Indie Picks: At The Movies This Weekend

Michael Shannon stars in Take Shelter (Sony Pictures Classics)

The weeks ahead will bring new movies from Almodovar, Von Trier, Eastwood and Herzog, indicating the arrival of awards season movies to the area. If you're not in a post-Austin Film Festival coma after the last eight days, we've got a few good reasons to visit your favorite area theater this weekend!

Take Shelter (Alamo South Lamar, Regal Arbor, Violet Crown Cinema)
Get out this weekend to support some great homegrown filmmaking with the release of the second feature film from Austin director Jeff Nichols. The movie started earning buzz at Sundance early this year (where Sony Pictures Classics acquired the title) and was more recently a hot ticket at Fantastic Fest. Michael Shannon is already getting Oscar buzz for his performance as a man who becomes obsessed with storms and a desire to keep his family out of harm's way. His wife is played by Jessica Chastain, who starred with Brad Pitt in The Tree Of Life earlier this year. Roger Ebert's review calls it "masterful filmmaking" and it is currently sitting pretty with a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.

My Afternoons With Margueritte (Regal Arbor)
We're big fans of French cinema and so we're really happy that this little feel-good film, which has received overwhelmingly positive reviews, is opening in town. Gerard Depardieu stars as an illiterate man who befriends an old woman (played by 96-year-old Gisele Casadesus) who helps him fall in love with French literature.

Also this Halloween weekend:
- In advance of its upcoming DVD debut, Violet Crown Cinema is serving up two special screenings this weekend of the Giorgio Moroder version of Metropolis. Unavailable for years, this oddly fascinating restoration from 1984 found the famous disco producer cleaning up and color tinting the Fritz Lang classic, but decided to set it to an eighties soundtrack featuring the likes of Pat Benatar, Freddie Mercury, Bonnie Tyler and Adam Ant. Heavily bootlegged over the last two decades, it has finally been remastered for DVD release by Kino on November 15.

- The Late Show serves up William Friedken's The Exorcist at the Alamo Ritz on Friday and Saturday nights.

- Silent classic Nosferatu screens at the Alamo South Lamar on Sunday featuring a live score by Graham Reynolds & The Golden Arm Trio.

- The Paramount Theatre is hosting a Halloween Film Fest all weekend long. They'll have screenings of The Wolf Man, Bride Of Frankenstein, Night Of The Living Dead and Re-Animator. If you come in costume or bring a bag of candy to donate to one of the screenings, you'll get a free "Jack O' Lantern specialty drink"!