January/February Cinematheque/CMA/SciFi Schedule
When you add in the many Oscar bait movies that are arriving in Cleveland this month, or that will be returning after the nominations, it looks like it could be a busy movie month for the dedicated cinema watcher. While those movies are often very good, don't forget to take advantage of Cleveland's excellent art-house movie scene. There are all sorts of good movies coming up in the next two months at the Cleveland Cinematheque, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the CWRU Film Society. Whether you like the Muppets, zombies, or martial arts or rock & roll there's something on this list for you.
Sunday 1/6 at 4:10pm at the Cinematheque there is a hilarious looking movie called Finishing the Game: The Search For a New Bruce Lee, which is set in 1973. Bruce Lee has just died, and a body double is needed to finish his last film, Game of Death. Wacky hijinks ensue. I saw the preview when I was there yesterday and it looks riotously funny.
Friday 1/11 and Saturday 1/12 the Cinematheque will be showing the documentary Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten about the late member of the Clash. On the same two days, the second movie by director Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) will play there. It's called Southland Tales, and it features such art-house luminaries as The Rock, Sarah Michelle Gellar, plus smaller roles from Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake, Wallace Shawn, and Kevin Smith. It sounds like it will be either a train wreck or brilliant, with no middle ground.
The last weekend in January features two documentaries that look interesting. The first is King Corn, which documents the politics of how corn is grown in America today. This might sound a tad boring unless you've read The Omnivores Dilemna, which is the kind of book that either infuriates or depresses you, depending on your own temperament. The other documentary is Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, which should be self-explanatory to anyone who is the slightest bit music self-explanatory.
I personally think the February Cinematheque schedule is a tad weak, but it still features Fires Were Started, which is documents 24 hours in the lives of London firemen during the Blitz.
Throughout both months the Cinematheque is featuring some early films of Jack Nicholson. I had personally not heard of any of the five films features, all of which won plaudits while he was on the way up. If you like Jack, it might be worth checking out. You can check out the complete Cinematheque schedule to find the exact times and dates.
The Cleveland Museum of Art also screens films, and in January they are going Muppet crazy. In addition to obvious entries such as The Muppet Movie (1/20 and 1/23) and The Dark Crystal (1/25, 1/30), they are also showing a collection called Muppet Musical Moments, another called Muppet Fairytales and some environmental Muppet shorts called A Better World: Living in Harmony. All of these were put together by Bonnie Erikson, who was once the design director for The Jim Henson Company - she designed the original Miss Piggy, for instance. Best of all, they are showing Dog City, which was originally a special episode of The Jim Henson Hour and which I have vivid memories of enjoying when I was a kid. You can find complete Muppet info for the CMA here. Their full schedule for all of their films is also online and includes a documentary about Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival.
Finally, although the Spring 2008 schedule has yet to be posted, the CWRU Film Society does have the schedule up for the 33rd SciFi Marathon, which is the weekend of January 18. I won't be going for the entire thing, but there are a number of highlights that I'm going to try to see, including many zombie films. They'll be showing Omega Man, the 1950s zombie comedy Fido, the zombie sheep film Black Sheep, and 28 Days Later. They'll also be showing Sunshine, which was directed by Danny Boyle, who did 28 Days Later, and V For Vendetta, as well as many other films.
Sunday 1/6 at 4:10pm at the Cinematheque there is a hilarious looking movie called Finishing the Game: The Search For a New Bruce Lee, which is set in 1973. Bruce Lee has just died, and a body double is needed to finish his last film, Game of Death. Wacky hijinks ensue. I saw the preview when I was there yesterday and it looks riotously funny.
Friday 1/11 and Saturday 1/12 the Cinematheque will be showing the documentary Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten about the late member of the Clash. On the same two days, the second movie by director Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) will play there. It's called Southland Tales, and it features such art-house luminaries as The Rock, Sarah Michelle Gellar, plus smaller roles from Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake, Wallace Shawn, and Kevin Smith. It sounds like it will be either a train wreck or brilliant, with no middle ground.
The last weekend in January features two documentaries that look interesting. The first is King Corn, which documents the politics of how corn is grown in America today. This might sound a tad boring unless you've read The Omnivores Dilemna, which is the kind of book that either infuriates or depresses you, depending on your own temperament. The other documentary is Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, which should be self-explanatory to anyone who is the slightest bit music self-explanatory.
I personally think the February Cinematheque schedule is a tad weak, but it still features Fires Were Started, which is documents 24 hours in the lives of London firemen during the Blitz.
Throughout both months the Cinematheque is featuring some early films of Jack Nicholson. I had personally not heard of any of the five films features, all of which won plaudits while he was on the way up. If you like Jack, it might be worth checking out. You can check out the complete Cinematheque schedule to find the exact times and dates.
The Cleveland Museum of Art also screens films, and in January they are going Muppet crazy. In addition to obvious entries such as The Muppet Movie (1/20 and 1/23) and The Dark Crystal (1/25, 1/30), they are also showing a collection called Muppet Musical Moments, another called Muppet Fairytales and some environmental Muppet shorts called A Better World: Living in Harmony. All of these were put together by Bonnie Erikson, who was once the design director for The Jim Henson Company - she designed the original Miss Piggy, for instance. Best of all, they are showing Dog City, which was originally a special episode of The Jim Henson Hour and which I have vivid memories of enjoying when I was a kid. You can find complete Muppet info for the CMA here. Their full schedule for all of their films is also online and includes a documentary about Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival.
Finally, although the Spring 2008 schedule has yet to be posted, the CWRU Film Society does have the schedule up for the 33rd SciFi Marathon, which is the weekend of January 18. I won't be going for the entire thing, but there are a number of highlights that I'm going to try to see, including many zombie films. They'll be showing Omega Man, the 1950s zombie comedy Fido, the zombie sheep film Black Sheep, and 28 Days Later. They'll also be showing Sunshine, which was directed by Danny Boyle, who did 28 Days Later, and V For Vendetta, as well as many other films.