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SUNDAY, MAY 29, 2011

Summer Series almost here! Get your tickets!

The Summer Bama Art House Film Series is almost here! We encourage you to take a look at the lineup and buy your tickets early - buying a series pass saves you money!

Please note that we've changed our screening times for this series - we'll be screening on SUNDAY EVENINGS at 7:30pm. It's easier to book multiple Sundays at the theater, and we're looking to find a permanent day. Some folks asked about the possibility of a non-weeknight screening, so we're trying Sundays with a little bit of an earlier start time. Let us know what you think!

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold | 7/31 | 7:30pm

What happens when you set out to make a film about the influence of corporate product placement in films? You wind up with a movie entitled, "POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold," the closer of our summer series. From Morgan Spurlock, the rabble rousing documentarian behind "Super Size Me," comes this creative and comical investigation into advertising, branding, and product placement. We're constantly inundated by advertisements, and Spurlock is curious about how that influences the content and the profit models for our popular entertainment. Taking us inside the process, the film becomes a meta exploration of the very issue it seeks to explain. Peter Travers, writing for Rolling Stone, says, "Spurlock says he's not selling out, he's buying in. I'm buying into Spurlock. As ever, he makes you laugh till it hurts."

But don't take his word for it - take a look at the trailer. Of course, you'll probably have to click through a few ads to get there...

Meek's Cutoff | 7/24 | 7:30pm

"Meek's Cutoff," from director Kelly Reichardt, stars Michelle Williams and Paul Dano. Reichardt, who directed "Old Joy" and "Wendy and Lucy," is one of a handful of female independent directors who are helping to remake American films. The film focuses on pioneers traversing an infamous wagon trail cut through Oregon in 1845. The story of the original settlers is riddled with violence, hunger, infighting, and death - in short, the stuff of good cinema. Writing for the Chicago Reader, reviewer Ben Sachs says, "Imagine a collaboration between John Ford and Wallace Stevens and you might get a sense of what Kelly Reichardt pulls off here: a sincere re-creation of the pioneer experience, brought to life through careful, often unexpected detail." We hope you'll join us for a new kind of sparse and parched Western in the middle of our ceaseless summer...

3 Backyards | 7/17 | 7:30pm

"3 Backyards," which won the Directing Award at Sundance, is directed by Eric Mendelsohn and stars Edie Falco. Containing three different and interwoven stories, the film has been described as a "poetic exercise." A complex visual aesthetic guides the film, and the cinematographer creates three distinctly unique styles to fit the three stories. Stephen Holden, writing his "Critics' Pick" review for The New York Times, says "The conceit that binds this movie’s three vignettes is Mr. Mendelsohn’s notion that while the front lawns of suburbia reflect how residents choose to present themselves to the outside world, their backyards are Freudian maps of their unconscious lives."

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives | 7/10 | 7:30pm

"Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" is a strange and wonderful film that won the Palme d'Or, the festival's highest honor, at Cannes last year. This Thai film, from director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, is a magical and surreal movie that eschews traditional narrative structure in favor of a free flowing melody that's far too rare in contemporary cinema. It's a film that is nearly impossible to describe - something meditated on by critic after critic. A.O. Scott writes in his "Critics' Pick" review for The New York Times, "Instead of nostalgia for vanished magic, there is the recognition that magic is always present if we know where and how to look. Mr. Weerasethakul certainly knows where to look and is generous enough to share some of what he sees."

Another film we're very proud to bring here to Tuscaloosa - a film that solidifies our mission to bring Art House movies to the Bama. I guarantee you won't see this one at the Cobb!

Rubber | 7/3 | 7:30pm

"Oh hell yeah! Man, this movie is so awesome, dude! It's about a tire - like a radial, you know - that lives in the desert. And it like comes alive one day, and it starts you know, like rolling down the street! And then it starts, like, KILLING PEOPLE! I'm serious, man! That shit is off the chain! It's gonna be awesome! Don't take my word for it, come see it, dude!"

-Review from someone who is very excited about Rubber Also, reviewers have said slightly more articulate things. Like Katrina Longworth, writing for the Village Voice: "An essay on storytelling and spectatorship within When Inanimate Objects Attack schlock -- one infused with the haunting aura and disillusionment of a post-Easy Rider road movie -- Rubber is some kind of miracle."

Also, it's the night before the fourth of July and the Bama serves beer. Get that party started, you know?

Putty Hill

We're extremely happy to be able to bring "Putty Hill" to Tuscaloosa this summer. A small, honest, and deeply affecting film from a young American director, this movie represents all that's now possible in the new world of self-distribution, digital capture and exhibition, and cinematic art created far outside the confining walls of the studios. In short, this is an Art House Film, and we're thrilled to bring it here to the Bama. Produced on a shoe-string by 33-year-old director Matt Porterfield, the film represents an authentic and inspired attempt at creating a regionally distinct cinema. The region, in this case, is Porterfield's native Maryland, specifically the Baltimore suburbs where he grew up and still lives. Southern auteurs take note - regional cinema is on the rise! The New York Times did an interesting story about the film and its unique hybrid style, and the critics, throughout its festival run and now in its theatrical run, have had their fair share of praise, too. Stephen Holden, in his review in the Times, says, "Matt Porterfield's moody, elliptical fusion of fiction and documentary, slips back and forth between the forms with a stealth that dissolves one into the other." We very proud of this one, and hope you are too.

Certified Copy

"Certified Copy" is a maze of a film that plays with the audience and our expectations. As two characters, seemingly strangers to one another, embark on a long philosophical debate about authenticity and fakery in art, both the story and our assumptions about their relationship begins to fragment. This kind of subtle and nuanced script requires some heavy lifting from the actors - which is why Juliette Binoche won the best actress award from Cannes for her role here. This film is the famous Iranian auteur Abbas Kiarostami's first film produced outside his native country, and it has received near universal critical acclaim. Scott Tobias, writing for NPR, calls it, "A film as audacious and radical as any likely to see theaters this year." A movie as complicated as this is inevitably hard to market and capture in a trailer, so we're left with a kind of amalgam of romantic lines and critical praise. But don't just judge from the trailer, read the reviews and be sure not to miss this one.

THE FILMS, SUMMER 2011.

Films screen ONLY ONCE on SUNDAY nights:

CEDAR RAPIDS......6/12, 7:30pm
CERTIFIED COPY......6/19, 7:30pm
PUTTY HILL......6/26, 7:30pm
RUBBER......7/3, 7:30pm
UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES......7/10, 7:30pm
3 BACKYARDS......7/17, 7:30pm
MEEK'S CUTOFF......7/24, 7:30pm
THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD......7/31, 7:30pm

BUY YOUR TICKETS.

Series tickets:

$30 for students/seniors
$35 for adults

Individual films are $7 general, $6 students/seniors.

CLICK HERE TO BUY YOUR TICKETS

WHO WE ARE.

Hungry for cinema? So are we. The Bama Art House's mission is to bring current and contemporary independent film to Tuscaloosa - basically transforming our wonderful historic Bama Theatre into an Art House, one night a week. If you want to see more movies, please support us! Stay posted here - and on Facebook, RSS, etc - to keep up with the current movie list. If you've got suggestions, please don't hesitate to email us at bama_theatre(a t)yahoo(d o t)com.

The Bama Art House is a production of the Arts and Humanities Council of Tuscaloosa.

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