Paging Mayor Rybak. Block E might have a public image problem on its hands.

As a part of its second live broadcast of a video-version of This American Life, host Ira Glass bought his cast of performers some downtime onstage by giving a shout-out to randomly selected fans in one of 550 theaters around the country.

The tenth winner just so happened to be sitting in our very own AMC theater on Block E, drawing surprised and ecstatic whoops from the audience.

That is, until what Glass said next.More >>

City of Lost Children screens this summer

The Walker Art Center recently released its schedule for its popular and free Summer Music & Movies. The series pairs local bands with film screenings on the green lawn of Loring Park in downtown Minneapolis. This year's theme is "In Dreams," and draws inspiration from the dark and mysterious works featured in the museum's ongoing "Midnight Party" exhibition. So, supplement your summer with some mind-bending flicks in between those big, dumb popcorn blockbusters.

The festival will culminate with a special party on the Walker's Open Lawn featuring a screening of the German Expressionist silent-film masterpiece, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Music each evening starts at 7 p.m. with films at dusk (approximately 8:45 p.m.). All events are free.

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Ira Glass, host of This American Life

For the first time since retracting the most popular episode of This American Life, "Mr. Daisey Goes to the Apple Factory," host Ira Glass is speaking to the media again. He's all done with apologies though -- now it's to encourage listeners to get up out of their easy chairs and into a local movie theater for This American Life -- Live! The one-night only program will be performed live in New York City and simulcast to 550 theaters around the country, including eight in Minnesota.

In a conference call with reporters, Glass answered questions about the line-up for this year's show, but also indulged inquiries about the aftermath of "Retraction" and what Garrison Keillor might be like to get drunk with.

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Photo by Emily Utne.

Civics in Cinema: Likely the only place you'll see Zoo Animal and Ghostbusters in the same night.

It seems like just last month we were sitting in Stevens Square Park, watching Back to the Future while being devoured by mosquitoes.

Apparently, that was closer to a year ago, which means it's almost time for the Cinema and Civics 2012.

The lineup is out, and, per usual, it does not disappoint.

If we had to identify a theme, we'd say movies that are awesome when you're young, but are 10 times better when you revisit them later in life.

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Best-selling author Nicholas Sparks knows a thing or two about romance. His novels -- seven of which have been made into movies -- include The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, The Guardian, and The Last Song. In his latest film, The Lucky One, Sparks tells the story of U.S. Marine Logan Thibault (Zac Efron) who is haunted by memories of death and war after returning home from his third tour in Iraq.

With no roots and no plans, Logan goes in search of a mystery woman in a photograph he found in Iraq who he credits for saving his life. The woman turns out to be Beth Green (Taylor Schilling), who owns a dog kennel with her grandmother (Blythe Danner), and offers Logan a job. As Logan begins to heal from the atrocities he saw overseas, he helps Beth find peace and joy again in her life. While they both have complicated pasts, they discover that they may have been brought into each other's lives for a reason.

"The Lucky One is about a journey," Sparks says. "It's about healing, it's about secrets, it's about forgiveness. It's a love story."

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Violet (Greta Gerwig) and Lily (Analeigh Tipton) in Damsels in Distress

"I went to Harvard University in a very political, depressing, grungy time when there seemed to be no social life," Whit Stillman says. "I went back several years later, and everyone was talking about this cool group of girls who wore strong French perfume, dressed up, and gave great parties, and who had sort of revolutionized life on campus."

It was this idea that lead to the film Damsels in Distress, written, directed, and produced by Stillman. In it, students Violet (Greta Gerwig), Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke), and Heather (Carrie MacLemore) are the well-dressed, perfume wearing girls who set out improve life at Seven Oaks College. They befriend Lily, played by Minnesotan Analeigh Tipton, and involve her in their program to help depressed students. Their mission is to improve hygiene in the male dorms and to create a new dance craze. More >>

Courtesy of Lionsgate

The Cabin in the Woods tells the story of five friends -- Dana (Kristen Connolly), Curt (Chris Hemsworth), Jules (Anna Hutchison), Marty (Fran Kranz), and Holden (Jesse Williams) -- who take a trip to an isolated cabin in the woods. What begins as a typical Hollywood horror film setup quickly changes as the audience is introduced to a control room run by Hadley (Bradley Whitford) and Sitterson (Richard Jenkins). The film takes its audience on an unexpected journey, and challenges people to take a deeper look at society. It was produced by Joss Whedon, and directed by Drew Goddard. The two met on the set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and wrote The Cabin in the Woods screenplay together.

"The horror film is merely the jumping-off point for the inherent questions about humanity that the genre suggests," Goddard says. "Why, as people, do we feel the need to marginalize, objectify, and destroy youth? This is not specific to the genre, or movies in general, or our present-day culture. We've been doing this to youth since we first began as people. The question of 'Why?' is very much at the heart of Cabin." While he declined to elaborate more on the subject, as he wants audiences to draw their own conclusions from the film, Goddard sat down with City Pages to discuss The Cabin in the Woods.

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Film still courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum. © 2006-8 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved. Andy Warhol

Still photo of Danny Williams

This Wednesday marks the second installment of Every Hundred Feet, a new film series hosted by Michael Fallon and Andy Sturdevant. They'll be presenting A Walk into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory, a documentary by Esther Robinson about her uncle, who disappeared around the time that he was a part of Warhol's factory.  More >>

Altsie founder Lucas Rayala

​Being an independent filmmaker ain't easy. More >>

By Anna Eveslage

Still from Frank

​Anna Eveslage, a recipient of the Minnesota State Arts Board 2011 Artist Initiative grant, is premiering the fruit of her labors tonight at Trylon microcinema. The piece, titled Frank, is a "still film" about a man who uses bowling as a way to grieve for his deceased wife.

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