The New Mexico Filmmakers Showcase returns to the Guild Cinema this weekend. Thursday night is the opening gala. It’ll take place from 6 to 7 p.m. at Laru Ni Hati/Café Cubano (3413 Central NE) with screenings following promptly at 7 p.m. at Guild Cinema. Dozens of features and shorts from amateur, aspiring and professional filmmakers right here in New Mexico will be shown at the four-day, open-sheet screening. Documentaries, comedies, musicals, dramas, horror, sci fi and more are represented, with more than 30 hours’ worth of films screened though Sunday night: You’ve got plenty of time to get over there and check out all the offerings. Admission for any and all screening blocks is free to the public, courtesy of the New Mexico Film Office. For a complete listing of the films and times, log on to nmfilm.com.
Soccer-loving siblings miss the goal in occasionally corny dramedy
By Devin D. O’Leary
The last time Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna hooked up on screen it was in a little film called Y Tu Mamá También. That famously sexy drama, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, became a runaway art house hit, nabbed countless awards and ended up nominated for an Academy Award. Now, seven years later, the actors have reunited for another film with director ... oh, wait, that credit says “Carlos Cuarón.” That’s Alfonso’s little brother. He’s directed a couple of short films. OK, so maybe expectations shouldn’t be so high.
Papal murder mystery actually more exciting than decoding Da Vinci’s paintings
By Devin D. O’Leary
Honestly—even in a fictional world where novelists, mentalists, pastors, caterers, librarians, chefs, ancient Romans and cats are called upon to solve mysteries—Dan Brown’s character Prof. Robert Langdon is among the more preposterous amateur sleuths. He’s a Harvard symbologist, which makes him uniquely suited to solve mysteries in which a member of the baffled police shouts, “Mon Dieu, this man has been murdered! Somebody get me an expert on poetic and artistic symbolism. I suspect an archetype may have been involved.”
Let’s be honest, shall we? Television has never been particularly kind to science fiction. Sure, Rod Serling had a good run on “The Twilight Zone” back in the early ’60s. But even some of TV’s most venerated sci-fi series haven’t had a particularly easy time of it. “Star Trek” is as big a pop cultural touchstone as you can find, having launched five TV series and 11 feature films—including J.J. Abrams’ reboot, which hit theaters last weekend. But the original 1966 series never rose higher than No. 52 in weekly ratings and was canceled in the middle of its third season.
