www.startrekmovie.com/

Nerd alert. J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness opens today, and, at risk of revealing just how deep our love of the Enterprise and its crew goes, suffice it to say we've been re-watching Star Trek: The Animated Series (which, by the way, is great and on Netflix Instant Watch) in anticipation.

But we're not the only ones excited to see Abrams' second Trek installment. That's because the new flick resurrects one of the franchise's most memorable villains and pits his calculated coldness against Chris Pine's emotional, reactive James T. Kirk.

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Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker and Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby.

Grab a sweater and stock up on your snacks of choice -- here are five movies worth heading to the theater to see this month.

The Great Gatsby
Though it's garnered mixed early reviews, Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of The Great Gatsby will be one thing for sure: visually stunning. The director's saturated, sparkly outing stars Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role of Jay Gatsby, alongside Carey Mulligan's Daisy Buchanan, and Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway.

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thegreatgatsby.warnerbros.com/

A tempting trend? Yes. Should you attempt replication? Um, no.

Baz Luhrmann's highly anticipated film adaptation of The Great Gatsby hits theaters Friday, May 10. With sparkly, soirée-ready costumes designed by Miuccia Prada and Catherine Martin, the decadent flick has spawned a slew of Daisy- and Jay-inspired fashions that range from glamorous to downright gaudy.

While it may sound appealing, draping yourself in velvet, fringe, and patterns galore, some Prohibition-style restraint is in order -- if solely to save you from looking like a costumed clown.

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This summer has an abundance of noteworthy films coming out and quite a few that might not be worth the cost of admission.

Jackalope Ranch is here to help guide you through the movie madness with five must see indie flicks that should go mainstream and five more that can wait until a cold, lonely night when your Netflix queue is empty.

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1984

After perusing the prolific amounts of art, jewelry, and clothing this weekend at First Friday, take a break and escape the heat to catch a controversially classic book's second film adaptation by director Michael Radford.

Bookmans presents the latest feature in its Banned Books on Film series, with the polarizing '1984,' by George Orwell.

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This summer has an abundance of noteworthy films coming out and quite a few that might not be worth the cost of admission.

Jackalope Ranch is here to help guide you through the movie madness with five must see geek flicks that will have you lining up for the midnight showing and five more that can wait until a cold, lonely night when your Netflix queue is empty.

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Ben Kitnick/Saxon Richardson via Vimeo

Space-Alien Donald

When Ben Kitnick first hung out at lo-fi art space and weirdo hangout Funny World last year, the ASU film student thought the house-show haven was a fascinating place. So much so that he immediately was struck by the notion that "someone needs to tell a story about this place."

Then he met its owner, Space-Alien Donald. And after interacting with the bizarrely gonzo and extremely unique spoken-word artist (self-described as "The World's Oldest Gay Canadian Rapper") it only confirmed the idea even more. Over the next six months, Kitnick got hours upon hours of footage of both the man and his venue, resulting in a recently released documentary short that's just as colorful as its subjects.

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www.theretrieval.com

Trudging through the outskirts of the Civil War, The Retreival effectively uses its setting.

If the style of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and the themes in Django: Unchained could be fused together into one movie, it might look something like The Retrieval.

Director, writer, and editor Chris Eska made the dark Civil War-era flick and it's getting buzz all across the country, winning a Special Jury Recognition for Tishuan Scott's role as Nate at South by Southwest and three Phoenix Film Festival awards.

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Adriene Jenik

On Friday, telecommunications media artist Adriene Jenik will screen the latest iteration of SPECFLIC, a multifaceted project she's been working with since 2005.

After taking a position as the director of the ASU School of Art in 2009, Jenik has become quite familiar with the setting of her latest piece.

"SPECFLIC 1.9 is an experimental narrative [58:00, 2013] that tracks the happenings within a public research university [YouSee U] in the year 2030," she says. "The story pulls on the threads of various isolated 'storylines' that I've observed over my years working within these institutions and casts them into this near future scenario."

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Heather Hoch

The cast and crew of Lonely Boy at the 2013 Phoenix Film Festival.

Everyone copes with tragedy differently. Actor Alev Aydin wrote Lonely Boy after experiencing the effects brain cancer had on his mother, which resulted in symptoms similar to schizophrenia. His film, in which he also plays the lead as Franky, explores the hardship of having that mental illness while trying to find love in the city.

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- Nine Life Lessons Learned from Roger Ebert (1942-2013)

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