Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Lion (2016)

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Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 03-04-2017, 12:30 PM:

Lion (2016)

Location: Kinnelon Cinemas, Kinnelon NJ

No admission prices posted. Tried to overcharge me for senior tickets vs the price listed on their web site. Lobby dirty, not cleaned from prior shows. Stale popcorn. Pre-Show out of focus, feature ok (I don't understand this, being both were from the same digital projector). Nobody closed the door to the auditorium at the start of the show, letting light leak in. Scope feature letterboxed on a screen masked for 1.85.

The film itself:

Based upon the book of a young kid who got separated from his family in rural India, and ended up in Calcutta over a thousand miles away where almost everyone spoke a different language and nobody had ever heard of the town he said he came from (he was mispronouncing it, so the authorities could not find it). After leading a miserable life as a street kid, and then ending up in an orphanage/prison where the guards rented out the kids for sex, he was adopted by a couple in Australia where he finally had a good upbringing. While loving/valuing his adopted parents, he is driven to find his birth family, and eventually after many years does.

The film itself was actually pretty good. I normally don't go in for films about unhappy people leading unhappy lives, but this film held my interest from beginning to end. The story, the acting, the cinematography and music score were excellent.

Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 03-04-2017, 03:34 PM:

Rio Theater, Overland Park, KS

Fantastic surviving art-deco single screen theater. Absolutely loved it. A few details could've used some attention, but nothing major or worth mentioning.

Movie was great as well, really kept me engrossed through the entire thing. Found myself tearing up several times. Would recommend.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 03-04-2017, 09:42 PM:

even though it had a lot of TV ads and such, I am surprised the movie didn't get a wider audience - it won the audience award at the Middlesburg Virginia Film Festival where I saw it in October. I'd put this in my top ten favourite movies of 2016.