Win free movie tickets

Editor's note: Comment on today's "Cinema Chat" for a chance to win free movie tickets to the Michigan Theater. Some time between now and 9 a.m. Monday, leave a comment on this column, written by the Michigan Theater's Russ Collins. Offer your opinion on a recent movie you've seen, or on anything Russ mentions. A winner will be randomly selected, and we’ll notify that person via the email address they signed up with. They will get two passes to a movie of their choice, courtesy of The Michigan Theater. Full rules here.

Two special screenings downtown

“Battleship Potemkin” is the best known film by Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein. It will be presented at the Michigan Theater with live musical accompaniment by Dr. Steven Ball on the theater’s famous Barton organ. “Battleship Potemkin”'s famous "Odessa Steps" sequence is a true classic of film editing. David O. Selznick (the famous producer of “Gone With the Wind”) judged “Potemkin” as "unquestionably one of the greatest motion pictures ever made," and recommended that his contemporaries “view it in the same way that a group of artists might study a Rubens or a Raphael.” Today, “Battleship Potemkin” is recognized as one of the great achievements in the art of filmmaking and is widely shown in film studies classes and art cinema houses. It has recently been restored and delivered in a new 35mm print. “Battleship Potemkin” plays August 7 at 1:30 p.m. and August 9 at 7 p.m.

I saw “The Elephant in the Living Room” at last year’s Traverse City Film Festival and it is excellent. It explores the controversial subculture of raising the deadliest and most exotic animals on earth as common household pets. The story follows the journey of two men at the heart of the issue: Tim Harrison, an Ohio police officer whose friend was killed by an exotic pet, and Terry Brumfield, a big-hearted man who struggles to keep two pet African lions that he loves like his own family. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times says, “This impeccably made film is chock-full of enlightening and sometimes bizarre moments...” “The Elephant in the Living Room” plays Monday, August 8 at 7 p.m. at the Michigan.

Opening downtown

Having been abandoned by his parents to an ailing uncle, “Terri” (Jacob Wysocki) is mercilessly teased by his peers and garners even more unwanted attention from school authorities by coming to school still wearing pajamas - when he decides to show up at all. Resigned to his outsider status, Terri is surprised when his tough-talking vice principal, Mr. Fitzgerald (John C. Reilly), takes an interest in him. Under Fitzgerald's tutelage, Terri befriends a pair of fellow misfits who together find an unexpected, imperfect bond that reflects the tenuousness, poignancy and pathos of the adolescent experience. Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post says “’Terri’ turns out to be a small masterpiece of misdirection, a winsome, utterly unpredictable portrait of adolescence that flawlessly captures its cruelty and sweetness.” “Terri” opens Friday at the Michigan Theater.

“Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” transports viewers to 19th-century China, where 7-year-old girls Snow Flower (Gianna Jun) and Lily (Bingbing Li) are matched as laotong - or "old sames" - bound together for eternity. Isolated by their families, they furtively communicate by taking turns writing in a secret language, nu shu, between the folds of a white silk fan. In a parallel story in present day Shanghai, the laotong's descendants, Nina and Sophia, struggle to maintain the intimacy of their own childhood friendship in the face of demanding careers, complicated love lives, and a relentlessly evolving Shanghai. Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter says, “An emotionally powerful tale of two sets of Chinese women in two different centuries.” “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” opens Friday at the Michigan Theater.

Opening at the multiplex

In “The Change-Up,” Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman take the traditional body-switching film and turn it on its ear. Think an R-rated “Freaky Friday.” Following a drunken night out together, Mitch's and Dave's worlds are turned upside down when they wake up in each other's bodies and proceed to freak out. Despite the freedom from their normal routines and habits, the guys soon discover that each other's lives are nowhere near as rosy as they once seemed. Further complicating matters are Dave's sexy legal associate, Sabrina (Olivia Wilde), and Mitch's estranged father (Alan Arkin). “The Change-Up” opens Friday.

An origin story in the true sense of the word, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is a prequel for the “Planet of the Apes” franchise. It finds a scientist (James Franco) looking for a cure for Alzheimer's disease by experimenting on a chimpanzee. But the Alzheimer’s cure instead creates high brain function and intelligence in apes. What soon follows is a war for supremacy between the humans and the apes. Oscar-winning visual effects house WETA Digital—employing groundbreaking technologies developed for "Avatar"—produced digital animations that are photo-realistic digital renderings of apes rather than costumed actors portraying apes. “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” opens Friday.

See you at the movies!

Russ Collins is executive director of the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor. Tune in to the audio version of “Cinema Chat” on WEMU radio (89.1-FM) each Thursday at 7:40 a.m. and 5:40 p.m., or listen to it online at WEMU's web site.