Time for yer old pal Keith to get his typing fingers all stretched and nimble, because the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival starts on April 8. And that means lots of extra listings in this space. Next Wednesday, I'll publish my annual Educated Guesser's Guide to help you navigate the fest.
As always, I want to make sure that the rest of what's happening doesn't get swallowed up by MSPIFF. The Trylon starts its Michael Mann month with Thief this weekend. (Do I really want to watch Heat in a roomful of dudes who've each seen it eight times already? Will it sell out before I even decide?) Hitchcock keeps a Hitchcockin' at the Heights. The Parkway is gonna totally Ghibli out for April. And there are plenty more goodies you'll find if you just keep on readin'.
Oh, and finally, I haven't had time to yet to write about Mascha Schilinski's Sound of Falling but it absolutely floored me in a way I can't do justice to in a quick sentence.
Special Screenings
Thursday, April 2
Souleymane’s Story (2025)
Capri Theater
An African refugee seeks asylum in France. Full review here. $5. 7 p.m. More info here.
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Emagine Willow Creek
RIP Rob Reiner (as well as multiple drummers). $12. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Psycho (1960)
Heights Theater
A secretary steals $40,000 from her boss. $13. 7 p.m. More info here.
Blade Runner (1982)
Parkway Theater
Fun idea for a series this month: Movies set in a future year that is now the past. $9/$12. Trivia at 7:30 p.m. Movie at 8 p.m. More info here.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Grandview 1&2
Monkeys get smart, kill, go to space. $14.14. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Dog Star Man (1961-1964)
Walker Art Center
Stan Brakhage’s experimental film classic. $6/$8. 7 p.m. More info here.
Friday, April 3
The Fifth Element (1997)
Heights Theater
Earth, air, fire, water, and Milla. $13. 9:45 p.m. More info here.
Scream It Off Screen
Parkway Theater
Shout at local short films you think are bad. $18/$25. 8 p.m. More info here.
Thief (1981)
Trylon
Oh no, not “one more job.” That’s always trouble! $8. Friday-Saturday 7 & 9:30 p.m. Sunday 3 & 5:30 p.m. More info here.
Saturday, April 4
Pandas (2018)
AMC Southdale
Just what it says—and in 3D IMAX, no less. $6.50. 10:15 a.m. More info here.
The Yeti (2026)
AMC Southdale
Abominable! $13.99. 9 p.m. Wednesday 8 p.m. More info here.
Clue—The Movie (1985)
Fitzgerald Theater
Haha, those prices, come on. $57.25-$92.57. 8 p.m. More info here.
The Jungle Book (1967)
Heights Theater
George Saunders stalked so Jeremy Irons could sprint. $13. 11 a.m. More info here.
Blue Velvet (1986)
Heights Theater
I hear that small-town America has a dark underside. $13. 9:45 p.m. More info here.
The Giant Spider Invasion (1975)
Main Cinema
Not sure what this one's about. Presented by Midnight Mayhem. $11. 10 p.m. More info here.
Groundhog Day (1993)
Park Square Theater
Because winter hasn’t really ended yet. Presented by the Picturegoer Film Club. $10. 7 p.m. More info here.
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Parkway Theater
Excellent voice work from the Fanning sisters. $5-$10. 1 p.m. More info here.
Sunday, April 5
The Killer (1989)
Alamo Drafthouse/AMC Southdale/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
A newly restored version of the John Woo classic. Alamo: $7. 4:15 p.m. Monday 6:30 p.m. Tuesday 7:30 p.m. More info here. AMC: $13.99. 4 & 7 p.m. Monday & Wednesday 7 p.m. More info here. Emagine: $13. 4 & 7 p.m. Monday & Wednesday 7 p.m. More info here. Marcus: Also Monday & Wednesday. $10.50. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Grandview 1&2
Starting at 9:15? You’re killin’ me, Grandview. Also Thursday. $14.14. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Emagine Willow Creek
Remember when Tom Wambsgans was Mr. Darcy? Also Wednesday. $11. 3 & 6:15 p.m. More info here.
Maps to the Stars (2014)
Lagoon Cinema
Cronenberg does Hollywood. $11. Noon. More info here.
Marc by Sofia (2026)
Parkway Theater
That’s Jacobs and Coppola. $15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Repo: The Genetic Opera (2008)
Roxy’s Cabaret
In a future world, you can buy organs on an installment plan. Also, there's singing. Free. 7 p.m. More info here.
Manhunter (1986)
Trylon
RIP Tom Noonan. $8. 8 p.m. 7 & 9:30 p.m. More info here.
Monday, April 6
The Best of Betty Boop
Alamo Drafthouse
Newly restored animated classics. $13.99. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Edina Mann
Starting at a more humane hour in Edina. Also Wednesday. $12.12. 7 p.m. More info here.
Dark Water (2002)
Emagine Willow Creek
It’s Japanese horror month at Emagine. $9. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Marcus Mystery Movie
Marcus West End
A secret new movie. $6. 7 p.m. More info here.
Tuesday, April 7
Castration Movie Anthology I. Traps (2024)
Alamo Drafthouse
Ouch! $7. 6:15 p.m. More info here.
Hush: The Shush Cut (2016)
Alamo Drafthouse
The black and white version of the cult classic. $10.99. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Coexistence, My Ass! (2025)
Alamo Drafthouse
A Palestinian activist becomes a standup comic. $7. 6:30 p.m. More info here.
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Parkway Theater
Hey, 2015 wasn’t like that at all. $9/$12. Trivia at 7:30 p.m. Movie at 8 p.m. More info here.
Wednesday, April 8
Faces of Death (2026)
Alamo Drafthouse
Advance screening of new flick riffing off the notorious original. $13.99. 6:30 p.m. More info here.
Mermaid (2026)
Alamo Drafthouse
Advance screening of the gritty Splash reboot. $13.99. 7 p.m. More info here.
Secret Movie Night
Emagine Willow Creek
A mystery movie chosen by a local notable. $12. 7 p.m. More info here.
Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story (2026)
Main Cinema
The Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival kicks off with a doc about the great Duluth comedian. $45. 6:45 & 6:50 p.m. More info here.
Everybody To Kenmure Street (2026)
Main Cinema
How the Scots fought back against an anti-immigrant raid. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $45. 7 p.m. Friday (at Edina Mann) 4:15 p.m. More info here.
Vinyl (2000)
Trylon
A look at obsessive collectors. (Are there any other kind?) Presented by Sound Unseen. $13. 7 p.m. More info here.
Thursday, April 9
City on Fire (1987)
Alamo Drafthouse
Tarantino “borrowed” a lot from here for Reservoir Dogs. $13.99. 6:15 p.m. More info here.
Dead Deer High (2026)
Capri Theater
High school slam poets prepare for competition. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $17.7 p.m. Saturday (at Main Cinema) 4:20 p.m. More info here.
Seized (2026)
Edina Mann
A documentary about an illegal raid on a small-town Kansas newspaper. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $17. 2:30 p.m. Friday 1:50 p.m. More info here.
Don’t Call Me Mama (2025)
Edina Mann
A married high school teacher falls in love with a young asylum seeker. Uh oh. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $17. 4:45 p.m. Monday (at Main Cinema) 4:40 p.m. More info here.
Lovely Day (2025)
Edina Mann
A very anxious Lebanese-Canadian man gets married. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $75 (includes reception at Raag Indian Cuisine). 7 p.m. Friday (at Main Cinema) 6:50 p.m. More info here.
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Emagine Willow Creek
Emagine's Rob Reiner tribute continues. $12. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Rear Window (1954)
Heights Theater
Men would rather watch Raymond Burr through a telescope than have sex with Grace Kelly. $13. 7 p.m. More info here.
Zelensky (2025)
Main Cinema
Doc about the Ukrainian leader. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $17. 1 p.m. Monday 1:45 p.m. More info here.
God Will Not Help (2025)
Main Cinema
He never does, does he? Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $17. 1:10 p.m. Wednesday 4:20 p.m. More info here.
Oca (2025)
Main Cinema
A nun travels on a motorcycle to seek help from an archbishop. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $17. 1:15 p.m. 11:05 p.m. More info here.
Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] (2025)}
Main Cinema
Documentary about an organization that works to return Indigenous remains to their proper burial grounds. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $17. 1:20 p.m. Monday (at Edina Mann) 2:30 p.m. More info here.
Carolina Carolina (2025)
Main Cinema
Samara Weaving goes on a southern crime spree with a con man. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $17. 1:30 p.m. Friday 9:30 p.m. More info here.
Ordinary People (1980)
Main Cinema
Based on the novel by Minnesota writer Judith Guest, who will be in attendance. $17. 3:40 p.m. More info here.
Give Me the Ball (2026)
Main Cinema
Liz Garbus doc about Billie Jean King. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $17. 3:45 p.m. Sunday 11:20 a.m. More info here.
Orphan (2025)
Main Cinema
A child comes of age amid family and political turmoil in ’50s Hungary. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $17. 4 p.m. Monday 1:15 p.m. More info here.
Kurak (2025)
Main Cinema
This film combines documentary footage and fictional accounts to examine women’s rights in Kyrgyzstan. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $17. 4:10 p.m. Monday 2:10 p.m. More info here.
One in a Million (2026)
Main Cinema
A young Syrian refugee comes of age in Germany. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $17. 4:15 p.m. Thursday (at Edina Mann) at 4:45 p.m. More info here.
The Captive (2025)
Main Cinema
Cervantes goes to jail. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $17. 6:50 p.m. Sunday 11 a.m. More info here.
The Christophers (2025)
Main Cinema
Michaela Coel, Ian McKellan, and Steven Soderbergh? I’m in. James Corden too? Oh well, you can’t win ’em all. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $17. 6:55 p.m. Saturday (at Edina Mann) 7 p.m. More info here.
Shorts 1: We Grow Up Fast
Main Cinema
A selection of short coming-of-age films. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $17. 7 p.m. More info here.
Levitating (2025)
Main Cinema
An Indonesian shaman faces eviction. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $17. 7:05 p.m. Saturday 9:20 p.m. More info here.
Benita (2025)
Main Cinema
A documentary about the experimental filmmaker Benita Raphan. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $17. 7:10 p.m. Tuesday 1:50 p.m. More info here.
Normal (2026)
Main Cinema
Bob Odenkirk is a small-town Minnesota cop (even if this was filmed in Canada). Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $13. 9:15 p.m. Saturday 9:55 p.m. More info here.
Nino (2025)
Main Cinema
A weekend in the life of a young man about to begin chemo for throat cancer. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $13. 9:30 p.m. Tuesday 4:20 p.m. More info here.
Black Rabbit, White Rabbit (2025)
Main Cinema
An Iranian film about three different events that turn out to be related. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $13. 9:35 p.m. Thursday 9:30 p.m. More info here.
Exit 8 (2025)
Main Cinema
A man is trapped in an eerie, ever-changing subway. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $13. 9:40 p.m. More info here.
Hold Onto Me (2026)
Main Cinema
An 11 year old tracks down her absent father. Part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. $13. 9:45 p.m. Friday 7:15 p.m. More info here.
Last Things (2023)
Walker Art Center
Filmmaker Deborah Stratman studies rocks to understand life. $12/$15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Opening
Follow the links for showtimes.
Bunny!!
Two buddies have to hide a dead body.
The Drama
I just found out the premise of this movie and WHAT?
Fantasy Life
An unemployed paralegal falls for his psychologist’s daughter while babysitting her kids. A lot goin’ on in that sentence.
A Great Awakening
This week’s “faith-based” offering.
Miroirs No. 3
In the latest from director Christian Petzold, a woman comes to live with a witness to the car accident that killed her boyfriend.
Palestine 36
Will I understand this if I missed Palestine 35?
Raakaasaa
The title of every Indian movie makes it sound like the most badass thing you'll ever see.
Ongoing in Local Theaters
Follow the links for showtimes.
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist
André is an Idiot—ends April 2
Marc by Sofia—ends April 2
A Magnificent Life—ends April 2
Project Hail Mary
Anyone who has a heart will love this adorably techno-optimistic film about Ryan Gosling buddying up with an intelligent alien who looks like a rock as they save the galaxy together. I guess so, anyway—I’m extrapolating from the fact that even a soulless monster like me thought it was pretty cute. Interstellar parasites are gobbling up the stars, including our sun, and as will happen when the Earth is in danger, only a middle school science teacher can save the day. Ryland Grace (which sounds like a name Gosling would give if he wanted to check into a hotel in secret) is recruited by a grim German bureaucrat (the great Sandra Hüller, who deserves all the Hollywood blockbuster cash that comes her way) to research these solar gluttons. His insights prove so invaluable he’s sent on a suicide mission to the only star that’s proven impervious to the baddies to learn how to counteract them. There he meets an alien scientist on the same quest for his own world, who he dubs Rocky, and both species work together to etc. etc. as their unique friendship and so on and so forths. Drew Goddard’s script, adapted from the much-loved Andy Weir novel, has the same plucky scientific spirit as Goddard’s script of Weir’s The Martian, and Gosling remains likeable as ever, though I do wish he’d find some new ways to be likeable. The pleased laughter all around me at the screening was so delightful I felt left out a little. Maybe someday when the wizard grants me a heart I’ll give this another go. B
Sirât
Óliver Laxe’s existential desert thriller is certainly overwhelming, if not overstimulating, but also a little exhausting. A portly Spanish dad sets off into the North African desert with his son hoping to locate his adult daughter; there the searchers fall in with a crew of itinerant ravers and trail the dancers’ fitted-out trailers in a far less geographically appropriate minivan. As some sort of military action closes in on the travelers, they slowly learn that the small space of pleasure and community they’ve carved out for themselves will no longer serve as an escape from the wider world. Sergi López (a long way from his role as the fascist stepdad in Pan’s Labyrinth) is excellent as the father, and Laxe gets just the kind of naturalist performances from his non-professional actors as Sirât needs. The dance sequences are tremendous visually and sonically; the settings are a cinematographer’s fantasy, and Mauro Herce does them justice. Laxe concocts a few of the tensest moments in recent cinema—I gasped aloud more than once (though I’m admittedly a pretty jumpy guy)—and no one is safe. (Add this to the 2025 “you can’t protect your kids” canon.) But though he's clearly trying to multiply Friedkin times Antonioni, as the bodies piled up I felt emotionally toyed with. To paraphrase Stalin, one death is a tragedy; a half-dozen or so starts to feel like a melodrama. B
Tow—ends April 2
“Wuthering Heights”—full review here.
Dumb people can make great movies, but Emerald Fennell will never be one of them. The problem with “Wuthering Heights” (yes, I noticed the quotes, very postmodern, wink wink) isn’t that it’s unfaithful to Emily Brontë’s novel. The problem is it’s just worse. Margot Robbie reduces Cathy to a peevish little bitch who somehow gets more childish as she gets older, and as for Jacob Elordi, I’m starting to suspect that his whole career is tall privilege—a Heathcliff that we mostly feel sorry for is no Heathcliff at all. What still rattles us about Brontë is the emotional violence, the psychic degradation, that sense of the demonic that haunts even those of us who don’t believe we have eternal souls. But Fennell is saddled with the sexual imagination of a teen virgin—she’s titillated by sex but also grossed out. She tries to make Wuthering Heights sexier by having Cathy and Heathcliff fuck and then tossing in some peripheral BDSM moments, but that just makes it cornier. And she seems to believe her modern perspective allows her a freedom denied to any benighted 19th century lass. Girl, you cannot be more fucked up than a Brontë sister. Don’t even try it. C-
