an intrepid journalist and his punky, computer-hacking partner in crime-solving back (way back, in Hollywood Time) in 2011. But the filming of the two other novels in
For lovers of alternative/non-mainstream cinema, the best part of the year is just beginning. Perhaps we’ve journeyed to Traverse City to visit that city’s ever-growing film festival, or are awaiting a trip to Canada to one of the continent’s biggest cinematic events, the Toronto International Film Festival, which has become kind of the unofficial launch
The month of May I can live with. It isn’t a summer month, and the kiddies are weeks ahead of escaping school. But if the Powers That Be in Hollywood really want to kick off the “summer” movie season in May, as they have in recent years … then okay. The line is drawn. But
Film is supposed to entertain and enlighten; it isn’t created to make you hungry, although with The Search for General Tso, that is a plus. Slated to play April 24-26 at the Flint Institute of Arts, this documentary about Chinese food in America is also about the immigrant experience in America, as encapsulated through the
