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It might not have Jim Carrey in 3D, but I'll take the Walker Art Center's cinema over a suburban cineplex any day.
Since the Walker opened its $130 million expansion in 2005, the theater that once housed both movies and performing arts has become a full-time film house, with programming you often can't find anywhere else.
"It gave us a chance to rethink what we really wanted to do with this dedicated film space," said Dean Otto, the museum's associate curator for film and video.
More than 190 films played at the Walker last year. And the cinema is coming off an impressive retrospective of the Coen brothers' film career, which ran in September and October.
Its latest series, which starts this week, is as ambitious as they come. This year marks the 60th anniversary of Communist rule in China, and it's no secret that the world's most populated country now wields a great deal of influence on the world stage.
The Walker is observing these milestones with a 14-film series called "The People's Republic of Cinema: 60 Years of China on Film."
Film curator Sheryl Mousley said the goal of the monthlong series is to show China's growth and hardships through the eyes of its filmmakers. Mousley worked on the series with Jason McGrath, associate professor of modern Chinese literature and film at the University of Minnesota. Half of the films will be screened at the Bell Museum on campus.
The Walker kicks off its screenings with tonight's "Crows and Sparrows," a 1949 classic that was completed as the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists came to an end.