Movies Theaters Searchable, up-to-the-minute movie times for all area theaters can be found at rochestercitynewspaper.com, and on City’s mobile website.
Film
Brockport Strand 93 Main St, Brockport, 637-3310, rochestertheatermanagement.com
Canandaigua Theatres 3181 Townline Road, Canandaigua, 396-0110, rochestertheatermanagement.com
Cinema Theater 957 S. Clinton St., 271-1785, cinemarochester.com
Culver Ridge 16 2255 Ridge Rd E, Irondequoit 544-1140, regmovies.com
Dryden Theatre 900 East Ave., 271-3361, dryden.eastmanhouse.org
Eastview 13 Eastview Mall, Victor 425-0420, regmovies.com
Geneseo Theatres Geneseo Square Mall, 243-2691, rochestertheatermanagement.com
Greece Ridge 12 176 Greece Ridge Center Drive 225-5810, regmovies.com
Henrietta 18 525 Marketplace Drive 424-3090, regmovies.com
The Little 240 East Ave., 258-0444 thelittle.org
Movies 10 2609 W. Henrietta Road 292-0303, cinemark.com
Pittsford Cinema 3349 Monroe Ave., 383-1310 pittsford.zurichcinemas.com
Tinseltown USA/IMAX 2291 Buffalo Road 247-2180, cinemark.com
Webster 12 2190 Empire Blvd., 888-262-4386, amctheatres.com
Vintage Drive In 1520 W Henrietta Rd., Avon 226-9290, vintagedrivein.com
Film Previews on page 22
Catharsis without the dignity of tragedy [ REVIEW ] BY GEORGE GRELLA
“The Purge” (R), DIRECTED BY JAMES DEMONACO NOW PLAYING
Like it or not, popular film, like other popular arts, often reflects important currents and significant truths appropriate to its time and place, providing a telling commentary on its cultural context. All those familiar summer blockbusters, for example, suggest some not entirely inspiring notions about the movie-going public’s demand for the constant bombardment of sound and spectacle that rattles the cineplexes all over this great nation. Occasionally, however, a relatively
modest, straightforward shocker like “The Purge” articulates some disturbing concepts within its simple situation and events. Set in the foreseeable future of 2022, the movie, a combination of thriller, horror, and science fiction, outlines a reasonably plausible circumstance, the notion that the federal government, under the direction of a body the media in the picture call “the new founding fathers,” celebrates an annual Purge Day, 12 hours when the good folk of this nation can release a year’s worth of pent-up rage and frustration in any way they choose, with no interference from law enforcement, firefighters, or medical personnel. As grainy video footage shows, the policy creates a night of extreme violence, with armed citizens, usually in groups, attacking any victim they find with their allowed weapons, including baseball bats, axes, machetes, shotguns, submachine guns, and so on (apparently no bazookas are permitted). The movie focuses on James Sandin (Ethan Hawke), a most successful salesman of home-
A still from “The Purge.” PHOTO COURTESY BLUMHOUSE FILMS
security systems, a necessity for those who can afford them, who settles into his gated mansion in an upscale neighborhood with his family to sit out Purge Night in safety, watching the mayhem on TV. The nuclear family suffers from a few problems — Sandin’s petulant teenage daughter Zoey (Adelaide Kane) is dating an unsuitable young man and his thoughtful, sensitive son Charlie (Max Burkholder) questions the whole notion of the Purge and a career built on it. Sandin explains that the Purge actually diminishes crime, because the people who can afford weapons and defenses vent their anger against the underclass — the homeless, minorities, people roaming the streets who might commit criminal acts and who therefore somehow deserve to be punished or even eliminated. That theory works out in reality when Charlie opens one of their steel doors to allow a wounded black man fleeing from a mob (Edwin Hodge) into the home. An armed crew of crazies, led by a slick-talking young man (Rhys Wakefield) shows up, politely requesting the return of the victim — he calls him a swine — so that he and his friends can finish him off. Otherwise, they will demolish the security system and punish the whole Sandin family. The family’s dilemma in a perverse way recalls those wonderful days of the Cold War, when people debated the ethics of excluding neighbors from their backyard bomb shelters. Torn between sacrificing an innocent man and withstanding an
Classic Tracks Current Grooves Future Legends FOR REAL JAZZ IN ROCHESTER, TUNE TO 90.1 FM OR JAZZ901.ORG. Visit us at the XRIJF, where we will be broadcasting live each day on Jazz (Gibbs) Street! 20 CITY JUNE 12-18, 2013