I can’t speak for everyone, but if teenage me found out that there was a secret Playstation clubhouse in my local mall, with an access panel hidden over a toilet, I would have gone through the looking glass in a heartbeat. This is a proposition that 2024 documentary Secret Mall Apartment presents, with Providence, Rhode […]
Film reviews
Posted inArts & Entertainment
The 25th Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival featured stories local, global and out of this world, all with an Iowa connection
Collins Road Theatres was positively buzzing the weekend of April 4-6, and not just because A Minecraft Movie had premiered. The Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival (CRIFF) returned to screen a new slate of original, Midwest-made films inside an unpresuming Marion shopping center. As the lights dimmed for my first film of the fest, I […]
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The Iowan-produced ‘Bob Trevino Likes It’ premieres at Varsity Cinema, FilmScene Friday
What does it mean to foster a chosen family? To find a community so welcoming, it becomes another unit of intimacy altogether? For film producer Edgar Rosa, it meant cultivating a hub of artistry at an early age. Born in California, but raised in Iowa, Rosa was involved with the Des Moines Playhouse by age […]
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On the Big, Big Screen: Five movies you’ve gotta go see in local theaters this month
LV film columnist Benjamin McElroy recommends five screenings happening this month at Iowa’s independent movie theaters.
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Little Big Screen: Trucker classics you can buy on DVD from the World’s Largest Truck Stop
Iowa 80 is a sort-of paradise that has something for everyone — including Little Big Screen. Inside the Super Truck Showroom at “The World’s Largest Truck Stop,” between the bottles of candy-colored antifreeze and many, many chrome doodads, there are a few shelves of DVDs.
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Little Big Screen: ‘The Last Boy Scout’ and other football-adjacent movies to stream this month
Nicotine gum releases just enough of the good stuff to help you forget about cigs for, like, 15 minutes. A similar cessation aid has yet to be developed for fans of Iowa Hawkeyes football, but to maybe take the edge off Kirk Ferentz’ next press conference, Little Big Screen has some counter-programming to chew on.
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Deliberately scratched frames, disquieting docs, dreamy shots of Iowa: Reviews of 10 films featured at Refocus
It is officially a wrap on the 2024 Refocus Film Festival, which means it is time to unpack all I was able to see and experience following opening night.
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A packed Englert audience sees and celebrates ‘Nightbitch’ movie as Refocus 2024 kicks off
Last night, a giddy audience gathered in the historic Englert Theatre, its marquee beautifully illuminating their entrance, for opening night of the third annual Refocus Film Festival. Onstage, Andrew Sherburne and Programming Director Ben Delgado expressed their gratitude for all who made the festival possible and shared some backstory on their efforts to screen Marielle […]
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There are 52 quintillion versions of the ‘Eno’ documentary. Iowans will see two of them this week.
The new documentary about glam rocker, pop producer and non-musician Brian Eno has been dubbed the “first generative feature film.” No two viewings are ever one and the same.
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Harper Steele shares thoughts on camping chairs, clothes shopping, growing up in Iowa City and having a love-hate relationship with home as ‘Will & Harper’ hits FilmScene
Joy can often be found in the most unassuming places. In roadside diners, biker bars, even parking lots. It’s nestled between our relationships with friends, family and even the strangers one tries to make laugh.
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Little Big Screen: ‘The Crazies’ and other horror-thrillers streaming this July that hit too close to home
Little Big Screen has a stack of dirty water movies to stream this month.
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Little Big Screen: Films with killer soundtracks to see or stream this month
Here, take my hand — my strong hand — and let’s go back to the bicapped summers of LimeWire and MySpace. When I think about standing in the aisles of a Family Video or Movie Gallery, smack dab in the middle of windows-down weather, a movie’s music mattered almost as much as a movie’s movie. […]
