Tag Archives | Featured

This Is Spinal Tap

Watch Trailer Director: Rob Reiner
Writer(s): Christopher Guest and Michael McKean
Cast: Rob Reiner, Michael McKean and Christopher Guest

Largely improvised by director Rob Reiner and his cast, This Is Spinal Tap looks and sounds like a “real” documentary, with Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Christopher Guest as David St. Hubbins, Derek Smalls, and Nigel Tufnel, the key members of a going-nowhere British heavy metal band called Spinal Tap. The “group” started as an informal skiffle band, eventually maturing into an R&B act called the Thamesmen (their hit was “Gimme Some Money”).

After going through a psychedelic period with “Listen to the Flower People,” the band mutated into Spinal Tap, a hard rock outfit responsible for such albums as “Intravenous DeMilo,” “The Sun Never Sweats,” and “Bent for the Rent.” This Is Spinal Tap finds them in the midst of their first American tour in years as they support their new LP Smell the Glove, with filmmaker Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner), who specializes in TV commercials, on hand to document the occasion.

Just about anything that can go wrong does: shows get canceled, stage props go wrong, wireless guitar pickups start broadcasting air-traffic reports, no one shows up for in-store appearances, David’s girlfriend tries to take over the band, they wind up billed second to a puppet show at an amusement park, and the group teeters on the verge of breakup. After the film’s initial release, McKean, Guest, and Shearer did a short club tour as Spinal Tap; the “band” reunited in 1992 for a new album, Break Like the Wind, followed by a full-fledged tour and TV special, The Return of Spinal Tap.

Share this Film

Click on Showtimes to Get Tickets Online
Running Time: 82 minutes82 MIN
R Rated

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Holiday Film Series: HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS

Watch Trailer Director: Ron Howard
Writer(s): Dr. Seuss, Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman
Cast: Jim Carrey, Taylor Momsen, Jeffrey Tambor

The 2000 remake of Dr. Seuss’ classic Christmas story. Part of the Athena’s holiday film series. Admission cost is a non-perishable food donation. Tickets are limited and are available a week before the event.

*Tickets available one week prior to each Holiday movie.

Share this Film

Click on Showtimes to Get Tickets Online
Running Time: 104 minutes104 MIN
PG Rated

It's the rare holiday movie that manages to entertain the kid in all of us, without forgetting that grownups love the Grinch, too.

Steve Murray
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Arbitrage

Watch Trailer Director: Nicholas Jarecki
Writer(s): Nicholas Jarecki
Cast: Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Brit Marling

Arbitrage, the feature directorial debut of writer Nicholas Jarecki, is a taut and alluring suspense thriller about love, loyalty, and high finance. When we first meet New York hedge-fund magnate Robert Miller (Richard Gere) on the eve of his 60th birthday, he appears the very portrait of success in American business and family life. But behind the gilded walls of his mansion, Miller is in over his head, desperately trying to complete the sale of his trading empire to a major bank before the depths of his fraud are revealed. Struggling to conceal his duplicity from loyal wife Ellen (Susan Sarandon) and brilliant daughter and heir-apparent Brooke (Brit Marling), Miller’s also balancing an affair with French art-dealer Julie Côte (Laetitia Casta). Just as he’s about to unload his troubled empire, an unexpected bloody error forces him to juggle family, business, and crime with the aid of Jimmy Grant (Nate Parker), a face from Miller’s past. One wrong turn ignites the suspicions of NYPD Detective Michael Bryer (Tim Roth), who will stop at nothing in his pursuits.  Running on borrowed time, Miller is forced to confront the limits of even his own moral duplicity. Will he make it out before the bubble bursts?

*The 7:20 screening of Arbitrage will be canceled on Friday, November 2nd*

Share this Film

Click on Showtimes to Get Tickets Online
Running Time: 107 min107 MIN
R Rated

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

Watch Trailer Director: Alison Klayman
Writer(s): Alison Klayman
Cast: Ai Weiwei, Danqing Chen, and Ying Gao
Awards: Won the Special Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival
Language: Egnlish, Mandarin

Ai Weiwei is China’s most famous international artist, and its most outspoken domestic critic. Against a backdrop of strict censorship and an unresponsive legal system, Ai expresses himself and organizes people through art and social media. In response, Chinese authorities have shut down his blog, beat him up, bulldozed his newly built studio, and held him in secret detention.

AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY is the inside story of a dissident for the digital age who inspires global audiences and blurs the boundaries of art and politics. First-time director Alison Klayman gained unprecedented access to Ai while working as a journalist in China. Her detailed portrait provides a nuanced exploration of contemporary China and one of its most compelling public figures.

Share this Film

Click on Showtimes to Get Tickets Online
Running Time: 91 minutes91 MIN
R Rated

Read full story · Comments { 3 }

Dads Weekend: ANIMAL HOUSE

Watch Trailer Director: John Landis
Writer(s): Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney, and Chris Miller
Cast: John Belushi, Karen Allen, and Tom Hulce
Awards: Won the 1979 People's Choice Award

Join us for ANIMAL HOUSE, everyone’s favorite raunchy college comedy! Playing Dad’s weekend (November 9-11) each day at 9:00 p.m. and additional Saturday and Sunday matinee at 3:00 p.m., this college classic is the perfect way to get in some quality laughs with Pops.

At a 1962 College, Dean Vernon Wormer is determined to expel the entire Delta Tau Chi fraternity, but the troublemaking members have other plans for him.

Share this Film

Click on Showtimes to Get Tickets Online
Running Time: 109 minutes109 MIN
R Rated
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

Read full story · Comments { 2 }

Bill W.

Watch Trailer Director: Dan Carracino and Kevin Hanlon
Writer(s): Dan Carracino, Patrick Gambuti Jr., and Kevin Hanlon
Cast: Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob, and Blake J. Evans

Bill W. tells the story of William G. Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, a man included in TIME Magazine’s “100 Persons of the 20th Century.” Interviews, recreations, and rare archival material reveal how Bill Wilson, a hopeless drunk near death from his alcoholism, found a way out of his own addiction and then forged a path for countless others to follow. With Bill as its driving force, A.A. grew from a handful of men to a worldwide fellowship of over 2 million men and women – a success that made him an icon within A.A., but also an alcoholic unable to be a member of the very society he had created. A reluctant hero, Bill Wilson lived a life of sacrifice and service, and left a legacy that continues every day, all around the world.

$1.00 of each ticket purchased will be donated to Athens recovery center, Clem House.

Share this Film

Click on Showtimes to Get Tickets Online
Running Time: 104 minutes104 MIN
Rating: Unrated

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

The Master

Watch Trailer Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer(s): Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, and Amy Adams
Awards: Won "Best Director" and "Best Actor" (for both Hoffman and Phoenix) at the Venice Film Festival

THE MASTER stars Joaquin Phoenix as a psychologically damaged war veteran who finds himself working for Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a charismatic figure building his own religion. As the alcoholic, self-destructive former soldier becomes more deeply involved with the leader of this cult-like organization, his natural instincts keep him from embracing his new position as strongly as others in the group would hope.

P.T. Anderson’s latest film is sure to join the long line of critical successes that the director has amassed throughout his career.  Films such as BOOGIE NIGHTS, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, PUNCH DRUNK LOVE, and MAGNOLIA have cemented Anderson as one of America’s best living directors.  Amy Adams and Jesse Plemons also star.

Share this Film

Click on Showtimes to Get Tickets Online
Running Time: 137 minutes137 MIN
R Rated

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Science on Screen®: IDIOCRACY

Watch Trailer

Return

How Evolution by Natural Selection Could Produce a Human Race of Idiots

An exploration of how evolution by natural selection could produce a human race of idiots, featuring some of Dr. Molly Morris’s current research on how mate preferences are important in evolution, as well as her hypotheses on why the human brain has been getting smaller over the past 20,000 years.

About the film

Private Joe Bowers (Wilson), the definition of “average American”, is selected by the Pentagon to be the guinea pig for a top-secret hibernation program, set 545 years in the future. He discovers a society so incredibly dumbed-down that he’s easily the most intelligent person alive.

About the speaker

A short bio from Dr. Molly R. Morris of Ohio University’s Department of Biological Sciences:

My research interests are in sexual selection, variation in female mate preferences, and the evolution of alternative reproductive strategies. In my laboratory, we are interested in the evolutionary processes that both constrain and drive biological diversity. We examine the evolution of diversity both within and across species of Xiphophorus fishes. These small livebearing fish, native to freshwater streams in Mexico, present a diversity of behaviors and morphologies that are ideal for examining the evolution of behavioral plasticity, female mate preferences, nutritional programming, maternal effects, and the evolution of alternative reproductive strategies. We observe behavior in the field as well as in the laboratory, incorporating molecular techniques to conduct paternity analyses and examine gene expression profiles.

 

Return

Science on Screen® is an initiative of the Coolidge Corner Theatre, with major support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Science on Screen program pairs films with a short talk with a scientist or technology expert. The free Science on Screen events are fun and engaging, offering dynamic speakers an unexpected jumping point to teach their field of expertise in a way that is accessible to a diverse audience.

 

Free admission to this event is provided by Arts for OHIO.

 

Share this Film

Click on Showtimes to Get Tickets Online
Running Time: 84 Minutes84 MIN
R Rated
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

There's a good chance that Judge's smartly lowbrow Idiocracy will be mistaken for what it's satirizing, but good satire always runs the risk -- of being misunderestimated.

Nathan Rabin
The AV Club
Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Your Sister’s Sister

Watch Trailer Director: Lynn Shelton
Writer(s): Lynn Shelton
Cast: Mark Duplass, Emily Blunt and Rosemarie DeWitt

Leaving Thursday, October 11th

YOUR SISTER’S SISTER is a new comedy about romance, grief and sibling rivalry. A year after his brother Tom’s death, Jack is still struggling emotionally. When he makes a scene at a memorial party, Tom’s best friend Iris offers up her family cabin on an island in the Pacific Northwest so Jack can seek catharsis in solitude. Once there, however, he runs into Iris’ sister Hannah who is reeling from the abrupt end of a seven-year relationship and finds solace in Tom’s unexpected presence. A blurry evening of drinking concludes with an awkward sexual incident, made worse by Iris’ sudden presence at the cabin the next morning. A twisted tale of ever-complicated relationships is set in motion with raw, hilarious and emotional performances from the all-star cast.

Share this Film

Click on Showtimes to Get Tickets Online
Running Time: 90 Minutes90 MIN
R Rated

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

The Intouchables

Watch Trailer Director: Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano
Writer(s): Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano
Cast: Francois Cluzet, Omar Sy, and Anne Le Ny
Awards: Best Actor (Omar Sy) Cesare Awards, Best Cast and Tokyo Grand Prix, Tokyo International Film Festival
Language: French with English subtitles

An irreverent, uplifting comedy about friendship, trust and human possibility,The Intouchables has broken box office records in its native France and across Europe. Based on a true story of friendship between a handicap millionaire (Francois Cluzet) and his street smart ex-con caretaker (Omar Sy),The Intouchables depicts an unlikely camaraderie rooted in honesty and humor between two individuals who, on the surface, would seem to have nothing in common. Directed Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, the film was nominated for a total of nine 2012 César Awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscars, including Best Picture, and winning Best Actor for breakout star Omar Sy, and won the Grand Prize at the 2011 Tokyo International Film Festival.

Please note that the 9:40 screening of The Intouchables will be canceled on Saturday, September 29th.

Share this Film

Click on Showtimes to Get Tickets Online
Running Time: 112 minutes112 MIN
R Rated

Read full story · Comments { 0 }