The Real Dark Knight

We've had a couple of good weeks with our latest movies, Winter's Bone and Coco and Igor, and I'm taking full credit for their success, since they coincide with my new weekly blogging endeavor. Let's see if I keep the streak going with this week's new entrant into the ring, Harry Brown. First off, how can you go wrong with Michael Caine. Our good friend and Yes! Weekly scribe Mark Burger's man-crush on Mr. Caine is only rivaled by my own for Zach Galifianakis. Suffice it to say, he enjoyed the film. But he's not the only one - our own curator said "Michael Caine was da bomb! I can't imagine anyone else pulling off this role!". In honor of Sir Michael, I went across the pond for a review as well, and The Times gave it 3 stars (out of 5), using words and phrases only a Brit could pull off to describe the film, like "septuagenarian", "emetic bile", "assiduous avoidance", and "wanker". Ok, I just put that last one in because it makes me giggle to say and see in print.

If Caine's resume and the reviews aren't enough to make you a believer, check out the trailer below - Rambo meets Cocoon? This one probably isn't for you if you have a weak stomach or are easily offended.




Wow, Batman's butler seems just as annoyed as the rest of us for having to put up with Christian Bale's horrible voice. That or he was on the receiving end of Bale's famous Terminator rant, and wouldn't take it anymore. I'm just happy we're showing another movie dudes can be proud to drag their better halves to, as opposed to the usual other way around.

Cuckoo for Coco & Igor

Sometimes it feels like indie film is a little small town where everyone's connected somehow. We're bidding a fond adieu to Micmacs this weekend, to say bienvenue to Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky. So how does this break down on the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon scale? Micmacs was directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who also directed Amelie which helped make Audrey Tatou a household name, who played Coco Chanel in Coco before Chanel, which as the name indicates is Coco's story before she became the best smelling woman in France, or a designer. I'm bad with history like that. Coco & Igor picks up a little later in her life, bringing in the story of composer Igor Stravinsky and explores their "relationship". I put the term in quotes, since they begin a romantic tryst when Igor AND HIS WIFE AND KIDS move into Coco's place. It's just like Three's Company set in France! I'm guessing this trailer below will dispel that notion...

Full disclosure here, this is a movie that's received mixed reviews among critics, but they do agree that this is a visually appealing and well acted film, not unlike our recent smash I Am Love, and fashion is involved so the costuming (is that a word?) has been compared to The Young Victoria. Roger Ebert was a fan, as evidenced in his review here, and Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter calls the movie "a sumptuous re-creation of '20s France and the mad affair between two of the century's most iconic figures". Here's another time I wished I worked as a tag line developer for movies. My first revelation was with the truck driving tour de force Black Dog - "Patrick Swayze...Randy Travis...and Meatloaf...you'll come back for seconds." Had I been given the opportunity for this one, it most definitely would have been "Igor crazy for Coco's Puffs!"

And now you know why I am a financial analyst.

7UP

Even though technology makes everything easier, I still take forever to get my digital pictures from the camera to the computer. We had a great week with In/Significant Others and an even better time with the filmmakers and actors on Friday and Saturday. I hope some of you were able to come by and enjoy their Q&A.

That's one heckuva cast/filmmaker turnout, so thanks again to all for taking the time to visit. They were very complimentary of the crowds, our place, and Winston in general. Who says we can't hang with Charlotte?!?!?

We really enjoy having the opportunity to host NC films and with the new and improved state incentives hopefully we'll get to screen a lot more in the future.

Trailers and Reviews and Bears, Oh My!

So we've been at this for a little over six months now, and you've probably figured out that a lot of our programming can tend to be on the less than commercial side, and you sometimes have to do some digging to find out more about the films. Part of the fun of the movie experience if you ask me. However, we're trying to be full service here, so we've been toying with the idea of a weekly blog post that posts trailers for upcoming films, as well as a review or two, for when we can't get a screener to our good friend Mark Burger (he did get Micmacs in time - check out his review here). And while your curator has been pushing the Jeunet film (understandable, since she has a giant Amelie poster in the office) due to its limited run, we also have a Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner opening up on Friday, Winter's Bone.

One of my starting places for movie reviews is rottentomatoes.com, which has given Winter's Bone a score of 95%, better than Inception, the number one movie in America. If I had listened to my own advice, I probably wouldn't be watching the alleged Jennifer Aniston/Gerard Butler rom-com The Bounty Hunter (8%) right now. At least that gave me the opportunity to catch up on some blogging. Peter Travers was a big fan of Winter's Bone, saying "It means to shake you, and it does". One of our own patrons, discussing the book this movie was based on, told me he finished the book, and immediately started reading it again. Hopefully he and a few other people will do the same thing after our showings.

You've gotten a Micmacs review already, so I'll just leave you with the trailer.

In between reading this blog and checking out the films, feel free to give us your feedback on whether you would like this to be a weekly thing or not.

/I guess we can share/

Another quarter end behind me, I can get back to the job that pays me the no-bucks - attempted blogger. While I'm not monetarily compensated to entertain you, one of the perks of this gig is getting to meet people who actually know a thing about keeping your attention for more than five minutes. We've been able to bring in filmmakers such as John Jackman of Wesley and Eric Merola of Burzynski, and now we get to add John Schwert to that list. Writer/Producer/Director/Editor of In/Significant Others, John has been based in Charlotte for some time now and used the Queen City as his backdrop for the film, a story about a group of people all somehow connected to a homicide investigation.


Aside from being able to showcase another NC based film, we're extremely excited to open our doors to a movie that makes such wonderful use of our shared "/". Seriously, In/Significant Others has ties to our fine city as well from actors to crew, and has been blazing the festival circuit since last year, racking up multiple awards along the way. Check out the website, http://www.4wproductions.com/in-significant-others/, which has way more info than I can fit here, including a trailer. And while you're out on the interwebs, visit their Facebook page and tell your friends about it by sharing the a/perture event page

Did I mention that John will be here? How ridiculously cool is that, being able to watch a movie and then ask the brains behind it all those nagging questions you have*? Alas, that honor is only reserved for the Friday (5:15 and 7:45) and Saturday (2:45, 7:45, and 10:15) showings. Don't miss out on the chance to catch this fine movie and support NC films all at once.

* - (I would have given up my DVR to talk to Banksy after watching Exit through the Gift Shop, but I digress)

lo sono l'amore

So we are keeping our promise and bringing back our first film from this year's RiverRun Intl. Film Festival - I Am Love.

For those of you who missed it at the festival or for those of you who loved it as much as I did...now is your chance to see it for the first (or second) time. I could give you my own opinion on what a lovely film it is, but I'll let an expert do that (without giving away too much of the film):

I Am Love is the first film to use compositions by the great, Pulitzer Prize-winning John Adams (Nixon in China, On the Transmigration of Souls) as a score, and the symphonic, sometimes discordant music considerably adds to the grandness and sweep of what is essentially an intimate character study. Right from the opening credits, in which the titles fill the screen in curly script over snowy vistas of Milan in winter, you know I Am Love is going to be something special. And the picture gets better as it goes along, culminating in a rapturous ending that exhilarates in a manner I've never felt in a movie. I Am Love isn't perfect, but what love is, really? Attention all movie buffs: Get ready to have your minds blown. [Rene Rodriguez - Miami Herald]

Okay now check out the trailer:

One more thing...the film features a lot of delicious looking food, so you might want to plan to eat a nice meal out downtown afterwards.

Buon appetito!

Point and Shoot

In the age of cameraphones, sometimes we forget we actually have a nice camera we can use to take pictures. We dusted the thing off, and amid some pictures Jake took that could be considered art (maybe by Mr. Brainwash - go see Exit through the Gift Shop, it'll all make sense), we found our evening with Steve Childs, where we were fortunate enough to present his art along with his film, And We Will Dance as well as when Eric Merola visited after presenting his documentary Burzynski. Enjoy.

And We Will Dance

The stars and director

an art exhibit in s/tudio 2

the merch table

Steve Childs

Burzynski

Director Eric Merola after a q&a

Yankee Doodle Tagging

I can already smell the hot dogs and burgers on the grill as the US of A celebrates Herbie Hancock (I miss you, Chris Farley) signing our first birthday card 234 years ago. I thought it would be prudent to get a blog in before I end up with bandaged hands from playing with bottle rockets and snap-pops. If anyone could injure themselves with snap-pops, it's this guy. Seriously kids, don't let your parents play with fireworks.

So it's a long weekend for most of you, which means you'll have a little extra time, so why not check out a movie? What says revolution like werewolves and vampires?? I'm really writing this while waiting in line to get into the new Twilight movie. That or I'm being forced to watch The City. I really can't decide which one is more communist. Really though, a/perture has a movie that says revolt starting this weekend - Exit Through the Gift Shop. It's a film about street art, and the elusive street artist Banksy. Trailer after the colon:

Our son has been running around tagging our backyard all week in anticipation of this film.

JYD has got the Bieber Fever, no doubt. Man I love MS Paint. Would it be worse if I told you I did this or that my son did? I'll just say it was Lawren. Have a Happy 4th.

maxing & relaxing all cool

So far this summer a/perture has been stylin' in the big apple:

and chillin' in the beautiful (and cooler) NC mountains....

keep sending in the photos...

Don't Stop Believin' Indeed

Have you caught the fever yet? It almost feels like it's 1994 again, and Alexi Lalas's goatee should be making a comeback. In case you've been living under a rock for the last twenty-four hours, the US men's soccer team made history multiple times by winning a final group game (first time ever), winning their group (first time since 1930) in the World Cup, and causing millions of men to scream like little girls simultaneously (totally a Guinness World Record). a/perture has had a blast showing the games over the past ten days, sharing in the madness with friends like this:


And why wouldn't we be having fun? People are respecting the game and teams. We've been standing during "The Star-Spangled Banner". We've been sitting on pins and needles, seeing if the Yanks can continuously overcome slow starts. And we've collectively wondered how a ref can call a foul without saying who it's on.

The next logical question is what time do doors open for the game on Saturday? Sorry friends, since we had no idea when we'd be playing, much less if we'd be playing until 91 minutes into yesterday's game, we're taking a break for this game. But maybe the fever can keep rising on the pitch, and we'll have the chance to show three more games, including the final on July 11th. If this video doesn't make you proud to be an American, I don't know what to tell you (click here for awesomeness - another video that is safe for work, but people will probably look at you strangely for watching it).