Friday, November 6, 2009
Lawrence premiere: "The Only Good Indian" @ Liberty Hall
Tonight is the local premiere of Lawrence director Kevin's Willmott's latest film, which was shot in Kansas during the summer of 2007 by a Lawrence-based crew. "The Only Good Indian" features newcomer Winter Fox Frank, who plays a teenager taken from his family during the early 1900s and forcibly sent to Haskell under government orders to integrate into white society. He escapes with the intention of returning to his tribe on the Kickapoo of Kansas reservation. Wes Studi portrays a Cherokee bounty hunter hired to recapture the student, and J. Kenneth Campbell plays a legendary “Indian fighter”-turned-sheriff who ultimately pursues them both. Read our full preview of this event, featuring an interview with Willmott.
First Fridays, art exhibits in the Crossroads Arts District
The best excuse to burn a tank of gas to Kansas City is First Fridays, a monthly artwalk that showcases dozens of galleries in the Crossroads Art District of Kansas City (neighborhood of 18th and Grand). Besides the opportunity to see new works from KC's finest artists, many galleries offer free food and drink as well as live music. It's a mad scene so arrive early to get a leg up on the crowds.
Joshua Radin / The Watson Twins @ Granada
This singer-songwriter's evocative, whispery tunes gained a wide following in part thanks to frequent appearances on TV shows like Grey's Anatomy or One Tree Hill. Openening are indie folk singing duo The Watson Twins, who were formerly known as Black Swan, until their 2006 recent collaboration with Jenny Lewis won their given name considerable attention. More info on this event.
Valient Thorr / Architects / Mansion @ The Jackpot
Recalling acts like Thin Lizzy, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Iron Maiden, Valient Thorr is a spastic riff-a-thon machine with barely decipherable vocals and harmonized hammer-ons. The band claims a kindred spirit in the MC5, which epitomized the rock-and-roll-can-save-the-world mentality that every hard-working band aspires to. Figure in a viking-sheik fashion sense and you're beginning to understand what Valient Thorr is all about.
Hybrid Momentsss with Iggy Baby @ The Tap Room
This monthly dance party features a bit of disco, a bit of house, a bit of boogie, a bit of techno, a bit of hip-hop, a bit more of this, and a ton more of that from Iggy Baby, the mustachioed deckmaster who also spins at NEON.
See the full calendar for tonight
And new in movies...
The Men Who Stare At Goats
A fun tone is undermined by disjointed storytelling in George Clooney and Grant Heslov's romp based on Jon Ronson's amusing book about the U.S. military's research into psychic warfare and espionage. The movie opens with the promise of a "Catch-22" or "Strangelove"-style satire, but the dots of absurdity just don't connect that well. Read our full review. 
Fourth Kind
This flat-lining thriller buries an interesting idea (an Alaska psychologist's research into patients' reports of alien abduction) under a barrage of gimmicky, carnival-like hokum. The movie's unwieldy mix of degraded pseudo-documentary footage and "Unsolved Mystery"-style re-enactments is as unconvincing as it is distancing. 
The Box
Cameron Diaz and James Marsden have a moral dilemma: Press a button on a mysterious container and they'll get $1 million, but someone they don't know will die. What button did writer-director Richard Kelly push to get the money to make this hammy, preposterous thriller, expanded from a 1980s "Twilight Zone" episode?