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It’s almost Oscar time! The Academy Awards air on March 15, but there are cinematic happenings to get excited about all month-long, including a delicious screening series in Coral Gables, a thought-provoking climate documentary, and more. Here are our picks for the best films to see in Miami this month.
Tampopo at Coral Gables Art Cinema
Coral Gables is getting a delicious new neighbor this month in the form of Fuku, the spicy chicken-centered offshoot of Chef David Chang’s Momofuku restaurant empire. To celebrate the opening, the chicken shop is teaming with Coral Gables Art Cinema for Fuku’s Sweet and Spicy, a screening series with a movie menu that’s admittedly quite tasty. The opening dish will be Japanese director Juzo Itami’s “ramen western” Tampopo on Saturday, March 7.
Our Take: Hilarity ensues when a pair of truckers (Tsutomu Yamazaki and Ken Watanabe) begin coaching a put-upon widow who runs a ramen shop (Nobuko Miyamoto) in the fine art of flinging noodle soup. Accompanying the main plot are a full-course meal of ridiculous sketches, from satirical takes on fine dining to wild and sexy moments with a mysterious white-suited gangster (Perfect Days’ Kōji Yakusho). Famed at home as a comedian but unknown in the West for years because of the Japanese particularities of his films, Itami finally broke through with Tampopo, years after the film’s release (and his tragic early death), when the movie gained cult status following the ramen boom of the 2000s and 2010s. 9 p.m. Saturday, March 7, at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75.
Sirāt at Coral Gables Art Cinema
Few films beg to be seen in a theatrical setting as much as this remarkable story of survival, terror, and raving in the desert. Nominated for Best International Feature and Best Sound at this year’s Oscars, Sirāt will screen at Coral Gables Art Cinema starting Saturday, March 7.
Our Take: Here’s what we wrote about the film last year, when it screened at Miami Film Festival Gems:
“Burning Man meets Sorcerer in this propulsive thriller from Galician director Oliver Laxe, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes this year. Taking to the deserts of Morocco in search of his daughter Mar, middle-aged Luis (Sergi López) and his young son infiltrate a crew of illegal ravers trekking through the Atlas Mountains. The party doesn’t last long as news of war reaches the party, and their journey through the desolate landscape becomes even more hellish and unforgiving. With a name taken from an Arabic word describing the thin line between heaven and hell, Sirāt may be the most otherworldly cinematic trip you’ll take all year.” Saturday, March 7, through Thursday, March 12, at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75.
Before Sunrise at Coral Gables Art Cinema
Real yearners only! One of the most beloved romances in cinema, Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, will screen at Coral Gables Art Cinema this month as part of their Movies We Love series.
Our Take: It’s perhaps the ultimate fantasy: meeting an attractive stranger on a train somewhere in Europe and falling in love. That central conceit is what keeps successive generations coming back to the 24-hour journey of aimless American Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and the beautiful, thoughtful French girl Celine (Julie Delpy) as they spend a day and a night wandering the streets of Vienna, dancing flirtatiously toward a profound romance. It may seem too good to be true, but Linklater based the film on an incident from his own life, and Hawke and Delpy’s excellent performances grant the duo’s dalliance a further degree of realism. We’re watching two people fall in love through not much more than idle conversation. The trio would continue the couple’s story and undercut the first film’s fantasy in successive, less enchanted entries, but Before Sunrise remains the most beloved of the series for a reason: It’s a brilliant, intelligent depiction of the limitless possibilities and discoveries of youth. Noon Sunday, March 8, at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75.
AV Club: Woman in the Dunes at Main Library
AV Club’s series “Kintsugi: The Golden Age of Japanese Cinema” continues this month with a surreal and mysterious classic that won an Oscar. Postponed from its original February date, Woman in the Dunes will screen on an archival 16mm print at the Main Library on Saturday, March 14.
Our Take: Life forever changes for the nebbish schoolteacher Junpei (Eiji Okada) when a group of rural villagers traps him in a sandpit with a recently-widowed woman (Kyoko Kishida) and forces him to dig sand for food and water. Faced with the deprivations of captivity and the widow’s resignation, Junpei begins a profound transformation. With surreal imagery from director Hiroshi Teshigahara and a slippery, existential plot from novelist and screenwriter Kōbō Abe, Woman in the Dunes is one of the most provocative films ever made, challenging our conceptions of society and the individual’s role within it. 2 p.m. Saturday, March 14, at the Miami-Dade County Main Library, 101 W. Flagler St., Miami; 305-375-2665; mdpls.org. Admission is free.
Yanuni at Silverspot Cinema
In honor of Miami Climate Week, Miami Film Festival is presenting a screening of the Oscar-shortlisted documentary Yanuni at Silverspot Cinema on March 19. The film follows Juma Xipaia, an indigenous leader from the Brazilian Amazon, as she faces down illegal gold mining in the vast, endangered territory. Supported by her husband, a high-up official in Brazil’s environmental protection agency, Xipaia faces assassination attempts and other dangers in her struggle to assert the rights of her people and protect the ecologically crucial Amazon. The film closed the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival and was executive-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. 7 p.m. Thursday, March 19, at Silverspot Cinema, Downtown Miami, 300 SE Third St. #100, Miami; 305-536-5000; silverspot.net. Tickets cost $12 via miamifilmfestival.com.
City on Fire at Coral Gables Art Cinema
A Hong Kong action classic with a New York state of mind, Ringo Lam’s grizzly crime drama City on Fire will screen as part of Fuku’s Sweet and Spicy film series at Coral Gables Art Cinema.
Our Take: Most famous in the West for inspiring Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, City on Fire stars iconic Hong Kong leading man Chow Yun-fat as an undercover cop at the end of his rope. Harassed by fellow police, unaware of his informant status, and desperate to leave the job and marry his fiancée, he reluctantly signs on to one last job, infiltrating a crew of jewelry thieves as they prepare their next smash-and-grab. With a bluesy score and a tone of tired resignation at life’s hardships, Lam’s film feels more like an American cop thriller in certain ways, swapping the neon-lit glamor of peak Hong Kong for something grittier. Then again, the wild and kinetic action scenes prove that this is a film that could only have been made in its time and place. City on Fire may not be as operatic as John Woo’s similar films, but it’s every bit as enjoyable. 9 p.m. Saturday, March 21, at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75.