The Weekend Warrior July 29, 2022
DC LEAGUE OF SUPER PETS, VENGEANCE, THIRTEEN LIVES, RESURRECTION, A LOVE SONG, NOT OKAY, and More!
July comes to an end with two new wide releases, and boy, it just seems like the summer is coming to an end with one more month of possibly one big hit and maybe a few misses. It’s a shame really since pre-COVID, it seemed like studios and distributors had agreed to a full 12-year release pattern, but COVID certainly has slowed things down as it continues to run rampant with new variants. (Mind you, that doesn’t stop me from going to the movie theater, not at all.)
Before we get to the new releases, my #1 movie of the year, Everything Everywhere All at Once, is returning to theaters this weekend nationwide with 8 additional minutes of bloopers and outtakes, and I’m probably going to be there for my FOURTH theatrical reviewing of the movie. That will be a first for me.
DC LEAGUE OF SUPER-PETS (Warner Bros.)
This week’s widest new release is also the second-to-last expected tentpole movie of the summer, as well as the last animated or family film for quite some time (not counting a new Dragon Ball Super movie coming out in August). It’s a really cool idea from the House of Ideas… no, the other one… to base a PG animated feature film around Superman’s dog, Krypto, and Batman’s dog, Ace the Bathound, although neither really has been in the comics for quite some time. The high-concept aspect of the movie has Dwayne Johnson (who produced the movie) voicing Krypto and his long-time colleague and comedic partner Kevin Hart voicing Ace.
Beyond that, it has pulled together a pretty killer cast of other comedians and actors, including John Krasinski and Keanu Ruves, who not only to voice some of the other shelter animals who get superpowers as well as some great voice actors for the Justice League super-heroes who play a pretty big part in the story. So yes, although this is about the lesser-known pets, you’ll also see Bats, Supes, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, and Aquaman, as well as Superman arch-foe Lex Luthor
You can read my Gold Derby preview for a few comparisons and other things, but I’m pretty bullish on this movie. The trailers and commercials have played well, and it’s a pretty terrific premise for a family film. In fact, I would even say that if this does well, Warner Bros. Discovery might want to consider making more movies in this version of the DC Universe with more of the Justice League and their pets.
I think that it could open with $40 million or more this weekend as the trailer and teaser have been in front of movies going back to last year, getting kids and even their parents excited about seeing this version of the DC superhero universe. Should be an easy $100 million domestically, as well.
Mini-Review: I actually started to get pretty excited about this new animated movie from Warner Bros. and animation house Animal Logic (Happy Feet) as it approached, since it’s only the third or fourth time in recent memory where the DC heroes have been in theaters as animated characters. This one is very much about Dwayne Johnson’s Krypto and Kevin Hart’s Ace, but it involves a plot that brings in some of the classic Justice League characters, as well, and also some newer ones like the Jessica Cruz Green Lantern.
But first, we get an absolutely adorbs origin story for Krypto as a puppy who loves his best friend, baby Kal-El, so much that he hops into the spaceship that is being used to save Kal-El’s life from an exploding Krypton. Decades later, they’re still best friends, but Krypto is starting to feel threatened by the time Superman is spending with Lois Lane, who he envisions replacing him (even eating his dog food!). At the same time, a group of shelter pets, including the guinea pig Lulu (voiced by Kate McKinnon), are waiting to be adopted, but when Lex Luthor (voiced by Marc Maron) tries to use orange kryptonite to get super-powers, it instead gives powers to Lulu and the other shelter pets, including Ace (voiced by Kevin Hart). Lulu decides to use her powers for evil world domination plans.
I really was enjoying DC League of Super-Pets as it focused on the friendship between Superman (John Krasinski) and Krypto (voiced by Dwayne Johnson), because it was literally joke after joke and was actually quite funny. Much of that humor in the movie comes from making fun of the normal DC tropes, and that’s fun, too. When it switches gears to the other pets, it loses something, and that is generally the biggest overall problem with Super-Pets. The whole plot involving Lulu’s world domination and how she takes away Krypto’s powers and imprisons the Justice League just isn’t very strong. The movie also gets quite dark and very strange at times, like that kitten that shoots rockets out of its tail. (It’s pretty hilarious if you like weirdness like that, and kids will probably enjoy it, too.)
Then again, I do kind of like this version of the Justice League (enough to want to see more) and the rest of the Super-Pets do grow on me. Still, there’s no denying that some of the strongest scenes emotionally are the ones between Johnson and Hart, who have done four previous movies together and have really mastered their timing to a tee. (And I say that presuming that like with most animated movies, they recorded their parts separately.)
For all the issues I had with the plot and other things, the overall film does pay-off and the final battle with Lulu and the movie’s resolution is also quite satisfying. DC League of Super-Pets is generally entertaining enough, and both kids and adults should find stuff to enjoy, but especially fans of DC Comics who have been hoping to see some of these things done well in the movies.
Rating: 7.5/10
VENGEANCE (Focus Features)
A bit of an anomaly this weekend is this new dark comedy that marks the directorial debut of B.J. Novak from “The Office,” in which he plays Ben, a journalist who decides to make a podcast when a one-night hook-up turns up dead of an overdose in rural Texas, and he’s convinced to come to her funeral by her family, who believes she was murdered.
It’s a pretty interesting concept that plays upon perceptions of people in cities like New York towards those living in places like Texas and vice versa, while also relaying a pretty cool murder mystery ala the ones we hear about on all those podcasts and Netflix mini-series we listen to and watch.
Novak’s secret weapon (besides himself – his character Ryan on “The Office,” followed by a stint on “The Mindy Project” – has made him, if not a household name, then at least a household face) is probably Ashton Kutcher, who plays a significant supporting role. We must not forget that Kutcher had a pretty decent film career following his stint on “That ‘70s Show.” There’s quite a few funny gags in the commercials and trailers that this could definitely be an alternate choice for those not necessarily be interested in an animated movie or superheroes.
Oddly, I can’t think of too many direct comparisons, although Novak’s “The Office” castmate John Krasinski actually made a number of smaller indie movies that played Sundance before hitting the big time with A Quiet Place for Paramount and its sequel, as well as taking on the role of Jack Ryan on Amazon Prime. Novak’s film is probably bigger than Krasinski’s first two, but it’s not likely to bring in the business of his two studio thrillers.
I initially saw Vengeance at Tribeca Festival, and quite liked it, but you can read my review below. Although I think Focus has done a pretty good job promoting this one – I was especially impressed seeing ads for this while watching “Only Murders on the Block” on Hulu – this would have been a tough sell at any time but especially during the summer. Figure on a weekend between $2 and 3 million, which will be enough to break into the top 10 but not enough to really cause any worry for the movies that have been in theaters for weeks, or in some cases (like Top Gun: Maverick), months.
Mini-Review: I’m not sure I went in with too many expectations for B.J. Novak’s directorial debut when I saw it at Tribeca, other than the fact that it already had a trailer with a number of funny gags. After watching it a few times, I think there’s more to this movie that really comes out after watching more than just a trailer.
As I mentioned above, PJ plays Ben, a New York reporter, who seems so shallow when we meet him it’s unclear whether the character can be tolerated for an entire movie. We meet him at a party with a male friend, the two of them making toxic comments about women they’ve hooked up with and responding to everything by saying, “100%.” It’s pretty annoying, but it does remind you, sadly, that there are actual young New Yorkers like these two.
Ben is in the middle of another hook-up when he gets the call from the brother of an earlier one (played by Boyd Holbrook), who found Ben’s number and picture in his sister’s phone. Ben acquiesces and goes to the girl, Abilene’s, funeral, still not really knowing much about her but not wanting to disappoint her family. After he meets them – all of them having their own distinctively comedic quirks – her brother suggests that she was murdered despite her overdose. Ben decides he should stick around and maybe turn his experiences into a podcast, tentatively called “Dead White Girl.” Issa Rae plays his editor back in New York, who he is in constant contact with.
It’s pretty obvious that Novak’s greatest strength is his writing, because this is a pretty strong screenplay that works tonally despite its mix of humor and pathos. Ben also does grow on you from his earlier appearance, so he isn’t the worst example of a young New Yorker – that “honor” still goes to Zoey Deutch in Not Okay (see below) – and he brings a lot to the more emotional and dramatic scenes that come as we learn more about Abilene and what happened to her. There are quite a few great scenes I enjoyed, but none more than the rodeo when Ben has to debate the University of Texas with a local in front of a stadium full of Texas Tech fans. Like everything in Novak’s script, it’s something that offers many comedic callbacks.
Novak also has a pretty decent cast including Ashton Kutcher, who makes a lot more out of his role as Quentin Sellers, a music producer, than another actor might have (he really needs to start making movies again), as well as Dove Cameron, as Abilene’s younger sister K.C. (for Kansas City).
The thing about Vengeance – and I’ll say her that I don’t think that’s a great title for this movie at ALL – is that it has many humorous characters, even the incompetent local police, but Novak is never suggesting you laugh at them, but actually try to see how and why their lives and ideologies may differ from one’s own. And that includes Ben, because I honestly can understand when I go to other states and people are pretty shocked that someone from New York City can be so courteous and sociable.
There’s really just a lot to enjoy and ponder in B.J. Novak’s directorial debut, which seems like a particularly timely addition to the conversation about many things in the country’s current narrative, though it never gets so far up its own butt that it forgets it is first and foremost a comedy.
Rating: 7.5/10
THE CHART:
1. DC League of Super-Pets (Warner Bros.) - $42 million N/A
2. Nope (Universal) - $21.5 million
3. Thor: Love and Thunder (Marvel/Disney) - $11.6 million -48%
4. Minions: The Rise of Gru (Universal) - $9.5 million -46%
5. Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount) - $7.2 million -30%
6. Where the Crawdads Sing (Sony) - $6.5 million -37%
7. Elvis (Warner Bros.) - $3.6 million -40%
8. Vengeance (Focus) - $2.6 million N/A
9. The Black Phone (Universal) - $2.2 million -35%
10. Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (Paramount) - $2 million -50%
This week’s “Chosen One” is…
THIRTEEN LIVES (Amazon)
Ron Howard takes on the 2018 rescue of the Thai soccer team that ended up trapped underwater while cave exploring, requiring cave divers from all over the world to come to Thailand to help local divers rescue the boys and their coach. This arduous task involves a lot of planning, and because it takes so long to get the plan happening, few think any of the boys might survive as many days and weeks go by.
Some might remember that Free Solo’s Oscar-winning filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi made a documentary about this rescue (called The Rescue) that involved some recreations as well as actual footage. Sadly, that didn’t get them a second deserved Oscar nomination.
This one stars Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell as Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, the first two divers who show up to help, as well as Joel Edgerton and Tom Bateman as two other divers who were pivotal in rescuing them. But first we meet the actual boys on the team and their coach as they decide to do a quick hike through the vast cavern network before a birthday party. Unbeknownst to them, monsoon hits the area early and leaves them in a cave that’s literally surrounded by water. The parents obviously are worried and quite devastated as the days go on and the local government and the country’s Navy Seals seem unable to figure out a plan to save them.
As I started watching this, I vaguely remembered that Ron Howard got a lot of shit when he was announced to direct this story, because someone (was it Lulu Wang of The Farewell?!?) suggested it should be directed by an Asian filmmaker ala The Rescue. Except this isn’t so much about the Thai soccer team as it is about the brave men who put aside their lives to save them. Anyone ready to throw accusations about this being another “white savior” movie from Hollywood should probably be reminded that this actual story did involve white saviors. That’s fact and how it really happened. Even The Rescue confirms this.
But what Howard does quite effectively is that he includes a number of Thai characters that keep the story rooted in the region, and he doesn’t shy away from maintaining the spiritual aspect of the characters, such as one of the younger boys’ mothers. These characters are played by Thai actors, and they give performances as strong as the better-known European actors. That’s what makes Thirteen Lives far more balanced than some might be expect, and I have a feeling that Howard’s forays into documentary in recent years helped greatly with this fact.
What Thirteen Lives also does well is that it shows the difficulties in determining the best route to saving the boys, as well as the politics involved with the local political head who is worried as much about losing face as losing anyone – the boys’ soccer team OR any of their saviors. It creates a moral and political dilemma that might not be quite as evident in The Rescue.
Ultimately, this is a terrific companion piece to that doc, one that goes into such great detail in trying to create authenticity in recreating these events. It’s a shame that the two of them won’t end up on the same streaming network, since I feel that anyone who enjoyed that will want to see this, and vice versa. Howard continues to be a filmmaker who literally shows he can do anything, and with a combination of talented Western and Thai actors, Thirteen Lives is one of his best narrative films in many years.
Rating: 8/10
Thirteen Lives will get a limited theatrical run this Friday before streaming on Prime Video starting August 5. (But I’ve been hearing weird things about this maybe being on Prime Video this Friday and then in theaters next week, so I’m not sure what to believe about this.)
A LOVE SONG (Bleecker Street)
Filmmaker Max Walker-Silverman makes his feature film directorial debut with this drama that stars the great Dale Dickey as Faye, a woman waiting at a remote campground for a former acquaintance, Lito, played by the equally great Wes Studi. Neither of them is sure what the other one is hoping for in this newly-kindled relationship, and therein lies the angle for this drama.
A Love Song debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival back in January. I missed it there, and then it played Tribeca, and I missed it again, but fortunately, I finally was able to see this last week, and I wasn’t disappointed.
Dale Dickey is such an underrated actor with such an expressive face, and for the first eight or nine minutes, it’s just her alone on screen with no dialogue, as she fishes for crawfish in this gorgeous desert environment. This may be the biggest cliché ever, but that background literally is a third character in this story. Despite the general plot, it’s quite some time before Wes Studi shows up.Instead, Dickey’s Faye encounters a young girl and four men who want to move the body of her father, which is buried where Faye has parked her camper. It’s a recurring yet disassociated element of the story that gives the film almost a Coen Brothers level of absurdity, at times. In fact, I’m not really sure what was the point of that subplot in a movie that’s not particularly heavy on plot already.
Once Studi shows up, then it’s just this amazing two-hander as the characters get reacquainted and re-familiarize themselves with each other. These two actors are just so well-matched that you’re pulled fully into this slow-burn narrative of whether they’ll consummate what is clearly a burning passion between them after losing their respective spouses. One of the best moments of this sequence is when they play music together, and hence the film’s title.Unfortunately, Studi then just leaves, and we’re back to Dickey alone with very little dialogue, which isn’t necessarily bad, but it might not be as satisfying a resolution as some might hope for or expect.
Honestly, I wasn’t very sure what to expect of this film and was equally unsure if I was enjoying it as I watched, but it’s something that really grew on me and that I enjoyed more as it went along. Either way, it shows what you can do as a filmmaker when you have two terrific (and highly underrated) actors that deserve to have such great material coming their way all the time. Fortunately, Max Walker-Silverman had the wherewithal to bring them together for his film, which helps make this light-on-plot character study quite enjoyable with a distinctively unique and quirky tone.
Rating: 7.5/10
RESURRECTION (IFC Films)
Rebecca Hall stars in Andrew Semans’ dramatic thriller that premiered at Sundance, and I believe it was received pretty well. She plays Maggie, a woman going through her day-to-day when she spots someone from her troubled past who seems to be following or stalking her. She’s quite disturbed by this fact, but she’s more worried for her 18-year-old daughter Abbie (Grace Kaufman), since this man, David (played by Tim Roth), practically terrorized Maggie when she was her daughter’s age, and he also possibly killed their baby – she worried he might do something similar or worse to her daughter.
I saw this at the virtual Sundance and reviewed it here. I definitely liked it, and it certainly warranted a rewatch, mainly for Hall’s performance, because she’s just absolutely amazing in this, even if the general premise and the ending didn’t really do that for me so much. Hall is so great that there’s a moment in the film which is literally almost a 10-minute monologue where she tells one of her students (played by Angela Wong Carbone) what David did to her, and it’s a section of the movie that just gets darker and darker as Hall pulls you into the story. But from there, it goes down this long, dark rabbit hole of Maggie seemingly going insane, as she drives everyone around her away while trying to appease David, who claims their baby is still alive.
Otherwise, the movie may not be really horror enough to appeal to genre fans, more of a dramatic thriller really, although Semans definitely plays up the thriller aspect of it with the music by Jim Williams, which is suitably Bernard Hermann-esque. I feel like Resurrection isn’t a movie I can carelessly recommend to everybody, but those who love the amazing Ms. Hall and like being put into suspense and then disturbed quite readily by gore on par with Cronenberg should find things to enjoy in it, for sure.
SHARP STICK (Utopia)
Lena Dunham returns to the movies for her first feature since Tiny Furniture all the way back in 2010! (I guess that HBO and book money has kept her in whatever she into.) She only plays a small role in this one which revolves around 26-year-old Sarah Jo, played by relative newcomer Kristine Froseth, who has led a fairly sheltered life with her mother and sister (Jennifer Jason-Leigh and Taylour Paige from Zola), who ends up getting into a sexual relationship with a married man, played by Jon Bernthal. Dunham plays Bernthal’s pregnant wife, and Scott Speedman shows up as a porn star that Sarah Jo becomes obsessed with from watching his porn.
This movie was not received as well at Sundance as Resurrection, and I definitely didn’t like it as much when I saw it there and reviewed it here. I didn’t actually rewatch it, so I don’t have too many further thoughts beyond that earlier review. What’s interesting is that Dunham actually will have another movie this year called Catherine Called Birdy, a period piece coming of age story that will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival then will hit theaters on Sept. 23 and Amazon Prime on Oct. 7. I’m looking forward to that one, as well. Anyway, Sharp Stick is opening in New York at the Quad Cinema, as well as in L.A.
BLUE ISLAND (Icarus Films)
An interesting pseudo-doc opening at the Metrograph this Friday is this movie from Chan Tze Woon, and honestly, I think it’s one of the first movies from Icarus I’ve been aware of in quite some time… YEARS! I’m not sure I saw Chan’s previous film, Yellowing, about the Umbrella Movement, but this one deals with some of the fairly recent protests in Hong Kong and how the Chinese government had been reneging on the “One Country, Two Systems” deal struck when the UK handed Hong Kong back to mainland China in 1997. It introduces to some of the individuals who had been arrested, some who are still in confinement, but also does some reenactments of some of the stories of individuals who escaped from mainly China before the handover to seek refuge on Hong Kong. (By the way, pay attention to this phenomenon that we’re seeing a lot more of now, between last week’s My Old School and the upcoming Lebanese drama, Memory Box, which I’ll review in a couple weeks. We’re seeing a lot more filmmakers using this way of telling stories – mixing doc techniques with narrative ones.)
While I’m infinitely interested in this topic, having been a resident of Chinatown here in NYC for 30 years, including when Hong Kong was returned to China, I can’t in good faith actually review this movie, because I couldn’t stay for the whole screening
This will play at the Metrograph for one week starting Friday, and then it will have a two-weak streaming run on Metrograph At Home, beginning Friday, August 5. I have probably said it a million times in this column, and I’ll probably say it a million more but Metrograph’s digital screening library is getting quite vast, and they’re still charging a mere $5 a month or $50 a year (and that includes a discount off theater tickets if you live in NYC). It’s one of the best deals you can get right now, so if you’re into foreign films and docs, then this is the play you should make. Got it?
Streaming…
NOT OKAY (Hulu/Searchlight)
The always-great Zoey Deutch stars in the new movie from Quinn Shephard (Blame), playing Danni Sanders, a writer (actually a photo editor) at a prominent news site who decides that she isn’t getting enough attention, so she pretends to go to Paris for vacation. When a terrorist bomber attacks one of the places she purports to be, she keeps the lie going by acting as if she’s a survivor of the bombing, gaining sympathy from her coworkers, while also trying to get the attention of a hot (but quite dumb) influence, played by Dylan O’Brien (even more unrecognizable than he was in The Outfit). Soon, Danni befriends Rowan, the actual survivor of a school shooting, played by the indelible newcomer Mia Isaac (who you might remember from the recent “Chosen One” Prime Video movie Don’t Make Me Go), and Danni starts to gain the fame she’s always hoped for. Until people start learning the truth.
To be fair, there’s a warning at the beginning of this movie that it’s about an awful person, and it is indeed correct, because I just never could really stomach Deutch’s character, as much as I generally appreciate her as an actor. The problem is that Danni does such awful things, but she’s also surrounded by pretty awful people, which may be similar to Vengeance in that sense, but in this case, there were so little redeeming qualities among anyone, that it just wore me down with the amount of hatred I felt towards everyone. That is, except for Mia Isaac’s character, who is a ray of sunshine in a cesspool of Millennial horrible-ness, and just watching Danni scam this far purer and more authentic person just riled me up more.
There’s been an interesting conversation this year among movielovers about whether critics need to necessarily relate to or have anything in common with the characters in a movie to enjoy or recommend said films. I’m bringing that conversation back around to the fact that I just have no idea why so many young people are concerned about their number of followers, likes, etc. Why are so many young people so concerned about being “internet famous,” about people they don’t know and have never met raising them over their heads and praising them. That’s Danni’s problem, as well as that of many characters in this movie, who put that desire ahead of things like being an empathic human being to those around them.
That is also the problem with Shephard’s movie, because she isn’t able to offer any reason for us to care about Danni or anyone around her, other than Rowan. That doesn’t mean Shephard is a bad writer, and she actually isn’t a bad director either, plus she really uses New York City to its fullest, but she has a real issue maintaining a tone that works while introducing characters that are anything more than stereotypes. You’re never sure whether you are supposed to laugh at them, because the movie doesn’t seem to offer many things that you can laugh at either. There just wasn’t anything funny that I could find in what Danni was doing or anyone’s reactions when you consider how many people out there have become actual victims to horrible tragedies as the ones depicted in the movie.
Not Okay isn’t just a very bad movie in its effort to be a dark comedy that fails to deliver much in the way of laughs, but it’s also one that is hugely inappropriate in its choice of subject matter and trying to find humor in very real and awful people that actually exist. When Shephard shows up in a group therapy scene, wearing a shirt that says, “The future of film is female,” all I could think in response was, “Not if women keep making awful movies like this one!”
That’s how much I hated this movie. I mean, seriously, CRIIIIIIIIIIIINGE!
Rating: 5/10
PAPER GIRLS (Amazon)
A series I’m super-stoked for is this new series on Prime Video based on the comics by Brian K. Vaughn and Cliff Chiang, and though I’ve seen four of the eight episodes, Amazon has put a rather strange opening day embargo on the series, so I’m not sure what I can say about it other than its basic plot and the fact that it’s GREAT! If you haven’t read the comics, then you really should stop reading this and go read it (no, please don’t do that – I work too hard writing this each week). Without spoiling too much, the plot involves four paper girls somewhere in the Midwest who, the morning after Halloween 1988, meet each other and end up on a cross-time adventure where they encounter relatives and even their future selves while trying to help fight off an unstoppable enemy. The main four girls are played by Riley Lai Nelet, Camryn Jones, Sofia Rosinsky, and Fina Strazza, with guest roles for Ali Wong, Nate Corddry and others. Although I can’t review it just yet, and I’m not sure I will, definitely try to watch it on Friday, especially if you like things like Stranger Things and Ms. Marvel. (It’s kind of funny that this is coming out just a few weeks before James Ponsoldt’s Summering, which debuted at Sundance, although there’s nothing really sci-fi about that one.)
LIGHT & MAGIC (Disney+)
A mini-series I’ve been excited to see but just haven’t had the time just yet is this docuseries from Lawrence Kasdan which goes behind the curtains of Industrial Light & Magic, the visual effects and animation branch of Lucasfilm in San Francisco that has delivered so many memorable movie memories going all the way back to the original Star Wars and all the way through the most recent Jurassic World: Dominion, which is when I actually had my first opportunity to interview someone from that VFX house. Since I haven’t watched it yet, I’m not sure if this Disney+ docuseries includes the work ILM has done for other studios like Universal, but it’s also such weird timing for this considering the amount of backlash coming from the animators and artists that work in VFX about how they’re being treated and compensated for their hard work. That’s probably a story for another time, but all eight episodes of Light & Magic are now on Disney+ if you want to learn more about this very important part of post-production. (There’s a good reason why you have to wait 15 minutes to see those Marvel post-credit scenes, and that’s because there are literally thousands of people working on the visual effects that make our Hollywood blockbusters so great.)
A couple things on Netflix this week include Neil Patrick Harris’ new Netflix series UNCOUPLED from Darren Star and Jeffrey Richman, and Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum’s meet-cut drama PURPLE HEARTS (Netflix), starring Sofia Carson and Nicholas Galitzine as a singer-songwriter and a troubled marine who agree to get married for him to continue getting military benefits. I haven’t seen either.
Repertory stuff….
This is going to be a fun weekend at my favorite arthouse theater, because they’re doing a “Hong Kong Heroes” series of three films, at least one or two of which I’ve seen but of course I’m gonna see them again. While Fruit Chan’s Welcome to Hong Kong will continue to play both in theaters at Metrograph’s At Home streaming (see above), it will be joined at the theater by Johnnie To’s amazing The Heroic Trio (1993), starring Maggie Cheung, Michelle Yeoh, and Anita Mui, as well as its sequel, Executioners. It will also screen Fruit Chan’s Little Cheung, which I’m not 100% sure I’ve seen, which is a bit of sequel to Welcome to Hong Kong.
“Welcome to Metrograph A to Z” will be screening Abbas Kiarostami’s Close-Up one last time tonight, and that’s it until next week. Okay, you better sit down for the “Road Trip: American Cinema from Coast to Coast” line-up, because other than one last screening of Chris Smith’s American Movie Thursday afternoon, it will show John Hanson and Rob Nisson’s documentary Prairie Trilogy from 1978 (repping North Dakota), Prince’s Purple FUCKING Rain (1984) on Friday and Saturday late night, Alexander Payne’s Election (1999) starring a super-young Reese Witherspoon to rep Nebraska on Friday and Sunday, Hitchcocks’ North by Northwest (1959) to rep South Dakota on Friday and Sunday, and then Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) repping Wyoming also on Saturday and Sunday. Seriously, if that is not enough amazing movies for you, then I don’t know what to tell you.
And then, there’s still “Playtime: Bicycles and Balloons,” with one more screening of The Wizard of Oz on Thursday, before switching over to Tim Burton’s Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985) on Sunday. “Anatomy of the Devil: Walerian Borowczyk” also continues through the weekend.
Across town at my second-favorite NYC arthouse, the “1962… 1963… 1964” series featuring movies from 1962 through 1964 (duh) continues with some of the movies playing including Kubrick’s Lolita, the original Cape Fear, Truffaut’s Jules and Jim (last screening tonight!), The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance, the early James Bond film From Russia with Love, and much, much more. (Click on that link for the full line-up of films playing over the next week, ending on August 10.)
Now this is weird but uptown at Lincoln Center, they’re ALSO doing a series about films in those exact same years, but this one is very different, specifically, “New York, 1962–1964: Underground and Experimental Cinema” which will run through August 4 and include many screenings in both 16mm and 35mm. I’ll freely admit that this subject matter is NOT my forté, but there are many familiar names in there, including Andy Warhol, Jonas Mekas, Ken Jacobs, and more.
The “Pioneering Women in Australian Cinema” concludes this weekend with Floating Life, Broken Highway, and The Big Steal. It’s also showing Tracey Moffatt’s 1993 film BeDevil (also part of MOMI’s ongoing “Disreputable Cinema” series) on Saturday. “Films of the Dead: Romero & Co.” also ends this weekend with one last screening of Romero’s Land of the Deadand a double feature of Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead – honestly and sadly, neither of those last two are very good – both on Saturday. Also showing on Sunday is René Cardona’s 1968 film The Batwoman (La mujer murciélago), a new restoration of the Mexican film that took advantage of the popularity of the Batman live action series of the ‘60s. The screening will include a QnA with Viviana García Besné, the archivist who restored Cardona’s film.
“Messaging the Monstrous” continues with a few more movies in “The Undead” series with Romero’s Night of the Living Dead tonight (Weds) and again on Saturday, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday and Bob Clark’s Deathdream on Thursday, Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead on Friday, as well as two more Romero zombie movies, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, on Saturday. And then, on Sunday, MOMA begins the next phase of the series with “Body Horror,” so you can bet there will be some Cronenberg in there. (Don’t worry, there is) Sunday, we get Tetsuo: The Iron Man from 1989 and I Spit on Your Grave from 1978, and there are a few movies I’d consider more revenge thrillers like Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left from 1972 on Monday. They’re even showing Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring (1960) also on Monday.
I thought Thursday was the final day of “Movietown: Los Angeles Plays Itself and Other L.A. Visions” but it’s continuing through next week with more screening of the 4k restoration of Michael Mann’s Heat, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, Clueless and more. (Click on that link and check out what’s screening and when.) Also starting Friday is a new 40th anniversary 4k restoration of Wayne Wang’s Chan is Missing, courtesy of Strand Releasing, which I’ve never seen, so might have to try to get over there.
If you haven’t seen Andrew Dominik’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford in 35mm, then you’ll have another chance tonight (Weds)! Roxy seems to be getting into the sexy with screenings of Brian De Palma’s Femme Fatale in 35mm on Thursday, as well as the sci-fi thriller Species, also in 35mm. On Friday, you can do a Neve Campbell 35mm double feature with screenings of The Craft and Wild Things. All of these will screen again on Saturday through Monday.
“Russo’s Film Inspirations” wraps up on Thursday with Michael Mann’s Heat, and then Once Upon a Time in the West will be playing for a full week. (Also, the Russos’ The Gray Man will continue playing at least until August 4 if you haven’t had a chance to see it on the big screen.)
If you haven’t seen Miyazaki’s How’s Moving Castle yet, you can see it tonight (Weds) and tomorrow morning.
ETC…
HELLBENDER (RLJEfilms/Shudder)
SLAPFACE (RLJEfilms/Shudder)
THE REEF: STALKED (RLJEfilms/Shudder)
PARADISE HIGHWAY (Lionsgate)
ALI & AVA (Greenwich)
MEDUSA (Music Box Films)
Next week… it’s Brad Pitt and friends (or maybe they don’t get along at all) in Bullet Train and Filipino-American comic Jo Koy in Easter Sunday!
Box office data provided by The-Numbers.com.