Director: Jorge Eduardo Blaires Samson
Howard tries to sell his inherited land to start a new life somewhere else and leave his past behind, but as soon as he puts the house on the market, uncanny things begin to occur and a mysterious ghost collector presents himself as the only one that can help him.
20 MIN
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Director: Alex Garland
Writer(s): Alex Garland
Cast: Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac
Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson), a programmer at an internet-search giant, wins a competition to spend a week at the private mountain estate of the company’s brilliant and reclusive CEO, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac). Upon his arrival, Caleb learns that Nathan has chosen him to be the human component in a Turing Test—charging him with evaluating the capabilities, and ultimately the consciousness, of Nathan’s latest experiment in artificial intelligence. That experiment is Ava (Alicia Vikander), a breathtaking A.I. whose emotional intelligence proves more sophisticated, seductive––and more deceptive––than the two men could have imagined.
“Shrewdly imagined and persuasively made, ‘Ex Machina’ is a spooky piece of speculative fiction that’s completely plausible, capable of both thinking big thoughts and providing pulp thrills.” – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
“I know, I know. You’ve seen all this A.I. stuff before. But never like this. Garland is hot for ethical shop talk on what defines humanity or lack of same.” – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
“‘Ex Machina’ shows there’s still life left in tales of artificial intelligence.” – Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News
108 MIN
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Director: Rithy Panh
Writer(s): Rithy Panh
April 17, 2015 is the 40th Anniversary of the End of the Cambodian War.
Elizabeth Becker will be speaking at 2:30 p.m. at the Athena Cinema.
Following Becker’s presentation will be a showing of the Academy Award nominated film, “The Missing Picture” at 4:45. The event is free and open to the public.
The event is sponsored by the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, the Global Leadership Center and International Student Union. The event is part of Ohio University’s International Week. More information available at ohio.edu/internationalweek.
THE MISSING PICTURE SYNOPSIS:
For many years, I have been looking for the missing picture: a photograph taken between 1975 and 1979 by the Khmer Rouge when they ruled over Cambodia…On its own, of course, an image cannot prove mass murder, but it gives us cause for thought, prompts us to meditate, to record History. I searched for it vainly in the archives, in old papers, in the country villages of Cambodia. Today I know: this image must be missing. I was not really looking for it; would it not be obscene and insignificant? So I created it. What I give you today is neither the picture nor the search for a unique image, but the picture of a quest: the quest that cinema allows.
96 MIN
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Director: David Robert Mitchell
Writer(s): David Robert Mitchell
Cast: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist and Olivia Luccardi
For 19-year-old Jay (Maika Monroe), fall should be about school, boys and weekends out at the lake. But after a seemingly innocent sexual encounter, she finds herself plagued by strange visions and the inescapable sense that someone, or something, is following her. Faced with this burden, Jay and her teenage friends must find a way to escape the horrors that seem to be only a few steps behind.
“It Follows is the creepiest movie in years.” – Tom Long, Detroit News
“It Follows manages to bend the rules of fateful juvenile sexuality, and does so in a manner that genuinely tingles the spine and disturbs the mind.” – Peter Howell, Toronto Star
Closed captioning devices available.
107 MIN
Director: James Shelley
Writer(s): Elizabeth Cobbs
Cast: Elizabeth Cobbs, Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice
American Umpire facilitates a civil, nonpartisan, public debate about the future of American foreign policy. The film features interviews with three former secretaries of state, two American generals, a Nobel Laureate in Economics, a Pulitzer-Prize winning historian, and ten other top experts on American foreign relations all trying to answer the question of what America’s “grand strategy” should be for the remainder of the twenty-first century.
Screening followed by a discussion with the author/producer, Prof. Elizabeth Cobbs (The Melbern Glasscock Chair at Texas A&M University, award-winning historian and author).
FREE ADMISSION. Sponsored by Ohio University War and Peace Studies.
58 MIN
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Director: Levan Gabriadze
Writer(s): Nelson Greaves
Cast: Cal Barnes, Matthew Bohrer, Courtney Halverson
Unfriended unfolds over a teenager’s computer screen as she and her friends are stalked by an unseen figure who seeks vengeance for a shaming video that led a vicious bully to kill herself a year earlier.
Free preview screening. Tickets are first come first serve.
Closed captioning devices available.
82 MIN
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Director: Ruben Östlund
Writer(s): Ruben Östlund
Cast: Johannes Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Clara Wettergren
“Force Majeure is both funny and sad, often in the same glance-averted instant. See it with someone you’d trust to stick around in an avalanche. It’s one of the highlights of 2014.” -Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
“The film is beautifully made, with great visuals of the hotel’s fine, loneliness-inflicting interiors, and mountain-high slopes where families don’t talk to each other very much.” -Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
120 MIN
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Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Writer(s): Oleg Negin, Andrey Zvyagintsev
Cast: Aleksey Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova, Roman Madyanov
Language: Russian
Kolia lives in a small town near the Barents Sea in North Russia. He has his own auto-repair shop. His shop stands right next to the house where he lives with his young wife Lilya and his son from a previous marriage. Vadim Shelevyat, the Mayor of the town, wants to take away his business, his house and his land. First he tries buying off Kolia, but Kolia cannot stand losing everything he has, not only the land, but also all the beauty that has surrounded him from the day of his birth. So Vadim Shelevyat starts being more aggressive.
“Call it what you like – a modern Russian epic, a crime drama, a black comedy or a scream in the dark – Leviathan is a shaggy masterpiece.” -Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
“As harshly beautiful as the Barents Sea coastline where it is set, this parable inspired in part by the biblical tale of Job dumps more misfortune than one hapless man should ever have to endure.” -Kristin Tillotson, Minneapolis Star Tribune
“This is quite a movie, a bitter and compassionate work of genius that will reward repeat viewings and keep on getting better.” -Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com
140 MIN
The Athena Cinema has been “home base” for the Film Festival since its founding in 1974; each spring the Athena hosts the Festival and over 250 films and videos that comprise a global mix of genres, styles and approaches to filmmaking. The 2015 film fest is underway, so be sure to join us April 3rd thru the 9th!
For more information, visit: www.athensfilmfest.org
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Director: Noah Boaumbach
Writer(s): Noah Boaumbach
Cast: Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried
Noah Boaumbach’s comedy While We’re Young stars Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts as Josh and Cornelia, a childless New York married couple in their mid-forties. As their other friends all start having children, the couple gravitates toward a young hipster couple named Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried). He’s an aspiring documentary filmmaker, a vocation Josh already has. Soon the older couple begins enjoying the energy they feel hanging out with the younger generation, but eventually Josh begins to suspect his new best friend might not be as straightforward and trustworthy as he thought.
“A sharply observed and witty dark comedy.” – Claudia Puig, USA Today
“Stiller’s scenes with the gifted Adam Driver escalate into generational comic warfare of a high order.” – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
97 MIN
Southeast Ohio's Premier
Art House Theater
Est. 1915
