The Class @ The Hipp Cinema Apr 24-30

The Class (Entre les murs) April 24th - April 30th Oscar Nomination: Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, Academy Awards, USA Golden Palm, Cannes Film Festival Best Foreign Film, Independent Spirit Awards 100% Top Critics rating! — Rottentomatoes.com a "This unassuming movie will nail you to your seat." — Slate "The movie is bursting with life, energy, fears, frustrations and the quick laughter of a classroom hungry for relief." — Roger Ebert "I would be surprised if this brilliant and touching film didn't become required viewing for teachers all over the United States. Everyone else should see it as well--it's a wonderful movie." — The New Yorker Based on an autobiographical novel by Francois Begaudeau, a drama that follows the year in the life of a French schoolteacher working at a high-school in a tough neighborhood of Paris. Ethnicities, cultures and attitudes often clash in the classroom. As amusing and inspiring as the teenage students can be, their difficult behavior can still jeopardize any teacher's enthusiasm for the low-paying job. Francois insists on an atmosphere of respect and diligence. Neither stuffy nor severe, his extravagant frankness often takes the students by surprise. But his classroom ethics are put to the test when his students begin to challenge his methods. 2008/ 129mins/ French/ PG13/ subt. [Watch the trailer]

More Info | Review Showtimes Fri (4/24): 6:00 & 8:30pm Sat (4/25): 4:00, 6:30 & 9:00pm Sun (4/26): 2:15, 4:45 & 7:15pm Wed (4/29): 4:30 & 7:00pm Thu (4/30): 6:00 & 8:30pm

Che: Part 1 @ The Hipp Cinema Apr 17-23

Che April 17th - April 23rd Best Actor, Cannes Film Festival "A SPECTACULAR ACHIEVEMENT. The best executed and most intriguing work of Steven Soderbergh's career. Benicio Del Toro provides a marvelous physical and emotional performance." — SALON "A WORK OF GRAND AMBITION. AN EXPERIENCE YOU WON'T FORGET. Benicio Del Toro gives a magnificent performance." — Rolling Stone Special - Pizza and a Movie. Come see this film after work on Friday, April 17th or Thursday, April 23rd and get a slice of Big Lou's Pizza for only $1. First come, first served so arrive at 5:30! Oscar-winner Steven Soderbergh delivers this ambitious and sprawling biopic of one of the 20th century's most influential political figures. In the THE ARGENTINE, we meet Ernesto "Che" Guevara (Benicio Del Toro), a young Argentinean doctor who teams up with Fidel Castro on a dangerous mission: to overthrow the corrupt Cuban dictatorship run by Fulgencio Batista. Che's commitment to the cause impresses everyone around him, and soon he is one of the leaders of this burgeoning guerrilla movement. Against all odds, Castro, Che, and their undermanned forces charge forward, conquering Batista's forces on their way to an expected showdown with the man himself. Soderbergh films this first segment--a battle that everyone knows Che is going to win--with beautiful widescreen photography, like a Hollywood epic from yesteryear. Composer Alberto Iglesias accompanies this imagery with a sweeping orchestral score. Soderbergh intercuts the primary story of the revolution with Che's 1964 appearance at the United Nations in New York City, recreating that event in documentary-like black-and-white. However, as impressive as these technical attributes are, it is Del Toro who steals the show. He inhabits Che in a way that feels like he isn't just acting. THE ARGENTINE is an inspiring tale of a man whose fierce determination and unflinching spirit turned him into a hero to disadvantaged people throughout the world. 2009/ 134mins/ Spanish|English/ NR(UK:15)/ subt [Watch the trailer]

More Info | Review Showtimes Fri (4/17): 6:00 & 8:30pm Sat (4/18): 4:00, 6:30 & 9:00pm Sun (4/19): 2:15, 4:45 & 7:15pm Wed (4/22): 4:30 & 7:00pm Thu (4/23): 6:00 & 8:30pm

Hippodrome Theatre Video Podcast

The Hippodrome Theatre Podcast is back with our first Video Podcast. In this update, check out what the Hippodrome's Spring Break-a-Leg campers thought of their exclusive sneak peek at Shipwrecked! running though May 10th!

The Secrets of the Grain @ The Hipp Cinema Apr 10-16

The Secret of the Grain (La Graine et le mulet) April 10th - April 16th Best Director, Best Film, Best Writing - Original, Most Promising Actress, César Awards, France FIPRESCI Prize, European Film Awards Best Foreign Film, French Syndicate of Cinema Critics Best Director, Most Promising Young Actress, Lumiere Awards, France Special Jury Prize, Venice Film Festival "An entire family chronicle, along with four decades of French social and economic history, is recapitulated as a lavish, hectic dinner, complete with music and belly dancing. It will leave you stunned and sated, having savored an intimate and sumptuous epic of elation and defeat, jealousy and tenderness, life and death, grain and fish." — NY Times "The Secret of the Grain never slows, always engages, may continue too long, but ends too soon. It is made of life itself." — Roger Ebert "The title embraces the richness of Kechiche's beautiful film, which captures the rhythms of displacement and hardship, the bond of family meals, and even the daily routines of the magnificent women who are part of Slimane's life." — Entertainment Weekly Special - Pizza and a Movie. Come see this film after work on Friday, April 10th or Thursday, April 16th and get a slice of Big Lou's Pizza for only $1. First come, first served so arrive at 5:30! The Secret of the Grain is a touching and resoundingly humanistic story set in the rustic port of Sete in southeastern France. Slimane has worked in the same shipyard job for over 35 years, when his growing dissatisfaction prompts him to try to open his own restaurant. His dream seems unbelievable, but his contagious conviction and persistence work their way into the hearts of his loyal but dispersed family; the four children from his first marriage, his ex-wife, current girlfriend and her bright, outspoken daughter, Rym (played to great acclaim by the stunning newcomer Hafsia Herzi). A grand film about ordinary people, The Secret of the Grain is a deliciously slow-burning drama about fate, food and family. 2008/ 151mins/ French/ NR/ subt [Watch the trailer]

More Info | Review Showtimes Fri (4/10): 6:00 & 8:45pm Sat (4/11): 3:00, 5:45 & 8:30pm Sun (4/12): 2:15, 5:00 & 7:45pm Wed (4/15): 4:30 & 7:15pm Thu (4/16): 6:00 & 8:4

Wendy and Lucy @ The Hipp Cinema Apr 3-9

Wendy and Lucy April 3rd - April 9th Best Performance, Female, Best Picture, Toronto Film Critics Association Awards Best Actress, Online Film Critics Society Awards Russell Smith Award, Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards "Wendy and Lucy is modest, minimalist. But it nonetheless reverberates like a sonic boom." — Philadelphia Inquirer "What will happen to her? The strength of this short, simple, perfect story of a young woman and her dog is that this does not seem, by the end, to be an idle or trivial question. What happens to Wendy -- and to Lucy -- matters a lot, which is to say that Wendy and Lucy, for all its modesty, matters a lot too." — NY Times "An evocative film with a believable and subtly enthralling lead performance that gets deeply under your skin." — USA Today Wendy Carroll is driving to Ketchikan, Alaska, in hopes of a summer of lucrative work at the Northwestern Fish cannery, and the start of a new life with her dog, Lucy. When her car breaks down in Oregon, however, the thin fabric of her financial situation comes apart, and she confronts a series of increasingly dire economic decisions, with far-ranging repercussions for herself and Lucy. Wendy and Lucy addresses issues of sympathy and generosity at the edges of American life, revealing the limits and depths of people's duty to each other in tough times. 2008/ 80mins/ USA/ R [Watch the trailer]

More Info | Review Showtimes Fri (4/3): 7:00 & 8:45pm Sat (4/4): 4:30, 7:00 & 8:45pm Sun (4/5): 2:30, 4:30 & 7:00pm Wed (4/8): 4:30, 7:00 & 8:45pm Thu (4/9): 7:00 & 8:45pm