Can you feel it? It's the best time of the year. Look outside: the trees are a sunburst of leafy goodness. It's beautiful. Nothing better than to grab some friends, go to the park, and jump in huge piles of leaves as if you were eight years old again. Sometimes I think about how I need to figure out a way to go back to school, but for now, I see my friends overloaded with homework and unable to enjoy these fantastic days. They aren't even free in the evenings to take advantage of one of the University of Louisville's great resources: the Floyd Theater, bringing cheap cinema to the students (and others) every week.

This week: tonight (Thursday): Beasts of the Southern Wild, a magical realist film which, from all accounts (except one girl I know), is incredibly moving and not to be missed. (I, unfortunately, missed it, and will have to miss it tonight as well.) Youngster Quvenzhane Wallis stars as Hushpuppy, a girl living in the bayou community known as the Bathtub. Her father is volatile and temperamental, ice-caps are melting and flooding the Bathtub, and giant warthogs are on the loose. From all this emerges a message of courage and love, according to IMDB. Beasts of the Southern Wild plays at 5:00 and 8:00.

For the weekend, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña star as Brian Taylor and Mike Zavala, respectively, in End of Watch, a cop drama from David Ayer, the writer of Training Day and The Fast and the Furious. Taylor and Zavala are police partners who uncover some seriously blinged-out contraband during a routine traffic stop. In doing so, they pissed off the wrong people, and now those people are gunning for them. End of Watch plays Friday and Saturday at 5:00 and 8:00.

The Floyd Theater is located on the third floor of the Student Activities Center on the U of L campus (look for the clock tower). Admission is $1.50 for students and $3.00 for the general public. Further information can be found at the SAB Film Committee Facebook page.

Image: Internet Movie Database