Runner, Runner, the Jason Timberlake/Ben Affleck action film, has gotten horrible reviews so we didn't even bother to see it. But Gravity, which opens wide today, has gotten stellar reviews and we give it a big thumbs up. Here are our reviews of the best films that are playing this weekend.
If you’re in the mood for transvestites and avant-garde cinema, the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque is really your only consistent option here in Northeast Ohio. For one night only, you’ve got the rare opportunity to see Flaming Creatures, a nontraditional film featuring women thrashing around, half naked, “in a nonstop orgiastic frenzy.” Ahhh! Critics have called the film both the most liberating underground movie of the '60s and the most important avant garde film ever made in America. It’s only 45 minutes long, and the director, one Jack Smith, was born in Columbus, Ohio. It screens tomorrow at 9:30 p.m., but the memories of the images therein will surely stick with you for ages. (Sam Allard)
Other art-house directors have tried their hand at using 3-D technology, and they've had varying degrees of success. Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Win Wenders' Pina come to mind. Neither of these films experienced the kind of crossover success that Ang Lee had with his Life of Pi. Much like Life of Pi, Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity, which stars George Clooney and Sandra Bullock as a couple of astronauts stuck in outer space, has crossover appeal and really deserves a wide audience. It's an incredible film. (Jeff Niesel)
Herb and Dorothy Vogel, a retired postal clerk and librarian, collected thousands of pieces of modern art and stored them in their Manhattan apartment before they decided to give them away to museums around the country. One curator calls it an "institution changing" gift in Herb and Dorothy 50X50, a documentary about the couple's tremendous collection. The film shows at 7 tonight and at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tickets are $9. (Niesel)
