Iowa City Jazz Festival: Hot Tamale Louie Main Stage, Downtown Iowa City — Friday, June 29 at 9 p.m. “Over and over we forget what being American means,” Kathryn Schulz […]
Scott Samuelson
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After Birth: With Nate Parker’s ‘The Birth of a Nation,’ a page has decisively turned
The Birth of a Nation FilmScene — opens Friday, Oct. 7 at 1 p.m. A century after D.W. Griffith released The Birth of a Nation (1915), one of the most […]
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Talking Movies: ‘abUSed’ in the Heartland
Screening: abUSed: The Postville Raid Iowa City Public Library — Wednesday, Sep. 23 at 6:30 p.m. In a presidential election shaping up to be a personality contest, immigration has become […]
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Talking Movies: Reel talk on film festivals
I’ve begun to have mixed emotions about film festivals. I used to love them without reservation. I still love them, but with a few reservations. Take the Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival, known as IC Docs, which is exclusively focused on short documentaries, at the Adler Journalism Building (Room 105) on April 10 and 11…
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Talking Movies: Mockery and terror
“Do you know what’s even more destructive than a nuclear bomb?” Kim Jong-un (Randall Park) asks Dave Skylark (James Franco) as they bond over their disapproving fathers in The Interview. […]
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Talking Movies: Snowden documentary ‘Citizenfour’ raises uncomfortable questions
It’s no surprise that right-wing national-security types think that Edward Snowden is a traitor. But it’s been interesting to hear prominent mainstream…
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Talking Movies: Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan set out on another hilarious adventure in ‘The Trip to Italy’
At the risk of sounding daft, let me emphasize that Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip (2010) and The Trip to Italy, its hilarious sequel, are about trips.
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Talking Movies: Finding America at Hardacre
17th Annual Hardacre Film Festival Tipton High School Auditorium — Saturday, Aug. 2 This year the Hardacre Film Festival will not be located in the lovely Hardacre Theater, which is […]
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Talking Movies: The Wind Rises explores humanity’s capacity to both create and destroy
May has been christened by FilmScene as “May-azaki” in honor of Hayao Miyazaki, and they will screen four of his masterpieces: My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited…
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Talking Movies: ‘At Berkeley’ takes an important look at public education
A very long documentary that simply observes all facets of a complex institution is probably the most urgent movie that you can see this year. Frederick…
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Talking Movies: In Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac: Volume 1, sexual urges become allegory for artist and audience
Lars von Trier has a flair for being provocative. Remember when he called himself a Nazi? His new movie, Nymphomaniac: Volume 1, which opens at FilmScene…
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Talking Movies: The Broken Circle Breakdown takes on the age old ‘reason vs. religion’ argument
Let me take you on a quick tour of the first three scenes of The Broken Circle Breakdown, the Belgian melodrama nominated for the best foreign…
