Studio Movie Grill, once the innovator of the dine-in movie-watching experience, is attempting to reassert its dominance in Dallas-Fort Worth with the introduction of two new theaters in the suburbs and new upscale food options.
Studio Movie Grill Colleyville is scheduled to open in April 2014, boasting eight screens and more than 1,000 seats. It will be followed later this year by a location in The Colony that will have 10 screens and around 1,300 seats.
For starters, you can reserve your seat ahead of time at any location. No longer do you just have to hope you'll find your preferred spot — for me, dead center, four rows up from the bottom. Now you can just order your tickets online and choose exactly where you want to be.
Although you can still get your standard popcorn, nachos and sodas, Studio Movie Grill is also trying to appeal to foodies with options like hummus, tenderloin Cobb salad and carne pomodoro pasta. Starting in May, the theater takes it a step further with a new menu options such as sage-dusted pork chops and pork belly macaroni and cheese.
The two new area theaters (plus one in Tyler, Texas, and another in Chatham, Illinois) will make 19 Studio Movie Grills total, including eight in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Food choices at Studio Movie Grill have gotten increasingly more sophisticated — and will get even more so in May.
Studio Movie Grill Facebook
Food choices at Studio Movie Grill have gotten increasingly more sophisticated — and will get even more so in May.
Maika Monroe and Tyriq Withers in Reminders of HIm.
Texas author Colleen Hoover has gone from being a popular writer to a full-on celebrity in the 2020s, with the new film Reminders of Him marking the third adaptation of her books in just 19 months (a fourth, Verity, is scheduled for release in October 2026). All of her books that have been adapted so far - most notably It Ends With Us - are female-led stories that feature elements of romance and trauma, catnip for studios looking to appeal to the underserved demographic of women.
Leading the way in this film is Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe), who returns to her hometown of Laramie, Wyoming after spending years in prison for killing her boyfriend, Scotty (Rudy Pankow), in a car accident. That relationship resulted in a daughter, Diem (Zoe Kosovic), whom Kenna gave birth to while imprisoned and is now being raised by her grandparents, Patrick (Bradley Whitford) and Grace (Lauren Graham).
Yearning to be a part of Diem’s life, Kenna tries to reconnect with Patrick and Grace, only to be rebuffed by Scotty’s best friend, Ledger (Tyriq Withers), a former NFL player who now owns a local bar. In running interference, Ledger starts to become closer to Kenna, discovering that her tragic mistake shouldn’t be the only thing that defines her.
Directed by Vanessa Caswill and written by Lauren Levine, the film features mostly surface level examinations of its themes and average performances, yet it winds up being effective thanks to a willingness not to rush through its storytelling beats. The filmmakers take the slow and steady approach toward the coupling of Kenna and Ledger, setting up their bond through a series of heart-to-heart conversations that makes any romance feel earned.
The majority of the focus is on Kenna reclaiming her place in the world, and on Ledger coming to terms with the fact that the person who killed his best friend is not inherently a bad person. The film definitely could have gone deeper in its explorations of grief and anger, but the sheer amount of time it takes in addressing the characters’ doubts and fears turns out to be sufficient for a film that’s not aiming to be considered a dramatic masterpiece.
It also helps that Caswill and Levine do a solid job of establishing the variety of characters that inhabit the film. Kenna and Ledger don’t always feel like fully-formed people, but they become so through their interactions with each other and the other townspeople. Lady Diana (Monika Myers), a girl with Down syndrome who lives in Kenna’s apartment complex, and Roman (Nicholas Duvernay), Ledger’s co-worker at his bar, help to broaden the appeal of the two leads.
Monroe has, to this point, been best known for starring roles in horror films like It Follows and Longlegs. While she does somewhat well in this role, her delivery is often more flat than you’d expect for a character going through what she does. Withers thankfully doesn’t remind viewers of his recent bomb Him, demonstrating a crossover appeal that should serve him well in the future. Whitford and Graham don’t get to do much, but their combined experience gives their roles exactly what is needed.
It may sound like damning with faint praise, but Reminders of Him is a competently made film that knows how to serve its core audience without insulting anyone who may not automatically be all-in for such a story. The filmmakers don’t try to force any of the key moments down the audience’s throat, and that stands out in a genre that’s not always known for its subtlety.
