Memphis in May festival salutes Memphis movies
If you want to see Tom Cruise ride the Mud Island monorail or Terrence Howard beat up Ludacris in a Poplar Lounge bathroom, you’re in luck: The Memphis in May International Festival has scheduled a “Salute to Memphis Cinema” as part of its calendar of events for the month.
Co-hosted by Indie Memphis and the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission, the six-screening “salute” is book-ended by two madein-memphis movies that earned top prizes at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, namely, Craig Brewer’s “Hustle & Flow” and Ira Sachs’ “Forty Shades of Blue.”
The first major professional movie for either filmmaker, “Hustle & Flow” won the Audience and Cinematography awards in drama at that peculiarly Bluff City-centric Sundance, while “Forty Shades” earned the drama competition’s Grand Jury Prize.
Why this particular “salute”? Because 2019 marks the Memphis bicentennial, the city’s signature international festival is “honoring” its hometown rather than the usual foreign country.
Hence, this film festival, which will be complemented by a couple of other Memphis-themed screenings (Suzannah Herbert’s “Wrestle” and the Oscarwinning “Walk the Line”).
Here is the “Salute to Memphis Cinema” schedule. Memphis and Shelby County Film Commissioner Linn Sitler will moderate the post-movie questionand-answer sessions.
❚ “Hustle & Flow” — 7 p.m. May 1, Paradiso. Terrence Howard was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar and Juicy J, DJ Paul and Frayser Boy collected Oscars for Best Original Song (“It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp”) for this tale of a low-level Memphis procurer who aspires to express himself through hiphop. Schedule permitting, Brewer — finishing his Netflix Eddie Murphy movie, “Dolemite Is My Name,” and preparing a Murphy sequel, “Coming 2 America” — will attend the screening. Admission: $10.
❚ “The Firm” — 7 p.m. May 8, Paradiso. Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Holly Hunter and Hal Holbrook star in director Sydney Pollack’s 1993 made-in-memphis legal thriller, adapted from the John Grisham novel. Producer Michael Hausman will attend and take part in a Q&A. Admission: $10.
❚ “N-secure” — 7 p.m. May 15, Studio on the Square. Writer-producer Julius Lewis will participate in a Q&A after this screening of his 2010 independent thriller about a suburban control freak (Cordell Moore) whose relationships with women (Essence Atkins, Tempestt Bledsoe) lead to betrayal and murder. Admission: $10.
❚ Microcinema: Memphis Women in Film — 7 p.m. May 21, Crosstown Arts, 430 N. Cleveland. Expect most of the creators to be in attendance as the monthly program devoted to the art of the short film showcases work by female filmmakers. Pay-what-you-can admission.
❚ “SUPERSTARLET A.D.” — 7 p.m. May 22, Studio on the Square. The “Memphis godfather of independent cinema,” Mike Mccarthy, hosts the return of his most ambitious feature to date, an apocalyptic sci-fi musical from 2000 in which rival tribes of gun-toting blonds, brunettes and redheads roam the devastated city of “Femphis.” Admission: $10.
❚ “Forty Shades of Blue” — 7 p.m. May 29, Ridgeway Cinema Grill. Sachs’ autobiographically inspired drama stars Rip Torn as a legendary rock-and-roll producer with a young Russian wife (Dina Korzun) and a conflicted son (Darren E. Burrows). Sachs — currently finishing a film with Isabelle Huppert — will attend, if his schedule permits. Admission: $10.
Other Memphis screenings that are not part of the Memphis in May schedule include:
❚ “Wrestle” — 7 p.m. April 3, Ridgeway Cinema Grill. Memphis-born-andraised director Suzannah Herbert returns to her hometown to host this “Indie Memphis Nights” screening of her debut feature. A hit at the 2018 Indie Memphis Film Festival, the movie is an immersive and compassionate documentary that interrogates ideas of race, class and success as it follows the members of a wrestling team at a “failing” Huntsville, Alabama, high school. Admission: $10.
❚ “Walk the Line” — 7 p.m. April 26, the Orpheum. Reese Witherspoon won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of long-suffering June Carter in director James Mangold’s 2005 biopic about Johnny Cash (Oscar-nominated Joaquin Phoenix). Admission: $8 (adult), $6 (12 and younger).