Category Archives: Film

Day 2 of 2015 LR Film Festival offers Features, Shorts, Student Films and Trivia

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lrff_logo-backgroundAt 1:30 today the documentary How to Dance in Ohio starts the second day of the Little Rock Film Festival.  It will be shown at the Ron Robinson Theater.

From 3:30 to 5 the LRFFYouth! Screening of AETN Student Selects will take place, also at the Ron Robinson Theater.

At 5:30, films will start in two different venues.  The Ron Robinson Theater will play host to Made in Arkansas Shorts (Block 2) from 5:30 to 7:30pm.  The films being shown are “MatchMaker” by Robin Sparks, “Hush” by Kenn Woodard, “Dim the Lights” by Dwight Chalmers, “The Pop N’ Lock” by Jadon Barnes, “Rapture Us” by Levi Agee, “The Ask” by Edmund Lowry and “Contact” by Alexander Jeffery.  Following the films, Gerry Bruno will moderate a discussion with the filmmakers.

Also at 5:30, the Clinton School will be the site for the screening of Laurent Bécue-Renard’s Of Men and War.  This film is a staggering, masterful portrait of a California treatment center for PTSD-afflicted veterans of the Iraq war.   Writer and Journalist Jay Jennings will sit down with Director Laurent Bécue-Renard for a Q and A following the screening.

Punk takes over the Ron Robinson at 8pm as Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington DC (1980-90) is shown.  Prior to the film, local punk band Headcold will play.

At 9pm at Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, Matt DeCample will host a movie trivia challenge.

 

The 2015 Little Rock Film Festival kicks off tonight

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LRFF2015posterThe 9th annual Little Rock Film Festival gets underway tonight!

At 7:30, the film King Jack will be shown in the Ron Robinson Theater.

Jack is a scrappy fifteen year-old kid stuck in a run-down small town. Trapped in a violent feud with a cruel older bully and facing another bout of summer school, Jack’s got all the problems he can handle. So when Jack’s aunt falls ill and his runty younger cousin must stay with him for the weekend the last thing Jack wants to do is look after him. Unfortunately no one really cares what Jack wants. Set over a hazy summer weekend, King Jack is a tough and tender coming of age story about friendship and finding happiness in tough surroundings.

King Jack won the Audience Award at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. Director Felix Thompson, and the break-out young star Charlie Plummer will be in attendance.  LRFF Programmer Levi Agee will moderate.

Following the film, Little Rock Film Festival Presenting Sponsor Cache Restaurant and Bar will be hosting the opening night party.   Music Provided by Rodney Block & The Real Music Lovers. This event is open to the following pass holders: Sponsor, Filmmaker, Press, Gold and Silver.

Little Rock Look Back: STAR WARS comes to Little Rock

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First ad in Arkansas Gazette (June 23, 1977)

First ad in Arkansas Gazette (June 23, 1977)

Today, May the 4th, is Star Wars Day.

The classic film first opened in May 1977 (though after May 4).  It did not reach Little Rock until June 24, 1977.

Given its status as a sleeper hit, it is no surprise that it came into Little Rock largely unnoticed.  In that day, major films opening on a Friday would be heralded the previous Sunday with a substantial advertisement.  The first Star Wars ad ran on Thursday, June 23, 1977, the day before it opened.  By contrast, Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, which would play at the same theatre, had a large ad on Sunday, June 19.

While Star Wars would seem like the perfect movie for the great UA Cinema 150, it did not play there.  The film playing at the 150 was A Bridge Too Far, which was, at least an action movie.  Star Wars did not even open at a UA theatre.  It opened at the ABC Cinema 1 & 2 (located at Markham and John Barrow) and at the McCain Mall Cinema.  (The ABC Cinema location is now home to discount cellphone and discount clothing businesses; a cinema has returned to McCain Mall, but now in the location of the former MM Cohn’s store.)

The day it opened, there was a fairly large ad which incorporated the familiar beefcake Luke, Leia in flowing gowns, and Darth Vader mask.  On the Sunday after it opened, there was a slightly smaller ad with the same artwork.  McCain Mall also ran a small add for both Star Wars and Herbie. It noted that Star Wars was a film that management “does not recommend for children.”

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SOME LIKE IT HOT tonight at the Ron Robinson Theater

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Some_Like_It_Hot_posterNobody’s Perfect. But Some Like It Hot comes pretty close to it.

Billy Wilder’s screwball comedy set in the 1920s stars Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe.  Written by Wilder and his longtime scribe partner I.A.L. Diamond, it tells the tale of two musicians who witness the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre and must go undercover to escape the attention of some mobsters.  Along the way, they meet a big-hearted blonde who always gets the fuzzy end of the lollipop stick, a randy aging millionaire and a spats wearing gangster.

Joining Lemmon, Curtis and Monroe in the cast are Joe E. Brown, George Raft, Pat O’Brien, and many others.

Shot in black and white, this movie’s zany characters provide enough color regardless of the film stock.  The film was nominated for six Oscars; it won for Orry-Kelly’s Black and White costume design.

The movie starts at 7pm tonight. Admission is $5. Concessions are available for purchase as well.

Baseball season is here – so is THE SANDLOT at CALS Ron Robinson Theatre today at 2

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calsrr sandlotThe Boys of Summer have returned as Major League Baseball is back.  On a smaller scale, sandlot ball is also back.  To celebrate this, the CALS Ron Robinson Theater is showing the 1993 film THE SANDLOT this afternoon at 2pm.

The film is told through the perspective of Scotty Smalls, who is reminiscing on his first summer in Los Angeles. In 1962, Smalls moves with his mother and stepfather, Bill, to a new neighborhood, and struggles to make new friends. One afternoon, he decides to follow a group of neighborhood boys, and watches them play an improvised game of baseball at a small field, which they call the sandlot. Smalls is reluctant to join their game, as he fears he will be ridiculed on account of his inexperience. Nevertheless, he chooses to play with them.  After a rough start, in time, Smalls is accepted and becomes an integral part of the team.  The team has adventures and misadventures on and off the titular sandlot.

The film stars Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Patrick Renna, Chauncey Leopardi, Marty York, Brandon Quinton Adams, Grant Gelt, Shane Obedzinski and Victor DiMattia.  Adult roles are played by Denis Leary, Karen Allen and James Earl Jones.

The film costs $5 to see on the big screen at the Ron Robinson Theater.  Concessions will be available for purchase.

 

What about BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S? See it tonight at 7 at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater

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215px-Breakfast_at_TiffanysYou can’t eat breakfast at Tiffany’s, but you can enjoy the classic film tonight at the Ron Robinson Theater which presents the 1961 classic Blake Edwards film. (Be sure and pay attention to a passing reference to Arkansas, too.)

Based on Truman Capote’s novella, the film was one of Audrey Hepburn’s iconic roles.  Joining her in the cast were George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Martin Balsam, Buddy Ebsen and Mickey Rooney.  The film features the famous song “Moon River” which Hepburn sings at one point in the movie.  The film was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Actress (Hepburn), Best Adapted Screenplay (George Axelrod) and Best Art Direction. It won the Oscars for Best Song – “Moon River” (Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini) and Best Score (Mancini again).

The movie starts at 7pm tonight. Admission is $5. Concessions are available for purchase as well.

(You may not be able to shop at a Tiffany & Co. in person in Little Rock, but you can see Tiffany stained glass at City Hall and the State Capitol, as well as other Tiffany furnishings at the latter.)

Tonight at Ron Robinson Theater: FIGHT CLUB

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fight clubThe first rule about watching Fight Club is that you DO talk about going to see the movie.  Tonight, the CALS Ron Robinson Theater will be screening this modern iconic film starring Oscar winner Brad Pitt and Oscar nominee Edward Norton.  (Hard to believe the film is 16  years old in 2015.)

Directed by David Fincher, it also starred Meat Loaf and Helena Bonham Carter.  Fight Club concerns an insomniac office worker looking for a way to change his life.  He crosses paths with a devil-may-care soap maker and they form an underground fight club that evolves into something much, much more…

The movie starts at 7pm tonight. Admission is $5. Concessions are available for purchase, as well.