Des Moines Film

‘The Farewell’ Reviewed: An Honorable and Honest Deception

Posted on August 12, 2019

It’s not easy saying goodbye. Writer-director Lulu Wang confronts this uncomfortable truth, ironically enough, through a series of lies and deceptions in “The Farewell” (A24), her incredibly poignant ode to the shifting nature of family, culture and life itself. Inspired by Wang’s own family experience (or, “based on an actual lie,” as the opening title card playfully puts it), “The Farewell” follows a Chinese-American family who decides not to tell their grandmother that she’s been diagnosed with...

Blaxploitation Films: Sticking It to the Man!

Posted on August 11, 2019

by Kevin Kretschmer

Few film movements elicit a sly smile from one’s lips as quickly as that of the blaxploitation films of the 70s. In a reversal of the standard cliché, the whole often proved greater than the sum of its parts. These films were not the typical glossy, seamless, high production value fare of mainstream Hollywood, but usually the flip side: down-and-dirty, in-your-face, doing-the-best-we-can-on-a-limited-budget product designed for a demographic that had been all but ignored to that...

50 Years Later: Three Films from 1969 that Changed America

Posted on July 28, 2019

by Clinton Olsasky

From the Apollo 11 moon landing to the birth of the gay liberation movement, 1969 was a year that brought historic change to America. The cinema, it turned out, was no different. Merely a year after the new Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rating system marked the official death knell for Hays Code-era censorship, American moviegoers were more eager than ever to explore radical, new stories at the theater in 1969. From Sam Peckinpah’s ultra-bloody western “The...

‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco’ Reviewed: Reframing the Cinematic Superhero

Posted on July 9, 2019

by Clinton Olsasky

“People are more than just one thing.” When a displaced and grieving man by the name of Jimmie Fails admits this simple truth, it feels like a moment of genuine epiphany that, sadly, will never seep into his city’s collective consciousness. In that moment, Fails is, in a way, set free because he is no longer defining himself by a single story or a single purpose. But at the same time, he knows that his own...

‘Toy Story 4’ Reviewed: Embracing a Toy’s Impermanence

Posted on June 29, 2019

by Clinton Olsasky

When “Toy Story 4” (Pixar/Disney) was first announced back in November of 2014, the response from fans could best be described as cautious curiosity, rather than full-blown anticipation. And for good reason. After all, the creative team at Pixar had already closed the book on their most beloved film franchise, with the heartrending climax of “Toy Story 3” (2010) bringing every man, woman and child in the world to tears. Did there really need to be a...

Becoming American and the Immigrant Experience

Posted on January 14, 2019

by Ben Godar

We are proud to partner with the Franklin Avenue Library to present two film series: Becoming American and The Immigrant Experience Film Festival. Becoming American is a six-week program featuring documentary film screenings and scholar-led discussions designed to encourage an informed discussion of immigration issues against the backdrop of our immigration history. Kevin Gannon, Ph.D., a professor of History at Grand View University, will serve as the series' scholar/moderator. Films will screen Mondays at 6pm, beginning Feb....

‘Shoplifters’: Special Advance Screening

Posted on October 24, 2018

by Ben Godar

Buy Tickets Now Join us for a special Advanced Screening of "Shoplifters," winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, before it opens in New York and Los Angeles. After one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a little girl in the freezing cold. At first reluctant to shelter the girl, Osamu’s wife agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces. Although the family is poor, barely making...

Saving Brinton: Des Moines Premiere

Posted on September 26, 2017

by Ben Godar

Des Moines Film Society is proud to co-host the Des Moines premiere of Saving Brinton, a documentary about Iowa film history produced by Iowa filmmakers. Saving Brinton is the story of Michael Zahs, an eccentric Iowa collector who uncovers five hours of film from the early 1900s that once belonged to Frank Brinton, one of America's most successful barnstorming moving picture exhibitors. Produced by Iowa City filmmakers Tommy Haines, John Richard and Andrew Sherburne, the film premiered...

The Shining: Book vs. Movie

Posted on September 19, 2017

by Ben Godar

Buy Tickets It’s a novel from the master of horror and a film from the greatest filmmaker of his generation, and now you can read and see The Shining, complete with a reception in a historic (and perhaps haunted) hotel. Des Moines Film Society and the Des Moines Public Library Foundation Next Chapter are proud to present The Shining, Book vs. Movie. After reading the novel, attendees invited to a screening Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining on the big screen...

World War I: Great Films About The Great War

Posted on May 30, 2017

by Kevin Kretschmer

April 2017 marked the one-hundredth anniversary of the United States’ entry into World War I (or The First World War). In much of Europe it was originally referred to as The Great War, a tag that was also common in America. Here in The States, as early as 1918, it was frequently referred to as The World War. And there were more names: “The War to End War,” as well as the “War to Make...