It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over

By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 1, 2005 4:13PM

Though most institutions of higher learning in the city have sent the kids home for the summer, the students at the University of Chicago will be plugging away until the end of next week. But this is good news for us since it means one more week of Doc Films, the student-run film organization giving us cheap movies we haven’t seen in forever.

The Phantom Tollbooth, the final film in their “Whack [sic] Children’s Movies” series screens tomorrow night at 7:00 PM. In comparison to the other films they’ve been showing this semester, this one didn’t psychologically damage us near as much as say, The Dark Crystal or Return To Oz. But we love Tollbooth because it was a fixture of the Friday afternoon movies they showed in our South Side classroom every week. Seeing the mixture of real-life actors and animation blew our 2nd grade minds. They say you can never go home again but we think the same effect can still be achieved as an adult if you can manage to get all liquored up on Boone’s Farm before settling into the theater.

Also playing this week are Bride and Prejudice, the Bollywoody treatment of Jane Austen’s classic--featuring the dude from Lost who has a girl’s name--and the unstoppable fighting style of Tony Jaa in Ong Bak. Both have three screenings on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Tickets are $4 and directions can be found at the Doc Films website.