| Flicks

FLICKS: Summer blockbuster season begins; don’t overlook independent films

Posted on 30 April 2015 by LeslieM

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

With three superhero sequels and three years of multiple mixed media hype, Avengers: The Age of Ultron is destined to be coronated as the 2015 Summer Blockbuster Champion. The Ft. Lauderdale Museum of Discovery and Science is already reporting sold out shows this weekend. Those with access to Wikipedia can learn all the plot and character spoilers before even seeing the latest Marvel Comics epic.

For those unable to get a ticket for this film, there are plenty of opportunities to see thought provoking cinema. 24 Days is a serious French language movie that is timely. A young man is kidnapped and held for ransom because the criminals think he is from a rich family because they are Jewish. This film looks at the stereotypical perceptions that prolong the rescue and recovery of a victim. The film won the Jerusalem Film Festival Lia Award for discussing anti-Semitism in France and warning about when dangerous threats go unchecked.

Presented by Pedro Almodovar, Wild Tales is a Spanish comedy anthology about revenge. Writer/director Damián Szifrón takes six commonplace situations (wedding planning, car traffic), inflicts some conflict and creates a comedy of apocalyptic proportions. It will be exclusively screening at Cinema Paradiso in Ft. Lauderdale this weekend (www.fliff.com for details).

In two weeks, on May 8, the documentary Iris opens. The film focuses on Palm Beach resident Iris Apfel and her contributions to the world of fashion merchandising. She is a pure socialite who travels twice a year to Europe and has artwork on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Also opening the same weekend is Felix and Meira, a multicultural movie that premiered at the recent Toronto Film Festival. Felix and Meira are two individuals who live in the same neighborhood, but never met due to their religious upbringing.

On May 15, Tangerines opens. Nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Oscar for best foreign motion pictures, Tangerines is in both Estonian and Russian languages. This film features two opposing soldiers who are wounded, but end up being nursed in the same home.

As high school graduation rolls around in June, reserve a ticket for The D Train. Starring Jack Black, Kathryn Hahn and James Marsden. This comedy is about a high school reunion committee that is tasked with finding the most popular guy from high school. I wonder if he is a Marvel superhero.

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