- Movies about Shakespeare aren’t just for high-school kids looking to avoid reading their homework. Each Tuesday in February at 6 pm, Aksarben Cinema (aksarbencinema.com) and Nebraska Shakespeare are teaming up to bring you a movie from or inspired by the bard. Each screening will be followed by a discussion featuring Associate Artistic Director Vincent Carlson-Brown and guest scholar D. Scott Glasser, Chair of the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Department of Theater. The films include Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar and The Boys from Syracuse. Need more motivation than classic works by the best writer in the history of writing? Free food. Show up at 5:30 and munch on free appetizers. To eat or not to eat, that’s really no question.
- Documentaries are good; documentaries that try to do good are…even gooder? So if you needed another reason to seek out West of Memphis, the new documentary about the West Memphis Three (Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley), a recent press release may give you one. Producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh funded an investigation aimed at finding out who really killed three young boys in 1993, as countless probes have demonstrated the men in prison are likely innocent. Well, turns out that investigation yielded new testimony from three witnesses who claim to know the real murderer. Here’s hoping the film’s release comes with a side portion of justice.
- Chuck Norris, old though he may be, is still finding new ways to suck. Case in point, the only reason The Expendables 2 exists is presumably for violent escapism. Norris’ involvement came with a caveat that the film has to be PG-13. There goes the copious violence. Now their audience is down to man-boob lovers and Sylvester Stallone’s family.
Cutting Room provides breaking local and national movie news … complete with added sarcasm. Send any relevant information to film@thereader.com. Check out Ryan on Movieha!, a weekly half-hour movie podcast (movieha.libsyn.com/rss), catch him on the radio on CD 105.9 (cd1059.com) on Fridays at around 7:30 a.m. and on KVNO 90.7 (KVNO.org) at 8:30 a.m. on Fridays and follow him on Twitter (twitter.com/thereaderfilm).