Magic Lantern keeps churning out indie treasures

Above : Daniel Ranieri and Ben Affleck star in “The Tender Bar,” which opens Friday at the Magic Lantern Theatre. (Photo/Amazon Studios)

Note : “The Lost Daughter” will NOT open on Friday. Look for it at a later date.

If you’re daring to venture out on this cold Christmas holiday, you might consider heading to the Magic Lantern .

Over its on-and-off near-half-century existence – in a variety of sites – the Lantern has continued to play films that are hard to find anywhere else.

And if you do find them, they’re usually gone after a week or they’re on some paid streaming site.( Re. the latter: Even the small house at the Lantern offers a better picture than most 37-inch TV screens out there.)

And I’ll put the Lantern’s popcorn up against anyone’s.

Anyway, aside from “Nightmare Alley” – which Guillermo del Toro has adapted from the 1947 origina l and which is already playing elsewhere – the Lantern is opening two fresh films.

“The Tender Bar” : George Clooney directed this coming-of-age movie about a boy learning about life from the owner of a Long Island bar.

Stephanie Zacharek of Time.com wrote: “(Ben) Affleck has only a supporting role in ‘The Tender Bar,’ directed by George Clooney and adapted from J. R. Moehringer’s 2005 memoir about growing up with an absentee father. But he makes the movie.”

“The Lost Daughter” : Maggie Gyllenhaal directed this look at a woman’s dealing with a haunted past while on a beach vacation.

Critic Ty Burr wrote, “One of the year’s very best movies – a spookily complex character study of a woman who’s either a terrible mother or who can’t forgive herself for not being a better one.”

That’s it for now. Keep that corn popping.