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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Magic Lantern openers solid as usual

Dan Webster

And what about Spokane's vaunted arthouse movie theater, the Magic Lantern? What will open there on Friday?

Nothing new, as it turns out, though still a trio of interesting selections. The Lantern will bring in "Midsommar," the horror film from Ari Aster — the guy who gave us last year's creepy thriller "Hereditary." Aster's film, which is a revenge-flick, domestic-squabble study (one that the writer-director himself described as a "breakup movie") and which played earlier this summer at AMC River Park Square.

And two recent successes are also returning: Joe Talbot's meditative "The Last Black Man in San Francisco" and the Timothy Greenfield-Sanders documentary "Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am."

In reference to the Morrison movie, it's important to note that the Novel Prize-winning author died on Aug. 5 at the age of 88. As another great American writer, Kurt Vonnegut, would say, "So it goes."

The Lantern is scheduled to open the Australian film "The Nightingale" on Aug. 30.