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Up To Date

Up To Date's Indie, Foreign & Doc Critics' 'Three To See,' March 31-April 2

Mongrel Media

While certain Missouri and K-State backers may have felt a little schadenfreude last weekend, fans of KU basketball had a tougher time, as the team lost to Oregon in an Elite Eight game in Kansas City's Sprint Center. Thanks to Up To Date's indie, foreign and documentary film critics, downtrodden Jayhawks fans have something other than the ongoing NCAA basketball tournament to watch this weekend, though their recommendations may not elicit any less emotion.

Steve Walker

Personal Shopper, R

  • Olivier Assayas won best director at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival for this contemporary ghost story featuring Kristen Stewart working for an aloof rich woman while attempting to communicate with her dead twin brother.

Land of Mine, R

  • This searing best foreign film Oscar-nominee examines the Danish army's use of German prisoners of war — many of them teenagers — to clear the Danish coast of land mines at the close of World War II.

Song to Son, R

  • With no less than six Oscar-winners or -nominees among the cast, Terrence Malick's film about love, lust, and loss around the Austin, Texas, music scene eschews a straight narrative for a series of artful scenes recalling a mosaic of visually arresting sea glass.

Bob Butler

Personal Shopper, R

  • Kristen Stewart plays a listless celebrity-wardrobe attendant in Paris named Maureen, who shares a genetic heart problem with her recently-passed twin brother and awaits a posthumous sign from him.

Kedi, Unrated

  • This documentary about the stray cats of Istanbul demonstrates — in moving and (even for dog lovers) adorable vignettes — why the city's residents feel they are "on the same frequency" as their beloved felines.

I Am Not Your Negro, PG-13

  • Director Raoul Peck uses James Baldwin's unfinished book about the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Medger Evers as a jumping off point to question representations of African-Americans throughout history.
As culture editor, I help you embrace what makes Kansas City fun and vibrant, whether it’s a championship sports franchise or a little-known wonder. I work with reporters to ensure KCUR stories on art, culture, and race fully reflect our diverse home so readers and listeners can take full advantage of what the metro has to offer. Email me at luke@kcur.org.
Since 1998, Steve Walker has contributed stories and interviews about theater, visual arts, and music as an arts reporter at KCUR. He's also one of Up to Date's regular trio of critics who discuss the latest in art, independent and documentary films playing on area screens.