The Way We Get By Bijou Theatre Saturday, April 24, 7pm Why did buying DVDs become all the rage in the 2000s? Director commentaries. Just as interesting as watching the film (or, often more so) was listening to the people who made the movie talk about the work, the thought process and the people on […]
Film
Reel IC: ICDOCS keeps it real
I’ll always take a good documentary over a good drama. Any good cinema is like a daydream, but to disappear into a dream that isn’t a dream? That’s a pleasure only found in a great doc–the beautiful offspring of cinema and journalism, with only the best genes of both parents passed on. (of course, there’s […]
Greatness Unbroken

Talking Movies: March 2010 – If you’re the kind of moviegoer who wishes you’d lived back when X was making movies (where X stands for your favorite great director), if like me you wish you had been there for the fresh projections of Godfather I rather than opening weekend of Godfather III–even if you’re simply […]
"Copyright Criminals" Premieres Tomorrow Night on PBS
Produced by LV contributor Kembrew Mcleod and University of Iowa Associate Professor, and Benjamin Franzen, U of I graduate. Copyright Criminals explores the issue raised by the collision of Remix Culture with current laws. This will be shown at 8AM, 2PM and 7PM tomorrow, January 19th. **UPDATE: Iowa Public Television will air Copyright Criminals in […]
Avatar — Savages not just Noble, but Neon
I checked this out last night, and as a cinematic entertainment I really enjoyed it. As a movie it’s much, much better than “Titanic,” which was an immensely successful entertainment, but also mawkish, sentimental and plodding. Avatar is a more rigorously plotted and realized piece of film making, and gets points for advancing the state […]
Brittany Murphy's Lesser Known Movies
So, writing about a movie star when they die isn’t exactly my thing, but Brittany Murphy dying got to me. And I wouldn’t write about it at all except that through random trolling for movies with Melissa, I saw a few of her lesser known movies that were interesting. To wit: Sidewalks of New York […]
Zombie-flections
Seeing Zombieland last Friday was quite the treat. Jessie Eisenberg ‘s Michael Cera impression was spot on, so there were many moments to entertain my twenty-something female disposition. Regardless of that lovable effeminate geek-boy finding love theme that has been hot these past few years, zombies were still the star attraction of the film. They […]
Whatcha want: Soul Power
In Kinshasa, Zaire, on October 20, 1974, in what was billed as the Rumble in the Jungle, Muhammad Ali employed a strategy called the rope-a-dope, letting the reigning heavyweight champion George Foreman pummel him for the first several rounds of the fight. Then Ali began taunting the wearying champ, “They told me you could punch, […]
Iowa City Weekender: August 6-10
Greetings Weekenders! Welcome to the calm before the storm. As Iowa City waits with open arms for her many thousands of children to return, there are but 2 weekends left to enjoy the peace, quiet and parking spaces of Iowa City in the Summer time. So, what to do, what to do? Friday Deathships w/ […]
Iowa City Weekender: July 30-August 1
In honor of the end of the month, and those of you waiting for payday, this weekend’s Weekender is all about the freebies, with one, sort-of exception. Thursday, July 30 Johnson County Fair | County Fairgrounds, Iowa City | 7am-8pm | Free Last day of the 2009 Johnson County Fair. I’ve never understood why all […]
Year Zilch
In the beginning was High Fidelity, at least as far as I’m concerned. An actor I’d never noticed before by the name of Jack Black was channeling Generation X energies like nobody else on the silver screen. His Barry, the record-store slacker-snob, stole the show and left me with the firm conviction that a new […]
Iowa City Weekender – June 12-14
The IC Weekender is sponsored by the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, July 2-4, 2009 Ah, just when we’ve started to recover from Arts Fest, the weekend is here again! Big thanks to Andre Perry and The Mill for bringing yet another world-class band to Iowa City–Last night’s Rock Plaza Central (http://www.rockplazacentral.com/) show was definitely one […]

