At the Movies

Slim pickings

By JOYCE & DON FOWLER
Posted 8/14/19

It has been a long, hot and disappointing summer at the movies. Friends still call and ask, What's good out there?" There are only two "Don't miss" summer movies that we can unequivocally recommend: The Lion King and Yesterday. My daughter buys a"

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At the Movies

Slim pickings

Posted

It has been a long, hot and disappointing summer at the movies.

Friends still call and ask, “What’s good out there?” There are only two “Don’t miss” summer movies that we can unequivocally recommend: The Lion King and Yesterday.

My daughter buys a package deal at the Showcase that requires seeing three movies a month, and she has had trouble finding three she wants to see.

Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood are OK if you like those types of movies.

Thank goodness, there’s always the Avon.

R.I. International Film Festival

We spent last week at the Rhode Island International Film Festival, watching over 100 movies – mostly shorts – from all over the world and missing the five mediocre movies that opened at the Showcase. Last year, the Oscar winning documentary short came from our own Rhode Island festival, and there’s a good chance it could happen again.

Moviemakers and fans from around the world came to Rhode Island to present their movies, which were shown from Westerly to Woonsocket, including the Cranston Public Library.

We spent most of our time at The Vets, RI School of Design and Johnson & Wales, seeing some great films and some that had us scratching our heads.

We have attended the festival since its beginning, 23 years ago and have seen the quality of the films improve every year. Over the weeklong festival, we saw close to 100 short films.

“A Sister,” the thrilling story of a 911 call, won grand prize for short film, and we both concur. “My Moon” tied for first prize in animated short. We would have liked to have seen more animated shorts.

We also enjoyed a short documentary on the life of Valerie Perrine, with input by the beautiful and talented actress who is now bedridden with Parkinson’s disease. It won a first prize in its category.

Cranston’s own Sal Mancini tied for first place in the New England director’s category for “Devine Providence,” a compelling historical look at the growth of Providence from Roger Williams to today. His shots of the city’s architecture are incredible.

AVENGERS ENDGAME

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