I Want MORE — Critically Claimed Movies & the Ocassional Woody & Spike Film
In the ongoing series – Where Do We Live? – I am baffled by our local movie theater company/monopoly (Goodrich Quality Theaters). My latest frustrations – during the week of the announcement of the Oscar nominations – are as follows:
BIRDMAN — from even before it was released the Oscar buzz surrounding this movie was pretty loud. I posted my
frustration on the Goodrich Facebook page — and the reply was basically, “we applied for a copy of the film and didn’t get it and now it’s too late, oh well.” To this date Birdman has not screened in any theater in Lafayette/West Lafayette. Michael Keaton won the Golden Globe — and is a front runner for the Oscar — and still no Birdman in my town. This is unbelievable.
TOP MOVIES of 2014 — Critics around the world have published the top movies of the year — and a majority of them never ever were screened here. It is an absolute cultural void. BTW — most of the “worst” movies of 2014 landed here (Tranformers: Age of Extinction, for one). To name a few of the BEST of 2014 we missed:
- BIRDMAN
- Under the Skin
- Whiplash
- Ida
- Nightcrawler
- Only Lovers Left Alive
- Force Majeure
- Snowpiercer
- Life Itself
- Gloria
- The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
- Starred Up
- Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me
- The Babadook
- Pride
- The Overnighters
OSCAR NOMINATED MOVIES — While the rest of the world rushes to the theaters to see all of the movies recently nominated for an Oscar – we can’t — because THEY AREN’T HERE!! Some are but most aren’t. Here are the movies, I wish came to my town:
- BIRDMAN
- Wild
- Still Alice
- Two Days, One Night
- The Theory of Everything
- Whiplash
- Nightcrawlers
- Ida
- The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Lastly, not to put too fine a point on it…
WOODY ALLEN & SPIKE LEE — I know this might sound selfish or at the very least “specific” — but I expect to see
the newest Woody Allen and Spike Lee films at my local movie theater. For my entire life — until I moved here — I made a point of seeing all Woody Allen and Spike Lee movies on the first night of their release — opening night, if you will. Goodrich has denied me this pleasure — and to make it worse — Woody & Spike’s movies typically don’t ever screen here — ever. BLUE JASMINE, Woody Allen’s most recent critically acclaimed, Oscar nominated movie starring Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Peter Sarsgaard, & Sally Hawkins — NEVER ever screened here. Suffice it to say — we didn’t get his latest MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT either. And I’m ashamed to say — we didn’t even bother asking about. We are getting too tired.
Spike Lee has a new one out this weekend — DA SWEET BLOOD OF JESUS. And guess what — it ain’t here and probably won’t ever be screened here. Please, for heavens sake — give us some Woody Allen and Spike Lee.
Indianapolis is 60+ miles south of us and not a convenient excursion when you have two teenage kids — one who doesn’t like movies and the other that enjoys anything superhero. I just can’t believe that this community with a major university with over 40,000 students cannot sustain at least one screen for what used to be called “art house movies” — let alone Oscar nominated movies.
Why is there no market for culture? Why is this town in a cultural void? If I am right (which I am sure some of your screaming right now) — then why don’t you demand better?
I am greedy and selfish to want MORE? Is there hope? Where the heck do we live, people??
PCPop w/ Pablo 