THE WEEKEND WARRIOR July 12, 2024
FLY ME TO THE MOON, LONGLEGS, LUMINA, ENO, SING SING, TOUCH, THE CONVERT, NATIONAL ANTHEM, DANDELION, MORE
I’ve had a request from one of my avid readers to include more about bees and stamps in this column, so yeah, bees and stamps exist. You’re welcome, Rob! 🙂 (Okay, true confession that the reader was my brother Rob, who celebrated his birthday earlier this week, but since I can’t afford a present, that’s the best I can do for you, Rob.)
Before we get to this week’s releases, and there are a LOT of them, even though there doesn’t seem to be any of the summer blockbusters we normally will get this month, there are two annual film festivals taking place this week. It used to be that the New York Asian Film Festival and Japan Cuts wouldn’t take place at the exact same time, and they’d actually compliment each other by running back-to-back, but now they’re basically right on top of each other.
I’ve covered and attended the NYAFF for many years, though I generally have gotten less interested in more recent years, while Japan Cuts (which runs from this Wednesday through July 21, taking place at the Japan Society) has been killing it in terms of the mix of newer and older films. I’m really not going to get too much into the individual movies playing, because I haven’t had much time to watch anything, and you can just click on the links above, but fair warning that many of the Japan Cuts screenings do sell out, because they often have great guests and even greater parties. I haven’t watched much of anything, to be honest, but they are debuting Takeshi Kitano’s Edo-period samurai film, Kubi, which is probably more my thing than anything else, although it’s one of the better “discovery” festivals where you can see Japanese films that might never get released Stateside otherwise.
One could say the same for this year’s NY Asian Film Festival, which runs through July 28, and it takes place at a number of venues including the theaters at Lincoln Center (from July 12 to 22), as well as SVA Theater (July 22 to 28) and the relatively new venue, Look Cinemas W57, which has screenings scattered throughout the rest of the month. I think the biggest surprise at this year’s NYAFF is that they’re screening Sean Wang’s DÌDI ( 弟弟), one of my favorite movies from Sundance, which also won an award or two, if I remember correctly. I’ll have a review of that one in a couple weeks when it gets a nationwide release.
Anyway, if you’re as big a fan of Asian cinema as I am (and don’t mind going uptown as much as I hate to do so), then you have lots of options for the rest of the month.
But you also have a surprising number of decent movies playing outside these festivals, many in theaters around the country.
FLY ME TO THE MOON (Apple Studios/Sony)
Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum star in Greg (Love, Simon) Berlanti’s historical (but clearly fictional) rom-com set during the time when NASA was preparing to launch Apollo 11 to go to the moon. Johansson plays advertising and marketing whiz Kelly Jones who NASA brings on to amp up excitement for the upcoming moon landing, as well as getting politicians on board to finance it. She finds herself receiving pushback from Tatum’s flight director, Cole Davis, who doesn’t believe NASA needs her gimmicky marketing tricks. Things get tricker when Kelly’s government handler (Woody Harrelson) thinks they should film a fake moon landing for the live broadcast just in case anything goes wrong… but Cole can’t know about it.
Fly Me to the Moon is the kind of movie where some might see the trailer and think they know exactly what the movie is, but it’s really not as much of a romantic comedy as the trailer purveys since the “meet cute” relationship between the movie’s two stars is just one part of a much larger story that will probably appeal to those who enjoy movies about the space race like NEON’s excellent Apollo 11 doc from a few years back. Even though this is clearly fictionalized, there are enough elements based on historical facts that it makes for an enjoyable viewing, and also a bizarre companion piece to Damien Chazelle’s highly-underrated First Man from 2018.
Surprisingly, this wasn’t written by Berlanti, but a script he either found or was brought to him by Apple, but for a first screenplay by Rose Gilroy (based on a story from others), it’s pretty impressive, since it’s a film with a lot more layers than many will be expecting. Neither Johansson nor Tatum are necessarily delivering their best performances, but they both have enough charm and charisma to make the awkward chemistry between their characters palatable.
Easily the film’s biggest scene stealer is Jim Rash as the commercial director who Kelly hires to film the fake moon landing. Rash delivers some of the film’s biggest laughs, even as that section gets a bit a little more madcap and thereby takes away from the credibility.
If you’re looking for an entertaining two hours at the movies, you can certainly do worse than Fly Me To the Moon, a comedy that combines fact and fiction as effortlessly as any other biopic, while never losing sight of the fact that moviegoers want and need to be entertained more than anything else.
Rating: 7.5/10
LONGLEGS (NEON)
A movie that’s getting a wider release than I expected into 2,500 theaters is a movie that’s more psychological thriller than actual horror. For whatever reason, NEON has done its best to hide what the movie is actually about with a lot of enigmatic BS that tries to make it seem like something more than its clear and obvious influences, The Silence of the Lambs and Se7en.
Maika Monroe plays FBI agent Lee Harker, who is assigned to try to help find and stop a satanic serial killer known solely as “Longlegs” (as played by Nicolas Cage), who is killing entire families in this new thriller from Oz Perkins (Gretel & Hansel, The Blackcoat’s Daughter) that plays on the satanic scares of the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Many people have excitedly been looking forward to this movie since NEON’s marketing campaign has been so interesting and usual, making it look like a much more layered horror movie than it actually is. I usually appreciate Monroe’s work, but her performance in this movie is so flat and lifeless that it does little to keep you invested as all sorts of odd occurrences happen amidst her investigation.
Honestly, I just didn’t get this movie or its appeal that much, but also, it’s such an obvious rip-off of Silence of the Lambs with Cage (who isn’t in the movie THAT much) giving one of his nuttier performances. Sorry, but to me, that’s just not enough to justify or recommend this movie, and Perkins just isn’t as skilled a director as he needed to be to make this movie really stand out and deliver on what’s promised from the deliberately enigmatic marketing campaign.
The fact that I struggled to remember a single scene from this movie – similar to Kinds of Kindness, actually – makes me think this is another movie that’s relying more on advance buzz and style than any actual substance. While I’m sure millions will rush out to see it since #FilmTwitter has already declared it to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, this is not a movie that I ever would willingly go to a movie theater to watch again, which to me is quite telling.
Rating: 6/10
LUMINA (Goldove Entertainment)
Gino McKoy’s sci-fi-horror film is being released into roughly 1,000 theaters by a brand-new distributor. It follows four people whose friend mysteriously vanishes in an occurrence that comes across like an alien abduction, so they piled into an RV and go drivig across the deserts of the US and the sands of the Sahara looking for them. The movie co-stars Eric Roberts in a tiny 10-minute role as someone the group encounters, and oddly, Roberts is in two other movies opening this weekend (neither of which I’ve seen or will be reviewing).
I had a strange feeling that this movie could have been a disaster despite seeing a trailer for it that made it look like maybe it wasn’t, but no, it’s definitely a disaster, a poorly-written and realized alien abduction movie that takes forever to get to anything even remotely resembling science fiction, and once it does… YIKES.
The film opens on a party where a bunch of friends are just hangin’ out and chillin’, but then something happens and one of them (Eleanor Williams’ Tatiana) vanishes. This paves the way for her boyfriend Alex (Rupert Lazarus) completely freaking out until some of the others at the party convince him to go on a journey across the desert to find out what happened to her.
Lumina’s biggest problem is that it’s filled with some of the most annoying characters with writing by director Gino McKoy that is barely passable, and you’re spending a good hour or more with them before the movie realizes it needs to introduce more sci-fi elements. In doing so, it just makes it clearer that it was made on such a low budget with very little that actually makes the movie feel like a worthwhile experience.
Lumina reminded me a lot of the Strause Brothers’ Skyline movie, but at least they countered any bad writing and acting in those with some passable visual effects, while the VFX for Lumina are so cheap and cheesy with a generic spaceship and the group eventually encountering the existence of aliens in a “deep underground military base” – get this, the plot synopsis for that actually uses the acronym “DUMB,” because it is – as well as encountering aliens that look like a bargain basement Venom on some mysterious Mars-like planet. There seems to be very little connection between these things and the first 90 minutes of the movie.
So much of this movie’s marketing has been geared around the fact that it stars Eric Roberts… for roughly ten minutes. He plays a cowboy-like character named Thom that the group encounters, says a bit of enigmatic stuff, and then he’s gone. That might be the only good ten minutes of the movie, even if it just seems like Roberts hacking out another performance for another quick paycheck.
The movie then comes to a close inexplicably with the cheesiest pop song and then a title card claiming that millions of Americans are abducted by aliens each year, and that was pretty much it for me. I haven’t a clue how Gino McKoy was able to get this movie financed and made and distributed – a wide release, no less! – but Lumina is such a garbage entry into the independent sci-fi realm that offers nothing new, but more importantly, nothing good. Avoid this at all costs.
Rating: 3/10
THE BOX OFFICE CHART
1. Despicable Me 4 (Universal) - $40 million -47%
2. Inside Out 2 (Disney/Pixar) - $19.7 million -35%
3. Fly Me to the Moon (Sony/Apple) - $13.2 million N/A
4. A Quiet Place: Day One (Paramount) - $11.5 million -47%
5. Longlegs (NEON) - $8 million N/A
6. Bad Boys: Ride or Die (Sony) - $4.2 million -47%
7. MaXXXine (A24) - $3 million -55%
8. Horizon: An American Saga (Warner Bros.) - $2.9 million -45%
9. Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (Angel Studios) - $1.6 million -47%
– Lumina (Goldove Entertainment) - $850k million N/A
Since I haven’t had a “Chosen One” in a couple weeks, this week we’re gonna do a “CHOSEN TWO,” since there are at least two movies I can highly recommend.
ENO
Opening at the Film Forum in New York on Friday is this fascinating and highly untraditional doc about musician/composer/producer Brian Eno from director Gary Huswit (Helvetica) that surely will appeal to anyone who is familiar with Eno’s vast career and discography, but also should pique the interest of those unfamiliar with his work and career. If you loved Brett Morgen’s Moonage Daydream (as I did), this doc could end up being the most perfect representation of Eno’s life and music ever made. This will be playing for two weeks with each day showing a different version, as the filmmakers have created 14 distinct and separate DCPs with different randomized versions of the film. This makes it very hard to review, since I have no idea if you’ll be able to watch the same version I did, or you’ll get something completely different. I guess that just makes it that much more exciting.
What else can I say about this fantastic movie other than the fact I’ve been an Eno fan for most of my life as a music enthusiast, from his early work with Roxy Music to his solo work, more ambient stuff, and then there are his productions, which are second to none. Eno produced classic records for the Talking Heads, U2, Devo, and so many more, and at least the version of the movie I saw covered bits and pieces of all of them, even if they were just short snippets. I absolutely loved the movie, and my only minor annoyance with it is that I really want to see ALL of it, not just a random 90-minute selection of bits and pieces. I certainly can hope and presume that Huswit will eventually release a DVD of the entire thing, but as of now, you can’t even get a screener of the movie, because it’s meant to be a different cinematic experience each viewing.
Whether or not you’re familiar with Brian Eno shouldn’t really matter, because there’s so much great insight from Eno himself, both in present day and in archival interviews, that you’re bound to learn something new even if you think you know everything there is to know about him.
SING SING (A24)
Colman Domingo stars in this stirring drama set at the Sing Sing correctional facility in upstate New York where he plays John “Divine G” Whitfield, a man falsely accused and imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. To make the best of it, he takes a role in the facility’s “Rehabilitation Through the Arts” (RTA) program, where he ends up butting heads with a cocky younger member of the group, played by first-time film actor Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, who was part of the program at Sing Sing.
This comes from filmmakers Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley (Transpecos), who read a 2005 Esquire article about Sing Sing’s RTA program, written by John H. Richardson about one of the productions put on through the program. That production, “Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code,” is actually the show the group puts on in the film, with another Oscar nominee, Paul Raci from Sound of Metal, playing the play’s real-life playwright and director, Brent Buell. Another actor amidst a cast made up of actual members of the Sing Sing RTA program (both past and present) is theater actor Sean San Jose as Divine G’s best friend Mike Mike.
This is one of the movies I heard great things about out of the Toronto International Film Festival last year but A24 didn’t seem to have release plans at the time, and a lot of the focus was being put on Domingo back then for Rustin, since it was presumed he would get an Oscar nomination from that… which he did. And he’s likely to get a second nomination for his performance here, and he may be joined with a nomination for the equally impressive Maclin (who was involved in creating the story for this film.) The film does a fantastic job showing what’s involved with the program and putting on a production, in this case, a rather outlandish original comedy written by the real-life Buell.
This is by no means a conventional prison film as ones we’ve seen before, but one thing I know is going to annoy me is that a lot of critics are going to be raving about this movie (and rightfully so), but those same critics won’t have the empathy or compassion to fully understand or even forgive those who serve time, whether they actually committed the crimes for the charges for which they’re imprisoned or not. This just adds to my ongoing feeling that the hypocrisy in film criticism is so pervasive that I find it hard relating to many of my critical “colleagues,” but I worked very hard to not let that detract me from enjoying this wonderful film.
Even so, this is a very strong film that I’d love to see SAG honor with its Ensemble award, even though the cast is mostly made up of non-SAG actors, I’m presuming. I also enjoyed the score by Bryce Dessner of the National that includes a terrific original song (not written by Dessner) that really drives home the emotional way the film ends.
Sing Sing is definitely going to make many “best of” lists this year, and it certainly can be an awards player despite being delayed nearly a year since it premiered during festival season. The impressive performances across the board drive a film that’s bound to destroy many false myths about prison life and the men who have been incarcerated.
Rating: 8.5/10
THE CONVERT (Magnet)
Guy Pearce stars in this historic drama from Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors) set in the New Zealand region during the 19th Century. Pearce plays a lay minister who arrives at a small British colonialist village in the center of a war between two feuding Māori tribes.
I did actually see this movie at the Toronto International Film Festival last year and quite enjoyed it, but I’m glad that I had another chance to rewatch and refresh my memory with another in-person screening (vs. the usual screeners I usually have to review from). You hear it a lot from critics about movies that should be seen “on the largest screen” possible, but usually that’s the studio movies that are able to get IMAX and other premium screens, which is never the case with an indie from another country like New Zealand.
The Convert opens with Pearce’s character, Thomas Munro, on a ship being transported to the village of Epworth where he’ll be leading the congregation. On the way, they encounter a vicious Māori tribe, Munro saving Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne’s Rangimai, the daughter of a chief, whose husband is killed in the ensuing melée. Having saved the young woman, Munro brings her to Epworth and takes care of her with the help of Jacqueline McKenzie’s Charlotte, who already has a relationship with her Māori tribe.
I find Tamahori’s insight into Māori culture and history to be quite fascinating, since it’s something few Americans will fully understand, but it’s evident that the British colonialists that came to the islands back in those early days were not unlike the settlers that travelled West and encountered (not always favorably) the Indigenous people of America on their journey. In some ways, that makes The Convert akin to a Western, although Tamahori full takes advantage of the gorgeous oceanic island vistas to make the film stand out visually in a similar way as his countrymate Jane Campion’s Power of the Dog.
I personally found this to be one of Guy Pearce’s better performances with a particularly moving moment when we learn about his traumatic past as a soldier. McKenzie also has a suitably dramatic moment where we learn about her own past, while the rest of the cast, especially the Indigenous actors, do a fine job getting into their respective characters and embracing their primitive and violent nature and way of life. The film eventually does build to an impressive battle sequence between the two main Māori tribes with Pearce’s Monroe caught in the middle.
The Convert is a powerful return by Tamahori to his New Zealand roots with a film that looks and sounds so great in a theatrical environment, although I worry that not enough people will even know of its existence.
Rating: 8/10
NATIONAL ANTHEM (Variance)
Charlie Plummer (Lean on Pete) stars in Luke Gilford’s drama, playing Dylan, a young man from New Mexico who becomes friendly with a community of LGBTQ ranchers, including Eve Lindley’s Sky, a trans woman already in a relationship with Rene Rosado’s Pepe.
I’ve actually liked Plummer as an actor for a very long time, and I think his role in this film shows he’s also a daring young actor willing to explore different things. In some ways, this comes across a bit like a companion piece to Lean on Pete or maybe even a prequel, even though that movie was more about horses and homelessness. National Anthem is more about finding a family, even though Dylan lives with a dysfunctional mother and an impressionable younger brother.
The crux of the story is really about Dylan falling for Eve Lindley’s Sky, and the tough triangle that develops due to her relationship with Pepe, though it never really goes anywhere either, as it just ends and Dylan moves on. I wasn’t that familiar with Lindley, other than a very funny meeting scene in the comedy Bros, but in the case of her character, they never talk about her gender or pronouns, other than she clearly likes guys, from the shroom-fueled threesome she has with Dylan and Pepe in the desert. There’s quite a bit of variety in the different queer characters of this ranching community with whom Dylan interacts.
Gilford is a capable director, working from a screenplay by David Largman Murray, and I don’t really know anything about either of them to know if any of this is even remotely autobiographical or not. It definitely feels like there has to be some truth or reality in the writing since it’s so specific.
There are some aspects of the movie that feel a bit predictable like the reaction by Dylan’s mother to whom he is spending his time with, especially when he brings his younger brother to a drag show, and his mother flips out. But then, the movie just ends and maybe without fully resolving some of the storylines that are set-up.
National Anthem is a fine character drama, a uniquely distinct look at the LGBTQ+ community in a specific part of the country and the family they create for themselves, as well as one young man exploring his sexuality and options in a life that’s very different from the one he’s known.
Rating: 7.5/10
TOUCH (Focus Features)
Filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur (Everest) returns with this romantic drama adapted from the book by Olaf Olaffson, starring Egill Ólafsson (no relation?) as Kristófer, an Icelandic restaurateur diagnosed with early-stage dementia during COVID who decides to search for the woman he fell in love with while working as a chef in London of the early ‘70s. The film goes back in time to when the younger Kristófer (played by Palmi Kormákur, Baltasar’s son) first meets Miko, played by Japanese model and singer Kôki.
We meet Kritófer as he’s learning that he has only so long to live, though I personally can’t remember if it was cancer or dementia or something similarly sinister. He decides to use his time left to seek out Miko, a young woman he had an affair with while working at her father’s Japanese restaurant in London. That relationship ended tragically when she mysteriously vanished and was taken back to Japan by her father, but she remained in Kristófer’s mind to the point where he wanted to try and find her.
Listen, the premise for this drama is not an immediate one, since it’s set-up so slowly that it really expects the viewer to have the patience that few moviegoers have anymore. I personally thought the modern-day scenes with Olafsson (the actor) just generally worked better than the flashbacks, just because there really wasn’t that much to the actual story of Kristofer and Miko meeting before they eventually hook up. I don’t want to blast the filmmaker’s own son, who plays the young Kristófer, but he doesn’t offer nearly as much charisma as the older version (and that actor isn’t exactly flamboyant either). That also keeps the flashbacks, which is a good portion of the film, from really popping.
As slow as the film takes its times in building things up, when the older Kristófer gets to Japan, that’s when the film finally will start to get to the viewer, and I fully admit to tearing up when it gets to one of the more climactic moments. There are aspects to the Hiroshima bombing that are important but also feel unresolved in the sense you want to know more.
Pacing issues aside, Kormakur has made what ends up ultimately being a satisfying romantic drama that explores some thought-provoking ideas, maybe not in the most easily accessible way.
Rating: 7/10
Touch opens in select cities on Friday and I have an interview with Baltasar Kormákur and his son Palmi you can read over at CinemaDaily US right now.
DANDELION (IFC Films)
KiKi Layne plays the title role in Nicole Riegel’s Dandelion, a young singer and songwriter from Cincinnati who meets a Scottish singer/songwriter named Casey (Thomas Doherty) at a bike rally in South Dakota. The two start collaborating by writing songs and performing together, and one thing leads to another as Dandelion thinks she’s found the perfect partner in life.
As I often do, I watched Dandelion knowing very little about it, although I did realize later that Nicole Riegel made the movie Holler, which I know a lot of people loved, but I wasn’t really a fan of. Undaunted, I watched this film and quickly realized that it probably debuted at the SXSW Film and TV Festival (it did) since that festival is so into having music-related projects. I also had to watch this not thinking that it was going to just be “John Carney Lite,” since it’s the type of storytelling he’s mastered quite heartily with every film he’s done.
This starts off similarly as we watch Dandelion performing in a noisy bar, her music not getting the respect she feels it deserves. She also has an ailing mother at home, and she eventually has to sell her prized guitar to get money for her meds. I guess I presumed Ms. Layne, who is great in this role, was much younger, so when her mother makes a comment about her being in her ‘40s (in the future) I was a little surprised. This is the type of role that really requires a lot out of an actor, and Layne really delivers at times, giving more than the material even earns.
I wasn’t as crazy about Doherty as an actor, though his scenes performing music with Ms Layne are so good, they really elevated the movie as a whole. And the music is by Bryce and Aaron Dessner of The National, so that’s the second movie this week by Bryce. Maybe a movie like this is bound to go into predictable directions, and you do kind of expect that this will go to those places, especially in regards to the relationship between Dandelion and Casey, but fortunately, Layne’s performance always keeps things on track, leading to a terrific ending.
This is a perfectly pleasant character portrait, one that really shines the spotlight on Layne in a great way, to the point where by the time it reaches quite a satisfying conclusion, you’re likely to have forgiven any of the earlier pacing problems.
Rating: 7/10
This will also open at the IFC Center this weekend, with Layne and Doherty doing a QnA on Friday.
Let’s get into a few documentaries out this week…
SORRY/NOT SORRY(Hulu)
In 2017, The New York Times wrote an extensive story about the accusations against stand-up comedian Louis CK, and Cara Mones and Caroline Suh have now made a documentary that explores the whole story from the beginning through Louis CK’s recent attempts at a comeback.
I have such a mixed feeling on this doc and the whole narrative behind CK being cancelled, especially the fact that he admitted to doing what he was accused of… but also, is it really as bad as the actual rape and sexual assault, so many other men have been accused of and even jailed for? The weird thing is that I was never a huge fan of his show “Louis.” I had seen him perform live as an opener for Ricky Gervais many years ago, and I was even at the TIFF premiere of his film, I Love You, Daddy, which I actually quite enjoyed. I even reviewed it for Den of Geek, giving it a positive review I’m sure they regretted. (But hey, less than two months later, I was cancelled by Den of Geek basically for commenting on the #MeToo movement so ha ha… serves ‘em right.)
The weird thing about that movie (I Love You, Daddy, I mean) is that it actually got some other positive reviews despite it being rather icky at times, but if you look at that movie’s Rotten Tomatoes page, you’ll notice that the reviews get worse and worse as it gets closer to the movie’s planned premiere on Nov. 9, which was suddenly cancelled with that New York Times article being published. To make matters worse, the now defunct distributor sent out awards screeners that arrived on many critics’ doorsteps JUST as the accusations against CK came out in the midst of the #MeToo movement. Talk about bad timing. The distributor dropped the movie, and as far as I know, it’s never been released. Maybe it never will.
But getting back to Sorry/Not Sorry, this is a pretty thorough examination and analysis of the situation with two specific accusers going on the record, including Megan Koestner (pictured) and Jen Kirkman, the latter who, oddly, I once played poker with, but it was years before the New York Times story. There aren’t a ton of other comics being interviewed specifically for the doc, except for Michael Ian Black, who did speak out to support Louis at first, while others, like John Stewart, talk about CK during talk show appearances.
This is one of those cases where I fully believed the accusers about what happened, but I’m not going to risk being cancelled by commenting further on #MeToo or cancel culture. Not that you’re likely to be fully for or against either one, since they’re far too complex matters to just be black or white. (Candice Frederick, a movie and TV writer I greatly admire, has written some fantastic essays about cancel culture, and if I could find them, I would link to them here.)
I’m not quite sure who this movie is for since diehard Louis CK fans, at least the male ones, probably have already forgotten about what he did and maybe have bought tickets to one of his shows or supported one of his comeback attempts. The thing is that CK was never charged for anything. He did something that far too many men think they can get away with, although in his case, his biggest crime (at least in one case) was asking for consent at all.
Sorry/Not Sorry might not change your mind about Louis CK, but at least it does its best to try to cover all angles, even if it’s clearly on the side of his “survivors.” I mean, I have huge respect for Jen Kirkman and hope this didn’t completely derail her comedy career as she claims, but I also think that if I knew her better, I would probably get her a “I survived Louis CK jerking off” T-shirt as a joke… okay, I’m definitely getting cancelled for that. (That is, if anyone even reads this far down the column.)
(This will open at New York’s IFC Center as well as the Laemmle Glendale and the Zeitgeist Theater & Lounge in Arabi, Louisiana, oddly.)
MADE IN ENGLAND: THE FILMS OF POWELL AND PRESSBURGER (Cohen Media)
This brilliant doc from filmmaker David Hinton looks at Martin Scorsese’s personal journey through the films of British filmmakers Powell and Pressburger, the men behind classics like The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus. Mind you, I haven’t seen either of those movies, and the only movie by Michael Powell, I’ve definitely seen was Peeping Tom. For those completists reading this, the Museum of Modern Art AKA MOMA has been doing a robust retrospective on the filmmakers with lots of the movies discussed in this doc (and Film Forum has been showing The Small Back Room), but honestly? Part of me just likes the way that Scorsese talks about their movies, explains his love for them and the influence they’ve had on his own work. Made in England is the type of movie that very well could and should be shown in film classes, because it really is one of the finest breakdowns of a cinematic duo’s career I’ve ever seen. Made in England will open at the Quad Cinema in New York this weekend, with editor Thelma Schoonmaker doing QnAs on Friday and Saturday. (I had to double check because she did NOT edit this doc, but I guess she knows Marty well enough after working with him for five decades to speak for him?)
If you want to read more about this doc, definitely check out my pal Christopher Campbell’s NonFics blog, since he’s far more eloquent about docs than I can ever be.
SKYWALKERS: A LOVE STORY IMAX (Netflix)
Opening in IMAX theaters across the country is this documentary that was all the rave at Sundance and got picked up by Netflix there, but it’s actually getting an IMAX screening a week ahead of its premiere on Netflix next week. I generally remember enjoying this, but it having been months since I’ve seen it, I’d have to check it out a second time before reviewing… so maybe next week? We’ll see.
There’s a LOT of other stuff I just didn’t get to…
SAUSAGE PARTY: FOODTOPIA (Prime Video)
PROTOCOL-7 (Regal)
THE INHERITANCE (Vertical)
THE OUTLAWS (Saban Films)
SISI & I (Film Movement)
PROJECT SILENCE (Capelight Pictures)
REPUBLIC (Metrograph Press)
NYC REPERTORY
On Friday, Metrograph is doing a special “One Night Only” screening of the controversial 1993 Joel Schumacher-directed thriller, Falling Down, starring Michael Douglas, with (checks notes) John Ganz and Jamelle Bouie – no idea who they are – but it’s already sold out anyway. Sorry!
On the other hand, this month’s “Filmcraft: ACE Presents” offering is Spike Lee’s classic Do the Right Thing (1989) which will screen on Saturday with an QnA with editor Barry Alexander Brown, with a couple more screenings on Sunday and Monday. These events are always great and with Spike Lee recently throwing a 35th anniversary block party for the movie, it’s as relevant as ever. This is a great follow-up to last month’s event, screening Lee’s doc, 4 Little Girls.
A new series I’m pretty excited for is “Long Live Scala Cinema!,” which pays tribute to the trashy genre cinema that played at London’s Scala movie theater. This weekend, the series is only showing the original King Kong (1933) but then starting next week, there’s lots of fun stuff including screening the brand-new Severin Films documentary, Scala!!, by Jane Giles and Ali Catterall.
“In Pursuit of Shadows” will screen Wong Kar-Wai’s Chung King Express (1994) – they do love him at Metrograph – as well as Kurosawa’s High and Low (1963) – being remade by Spike Lee as we speak! – and Stray Dog (1949), as well as Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s (no relation) horror film, Cure (1997).
Another new series, clearly meant to tie-in to the Paris Olympics, is “Art Cinema, Olympiad and the World,” screening Kon Ichikawa’s 1965 film, Tokyo Olympiad, and Vera Chytilova’s 1963 film, Something Different, this year.
“Summer at Sea” screens at Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight (2013) over the weekend, as well as Eliza Hittman’s Beach Rats (2017) and Otto Preminger’s Bonjour Tristesse (1958), starring David Niven. “Passages” continues with Agnès Varda’s related The Beaches of Agnès (2008) a couple times this weekend.
I don’t know much (or anything) about “Basma Alsharif” (2017) but they’re showing his film, Ouroboros, and as short film program on Saturday.
“Piping Hot Pfeiffer” wraps up on Thursday with one final screening of Frankie and Johnny, which reteams Michelle Pfeiffer with Al Pacino, following Scarface.
Film Forum continues to show a new 4k DCP of Akira Kurosawa’s classic Seven Samurai – which I’ve seen so many times I’m opting for the Kurosawa films at Metrograph – and I believe this will also be playing at the Laemmle Royal starting Friday and other theaters around the country. Powell and Pressburger’s The Small Back Room has been held over until next Thursday, and presumably you can only see that at Film Forum. Vittoria de Sica’s Shoeshine has also been held over again for another week. Film Forum Jr. is seemingly on summer break.
Beginning this Friday, the IFC Center will be screening Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979) a few times each day. Showing as part of “Late Night Favorites” is Michael Mann’s Miami Vice, starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, which has been in the discussion a lot recently. “Cruising the Movies” is showing the German drama, Taxi Zum Klo (1980) a couple times on Thursday.
NITEHAWK CINEMA PROSPECT PARK & WILLIAMSBURG
In Prospect Park, you can see Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s 11 (2001) on Saturday for brunch, and both on Saturday and Sunday, you can see a new restoration of Roger Corman’s 1960 Little Shop of Horrors, which inspired all the musicals in film and Broadway. Monday’s “Kids vs. Evil” screening is Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs (1991).
In Williamsburg, Friday’s “July Giallo” offering is Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace from 1964, and they’re showing Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring for Saturday and Sunday brunch. On Monday, they’re showing a restoration of Maggie Greenwald’s 1993 Western, The Ballad of Little Joe with Ms. Greenwald doing a QnA. Tuesday’s “Recosider This” is the 2001 cheerleading comedy, Sugar & Spice.
Starting this week and running the next few weeks, it’s all about Japan Cuts (see above), which does include some repertory stuff in the “Classics” section, such as Gakuryu Ishii’s 1995 film August in the Water, followed by a QnA with the director. Actress Tomoko Tabata will be on-hand for a QnA following Shinji Somai’s 1993 film, Moving, while it’s also screening the 1984 film, Mermaid Legend.
As mentioned above, the Quad is showing the doc Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, with Thelma Schoonmaker doing some QnAs. That should be enough to feed your need for repertory stuff.
As mentioned above, MOMA continues to show “Cinema Inbound,” a retrospective of the films by Powell and Pressburger in conjunction with the release of the doc Made in England (which screens at MOMA on Weds afternoon ahead of its run at the Quad).
On Friday, there’s “Hedda Lettuce Presents: Empire of the Ants” a pretty crazy and funny eco thriller about giant ants. On Monday, they’re showing something as part of something called “Top Secret Cinema”... interesting.
On Thursday night, you can see a free screening of SS Rajamouli’s RRR in FilmLinc’s outdoor film series. (If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend doing so with an audience when you have an opportunity like this one.)
On Wednesday, Paris is starting a series called (appropriately) “Agnès Varda’s Paris,” beginning with a screening of her 1962 film, Cléo from 5 to 7, and more films in the coming weeks.
This weekend’s “See It Big at the ‘90s Multiplex” screenings are Menace II Society, Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, and Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock’s Speed, which is also celebrating its 30th anniversary.
Another great series this weekend is “From the Margins: The Trans Film Image” which will screen the 1997 film Ma Vie En Rose, Robert Altman’s Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean from 1982, and an absolutely can’t-miss screening of Isabel Sandoval’s Lingua Franca with Ms. Sandoval doing an intro and QnA. The series is presented by Caden Mark Gardner, co-author of “Corpses, Fools, and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema,” and they’ll be doing intros.
The “Political Film Festival” runs through the weekend with a screening of Gore Vidal’s 1964 movie, The Best Man, starring Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson on Thursday. Yorgos Lanthinos’ The Lobter is screening on Friday night as part of the retrospective for the Greek filmmaker. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is screening on Sunday for the kids.
This is closing down for the month of July to do some upgrades to its projection room.
Next week, it’s all about Universal’s long-awaited sequel (of sorts), Twisters. I will probably write a stand-alone review, but hope to have a column as well.