Preview: The Rocky Horror Picture Show – it’s astounding, time is fleeting, madness takes its toll

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What: The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Where: The State Theater

When: Friday 24 and Saturday 25 October 2014 11:59 pm – doors open at 11:15

How Much: $7

An absurd cult classic, ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ is an erotic freak show with alien transvestites, Frankenstein doctors, monstrous creatures and suburban goody-goodies.

A fun production with full on drag pieces and plenty of opportunity for audience participation, ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ traditionally requires costumes and callbacks from its audiences.

The State Theater will provide ‘props’ for the show, $5 a bag. Items forbidden from the screening include but are not limited to: rice, confetti, alcohol, fake blood, toilet paper, outside food and drink, etc.

Come dressed up or face the potential wrath of die-hard fans. If you have never seen this film and/or never been to a showing such as this I highly recommend it. There is no better way to experience Rocky Horror than with a theater of lingerie-clad fans screaming responses and prompts at the screen for 100 minutes.

Let’s do the Time Warp again!

Preview: Castle in the Sky

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What: Castle in the Sky

Where: The State Theater

When: Wednesday 22 October 2014 – 7pm

How Much: $8 students, $10 general admissions, $7.50 Michigan Theater Members

 

The third film in Michigan Theater’s ‘The Studio Ghibli Collection: A 30-Year-Retrospective,’ ‘Castle in the Sky’ is a masterpiece of creative genius.

Released in 1986, ‘Castle in the Sky,’ written and directed by Hayao Myiazaki, was the first film produced by Studio Ghibli.

The story takes place in a steam-punk world, where flying ships are common. Sheeta and Pazu, a young boy and girl, race to discover the fabled floating city of Laputa before a foreign army and pirates discover it and harness it’s great and terrible power as a war machine.

This wonderful film is one of my favorites of Myiazaki’s creations.

Review: The Drop – Well played sir.

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The Drop approaches a common subject in an original and surprising way. Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Shutter Island) has crafted another brilliant crime narrative that shies away from cliché and common narrative tropes that tend to pepper cross-cultural, urban crime plots.

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The film follows Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy) who tends bar at a local bar in Brooklyn owned by his ‘cousin Marv’ (James Gandolfini). Cousin Marv’s bar occasionally acts as a cash drop for the local Chechen mob. Two amateur thieves rob the bar, which creates tension between Marv and the Chechen mob, putting the lives of Bob and Marv at risk if they aren’t able to recover the stolen money.

Throughout the film we learn more about Marv and Bob’s pasts, their attempt and ultimate failure at establishing a gang when they were young and Marv’s reverberating desire to be infamous. Family ties play an important role in Marv and Bob’s relationship as they work to ensure their own survival.

Early on in the film Bob finds an abused puppy in a garbage can one night on his way home from work. This is how he comes to know Nadia (Noomi Rapace) a young woman with a troubled past and problematic ex. The puppy, who Bob names Rocco, is a catalase for Bob and Nadia’s friendship.

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I would hate to say too much more about the plot for fear of spoiling your experience of the complexities of these characters and the many layers at play throughout the plot.

The Drop is a very well crafted script directed with precision by Michaël R. Roskam (Bullhead) in his English-language directing debut. Hardy, Rapace and Gandolfini bring expertly bring Dennis Lehane’s narrative to life. This film is extremely satisfying to watch, I highly recommend it.

Currently showing at The State Theater and other nearby locations.