MOVIE TIMES. TRAILERS. REVIEWS. Humboldt Youth Expo at Redwood Acres in June. Reserve by calling 445-3037. Plays in the Park holds open auditions for The Roaring Girl on April 16 and 17 from 6-8 p.m. at the Redwood Lounge in Redwood Park, Arcata. Email skycladtheater@gmail.com or visit www. playsinthepark.net. The Mateel Community Center is accepting applications for Artists of the Emerald Coast (deadline April 15) and the Community Fine Arts Tent at Summer Arts (deadline May 15). Email samarttent@yahoo.com or call 513-5566. Redwood Memorial Foundation announces scholarships for Redwood Memorial Hospital employees, high school seniors and community members. Deadline is March 31. For more information call 725-7270 or email jennifer.partsafas@ stjoe.org. The 38th annual Folklife Festival is seeking musicians. Submit a description of your music and full songs as weblinks to nancy@humboldtfolklife. org, or mail a CD to HFF Planning Committee, PO Box 1061, Arcata CA 95518, by April 18. The Friends of the Dunes Get Outside Gear Sale is accepting donations for its April 9 event. Drop items off at the Humboldt Coastal Nature Center or either Adventure’s Edge location. Call 444-1397 for more information. Call for artists for the BeeFest 2016 Art Show: “A Taste of Honey.” Deadline for submissions is Mar. 31. For more information, call Lorna at 443-4424. Arcata Soroptimists offer scholarships for seniors attending high school in Arcata and a local student attending Humboldt State University. Applications are available in the attendance office at Arcata High School, at www.2.humboldt. edu/finaid/scholarships.html, at the College of the Redwoods financial aid office and by emailing Scholarships@ Redwoods.edu or siarcata@ soroptimist.net. Alder Bay Assisted Living is seeking artists for its annual Art and Wine Event on April 30. Contact Emily at activities@alderbayalf.com or call 273-6474 for more information. Deadline for submissions is April 1. Dream Quest invites local youth to apply for college scholarships. Call (530) 629-3564 or email dreamquestwillowcreek@hotmail.com. Deadline is April 15, 2016. Ferndale Rep offers a $500 scholarship to a Humboldt County graduating senior pursuing a career in the performing arts. Application deadline is April 1. Visit www.ferndalerep.org/educate or email info@ferndalerep.org. Humboldt Area Center for Harm Reduction seeks donations of clean and gently used coats, sleeping bags/blankets, socks, gloves and hats for its “Anything Warm” donation drive. For drop off locations, call 601-6221. Volunteers wanted for Eureka VA clinic. Call 269-7502. l
Filmland
DESKTOP:
northcoastjournal.com/MovieTimes
MOBILE:
m.northcoastjournal.com
Milking It
When you realize his awful tribal tattoos are forever.
Allegiant and The Bronze By John J. Bennett
filmland@northcoastjournal.com
Reviews
Browse by title, times and theater.
Mar 24 - Mar 30
Fri Mar 25 – Clueless (1995), Doors @ 7:30 PM, Movie @ 8 PM, Film is $5, Rated PG-13. Sun Mar 27 – The Wizard of Oz (1939), Doors @ 5:30 PM, Movie @ 6 PM, Film is $5, Rated G. Wed Mar 30 – Leftover Salmon, Doors @ 8 PM, $25 adv tix @ Wildberries, $30 tix @ the door, 21+. Highlight: 3/24 – That Indie Night: The Double (2014), Doors are at 6:30 PM, Film starts at 7 PM, Admission is $4, Rated R.
DIVERGENT: ALLEGIANT. The horse is long dead, but let’s to it. These dystopian future scenarios, wherein mostly attractive young people are compelled to fight and kill one another, occasionally becoming heroes in the process, felt tired from the jump. Now, umpteen variations on the theme later, it has become painfully evident that there is nothing of interest left in the tank, creatively or artistically. Not to mention my longstanding, too-often-elaborated-on frustration that Hollywood refuses to look for inspiration beyond bestseller lists and box office successes of decades past. Now that I’ve mentioned it: Do we really need eight movies straight from the pages of middling young adult fiction? Of course we don’t. Our desires are of little import. I’m referring, ham-handedly, to the obvious parallels between this, the Divergent series, and the equally lamentable Hunger Games tent-pole. The fans and the purists will surely cry foul, elucidating the critical differences between them. But squint your eyes and it’s tough to tell them apart. The latter, of course, has the advantage of Jennifer Lawrence, a bona fide movie star with the acting chops and screen presence to almost elevate the material. Divergent has at its center Shailene Woodley, a talented, likeable young actor, but one whose most pronounced attribute is the manifestation of vulnerability — a weird fit for an action hero, and one that’s more pronounced and puzzling with each installment.
Allegiant is the third installment in Divergent series. In a ruined future Chicago, society has been divided according to the attributes of its citizens. Tris Prior (Woodley) learns that she is classified Divergent, that she transcends class divisions. She teams up with some blandly attractive people and spends two movies smashing the system. This brings us to the beginning of Allegiant wherein, system smashed, Tris and her cohort feel compelled to find out what’s left of the world outside the city walls. Turns out there isn’t much left, and it’s populated by high-minded kidnappers-cum-eugenicists led by an ambitious corporate shill named David (Jeff Daniels); conflict ensues. To be honest, there is so little substance to the narrative here that it becomes difficult to even recall the skeleton of the plot. This may be due in part to the division of one novel into two feature length movies — a well-tested formula, guaranteed to result in failure — but there may not have been a whole lot there in the first place. This presents a curious and unfortunate conflict. The Divergent movies are thoughtfully directed, intermittently beautiful in their art direction and production design, and boast some impressive talent among the cast (Miles Teller does solid work, Naomi Watts and Octavia Spencer appear in supporting roles), but they are straight-up boring. Watching this installment, I struggled to piece together the incidents of the previous two. And I’d seen them both in Continued on next page »
northcoastjournal.com • NORTH COAST JOURNAL • Thursday, March 24, 2016
29