Movies This Week: Angry Oscar Robot Hall Nation
It's finally here: Oscar weekend. Are you going to glam it up at aGLIFF's Red Carpet Bash with a live Oscar telecast? Will you head to The Highball for their "Hollywood party" (with a TXMPA gathering beforehand)? Or do you have private viewing plans? Come on, 'fess up and tell us how you celebrate the most popular short guy in Hollywood.
Movies We've Seen:
Drive Angry 3D -- Patrick Lussier may have last brought us My Bloody Valentine 3D, but he also brought us Red Eye. So is it worth it? Mike braved the traffic to find out just how angry Nic Cage is in this shot-in-not-retrofitted-to-3D actioner. Read Mike's review for more. (wide)
Oscar Shorts: Animated Program -- I haven't seen every one of these, but the one I have seen is worth full price just to see it's six minutes of perfection that is the short Day & Night, which premiered before Pixar's Toy Story 3 last year. Yah. That one. So you know you wanna see the rest of the Oscar-nominated animated delights screening in one program for your pleasure. (Alamo South Lamar)
Other New Movies:
Carbon Nation -- Woohoo! Get green! Get away from carbon dependency! Or at least I think that's what this enviro-doc is about, it didn't screen in advance in Austin. (Arbor)
Endhiran: The Robot -- The Alamo has the most expensive Bollywood epic ever made on limited run. Apparently the plot is about an epic robotic human who gets an emotional upgrade. (Alamo South Lamar)
Hall Pass -- A bunch of guys get a hall pass and the trailer makes me want to pass on it. But hey, who am I to judge? (wide)
Oscar Shorts: Live Action Program -- Everyone makes a big deal about the Oscars, and the nominated shorts are no different. These are often incredible examples of the art of film, and not to be missed. (Alamo South Lamar)
Our Picks:
Debbie: The Austin Public Library and KLRU continue their free Community Cinema series on Tuesday, March 1, at 7 pm with Pushing the Elephant at the Windsor Park Branch. This inspiring and emotional documentary focuses on the remarkable Rose Mapendo, a Congolese woman who advocates for peace in her homeland, and her reunion with her daughter who was left behind 13 years ago.
Elizabeth: Sullivan's Travels and Road to Morocco make up a double-feature at the Paramount, tonight and tomorrow night. Two very different travel pictures from the 1940s, but both are terrific. [Editor's note: Elizabeth wrote a really nice profile of these movies at Austinist that you might want to check out.]
Jette: Local filmmaker/instructor Stephen Belyeu's feature Dig, which won an audience award at Austin Film Festival in 2010, returns to town for a special screening as part of Austin Film Society's Best of the Fests series. You can catch it on Wednesday, March 2, at 7 pm at Alamo Village, and buy tickets through AFS. In addition, Miguel Alvarez's short film Veterans (Debbie's review) will play before the feature. Shameless self-promotion: I will be moderating the Q&A with Belyeu and perhaps other cast/crew members after the screening. Hope you'll join me!