In Macon, great movies upcoming all around

January is always a notoriously bad month for movies - at least if you stick with what's new in theaters.

Luckily, here in Macon, there's a lot more on the menu if you look a little closer. Here are several examples in the coming weeks that are all well worth checking out.

First up, Mercer University will be hosting a truly special event with its inaugural Freedom Lecture on Monday night, and will be screening two movies related to it. Sister Helen Préjean, who has devoted much of her life to ministering to death row inmates and become a leading advocate for the abolition of the punishment, will be speaking at 7 p.m. at Mercer's Willingham Auditorium.

Préjean will be signing copies of her book, "Dead Man Walking," following the lecture, and the movie it inspired will be screened earlier in the day, at 2 p.m. at the Cox Capitol Theatre downtown. Additionally, the documentary "At the Death House Door," which focuses on the career of a chaplain for the Texas prison system and his change of heart about the death penalty, will be screened at 1:30 p.m. Sunday in the Social Hall of St. Joseph Catholic Church.

An all-around unique series of events, and best of all, they're all free.

And, this being a great college town, it's not just Mercer that gets in on the movie action. Mercer, Wesleyan College and Macon State College are teaming up once again for the 2011 CollegeTown Film Series beginning Thursday, Jan. 20, with all movies being screened at the Douglass Theatre downtown, a great venue for movies if you've never checked it out.

Previous CollegeTown Film Series themes have included "City Life," "Films of the Fabulous Fifties," "Social Justice in the 20th Century," "The New Millennium: The Past as Prologue" and "Civilization and Its Discontents," and this year the focus is on "End Times," with three movies related to that rather ominous proposition being presented.

First up, Jan. 20, will be "Last Night," a 1998 movie by director Don McKellar which brings together a diverse group of people - played by Sandra Oh, Sarah Polley and director David Cronenberg, among others - with the world expected to end in six hours at the turn of the century. I haven't seen this one, but it sounds fascinating, so I suspect that's about to change.

The final two movies in the series, however, are among my favorites, and in their own way take interesting looks at the series' theme. Jim Jarmusch's "Ghost Dog," which stars Forest Whitaker as a hitman who models his life on that of the Samurai and turns against the mafia thugs who are usually his employer, will be screened Jan. 27. And finally, Alfonso Cuaron's "Children of Men," a riveting dystopian film starring Clive Owen which tied with "Pan's Labyrinth" for my favorite movies of 2007, will be screened Feb. 3.

Immediately following each movie, a professor from one of the presenting colleges will lead a discussion: Tom Ellington of Wesleyan College following "Last Night," Craig Coleman of Mercer University after "Ghost Dog" and Patrick Brennan of Macon State College after "Children of Men." All movies start at 7 p.m. at the Douglass, with admission being free for faculty and staff of the presenting schools, and $5 for others, which includes a snack pass. Bully. Definitely turn out for at least one of these if you can.

And not to be left out of all the movie fun, the Macon Film Guild is supplementing it's once-monthly offering of fantastic films from the edge of the map with a new quarterly documentary series, with "The Tillman Story" next up at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday night, also at the Douglass.

The movie examines the life and death of Pat Tillman, the American hero who turned his back on a pro football career to join the military after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. His death in the line of duty, how it was exploited by the military and his family's search for the truth about it all are explored by director Amir Bar Lev. Admission is $5.

So, we may have had least a smattering of snow this week in Macon, but great movies are still blooming all around - if you know where to look.

Quick hits: A trailer two-fer and ... Hitler!?!?

Not much to say today, since I'm off to the gym in just a few minutes and then on to watch "Watchmen" in Imax!

I did, however, take a few seconds to scan the 'Net this morning, and found a few things well worth passing on. The first is the theatrical trailer for "Up," and the first clip from Pixar's next flick that really shows what we're in for. I was already psyched for this, but now you can count me as completely hooked.



The second is a little odd, but no less enjoyable. Remember Jim Jarmusch? It seems like forever since he made his last feature film, "Broken Flowers," and it has indeed been four years. Now he's back with something called "The Limits of Control." As you can see from the trailer below, it stars Isaach de Bankole, who I've loved ever since he played the ice cream man in Jarmusch's "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai." In this new flick, he plays a mysterious loner involved in some kind of criminal operation in Spain. That's all I know for now, but it's certainly nice to see Mr. Jarmusch back, no matter what he's cooking up.



And, finally, the truly odd. I'm not usually one for jokes about Hitler, but whoever put this together is indeed at least a minor genius. Who would have guessed the fuhrer was a fanboy? If you haven't seen "Watchmen" yet or don't want to know how the graphic novel or movie end, don't watch this clip, but if you're cool with that and don't mind squinting at some tiny subtitles, I guarantee this will make you laugh out loud at least once. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend. Peace out.

Jim Jarmusch gets by with a little help from old friends

When I found this news this morning, my first thought was that it's been a really long time since we've heard anything at all from Jim Jarmusch, and indeed it has been almost three years since the release of his last, mostly satisfying flick, "Broken Flowers."

Now comes word that two of the stars of that flick, Bill Murray and one of his paramours, Tilda Swinton, are along for the ride in "Limits of Control," the road movie/thriller Jarmusch is shooting in Spain. As several ladies I work with would want to know, Gael Garcia Bernal factors into this somehow too.

As best as I can gather, the flick centers on a mysterious loner as he attempts to complete a criminal job, and it's set to start shooting this month in Madrid, Seville and Almeria, Spain. Even better for anyone who's a fan of Jarmusch's work is that the great French actor Isaach de Bankole, a regular in many of Jarmusch's films (notably as the ice cream man in "Ghost Dog"), plays the loner.

If that makes it sound more than a little similar to the aforementioned "Ghost Dog," that would be just fine by me, since I own that one on VHS and have probably watched it at least into the double digits in times.

And I know plenty of people whose opinions I certainly respect who had serious issues with the ambiguity of "Broken Flowers," but I thought it suited Murray's character just fine, and the would-be mystery writer Winston played by Jeffrey Wright was just a seriously funny comic creation. Here's hoping this latest project from old friends leads to something at least as fun.

Emile Hirsch finally gets some love

The most constant and amazing snub I've noticed in this awards season is that Emile Hirsch, the star of Sean Penn's "Into the Wild," has gotten almost no recognition at all, at least until now.

In March, Hirsch will take the title of Male Star of Tomorrow at ShoWest, which, despite that rather odd title, I would have to assume is also in recognition of his most recent work too, especially since all he has on the menu for this year that I know of is the Wachowskis' almost-surely-to-be-disastruous "Speed Racer."

And if you somehow missed out on seeing "Into the Wild" in theaters (and since it played in my little corner of the world for exactly one week, I couldn't say I blame you), you'll soon get the chance to see it on DVD starting March 4. The saga of Christopher McCandless is a challenging tale, and one that I took a while to warm to, but once I did it ended up on my list of the top five movies of 2007 (along with "Ratatouille," "No Country for Old Men," "Once" and "The Savages.")

And now I'd like to wrap this up kinda quick today, but I'll leave you with this clip of RZA and GZA of the Wu Tang Clan talk with the great Mr. Murray about that most magical of combos, "Coffee and Cigarettes." It's kinda long at almost eight minutes, but I think it would go just great with just about anyone's lunch. Peace out.