Strength Through Unity, Unity Through Indies

By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 24, 2006 5:07PM

This weekend’s mainstream cinema offerings are once again slim. Last week offered only the disappointing V For Vendetta while the lone film that sparks our interest this morning is Spike Lee’s Inside Man.

(Speaking of Orwellian dystopias, what kind of a world do we live in where Larry The Cable Guy has his own movie? The time for revolution is now, people!)

Ergo, we turn to indie movie houses and revivals for some fun in the dark. The Music Box is running Unknown White Male, the story of a man who loses his identity while riding the subway. Woah. Mostly, we just lose our patience when riding the “L.” Also, they’re showing Mulholland Drive as a midnight movie, if you’re still trying to figure out what the deal was with that weird box.

At the Siskel Film Center, the European Union Film Festival is in its final days. If you can get out of work early tonight, go check out Michelangelo Antonioni’s classic Blowout at 6 p.m.

Finally, Doc Films announced their Spring 2006 schedule today. We like Doc Films because their slate is always filled with movies that are both challenging and engaging. This quarter’s offerings include all ten films in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Decalogue series, the films that made for Oscar Bait in 2005 (Walk The Line, Munich, Junebug), and even the infamous Heaven’s Gate, the Ishtar (the Gigli?) of the early 1980s.

Hang in there, fans of popcorn flicks. Next week it’s…Ice Age 2, Slither, and Basic Instinct 2. Oh god. Well, it's only 60-some days until Nacho Libre hits theaters.