Star City Blog / Theatre & Film

Get Low Featuring Bill Murray and Robert Duvall Opens at The Ross 8/27

For years, townsfolk have been terrified of the backwoods recluse known as Felix Bush (Robert Duvall). People say he’s done all manner of unspeakable things -- that he’s killed in cold blood; that he’s in league with the Devil; that he has strange powers -- and they avoid him like the plague. Then, one day, Felix rides to town with a shotgun and a wad of cash, saying he wants to buy a funeral. It’s not your usual funeral for the dead Felix wants. On the contrary, he wants a “living funeral,” in which anyone who ever had heard a story about him will come to tell it, while he takes it all in.

Exit Through the Gift Shop Opening at The Ross 8/27

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, the first film by renowned graffiti artist Banksy, became the hottest ticket at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival where it made its world debut. Banksy is a graffiti artist with a global reputation whose work can be seen on walls from post-hurricane New Orleans to the separation barrier on the Palestinian West Bank. Fiercely guarding his anonymity to avoid prosecution, Banksy has so far resisted all attempts to be captured on film.

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP tells the incredible true story of how an eccentric French shop keeper turned documentary maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner – with spectacular results. The film contains exclusive footage of Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Invader and many of the world’s most infamous graffiti artists at work, on walls and in interview. As Banksy describes it, “It’s basically the story of how one man set out to film the un-filmable. And failed”

Joan Rivers: "A Piece of Work" Opening at The Ross

Opening at The Ross on Friday, August 13, JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK exposes the private dramas of irreverent, legendary comedian and pop icon Joan Rivers as she fights tooth and nail to keep her American dream alive.

“Joan Rivers is a comic force of nature, and this no-bull documentary offers a profanely hilarious peek into the 75th year of her life, on the road and off. Fasten your seat belts,” opines Peter Travers writing for Rolling Stone.

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky Opening at the Ross

Opening at The Ross on Friday, August 13, COCO CHANEL & IGOR STRAVINSKY is a sumptuous recreation of 1920s France and the unbridled affair between two of the century's most iconic figures, one that charts how art and culture, style and genius made the sparks fly in the heady encounter between Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky.

New York Observer film critic Rex Reed writes, “Exquisitely designed, lushly photographed, beautifully acted, this historic footnote to the secret lives of two of the most brilliant and fascinating people of the 20th century is absolutely mesmerizing.”  He continues, “Who knew they were lovers?”

'Blood into Wine' @ The Ross

A documentary on Tool/Puscifer front man Maynard James Keenan and his vineyard partner Eric Glomski's mission to bring notoriety and respect to Northern Arizona’s burgeoning wine industry, opening at The Ross on Friday, August 6, BLOOD INTO WINE takes viewers into the struggles and triumphs of making wine with a unique blend of comedy and master storytelling.
 
“This well-made film chronicles the sweat, tears, false starts and massive expenditures involved in getting such an operation up and running,” according to Robert W. Butler, film critic for the Kansas City Star.

'Micmacs' @ The Ross

AMELIE director Jean-Pierre Jeunet brings his trademark style and whimsy back to the screen with this French film, MICMACS À TIRE-LARIGOT, opening at The Ross on Friday, July 23, starring Dany Boon and also features Jeunet favorites André Dussollier, Dominique Piñon, and Yolande Moreau.
 
Los Angeles Times film critic Betsy Sharkey writes, “[MICMACS is] A whimsical whirligig of a movie filled with salvaged metal and salvaged lives, where a bullet to the brain brings insight and a bunch of clever misfits bring a couple of weapons-making giants to their knees. What fun.”
 
“An exploded grandfather clock of a movie, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's intricately antic MICMACS hurls gears, gizmos, and other trash-heap objets d'art at the audience,” according to Village Voice film critic Brian Miller.

UPC and The Ross Present 'Movies on the Green 2010'

The stars will shine again on the University Of Nebraska-Lincoln campus as the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center and the University Program Council unspool the annual Jensen’s Cinema 16 Collection Movies on the Green 2010 series.
 
The theme for this year’s series is “comedies.” 
 
Opening on Thursday, July 29, and continuing on the next three consecutive Thursday evenings, this year’s series begins with Frank Capra’s Oscar winning screwball comedy IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert.

'Sweetgrass' @ The Ross

At once tender and unsentimental, opening at The Ross on Friday, July 9, SWEETGRASS gracefully captures the beauty and hardships of a dying way of life.
 
Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan opines, “SWEETGRASS is an unexpectedly intoxicating documentary, unexpected because it blends high artistic standards with the grueling reality of one of the toughest, most exhausting of work environments.”
 
“This slyly transcendental documentary consists of long, mostly wordless takes of sheep, cowboys, and the divine Montana mountains they wander through for 200 miles,” according to Owen Gleiberman, film critic for Entertainment Weekly.
 
SWEETGRASS is showing at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center on Friday, July 9 through Thursday, July 15.  Show times are available at www.TheRoss.org, by consulting your newspaper, or by calling the MRRMAC film information line at 402.472.5353.

'Please Give' @ The Ross

Opening at The Ross on Friday, July 9, PLEASE GIVE is an almost perfectly rendered slice of life, buoyant with wonderful performances; an insightful, darkly funny, multilayered character study about class and family.
 
“PLEASE GIVE is one of those movies that can be enjoyed simply for its funny portraits of human foibles and fumbling grasps at intimacy – but it's also deceivingly profound,” according to Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday.
 
Roger Ebert writes in the Chicago Sun-Times, “[PLEASE GIVE] is about imperfect characters in a difficult world, who mostly do the best they can under the circumstances, but not always.”  He continues, “Do you realize what a revolutionary approach that is for a movie these days?”
 
PLEASE GIVE is showing at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center on Friday, July 9 through Thursday, July 22.  Show times are available at www.TheRoss.org, by consulting your newspaper, or by calling the MRRMAC film information line at 402.472.5353. The Motion Picture Association of America has rated PLEASE GIVE R for language, some sexual comedy, and nudity.

NT Live: 'London Assurance' @ The Ross

The hugely successful pilot season of NT Live, the new initiative by the National Theatre to broadcast live performances of plays onto cinema screens worldwide, will end with an addition to the original schedule: a live broadcast of Boucicault’s brilliantly funny Victorian comedy LONDON ASSURANCE, starring Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw in Nicholas Hytner’s sell-out hit production, filmed live at the National Theatre in London on June 28.
 
LONDON ASSURANCE will be screened at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, June 28.  Show times  and admission information are available at www.TheRoss.org, by consulting your newspaper, or by calling the MRRMAC film information line at 402.472.5353.