Salina Art Center Cinema
The Salina Art Center Cinema has announced three films that will be premiering at the end of this month and the start of July. Tickets are on sale now for these films.
Mike Flanagan has directed Stephen King tales to gruesome, horrific effect (Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep) but his latest film might be the crown jewel of King Cinema. It’s not gross-out horror or tidal waves of blood. This isn’t the pulpy stuff of Pet Sematary, but a heartfelt, resonant meditation on King’s favorite recurring subject: death—and how people deal (or try not to deal) with its inevitability. The Life of Chuck is based on a King novella, which allows Flanagan to create a more delicate, haunting atmosphere, rather than rush to fill in plot points.
It starts with the ultimate terror: the end of the world. Additional uneasiness comes from Charles “Chuck” Krantz (Tom Hiddleston), whose image keeps appearing on billboards and ads for an undefined reason; while Chuck hovers in the background, a divorced couple (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Karen Gillan) try to maintain normalcy as the Earth literally falls apart. The film is comprised of three chapters introduced by Nick Offerman’s narration and presented in backward order, taking us from the Apocalypse to the origins of the mysterious “Chuck.” We see a spectacular, inexplicable display of dancing prowess from Hiddleston, then flash back to his childhood when he’s played by Benjamin Sajak (in elementary school) and Jacob Tremblay (as a teenager).
This section recalls the nostalgia of wistful Stand By Me, smartly utilizing the gravitas of Mark Hamill and Mia Sara as Chuck’s grandparents, and showcases King’s underappreciated strength for creating realistic, three-dimensional adolescent male characters. As we see Chuck’s development, including his growing love of dance, we start to see the whole picture, and the full meaning of the final chapter becomes clear.
The result is emotionally shattering and unforgettable, The Shawshank Redemption’s equal in how effectively it moves audiences, but with a poetic tone that lingers long after the film’s last frames.
(Rated R for profanity and thematic material.)
'The Life of Chuck' showings are from Friday, June 20th - Monday, June 23rd. Click here to purchase tickets
Science fiction adventure about a group of people who attempt to contact alien intelligence. Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) witnesses an unidentified flying object, and even has a "sunburn" from its bright lights to prove it. Roy refuses to accept an explanation for what he saw and is prepared to give up his life to pursue the truth about UFOs.
'Summer Series: 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' showing is on Friday, June 26th at 6:00 pm. Click here to purchase tickets.
Summer Series is in collaboration with our summer exhibition, High Strangeness: Encounters with the Unexplained in Kansas and Beyond.
If Stanley Kubrick’s obsessively precise framing and detailed set design were combined with the quirky characterizations and lunatic unpredictability of the Coen Brothers, it might come close to explaining the aesthetic of director Wes Anderson. But what’s missing from that description is an underlying warmth and humanity that is special to Anderson.
'The Phoenician Scheme' is an exemplar of his style, featuring oddball cameos from unexpected scene-stealers like Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, and Benedict Cumberbatch, plenty of absurdly perfect symmetrical compositions, lots of funny visual jokes in the background—and at its core, a genuinely moving relationship between the main characters: Benicio del Toro as ruthless mogul Zsa-zsa Korda and his daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton).
After a failed assassination attempt gives Korda a look at the afterlife, he takes Liesl on a trip to meet with various relatives and associates to complete some business chicanery called the Phoenician Scheme—but it’s also a pretext to reconnect with Liesl, who’s training to become a nun. Korda wants Liesl to inherit his vast fortune, but she doesn’t approve his avaricious, back-stabbing ways (turns out lots of people want to kill him). The interactions between them are sharp and funny: del Toro sinks his teeth into the best role he’s had in years, and his cutthroat greed and one-percenter cluelessness find a humorous foil in Liesl, who’s not the typically meek and mild novitiate.
The Phoenician Scheme is ridiculously complicated (it involves finding shoe boxes full of blueprints) but the important plot is Korda’s spiritual journey as Liesl continually challenges his win-at-all-costs mindset. Like most Anderson films, it’s highly stylized (people talk in rapid-fire patter out of a ‘30s screwball comedy) but the artifice makes the emotional moments surprising and thus more impactful. Visually dazzling, weird, yet also sublime, it’s a great introduction to Anderson’s unique, beguiling world.
(Rated PG-13 for violent content, nude images, and smoking.)
'The Phoenician Scheme' showings are from Friday, June 27th - Monday, June 30th & Friday, July 4th - Monday, July 7th. Click here to purchase tickets.