Yesterday, I finally got around to seeing Capturing the Friedmans at the newly opened Madstone Theater in Salt Lake.
As a documentary, Capturing the Friedmans is particularly arresting in both its subject matter and primary forms of presentation. It's the story of an apparently typical upper-middle class family in Great Neck Long Island, until the father and one of the sons are arrested on molestation charges. The movie hints that the allegations and charges are grossly overstated, but there is some guilt in the family. Much of it is told using home movies and home videos that the sons (particularly the oldest) captured - whether it was of happier times or family meetings that turned into yelling matches.
The local Madstone Theaters are converted from older theaters in a fairly upscale shopping mall housed in old trolley barns. They're not up to some of the standards of new theaters (stadium seating, etc), but they are quite nice. Particularly - the spacing between rows of seats is quite wide, allowing for much easier movement and room to stretch out your feet. Having Madstone here increases the amount of screens dedicated to independent and foreign films by four. Just a couple of years ago, we were down to one. Now we have eleven. And a couple of the larger mega-theaters have also picked up some of the better known independent releases, such as Whale Rider. So while it's still not quite New York, there are a lot of nice options for alternative cinema. Nicely, this gives viewers greater chance of catching a good film because they can stay around longer while other screens rotate the offerings.