C-U Blogfidential

Select movie listings for September 13-19, 2024 in Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond! Did you take a peek at the Image of the week? And, have you memorized the Confidential Almanac for today?

Get outside this summer and enjoy the pleasures of the drive-in theater, whether on National Drive-in Day or any other time they’re showing movies, serving up goodies, and bringing folks together.

Wouldn’t be prudent for us to promote this weekend’s UIUC and ISU student film shows without honoring the 50th anniversary of the UI student-made ‘MaGuffin’ and SHOT as well. Get learned!

Illinois native Shea VanLaningham tried to crack the indie horror market with DEAD BODIES EVERYWHERE some 10 years ago. We thought it had been long buried. We were dead wrong.

To many, THE MAN WHO SAVES THE WORLD might as well have come from outer space. To cult film connoisseurs like Big Bosphorus Media, it instead holds a place in their movie-loving hearts.

Burning Bulb Publishing has released Champaign filmmaker Jeff Kacmarynski’s long-unseen first feature, DISSOLUTION. We speak with the writer/director about it and upcoming projects.

Joseph Tykociner’s fabled sound-on-film apparatus did not find favor in its time. Lenny Lipton provides an appreciation in his new book, ‘The Cinema in Flux,’ from Springer.

As an aside to a tangent, we vicariously saunter about Mother Murphy’s of Normal, IL, thanks to another student project born at Illinois State University, ANYTHING BUT NORMAL. Take a trip with us!

Ye Ed is rooting for the film culture of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, to rebound from the turbulence of recent years. Not everything will survive, such as the theaters he recently photographed.

What is reasonable give-and-take when a city is attempting to improve its central hub? The student project MAKING A MURAL illustrates the issue with an artistic conundrum in Normal, Illinois.

In a restructuring effort by new ownership, the Goodrich Quality Theaters chain has decided to let go of the Savoy 16 IMAX in Savoy, IL. It could reopen if another tenant-operator fills the void.

Nationwide consensus is that small businesses and organizations will get raked over the coals before the pandemic is over. We look at how a first-run, mixed-use, and former movie theater are doing.

The unused Lincoln Square Theatre in downtown Decatur, Illinois, is showing signs of disrepair on its exterior. Residents and officials may be at a tipping point in deciding the fate of the venue.

We’re not sure what to tell you. Chances are good our reel life will give way to real life. It may mean the end, a new beginning, a suspended animation, a salvage mission. Choosing your own misadventure sucks.

BearManor Media released ‘My Best Friend’s Birthday: The Making of a Quentin Tarantino Film’ by Andrew J. Rausch on October 6, 2019. Myths are dispelled, truth is unearthed, and Ye Ed contributes a few words to it!