“Believe it or not, the answer is yes, I do have a fondness for David Lynch,” begins Ben Godar, Executive Director of Varsity Cinema in Des Moines. Losing Lynch, who passed away on Jan. 15, 2025, has highlighted just how many people agree with this sentiment.
Cinema
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Your holiday film traditions + festive movies to go see this season
The sacred, sometimes scary, feeling of seeing yourself in the movies feels slightly different during the holidays, amplified even. Everyone’s got their go-to’s during the season.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Talking Movies: American Hustle is a surreal encounter with history, lies and strange romance
Surely there has never been a more provocative time to make a movie about deception, especially deception by the agencies of the US government. Had the…
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Talking Movies: Looking beyond the controversy of Blue is the Warmest Color
Let me begin by giving my opinion on all the controversies surrounding the seven-minute-long lesbian sex scene in Blue Is the Warmest Color. My opinion is that it’s not worth my time to have opinions about silly controversies. The French title of Abdellatif Kechiche’s new movie, which is playing at the newly-opened FilmScene beginning Dec. […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
FilmScene to host grand opening this weekend, begin full-time operation in early December
FilmScene will be hosting its first new release film, Robert Redford’s All is Lost, as part of its grand opening celebration this weekend. The debut…
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Muscatine Independent Film Festival hopes to inspire local creators
Muscatine, Iowa will see its first-ever independent film festival this Saturday, complete with a green room, faux-paparazzi and a diverse selection of short films…
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Talking Movies: Recent films by Alex van Warmerdam
With the recent conclusion of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the advertising blitz for Oscar night (yes, five months from now) can officially begin. While the top awards and appertaining press were about movies which told us how Europeans felt about American racial oppression–always appreciated, Steve McQueen–we should not overlook the work of a […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Talking Movies: Oppression’s Cold Embrace
Though the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences may not envision their award quite this way, the “Best Foreign Language Film” Oscar seems really to recognize the best film of the year made anywhere on Earth except those English-speaking countries, which for the Golden Boy, really means any place not Hollywood. Math king and possible robot, Nate Silver did not even bother to predict a winner in this category for 2013, largely because he had no data—other film organizations in the United States do not give an award for best foreign film.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Talking Movies: Taking on another dimension
I recently sat down with glasses atop my glasses to watch Martin Scorsese’s Hugo. Previews of money-grubbing re-releases zoomed out at me: Titanic 3D, Star Wars 3D, Halloween 3D, Lion King 3D, Raiders of the Lost…
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Moon Zero Three premiers Thursday 2/28 at PATV
Tonight marks the release of the first installment of long-awaited, locally produced sci-fi epic Moon Zero Three. (Starring former Hawkeye basketball star Acie Earl!) Check out the trailer and head over to PATV (206 Lafayette) for the 7 p.m. screening.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Talking Movies: Pitching Woo
Maybe your Valentine’s Day attempts to court that hottie with a pulse weren’t such a success. So what? Hop back on that horse. The horse of studious preparation, that is. If I’ve learned anything from movies it’s that everybody wants the same brand of magical happily-ever-after love: domestic, heterosexual, monogamous, procreating, eternal love. Yes, everybody … even you!
Posted inArts & Entertainment
The Oscars: Where will you be watching?
The Oscars are set to air on ABC at 7:30 p.m. this Sunday, and Iowa City film aficionados have a couple of opportunities to make a night of it.
