by Michelle Keenan

Many thanks to the good Professor Kaufmann for holding down the fort while I gallivanted off to Paris for a friend’s wedding last month.

Life has been such a whirlwind for both of us lately that we’ve paid little notice to that post award season cinematic lull that is usually so dreary for us critics. And, while there haven’t been any titles that have had either of us beating a path to the movie theatre, we have been fortunate to have a decent blend of art house, off-beat, and main stream titles in local theatres. That has been enough to keep most movie goers content, including us.

This month’s section is pretty representative of that mix of offerings. On the lighter side we review Disney’s blockbuster live-action version of Cinderella. On the heavy end we dive into the Russian depths of bleakness in Leviathan. The yin and yang of our cinematic sensibilities have been tested this month.

Chip reviews the Ed Harris, Liam Neeson crime thriller, Run All Night, the wildly entertaining Argentinean-Spanish anthology film Wild Tales, and the aforementioned bleak Russian drama Leviathan. I review the ‘controversial’ waist cinching Cinderella, the utterly unnecessary but aptly named Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, the uplifting family-friendly story of the unlikely cross country team that could in McFarland USA, and the most apolitical film to date about ‘the troubles’ in Ireland in ’71.

The Asheville Film Society (AFS) and Hendersonville Film Society (HFS) both offer an array of films this month. AFS kicks off with Norman Jewison’s film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Jesus Christ Superstar from 1973. AFS also welcomes Lisi Russell back for a special presentation of Ken Russell’s Mahler. If you’ve never seen it, or have never seen it on the big screen, this is a rare treat.

Because of the Easter holiday, HFS is hosting just three screenings this month, but they are enjoyable goodies: Ladies in Lavender with Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, Orson Wells in Black Magic, and Fred Zinnemann’s riveting The Day of the Jackal from 1973.

In a sea of upcoming mainstream comedies, a handful of art house titles, and the next chapter in both The Avengers and the Fast and Furious franchises, there’s one documentary on the docket this month that may be of interest to some of our readers. It’s called Merchants of Doubt and is slated for a late April booking at The Carolina.

Until next time, enjoy!