I have a question for Greta Gerwig, the odd naturalistic beauty who has bounded out of the Mumblecore underworld into the bright and glaring lights of mainstream attention, while still skipping back and forth across the great divide.   

I read an article once that said you should never date (or eventually marry) someone you can’t travel with, and as far as advice goes, that’s in the same ballpark as shacking up before putting a ring on it — another warning I ignored on my trek down the altar.  

Based on Deborah Moggach’s novel These Foolish Things, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel imagines a final adventure for a group of English men and women — one last hurrah where they can get away from the familiar day-to-day they’ve come to know all too well, or their busy families caught up in living in the digital now, which in some cases is hopelessly unknowable to their elders.   

Sometimes a film event comes along that is so special, we owe it to our readers to present the review in a form fitting the auspicious nature of the release. That is certainly the case with Rave Theater’s regional screenings of Yellow Submarine, a classic that will unspool, likely for the last time, in theaters.  

I’m going old school with the flow, biting a rhyme from Uncle L, when I say, “Don’t call it a comeback.” It being the rebirth, the remixing and reloading of The Alternative, and I could also add that like LL, “I’ve been here for years.” I’ve been underground, hiding out in darkened theaters, multiplexing my way above the fray.    

Back in 1963, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby probably didn’t have as much trouble creating Earth’s Mightiest Heroes as Hollywood has had in bringing these super duper dudes (and one dark and mysterious dudette) to the screen.    

The beginning of May has heralded the dawn of summer at the box office for nearly a decade, which means that by now, thanks to the rise of the movie trailers, we are all overly familiar with the blockbusters of the season. Marvel’s The Avengers kicks things off for the superheroes, with The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises to come.  

Midnight Madness swept the Toronto International Film Festival last year and the clear winners were the audiences who saw The Raid: Redemption, the martial arts actioner from writer-director Gareth Evans. The Raid introduces Rama, a rookie SWAT team officer prepping for his first full-scale assignment, an early morning raid on an apartment building that serves as the stronghold for a ruthless drug lord.  

“I’ve seen the future,” Prince sang back in 1989 on the soundtrack to Tim Burton’s Batman, “and it will be …” Gotham City was on the cusp of change; a hero had arrived on the scene to usher in the new. Cincinnati has been waiting, always on the verge of its own bankable opportunity to step into the future as a lively and engaged urban market. Every city needs a hero.   

Once upon a time, audiences fell in love with Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová as their characters in the hit movie Once fell slowly into an unrequited affair rooted in their shared musical passion. They stepped off the screen together, formed a group (The Swell Season) and took their love affair on the road.