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Star Tribune
Minnesota Daily

I’d be a lot more bummed about this had the facility not spent the last two years operating in a state far more offensive than death. I’ve seen, I think, one movie in the last 12 months there (the appropriately requiem-tinged Let’s Get Lost), as opposed to my twice or thrice a month treks there up until the Jamie Hook/MFA meltdown of 2006. (And even immediately after that, I managed to pay my respects when they managed to get stuff worthy of their lost reputation, like Satantango.) And I have to admit that there may indeed be something to the arguement that closing a certified money pit might help the MFA shore up their assets and do something other than be a major tax writeoff for Bob Cowgill, et al.

While Oak St. was number one for at least the first four years after I came home to the Twin Cities after college, I’ve since came to the realization that there are, at least (and I mean that literally), some other venues in the area that will, I hope, pick up the slack.

For instance, the “New” Parkway Theater is offering a series of screwball that I’m admittedly only excited about in a theoretical sense. But this, coming off the noir series earlier this year, is an encouraging sign. Nevermind that most of the selected movies in either series are more or less easily seen canonical fixtures. The same went for Oak St. retrospectives, frankly.

Additionally, the Walker Art Center is keeping things adveturous, as per usual. Heck, even Landmark is going through one of those periods where the post-Oscar blahs manage to push some interesting options onto the few screens not reserved for the 14th weeks of Juno and No Country for Old Men — mainly 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, but also the latest from André Téchiné and Gus Van Sant in the coming weeks.

So it’s not all bad going into the M-SPIFF preseason. Just mostly bad.

La Hainerade | 4 Comments »