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Cinema Chat: 'Selma', 'Antarctica: A Year On Ice', 'The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death' And More

Michigan Theater
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michtheater.org

It's a New Year's edition of 'Cinema Chat' this week! David Fair is joined by Michigan Theater Program Director Amanda Bynum to discuss this week's movie openings and Hollywood news and reflect on the year about to end.  

Opening Downtown

Antarctica: A Year on Ice

“Antarctica: A Year on Ice” is a visually stunning journey to the end of the world with the hardy and devoted people who live there year-round. The research stations scattered throughout the continent host a close-knit international population of scientists, technicians and craftsmen.

Isolated from the rest of the world, enduring months of unending darkness followed by periods when the sun never sets, Antarctic residents experience firsthand the beauty and brutality of the most severe environment on Earth. Capturing epic battles against hellacious storms, quiet reveries of nature’s grandeur, and everyday moments of work and laughter, this unique documentary shows a steadfast community thriving in a land few humans have experienced.

Using specially modified cameras and spectacular time-lapse photography, filmmaker Anthony Powell captures the splendor of the region like no film before. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times says, "’Antarctica’ is successful because it operates on two complementary levels, the epic visuals whose grandeur can stagger you and the small-scale personal stories of the people who live and work down there.” “Antarctica: A Year on Ice” opens Friday at the State Theatre.

Selma

“Selma” chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement.

Director Ava DuVernay tells the real story of how the revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and his brothers and sisters in the movement prompted change that forever altered history.  A.O. Scott of the New York Times says “’Selma’ is not a manifesto, a battle cry or a history lesson. It’s a movie: warm, smart, generous and moving in two senses of the word. It will call forth tears of grief, anger, gratitude and hope.”  “Selma” opens Thursday January 8 at the State Theatre.

Opening at the Multiplex

The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death

In “The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death,” when a group of orphaned children are forced to move from their home in London, caretakers Eve (Phoebe Fox) and Jean (Helen McCrory) bring everyone to the desolate and eerie British countryside.

40 years after Arthur Kipps (played by Daniel Radcliffe in the first film, “The Woman in Black”) left, this supernatural horror film introduces this new group to the now abandoned Eel Marsh House, an odd but seemingly safe location. It isn't long before Eve starts to sense that this house is not what it appears to be as the children in her care begin to disappear. “The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death” opens Friday.

Science on Screen returns to Ann Arbor  (The Imitation Game

If you haven’t had a chance to check out “The Imitation Game” yet, here’s an entertaining and enlightening way to do so! Alan Turing was a mathematician, philosopher, logician, mathematical biologist, a founder of computer science, world class distance runner, and cryptographer. Turing famously helped break the German Enigma cipher in World War II.

But less well known are the developments leading up to the work by Turing’s team at Bletchley Park and the other code breaking accomplishments of British, American, French, Polish and German intelligence services. Join us at the Michigan Theater on Thursday, January 8 at 7 PM for a special post-screening discussion with Kevin Compton, PhD., University of Michigan professor of computer science. 

Still Playing Downtown  (Wild, Birdman, Interstellar and The Interview)

Golden Globe nominees and sure bets to bring in Oscar nominations are still playing downtown!  Make sure you catch “Wild” starring Reese Witherspoon,  “Birdman” starring Michael Keaton, Emma Stone and Edward Norton, and “Interstellar” with Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain, playing at the State Theatre.  Also still playing at the State Theatre is “The Interview” starring James Franco and Seth Rogen, one of the year’s most talked-about films.

Contact David: dfair@emich.edu
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