The Weekend Warrior August 5, 2022
BULLET TRAIN, EASTER SUNDAY, BODIES BODIES BODIES, I LOVE MY DAD, PREY, LUCK, and More
It’s the first week of August, and for many, it will already begin the box office’s slow downfall into a very dour couple months with no major blockbusters, at least on paper. There have frequently been some big openers this weekend including 2016’s Suicide Squad ($133 million opening), 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy ($94.3 million), 2007’s Bourne Ultimatum ($69.2 million), Rush Hour 2 in 2001 ($67.4 million), but M. NIght Shyamalan’s Signs is the biggest non-franchise August opener with $60.1 million in 2002. The NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton made just slightly more in the second weekend of August 2015.
Still, we’ll probably want to look at the August opener for 2019, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and its own $60 million opening, because that shares something in common with this week’s big release, and that is director David Leich.
BULLET TRAIN (Sony)
Now that you’ve gotten some idea what early August is like, you take those numbers and insert Brad Pitt, whose biggest opening to date is 2013’s World War Z with its $66.4 million, but then you have to consider that it opened in mid-June and was based on a huge bestseller. Pitt’s newest movie, Bullet Train, is also based on a book, a Japanese novel called “Maria Beetle” by Kôtarô Isaka. I haven’t read the book, and I’m not sure how popular or known it is here in the States, but the rights were clearly bought for a vehicle (ha ha) for Pitt to work with director David Leitch, who has quite a background and resumé in action, starting with his work on the original John Wick, starring Keanu Reeves.
Leitch then split from his partner Chad Stahelski, who continued on that franchise, while Leitch directed Atomic Blonde in 2017, and then Deadpool 2 in 2018, and Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw in 2019. That’s a pretty good filmography to rack up in just three years, although Bullet Train was probably delayed a bit due to covid and since Sony wanted to release it in the summer when the box office is healthier, which it mostly seems to be now.
It’s hard to tell if Leitch would be a draw on his own since other than his first two movies, he’s directed sequels and spin-offs, but fortunately, Brad Pitt is a bonafide box office superstar, who has cut back on the number of movies he’s made over the years. Covid certainly hasn’t helped but Pitt’s last two movies (not counting his small role in The Lost City earlier this year) were Ad Astra and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, both in 2019. Although Pitt doesn’t have a perfect track record at the box office, he is more consistent than many other actors from his era. You can look at his entire filmography and see that many of his movies have made $100 million or more, and he’s used that success to producer other movies, such as the Oscar Best Picture-winning, 12 Years a Slave.
What Bullet Train also brings to the mix is a huge ensemble cast of diverse co-stars, including Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Joey King, Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2), Andrew Koji (Mortal Kombat), singer/rapper Bad Bunny, oh, yeah, and Sandra Bullock, who has a small but important role as the handler of Pitt’s former assassin character, codename Ladybug. There are a lot more people in this movie, including many surprise cameos, and that mix of cast definitely can bolster interest in the movie even if it’s mainly about Brad and Sandy.
Reviews have generally been mixed so far (but getting worse), and as you can read in my review, I had problems with the movie but generally liked it. I feel like the trailers have done a good job selling it as a Brad Pitt action-comedy, which certainly would be a nice change but also in line with The Lost City (which opened with $30.4 million on its way to over $100 million). I think the positive factors outweigh the negatives, and while I don’t think this will open huge, I think an opening between $35 and 40 million in 4,100+ theaters would be a great way to kick off a month that probably will slow down to a crawl by the time we get to Labor Day.
Mini-Review: On paper, Bullet Train would seem like a fairly simple high concept that basically involves throwing Brad Pitt’s character onto a train and having him fight off a number of assassins, one at a time. That’s what the trailer would have you believe as well, but it’s a far more complicated storyline, almost to a fault at times, because we’re very slowly introduced to a number of characters who are also riding the Japanese bullet train where Pitt’s former assassin “Ladybug” merely needs to grab a briefcase and get off the train at the next stop. If only life were so easy.
Before we even get to Ladybug or the train we meet a father (Andrew Koji) whose young son was pushed off a building and is struggling for life, and he’s hellbent on revenge, as is his father (Hiroyuki Sanada), which brings his son onto the same train as Ladybug. There’s also a pair of assassins called Tangerine and Lemon (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry) who have been hired for their own mission involving said briefcase and Joey King’s “The Prince,” who may be responsible for the initial catalyst for them being on the train. It’s definitely a little confusing as other characters are introduced and quickly killed off, while the main four or five characters go through the train from one car to the next, similar to Snowpiercer. (It’s actually a pretty amazing job of production design and visual effects to create the actual train, which leads to more excitement as characters pop in and out at various stations.)
Adapted by Zak Olkewicz (Fear Street Part Two and the oft-delayed Last Voyage of the Demeter), the movie spends a bit too much time trying to be Tarantino, particularly in its whip-smart dialogue and annoyingly frequent flashbacks. Similarly, it leans way too hard on its soundtrack, and that would be fine except that it reminded me a lot of Kill Bill Vol 1, which was not my favorite Tarantino movie the first time I saw it. Though I’m unfamiliar with the source material, it’s interesting how it plays with luck, as far as Ladybug’s interminably bad luck vs. the better luck of some of the other characters. It’s something that’s used well from beginning to end.
Pitt is (obviously) one of America’s finest actors, and the rest of the cast varies with some odd choices (like the bad British accents taken on my Henry and Prince), but otherwise, Henry has the best role as this killer who is obsessed with “Thomas the Tank Engine,” something that is annoying at first but actually leads to things that really enhance where things are going.
One of the reasons I was interested in this movie was from the early story that Bad Bunny was so popular that Sony gave him his own Spider-Man spin-off movie, El Muerto. The rapper/singer is in the movie for maybe ten minutes, and Zazie Beetz, playing The Hornet, another killer, may be in the movie even less. Their characters do play an important part in the overall story, but anyone seeing the movie just for them might be disappointed.
The action is decent with a lot of it being violent close-quarter combat, similar to the great set pieces we saw in Leitch’s previous work, but when you have an action movie taking place on a high-speed train, you have to imagine that eventually, the train will play a bigger part, and that is the case as it speeds towards its last act where thing start to make a little more sense as everything escalates to a satisfying finale.
Bullet Train very much feels like David Leitch getting a chance to really stretch his directorial muscle, maybe even more than he did with Atomic Blonde. Sometimes, it works quite well and sometimes it strays off that path, but ultimately, it offers a satisfying last act that makes all the earlier problems pay off big-time.
Rating: 7/10
EASTER SUNDAY (Universal)
I’m not sure if one could consider a PG-13 comedy starring Filipino stand-up comic Jo Koy and based on his own life experiences as “counter-programming,” but Universal is hoping that those who loved his stand-up specials on Comedy Central and Netflix will like to see more with Koy, particularly a comedy based on his own life experiences.
This is definitely one of those movies that I don’t know very much about other than it’s generally about family, which is generally a good basis for humor, but it also has an impressive cast that includes Lou Diamond Phillips; fellow stand-up Jimmy O. Yang from Crazy Rich Asians’ Eva Noblezada, who was amazing in Yellow Rose a few years back (and also voices the main character in the Apple TV+ movie, Lucky – see below); and (where has she been?) Tia Carrere who was so amazing in Wayne’s World and its sequel. Honestly, there’s not much I can get out of the cast in terms of who might go to see the movie for any of them vis-a-vis Koy himself. It’s also directed by Broken Lizard’s Jay Chandrasekhar, and if you know what a big Broken Lizard fan I am, then you know why I’m even remotely excited about this movie.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to the press screening for Jo Koy’s movie, so I won’t be seeing it until Friday and probably won’t have a review for you. At the time I’m writing this, there have been no reviews released yet, and I assume they’ll hit sometime on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, though it’s hard to factor those in, since I’m not sure how many film critics (if any) are even familiar with Koy’s comedy. And let’s face it, comedies rarely do well with critics.
So I don’t think this will make $10 million this weekend, despite being in over 3,200 theaters, but probably more like $6 to 7 million, which isn’t great but will probably offer some competition to a few of the returning movies to maybe crack into the top 5. We’ll have to see how it plays with word-of-mouth to see if it gets past $20 million to make a mark. I’m guessing this movie didn’t cost a ton, so it doesn’t have to make a ton, although it could do pretty well in Asian markets overseas, as well.
BODIES BODIES BODIES (A24)
Opening in limited release this Friday in an undisclosed number of theaters is this “horror-comedy” about young people and the stupid things they do, until they die. Okay, maybe that’s just my take on Halina Reijn’s movie, which premiered at SXSW to raves. Reijn’s has a pretty terrific young cast, including Amandla Stenberg, who was quite amazing in The Hate U Give a few years back; Bulgarian actress Maria Bakalova, who was also great in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm and even got an Oscar nomination; Pete Davidson from Saturday Night Live; and then a few actors I wasn’t as familiar with including Rachel Sennott from Shiva Baby, Chase Sui Wonders, and Myha'la Herrold from something called Industry. And then standing out a bit like a sore thumb is Lee Pace, who is in his 40s. The general premise is that all of the above gather at the mansion of Pete Davidson’s parents for a “hurricane party,” which leads to playing a party game, and then a number of them start dying and then start becoming suspicious each other. You know, the usual thing that happens at hurricane parties with young people.
I’m probably gonna hold the box office analysis for this until next week, since I don’t know the theater count, although reviews have mostly been positive so far with it holding at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, but that’s only with 34 reviews. I probably will have to use some of A24’s other 2022 horror releases like Men and X for comparison, but again, next week.
Mini-Review: I went into this movie knowing about the overwhelming buzz out of SXSW, which always makes me slightly reticent, since I know full well how those festivals make people go a mite crazy. Well, fortunately, Bodies Bodies Bodies is pretty good, but maybe not quite as good as my expectations, mainly from watching A24’s excellent trailers.
We meet Amandla Stenberg’s Sophie, as she’s making out with her girlfriend Bea (Maria Bakalova) before they arrive at the remote mansion of Sophie’s best friend David (Pete Davidson), where they’re holing up for an approaching hurricane, and after quick introductions, they’re all drunk and snorting coke before Sophie suggests they play a game called “Bodies Bodies Bodies.” The game itself isn’t particularly interesting until actual dead bodies start turning up, and everyone starts accusing each other.
Bodies Bodies Bodies has such a great set-up (and pretty cool title), and I generally thought the actors did a great job, even though many of them got deliberately annoying as the movie goes along and more people start dying. I actually didn’t hate Pete Davidson in his biggest role since The King of Staten Island, and it was kind of funny to realize that the much older hipster was Lee Pace, cause I didn’t recognize him at first.
I think my biggest disappointment with Bodies Bodies Bodies is that it’s sold very much as a horror-comedy, where many of the characters are so ridiculous, and like many similar slasher films, you’re kind of wishing some of them to die, except the one(s) that becomes the obvious final girl(s).
Bodies Bodies Bodies is a horror movie (lower-case “h” there) that’s deliberately meant to be friendlier towards a younger women who might relate to some of the issues the characters face. This didn’t bug me as much as last week’s Not Okay did, because the writing is generally decent, but it’s not as funny as expected or as scary as one might expect from a horror movie. It’s a good way to kill some time with a few laughs, basically, although many times, it does feel you’re laughing at the characters and their predicament than with them.
Rating: 7/10
THE CHART:
Bullet Train is the easy #1 but Jo Koy’s Easter Sunday is going to be this week’s big outlier, as it opens somewhere between fourth and seventh place, depending on how much I’m under or overestimating his fanbase. Fun stuff!
1. Bullet Train (Universal) - $37.5 million N/A
2. DC League of Super-Pets (Warner Bros.) - $12.5 million -45%
3. Nope (Universal) - $9.3 million -50%
4. Thor: Love and Thunder (Marvel/Disney) - $7.2 million -46%
5. Minions: The Rise of Gru (Universal) - $7 million -36%
6. Easter Sunday (Universal) - $6.8 million N/A
7. Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount) - $6.2 million -24%
8. Where the Crawdads Sing (Sony) - $5 million -34%
9. Elvis (Warner Bros.) - $4.1 million -29%
10. The Black Phone (Universal) - $1.6 million -35%
(Wow, look at how that top ten has everything evenly spread out. Not like those weekends where movies could get into the top 10 with less than a million, but don’t worry. They’ll be back quite soon.)
This week’s “Chosen One” is…
I LOVE MY DAD (Magnolia)
Opening in select theaters this weekend before going to VOD on August 12 is another movie that played at the SXSW Film Festival. In fact, it won BOTH of the festival’s top prizes, the Grand Jury Prize for Narrative Feature as well as the Audience Award, which is pretty major. Oddly, this movie has a lot in common with Easter Sunday in that it’s based on the life experiences of 32-year-old James Morosini, who stars in the movie. In this case, he also wrote and directed the movie as well. He plays Franklin, a troubled young man who has been released from an institution after trying to commit suicide. Realizing that much of his misery is due to his father Chuck (Patton Oswalt), who frequently lies and cheats, Franklin blocks him on social media, but Chuck decides to create a new account, stealing the identity of a pretty waitress named Tess (Claudia Sulewski) to start conversations with his own son. Yes, he basically catfishes his son, and that’s wherein much of the movie’s humor lies.
Even though I heard good things about this one, I didn’t really know what to expect, since I never read up on it. The opening scene of a young boy who finds a dog and is urged by his father to take it even though it might be lost and someone else’s didn’t say much about the relationship between father and son, but we learn a lot about it as the movie goes on. Ten years later, Franklin has been traumatized by his father’s behavior as well as his parents’ divorce, and after a suicide attempt, he’s being treated for such. On getting out, he decides to block his father on Facebook, so his father decides to create a fake account and friend his son, just so he knows what’s going on. Instead, his son starts IM’ing with “Tess” (actually a waitress whose identity Chuck stole) and they begin an online relationship that cheers the boy up, being none the wiser about Tess’ true identity.
I mean, it’s a great premise, and it leads to a few hilarious moments where Tess, who we see as Franklin’s fantasy girl, is replaced by Oswalt, and there’s even moments where Morosini and Oswalt kiss (showing the reality vs. Franklin’s fantasy), and those are laugh-out-loud hilarious. I also thought Sulewski was terrific, and all three of them were really game to do whatever was necessary for Morosini’s story. The movie also stars Rachel Dratch and Lil Rel Howery, who not only were great gets, but they also help bring even more laughs to the concept. (And believe me, this really pushes its R-rating with raunch on par with Apatow and Rogen, which makes me think Morosini is not long from being hired to write/direct studio comedies.)
I won’t say too much more about it, since it’s fun to watch how things just escalate and get worse for Chuck’s plan as his son wants to learn more about and actually meet Tess. It’s just a rather clever script that makes it obvious why this movie was such a great crowd-pleaser at SXSW.
I’m just impressed with everything Morosini has done in this film, between his acting and bringing out the best of his co-stars as a writer/director. I feel like this guy is going places, though I hope he doesn’t lose sight of doing personal semi-autobiographical stories like this one. He’s quite an inspiration.
Rating: 8/10
MEMORY BOX (Haut et Court)
Opening this Friday at Film Forum is Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige’s terrific Lebanese drama that mixes in elements of documentary since it’s based on some of Hadjithomas’ memories from the past that she’s saved in a box of pictures and other mementos. But it’s more about three generations of Lebanese women with Paloma Vauthier playing the teenage Alex who starts digging through a box of mementos sent to her mother Maia (Rim Turki) whose own teenage years were plagued by the war that broke out in 1983. (Manal Issa plays the younger Maia, and she’s also quite good.)
I’m not reviewing this due to time constraints, but I really enjoyed this movie that takes one of the filmmaker’s actual youth in Lebanon and turns it into a dramatic but still joyous film with some wonderful moments of young love but also the torment and tortures of living during wartime in a war-torn country. If you’re looking for something a little different and more personal, I highly recommend checking out Memory Box during its Film Forum run.
MIJA (Disney Original Documentary)
Opening in New York (at the IFC Center), L.A. and San Francisco for an Oscar run before going to Disney+ this fall is this documentary from Isabel Castro about two young Mexican-American women (Doris Muñoz and Jacks Haupt) trying to break into the music biz while also providing for their families. I really wanted to see this, and I was invited to a screening, but it was one that I couldn’t make and every attempt to get a screener was received with utter silence. That is the kind of crap I have to deal with in trying to write this column each week… making no money whatsoever while doing so, mind you. I’d really like to see this, but I might have to wait until it’s on Disney+. SHRUG EMOJI.
Streaming…
PREY (20th Century/Hulu)
The Predator returns in this action movie from Dan Trachtenberg (8 Cloverfield Lane) that stars Amber Midthunder, as Naru, a young lass in the Comanche Nation trying to prove herself to her in the 18th Century, where there are far more dangerous things in the wild than a Predator. But apparently, this is meant to show the Predator’s very first appearance on earth.
You’ve probably heard the raves for this movie since it played at Comic-Con a few weeks back, and though I didn’t get to see it on the big screen (no fault of Disney), which I’m sure would be quite an amazing experience, it will be available to watch on Hulu starting Friday.
The entire movie is a pretty ballsy move by Trachtenberg, because most of the cast are indigenous actors, and it seems to have been filmed in actual forests and locations. Midthunder continues to be a terrific presence on screen, following her smaller role in last year’s The Ice Road. The new (or rather, older) Predator has an incredible design, and it involves an absolutely terrific performance by Dane DiLiegro, this being his very first movie!
I was a bit skeptical of the film at first, maybe because there was so much hype out of Comic-Con, and at first, we see a lot of the classic Predator tropes – you probably know the ones. As it goes along, it becomes more about Midthunder’s characters facing the Predator, and it just gets better. For instance, there’s an amazing scene with a full-on raging brown bear going after Naru before going up against the Predator, and that whole scene is pretty amazing. It makes you wonder what the visual effects team were working from in terms of plates shot on set by Trachtenberg.
In fact, Prey just looks fantastic (even on my laptop with my Email plastered in the center of the image… sigh), and I really marvelled over what Trachtenberg did in terms of storytelling but also in terms of making a Predator that breaks the sturdy mold that’s been used for previous sequels. I also loved the score to this one by Sarah Schachner.
It might be seen as hyperbole, but Prey is the best thing that’s been done for this franchise probably since Predator 2, and it’s a real shame that more people won’t have a chance to see this in a theater.
Rating: 8/10
LUCK (Apple TV+)
Directed by Peggy Holmes, the first film from Skydance Animation to hit select theaters and Apple TV+ on Friday, this strange animated movie centers around Samantha (voiced by Eva Noblezada) who is perpetually unlucky until she gets her hands on a lucky penny given to her by a black cat with a Scottish accent (voiced by Simon Pegg). When she loses the penny, she ends up following Bob to the Land of Luck with a plan to steal another lucky penny, which she wants to give to a fellow orphan to help her get a family. Things go kind of haywire from there.
This is another movie where I didn’t really know what to expect, but with most animated movies, there’s this careful balance of trying to appeal to the kiddies but also appease the parents, and this one is a bit of an enigma in that sense. It starts fairly ordinary, but once it gets to the Land of Luck, things get kind of crazy. There are so many different worlds and creatures for Sam to meet and learn about all the different things that circle both good and bad luck that my head starting hurting as more stuff was introduced. In that sense, Luck is a little like Inside Out, but its overly complicated premise just gets more complicated as it goes along, which I’m not sure is a good thing.
One of the film’s definite saving graces is Eva Noblezada (who I loved in Yellow Rose and also appears in this week’s Easter Sunday) as Sam, as she brings just the right positive energy to the whole thing. I really liked her, especially her rendition of Madonna’s “Lucky Star,” which Apple/Skydance would be wise to release as a singe, and I eventually got used to Pegg’s Scottish accent, too. You then have the likes of Jane Fonda voicing a dragon – has she ever done animation – and even John Ratzenberger voicing a character, so you know that he has stuck by his long-time friend and Skydance Animation CEO John Lasseter.
One negative is that the movie just goes on a bit too long after finally finding its sweet spot, and that might not be good if you have kids that get easily bored or distracted while watching movies.
I had to look to see who did the score for this – it’s someone named John Debney – because it’s absolutely phenomenal and really adds a lot to what ultimately is a fantastic-looking animated film. Kids might definitely enjoy Luck more than their parents, but as weird as the movie gets at times, there are also moments that are quite wonderful.
Rating: 7/10
WHAT JOSIAH SAW (Shudder)
I didn’t get a chance to watch the latest movie from Shudder, who is keeping up its promised one-original-movie-a-week routine. This is a gothic horror film directed by Vincent Grashaw (Coldwater) – his third feature – which premiered at last year’s Fantasia Film Festival as well as a number of other genre fests. It stars Robert Patrick as the head of a family that reunites after two decades at a remote farmhouse to “confront long-buried secrets and sins of the past.” Sounds more like a drama but hey, if it’s on Shudder, it’s gotta be cool. It also stars Nick Stahl, Scott Haze, and Kelli Garner, so yeah, hopefully I’ll have time to check it out soon. It’ll be on Shudder on Thursday.
LEGO STAR WARS SUMMER VACATION (Disney+)
Another movie I didn’t watch, although Disney was nice enough to send me a screener, is this latest in the LEGO Star Wars series, which looks fun with a voice cast that adds “Weird Al” Yankovic, Yvette Nicole Brown, Kelly Marie Tran, Anthony Daniels, and Billy Dee Williams to the returning cast of other “LEGO Star Wars” specials.
The premise:
“Looking for a much-needed break from stormtroopers and TIE fighters, Finn arranges a surprise vacation for his friends Rey, Poe, Rose, Chewie, BB-8, R2-D2, and C-3PO, aboard the ultra-luxurious Galactic Starcruiser, the Halcyon. But Finn’s plan to have one last hurrah together quickly goes awry when he’s separated from the group. While searching for his friends, he encounters three Force ghosts: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and Leia Organa, who each share their own unexpected stories of vacations gone wrong, helping him to understand that holidays are about more than just having fun.”
Like I said, it sounds fun but maybe more for kids and people who like Star Wars more than I do.
THEY/THEM (Peacock)
This LGBTQ+ horror film from Blumhouse is another one I didn’t get to watch, but this one wasn’t so much about time as the fact that NO ONE TOLD ME ABOUT IT OR SENT ME A SCREENER. So yeah, it’s not just Netflix who is a streamer that can’t get its fucking shit together (see below). I don’t know much about this other than the fact it stars Kevin Bacon in what I think is his second or third Blumhouse movie, as well as the wonderful Anna Chlumsky from Veep. I don’t know anything more about it, other than it involves horror and a gay conversion camp, a place where gay kids are taken to “fix them.” I might watch it on Peacock. I might not. SHRUG EMOJI.
Unfortunately, Netflix doesn’t feel it needs to send me screeners or respond to my Emails when I ask for screeners, but they have the series based on Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman coming out on Friday, as well as something called Carter. See, Netflix? If you don’t feel like making an effort, then neither will I.
Repertory stuff….
My favorite arthouse is doing some remarkable stuff this weekend, including on Saturday, when filmmaker Isabel Sandoval (Lingua Franca) will be on hand for her “dream double feature” that will include Alan J. Pakula’s 1971 film Klute, starring Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland, as well as showing her own 2011 film, Señorita, doing both an intro and QnA afterwards. (I’ll be there for that one, for sure!)
If that isn’t enough fun, Metrograph is also kicking off its series “Pool Party,” an appropriately pool-centric series of films programmed by Shannon Lyons, Metrograph’s 2022 Programming Fellow. It will include everything from François Ozon’s 2003 thriller Swimming Pool to Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers (2013) to Frank Perry’s 1968 movie The Swimmer, starring Burt Lancaster. They’re also showing Bo Burnham’s fantastic Eighth Grade, which like Swimming Pool is a must-see in my book.
Also starting Friday is “Summer of Roehmer,” which will be both in theater and on Metrograph’s digital at-home platform, and it will consist of three of Eric Rohmer’s films, The Aviator’s Wife (1981), Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle (1987), and Boyfriends and Girlfriends (1987).
“Playtime: Bicycles and Balloons” will show Tim Burton’s Pee Wee’s Big Adventure on Saturday, while “Late Nites: Miami Heat” will show the crazy action-musical Miami Connection (1987) on Friday and Saturday. “Welcome to Metrograph A to Z” will show Elia Kazan’s 1957 film A Face in the Crowd and Vincent Gallo’s Buffalo ‘66, both on Friday and Sunday.
That might seem like a lot but also, “Road Trip: American Cinema from Coast to Coast” continues this weekend with Clint Eastwood’s Bronco Billy (1980) and Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women (2016) on Friday and Sunday. And there’s even more! Joe Dante’s horror film The Howling will screen on Friday and Saturday, as well as Alan Rudolph’s 1985 movie, Trouble in Mind. (Did I miss something, or does Metrograph still only have two theaters?! How can they play so many movies in a single weekend? Elfen magic?)
This weekend, MOMA’s “Messaging the Monstrous” series continues with “Body Horror” with Alexandre Aja’s High Tension (a movie I wasn’t that big a fan of when it came out), Cronenberg’s The Fly and Shivers on Friday (a great double feature) as well as Takashi Miike’s Audition and Julia Ducournau’s Raw on Saturday. And then on Sunday, MOMA begins the self-explanatory “Women Make Horror” section of the series with some of the movies you might expect, like A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) from Ana Lily Amirpour and Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook (also from 2014). There are a lot more recent movies in here like Kate Dolan’s You Are Not My Mother (2021) and Alice Lowe’s Prevenge (2016) on Monday. It’s just a great series, and if I lived closer to MOMA or had more time, I’d be there every day! No joke.
Starting Friday, the Paris is doing a “Directors Select Series,” kicking off with Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind on Friday, then playing Dario Argento’s Suspiria (in case you missed it the 1,000 times it’s played at other New York theaters), and then the original Death on the Nile, and Olivier Assayas’ Cold Water on Sunday.
Another retrospective of the work of a director who I’m not really familiar with, King Vidor, will run from this Friday through August 14 with many of his silent films having live accompaniment. You’re on your own with this one, but FilmLinc is also playing a 4k restoration of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours: White (1994), starring the wondrous Julie Delpy, following the end of its run of Three Colours: Blue on Thursday.
Roxy continues to show some great stuff on film, including Friday, when you can see Mario Bava’s Black Sunday in 16mm, as well as on Sunday. Also on 16mm Sunday is something called Peculiar Puppets, showing experimental animation from the ‘20s to the ‘50s! You can still see The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Showgirls in 35mm on Friday, if you’ve missed previous screenings.
The new 4k restoration of Michael Mann’s 1999 classic, Heat, will continue to run, playing once a day at 8:45pm until August 11. Some good stuff in the “Late Night Favourites” this weekend, including David Fincher’s Fight Club and Kubrick’s The Shining. On Friday and Saturday, you’ll also have your last chance to see the 40th anniversary of Blade Runner (Final Cut), both near midnight. Oh, and David Lynch’s Lost Highway continues to play through the weekend. That movie is just never going away, but at least it’s one of Lynch’s cooler films.
“Pionerering Women in Australian Cinema” continues through the weekend, and MOMI is also bringing back “See it Big: 70mm!” with this weekend’s offering being the late Douglas Trumbull’s 1981 sci-fi cult classic Brainstorm, which will play Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Starting Friday, Bertrand Blier’s 1974 buddy comedy Going Places, starring Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Hupert (both probably very young), will get a week-long run
On Monday, August 8, you can see Dennis Hopper’s groundbreaking Easy Rider in 35mm!
The 50th Anniversary of Luis Buñuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise continues to run.
ETC…
TIN CAN (Dread)
CAVE RESCUE (Grindstone Entertainment)
STOWAWAY (Saban Films)
WILD MEN
Next week… I honestly have no fucking idea. Sorry. (I’m kidding, but there’s a lot of odds and ends including Bodies Bodies Bodies going wide.)
Box office data provided by The-Numbers.com.