This is it, movie fans — the weekend you have been waiting for. After a long winter of boring, silly, awful movies, spring has arrived and brought with it the best weekend for cinema that 2013 has seen so far. In addition to a bumper crop of new releases, the Gasparilla International Film Festival (GIFF) is still in town, making this a must-go-to-the-cinema weekend for all the film fans out there.
Speaking of GIFF: Saturday is notable at the festival for two reasons. 1. Five of the six documentaries in competition are screening on Saturday (check out my Giff Doc rundown here), and 2. Saturday night features the "closing night" Rockabilly Revival Party at the former site of Stump's Supper Club. Though a pricey ticket ($75 in advance, $100 day of), admission gets you open bar and food, and the chance to rub elbows with filmmakers, local dignitaries and Tampa Bay's glitterati. How can you pass that up?
Meanwhile, over at your favorite multiplex, five movies are opening today, including Spring Breakers, which was shot in St. Petersburg and prominently features some notable local landmarks. …
This article appears in Mar 21-27, 2013.