The Invite, July 9, State Theatre
A remake of the Spanish film, The People Upstairs, The Invite, directed by Oliva Wilde, focuses on two couples, Joe and Angela, whose marriage is on thin ice, and neighbors Pina and Hawk. Angela invites the couple to dinner at their apartment without consulting Joe, who comes home from work with guests thrust upon him. To insult them he confronts them about their loud sex life. All of this leads to an evening of brutally honest conversations about marriage and partners’ insecurities, sometimes hilarious and many time deeply uncomfortable. One reviewer summed it up like this, “As a married person, The Invite is a tough watch, and I mean that in the best way possible.”
Starring Seth Rogan, Oliva Wilde, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton.
Rose of Nevada, July 10, State Theatre
A ship that disappeared more than thirty years ago, along with its crew, appears again in a remote fishing village. The locals take this as a sign of good luck for their failing local economy and send three fishermen out to sea in the boat. Each man has a personal reason for the voyage, but when they arrive home the year seems to be 1993. Writer/director Mark Jenkin has created a cross between a psychological drama and a folktale. Shot on a 16 mm camera and all its sound added in post to give the film a dreamy, hallucinatory ambiance, this is a film that benefits greatly from seeing it in a theater. Categorized as a science fiction drama, Rose of Navada promises something more unique than your usual movie fare.
Starring George MacKay and Callum Turner.
Motor City, July 24, State Theatre
Set in 1970s Detroit, Alan Ritchson plays John Miller, a tough, blue-collar auto worker, and Ben Foster is a gangster named Reynolds. It opens with a spectacular fight scene between the two and then backtracks to show what transpired before. It seems John was set up to take the fall for a robbery which lands him a 25-year prison sentence causing him to lose everything, including his girlfriend played by Shailene Woodley. This is a movie that experiments with visual storytelling while using very sparse dialogue. Director Potsy Ponciroli is a former music/video director and writer Chad St. John penned 2018’s Peppermint. This is a good, old-fashioned, high action, gritty, revenge flick, with a killer soundtrack. Motor City might be the kind of pick-me-up audiences are looking for.
Also, with Lionel Boyce and Jack White.
