courtesy of the Criterion Collection Director Roman Polanski made his Hollywood debut in 1968 with Rosemary’s Baby, a psychological thriller so thoroughly creepy that it has since ascended into the pop culture superconsciousness. Some films just seem to hit a nerve. The film has been re-released to DVD and Blu-ray this week from the archivists […]
Glenn McDonald
Posted inCulture
Cloud Atlas dares to be great in epic, visionary style
courtesy of Warner Bros. CLOUD ATLAS**** starsOpens Friday My best friend from childhood, a ravenous science fiction reader, has been bugging me for several years to pick up David Mitchell’s 2004 novel Cloud Atlas. Since my friend once read every Hugo Award winning novel ever written (in a single year, on a dare), I try […]
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DVD+Digital: Michelle Williams, love stories and Take This Waltz
courtesy of Magnolia Pictures In Take This Waltz, a quietly brilliant romantic drama from Canadian actress and director Sarah Polley, we find ourselves in the colorful hipster neighborhoods of urban Toronto. Young married couple Margot and Lou (Michelle Williams and Seth Rogan) have an easy, playful banter around the house, but there are awkward pauses […]
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A Hitchcock homage in Raleigh Little Theatre’s The 39 Steps
The 39 Steps Raleigh Little Theatre Through Oct. 28 Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 espionage thriller The 39 Steps is generally considered the first of the director’s great films. The movie introduces the Hitchcockian plot device known as the MacGuffin, in which the characters pursue a valuable but mysterious something whose real purpose is simply to move […]
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DVD+Digital: Bereaved puppets, Vaudevillian tragedy and Her Master’s Voice
courtesy of Virgil Films Actress and comedian Nina Conti has carved out a healthy alt-comedy career in her native U.K. and earned a small stateside following thanks to YouTube videos of her lateral-thinking ventriloquist act. Conti apprenticed early in life to British experimental theater guru and roustabout Ken Campbell and in fact the two carried […]
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DVD+Digital: French heist films, sad little girls and A Cat in Paris
courtesy of New Video Considering the volume and variety of family-friendly animated films that come down the pike, it’s curious that they all offer essentially the same movie-watching experience: A kid-friendly story with kid-friendly jokes, the occasional stealthy double entendre aimed at parents, and varying levels of animated wizardry. With the good stuff, you’ll get […]
Posted inFilm & Television
An unreliable narrator in the unsettling documentary The Imposter
The Imposter opens Friday in select theaters (see times below) Our rating:
Posted inFilm & Television
Ben Affleck’s directing career continues to impress with Argo
Argo opens Friday throughout the Triangle (see times below) Our rating: On Nov. 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the American embassy in Tehran, taking 53 hostages and instigating an international crisis that would play out for more than a year. Six Americans managed to escape the siege and take refuge in the home of a […]
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DVD+Digital: Catherine Keener, aging hippies and Misunderstanding
courtesy of IFC Films In the romantic comedy Peace, Love and Misunderstanding, new to DVD and Blu-ray this week, Catherine Keener plays Diane, a stressed out Manhattan attorney who retreats to her hippie mom’s house in Woodstock when her husband asks for a divorce. Diane brings the kids as well, college student Zoe (Elizabeth Olsen) […]
Posted inArt
The ArtsCenter’s fun and fast-paced 44 Plays for 44 Presidents
44 Plays for 44 Presidents The ArtsCenter Through Oct. 7 Just in time for election season, The ArtsCenter in Carrboro has mounted the fun and fast-paced 44 Plays for 44 Presidents, a collection of staged shorts concerning history, politics and the U.S. executive branch.
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