THE WEEKEND WARRIOR June 21, 2024
THE BIKERIDERS, THELMA, THE EXORCISM, KINDS OF KINDNESS, GREEN BORDER, FANCY DANCE, THE DEVIL’S BATH, TRIBECA FESTIVAL REVIEWS
There’s potential for there being a lot of movies and reviews in this week’s column if I can get around to watching and writing about the plethora of films that I’ve seen and that will be opening theatrically on Friday. It won’t really matter since Inside Out 2 will remain dominant as the #1 movie this weekend and Bad Boys: Ride or Die will remain #2, but I somehow managed to write NINE reviews for theatrical releases this week, and it was not easy.
Before we get to those, I did see a few more things at Tribeca Festival worth mentioning, including one of my favorite movies in the Midnight track, Joshua Erkman’s A DESERT, starring Kai Lennox from Green Room as a photographer named Alex, who is travelling through a remote area of the country taking pictures when he falls afoul of a madman redneck and his “sister” (Zachary Ray Sherman and Ashley Smith). When she doesn’t hear from her husband, Alex’s wife Sam (Sarah Lind) calls upon a private detective (David Yow of the punk band Jesus Lizard!) to look for him. This is a dark and creepy thriller that keeps the viewer off their game, since you’re never quite sure what’s going on or what might happen next. A clear standout is Zachary Ray Sherman, who gives quite a wild performance, but the whole thing kept me invested, since it was such a dark and moody affair. I could totally see NEON or A24 or IFC Films doing well with a movie like this, and I can’t wait to see what Erkman does next.
Roxy Shih’s BEACON may be an even odder choice for the Midnight section, though it does have some thriller elements that reminded me a bit of Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse without being nearly as strange. It stars Julia Goldani Telles as a young woman who is sailing on a solo trip around the globe when her boat crashes on a remote island, where she’s found by Demián Bichir, who nurses her back to health but also seems to have hidden ulterior motives. This wasn’t a bad two-hander that relies heavily on the two actors and the setting to maintain the viewer’s interest, though it doesn’t really have as much of the horror elements some might be expecting.
I so wanted to like or love Tolga Karaçelik’s (takes a deep breath) THE SHALLOW TALE OF A WRITER WHO DECIDED TO WRITE ABOUT A SERIAL KILLER, a very dark and dry comedy starring John Magaro from Past Lives as Keane, the writer of rather esoteric fiction, who meets Steve Buscemi’s “Kollmick” at a coffee shop, the latter proposing that Keane write a book about his crimes as a serial killer. Keane tries to keep it a secret from his wife, played by Britt Lower, with whom he’s been having issues, so the two men pretend that Kollmick is a marriage counselor. I’d like to say that hilarity ensues, but it’s just some light humor.
Shallow Tale starts out so well with witty performances by Magaro and Buscemi, working from a decent script, but as it goes along, it starts drifting away from what worked so well during the first half, and ultimately, that’s the film’s downfall, because the movie isn’t able to maintain the viewer’s interest through the end. I do want to note that Britt Lower is fantastic, and since I haven’t seen “Severance” I wasn’t familiar with her work, though there are times when she feels wasted in this.
THE BIKERIDERS (Focus Features)
Filmmaker Jeff Nichols returns with this drama about the Midwestern Vandals bicycle club, formed in the late ‘60s in Chicago, as seen through the eyes of Kathy (Jodie Comer), a woman who falls for and gets involved with one of its members, Austin Butler’s Benny, who has a close bond with Tom Hardy’s Johnny. Over the years, things begin changing with the Vandals as they bring in new members, including many back from Vietnam that are addicted to drugs.
Nichols was inspired by a book of photographs of bikers from the era to write The Bikeriders, and it’s a very different movie from what I was expecting, mostly because it’s told mainly from the point of view of Comer’s Kathy, as she’s being interviewed by Mike Faist’s photographer/writer.
The Bikeriders is very episodic in that once we meet the central characters (mostly through Kathy’s narration), we then see how the Vandals evolve, transforming from a mere club of bike enthusiasts to an actual gang that commits violent crimes. In one case, Johnny has a bar burnt down after Benny is severely beaten merely for wearing his club colors inside.
With Tom Hardy doing his best Brando and Butler doing James Dean, Nichols has two strong men leading cast, and yet, Comer is the real heart and soul of the movie as we keep cutting back to her being interviewed and talking about the changes the Vandals go through over the years. I’m not sure what Focus has planned for this awards-wise, but I’m quite positive that 20th Century could have gotten Comer her first Oscar nomination for this role, even if some might get annoyed by her character’s heavy accent. (I haven’t done enough research to know if Kathy is based on a real person or someone completely fictitious, nor do I know what kind of accent Comer was doing, but the character is fantastic and more than just an accent.) The trio are surrounded by some fantastic character actor work from Nichols regular Michael Shannon and Norman Reedus, who shows up with lots of hair and bad teeth as California biker, Sonny.
A pivotal moment comes when a group of much younger motorcycle enthusiasts turn up at the club’s hang-out place hoping to join, but Johnny turns them away, quite cruelly in fact, a moment that will return later in the movie.
Jeff Nichols continues to prove himself to be one of the finest filmmakers in the country, and The Bikeriders could very well be his magnum opus, as he finds a way to create for himself a vision of an American sub-culture that was idolized in the ‘60s and ‘70s but hasn’t been seen on film in many decades. The film also excels in important things like tone and pacing, which are so hard to get right in the best of cases.
Seriously, if you only get out to see one movie this weekend, this should be the one, although there’s also a “Chosen One” below for those in New York.
Rating: 8/10
THELMA (Magnolia Pictures)
Josh Margolin writes and directs this unconventional action-comedy, which was one of the movies people raved about out of Sundance, and which I thought was okay but had some issues with it. The movie stars 94-year-old Oscar nominee June Squibb as Thelma Post, an elderly woman who is scammed out of money by someone pretending to be her grandson Danny (played by Fred Hechinger). Unhappy about losing so much money, she decides to go on a mission to find the perpetrator and get her money back.
I ended up seeing this virtually at Sundance not too long after The Beekeeper, and in some ways, this plot is similar except that Thelma handles being ripped off in a much gentler way – well, she doesn’t shoot herself for one thing. Apparently, it’s also based around something that really happened to Margolin’s grandmother, though one expect that he took a lot of artistic license.
Squibb is so great in this, and her scenes with the late Richard Roundtree, as they ride around on his scooter, were my favorite parts of the film. The other actors just flounder around them, especially Hechinger, who just isn’t very strong an actor. It’s also a shame to see Parker Posey and Clark Gregg wasted as Daniel’s parents, because they don’t offer much whenever the film cuts back to them.
The good thing is that Margolin doesn’t use this film to make old people the butt of some joke, as these are just humans living their lives and dealing with the situations that arise, same as the rest of us. Having Squibb in the title role helps to make this work so well, and this is a great role for her to play a character who wants to prove she still is capable and has her wits, something that probably affects many of her age.
For a directorial debut, Thelma is just fine. It’s cute and has potential to amuse some viewers to no end, though I was bothered by some of the pacing and tonal issues that could have been cured with a stronger script and not having so much of Hechinger.
Rating: 7/10
THE EXORCISM (Vertical)
Russell Crowe stars in Joshua John Miller’s horror film, loosely based on his father Jason Miller’s time making The Exorcist with William Friedkin in the early ‘70s, playing a washed-up actor, Anthony Miller, who gets a job playing a preacher in a demonic possession movie. Ryan Simpkins from the Fear Street movies plays his estranged daughter Lee, who is concerned about her father’s well-being when strange supernatural occurrences happen. The rest of the cast includes Sam Worthington and Chloe Bailey as other actors on the production, Adam Goldberg as the film’s director, and David Hyde Pierce as a preacher who is acting as a consultant on the film.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Miller’s film, mainly because it doesn’t hide the fact that the movie in which Crowe’s character has been cast is indeed The Exorcist, or “The Georgetown Project,” as it’s called in the film. Those who saw Crowe in last year’s The Pope’s Exorcist may be a little confused by this movie coming out so soon after, but it’s a very different film, beginning with the role Crowe plays here – an actor vs. a real exorcist.
There’s definitely some good gore and special make-up effects when it comes to possession and some of the kills, but there’s such a strange META notion to the whole idea of a possible demonic possession on the set of a movie about a demonic possession. Sure, there have always been rumors about weird incidents on movies about the devil and possession, but The Exorcism takes those to the extreme.
Miller is a solid director, though I’m not sure the screenplay was quite up to snuff, and even having the likes of David Hyde Pierce in a key role as a priestly consultant on the film doesn’t help when the movie gets into second and third act issues. (God only knows why Sam Worthington was cast in such a small nothing role, though he at least has a great scene.)
The Exorcism has a minor amount of potential as an addition to the overdone possession horror subgenre, but the high points are countered by some insanely over-the-top acting, mainly from Crowe, which keeps it from being a winner.
Rating: 5.5/10
The Exorcism will open nationwide on Thursday in roughly 2,000 theaters, and if interested in learning more, you can read my interviews with Ryan Simpkins and Adam Goldberg, as well as an interview with the filmmakers over at Cinema Daily US.
KINDS OF KINDNESS (Searchlight)
Just a few months after Emma Stone won her second Oscar for starring in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, the two reunite, along with Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley from that film, for this triptych anthology of a film that tells three distinct and separate stories with an ensemble cast that appears in all three chapters, each time playing different characters. In the first chapter, Jesse Plemons plays Robert, who is constantly at the beck and call of his boss Raymond (Dafoe) in a relationship that’s quite creepy and somewhat queer, as well. Plemons also plays a major role in the second chapter, playing police officer Daniel, whose wife Liz (Stone) disappeared years earlier during a boat crash. When she returns, he’s convinced that she’s not the same wife he remembers. Stone plays a larger role in the third story, playing Emily, who is trying to find someone with special powers for a cult guru named Omi (Dafoe), who has very specific rules about his members not being “contaminated” by fluids.
This is one of those cases where I wish my notes while watching the movie were easier to read, because there’s so much about this movie that I immediately forgot after watching it, which is never a great sign. If you’ve been reading my reviews for the past few decades then you know that I’m not the biggest Yorgos Lanthimos fan out there, even when it comes to some of his beloved films like The Lobster. (The Favourite is, in fact, my favorite of the movies he’s made.) One of his biggest assets for this one is working with Jesse Plemons, who gives great performances in his two key segments, before allowing Stone to take over in the third story.
If you’re looking for a connection between the three stories, good luck with that. Other than the same actors appearing in each as different characters and some minor thematic elements, these really are three separate fairly genreless short films. To say more about any of them, might take away from any of the surprise element Lanthimos intended, and that’s also probably the strongest asset going for his film.
The production design and other crafts for Kinds may not be quite on par with Poor Things, but the music, once again by Oscar nominee Jerskin Fendrix, is exceptional, and I especially loved the choice in songs like the use of Dio’s (tragically underused and underrated) “Rainbow in the Dark.” But the crafts are often the things that really stand out in Lanthimos’ movies, and compared to Poor Things, this one just doesn’t have the same level of below-the-line work that jumps out.
At 2 hours and 45 minutes, the length of this movie feels interminable, and the fact that each successive story is worse and less interesting than the last one makes the last story incredibly hard to get through, despite all of Lanthimos’ cast doing terrific work in general.
As someone still fairly unimpressed by the amount of love constantly lavished on Lanthimos as a filmmaker and storyteller, Kinds of Kindness does little to improve that. The quality of those factors tends to deteriorate as this overly-long and quizzical offering goes along, and the whole thing left me puzzled on what I just watched.
Rating: 5.5/10
THE BOX OFFICE CHART
I may be too optimistic to think that all three of this weekend’s other movies besides The Bikeriders might break into the top 10, especially Kinds of Kindness, which may only be in a few dozen theaters, if that. I guess I haven’t learned my lesson from the Ezra weekend a few weeks back, but I do think that Thelma and The Exorcism have been done enough promotion to raise awareness. Also, those who’ve already seen Inside Out 2 might be looking for other offerings and many of the returning movies will be losing theaters this weekend and next.
1. Inside Out 2 (Disney/Pixar) - $70 million -55%
2. Bad Boys: Ride or Die (Sony) - $19 million -47%
3. The Bikeriders (Focus Features) - $9.5 million N/A
4. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (20th Century) - $3.3 million -37%
5. The Garfield Movie (Sony) - $3 million -37%
6. The Exorcism (Vertical) - $2.2 million N/A
7. Thelma (Magnolia) - $2.1 million N/A
8. If (Paramount) - $2 million -45%
9. The Watchers (New Line/WB) - $1.7 million -49%
10. Kinds of Kindness (Searchlight) - $1.5 million N/A (depending on how many theaters this gets)
As much as I liked The Bikeriders, this week’s “Chosen One” is going to have to be…
GREEN BORDER (Kino Lorber)
Opening in New York at the Film Forum on Friday and in L.A. on June 28 is the latest film from Oscar-nominated Polish auteur, Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa), which follows a family of Syrian refugees trying to get into Poland via Belarus along with an English teacher from Afghanistan, who encounter all sorts of violent resistance, requiring help from a Polish psychologist (Maja Ostaszewska) and other local activists.
After a sweeping overhead shot of a green forest, the film quickly switches to black and white, and at first, I was fairly reticent since I have issues with modern movies set in modern times (in this case 2021) being filmed in black and white, but maybe it made a little more sense as the film goes along. The film begins by following a Syrian family with small children who are trying to get to Poland via its border with Belarus, a tough journey that involves the soldiers from one country trying to dump the refugees into the other and vice versa. This means that this family is being treated horribly as they merely are trying to seek asylum in Poland, and there are others (mainly Arabs and Africans) who are getting even worse treatment.
Some might read the premise for this one and think “Not another refugee movie” since that crisis has been the basis for so many European films in recent years. This one also connects with the refugee crisis in our own country from migrants coming over the border, also something we’ve seen in so many movies, both good and bad. Going by what we see in this movie, Latin American migrants are treated far better by our own border guards, hard to believe considering all of the horrid stories we hear. In the case of this family we follow, no one seems to want to take them so they’re tossed back and forth across the border fence, often quite violently. It makes the film hard to watch at times, due to the authenticity of the experience.
It maybe takes an hour before we meet and begin following Maja Ostaszewska’s Julia, who gets heavily involved in helping the refugees even as it affects her own life, and it also spends some time following one of the border guards who is quite disturbed by the activities of his superiors and fellow guards. Thankfully, there are some good people trying to help the refugees, but it seems like such a hopeless situation as we watch this poor family be put through one horrible situation after the next. Although the movie is nearly 2 ½ hours, it doesn’t feel like it, since you’re so caught up in the interlocking stories being told.
While I haven’t loved all of Ms. Holland’s recent films, including a couple Oscar nominees, Green Border shows her (at 75 years old) to be at the top of her game as a filmmaker. I was especially impressed by the sequence toward the ending with the younger people bonding over rap songs, a necessary moment of joy amidst so much horror and tragedy. Holland also offers a worthy epilogue that shows how different Ukraine refugees were treated once war broke out there, which really leaves you thinking.
Green Border is an incredibly powerful examination of the European refugee crisis, done in such a striking and original way, that it really sticks with you long after its over.
RATING: 8.5/10
FANCY DANCE (Apple Studios)
Erica Tremblay from Dark Winds and Reservation Dogs writes and directs this feature that stars Lily Gladstone as Jax, a woman whose sister has disappeared, leaving her to care for her 13-year-old niece Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson) on the Seneca-Gayuga reservation in Oklahoma. When Jax is in danger of losing custody to the girl’s grandfather (Shea Whigham), she takes her niece on the run, trying to avoid the police while also trying to find Roki’s mother.
I went into this one fairly blind, because I really wasn’t very familiar with Ms. Tremblay’s work, even though I knew that this premiered at Sundance and SXSW earlier this year, capitalizing on what I can only refer to as an “indigenous fetish” that these festivals seem to have. For the most part, Fancy Dance is a fairly standard indie drama that involves family issues we’ve seen in plenty of other movies, though Tremblay’s background does bring something new to this story.
Although I’ve seen Gladstone give a number of great performances, her portrayal of Jax is not particularly emotive, at least not during the majority of the film, so the viewer may be far more impressed by what the terrific young actress Deroy-Olson brings to the table in what doubles as a coming-of-age film, with Roki getting into trouble during their travels.
Fortunately, the last act of the film really delivers some powerful emotions, which makes up for some of the film’s slow pace in getting to where it’s going. Maybe the ending will be seen as obvious or predicable, but it’s also a satisfying pay-off to the relationship between the two women.
Fancy Dance is a decent feature from Tremblay, one that finds a way to pull you in, even while treading familiar territory from other indie dramas.
It will open in select theaters on Friday and then be on Apple TV+ starting June 28.
Rating: 7.5/10
HUMANIST VAMPIRE SEEKING CONSULTING SUICIDAL PERSON (Drafthouse Pictures)
This French-Canadien vampire film from Ariane Louis-Seize stars Sara Montpetit as Sasha, a young girl whose part of a family of vampires, who hasn’t been able to get herself to find and killer her first victim for life-sustaining blood. In school, she meets Félix-Antoine Bénard’s Paul, a young man who is fairly suicidal, who sees his encounter with Sasha as a chance for both of them to fullfil their desires.
This is a movie that offers exactly what it is with its title with Ariane Louis-Seize creating something in the vein of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night or Let the Right One In with a vampire movie that doesn’t rely as much on the gore as it does on the character interactions.
The film begins with Sasha quite young at her birthday where she receives a toy piano, something that will play a part later as she becomes an accomplished pianist, but as she gets older, her bigger concern is the fact that she’s a vampire who is hesitant at killing another human for food aka blood.
Those two mentions above might give you some idea what to expect from the tone of this film (which is indeed in French), and things get more interesting when Sasha moves in with her cousin, who acts as a mentor to teach her
I don’t want to get into too much in terms of plot details about how the relationship between Sasha and Paul develops, but there’s a nice teen romance coming-of-age aspect at the heart of this story that I generally enjoyed. Ariane Louis-Seize has created a satisfying entry into the teen vampire genre that isn’t so heavy on the gore that it won’t turn off any vampire enthusiasts with a weaker stomach.
This will open in New York (at the Quad Cinema with QnAs!) and L.A. this Friday, and it’s definitely worth seeking out.
Rating: 7.5/10
THE DEVIL’S BATH (Shudder/IFC Films)
Goodnight Mommy and The Lodge Austrian filmmakers Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz return with this period horror film that will get a limited release this weekend before streaming on Shudder starting June 21, following its premiere at the Tribeca Festival.
Set in Austria during the 18th Century, it begins with a woman throwing her baby off a waterfall and is sentenced to a grisly beheading. Around the same time, Agnes (Anja Plaschg) is marrying her beloved Wolf (David Scheid) even though his mother does not like Agnes, nor does she approve the marriage, so when Agnes starts experiencing her own mental health issues, she can’t get support
The Devil’s Bath opens with a baby being thrown over a waterfall, and it just goes down from there, as the Austrian filmmakers deliver a film that’s so dour and dreary that it’s impossible to enjoy any moment of it.
While it probably wasn’t intentional, so much of this feels like a rip-off of Robert Eggers’ The Witch, and the fact that this is based on true events does little to deliver a satisfying ending, when instead, we get a title card saying that this is something that regularly happened to women in 18th Century Austria. Hurray?
Personally, I’m shocked that Shudder has deemed this a “horror” movie, because other than a few disturbing images, there’s really nothing horror or even supernatural about it. This is just a grim and dreary period drama that never really goes anywhere and just makes you wish you spent your time watching something less depressing.
Rating: 5/10
JANET PLANET (A24)
The always wonderful Julianne Nicholson stars as the title Janet in Annie Baker’s indie drama centered around her 11-year-old daughter Lacy (Zoe Ziegler), who seems to be permanently anxious about everything. Meanwhile, her mother gets into a number of questionable relationships that don’t do much to improve things with Lacy.
I watched some of this at the New York Film Festival last year, and I probably got through 20 to 30 minutes, but I gave the rest of the movie a chance a few weeks back, and unfortunately, it just didn’t connect with me at all, despite my long-term love of Nicholson. Part of the problem is that the episodic nature of the movie has Janet and her daughter meeting various suitors, none of them who are particularly compelling, and some who are just brazen a-holes, and there just isn’t much meat or weight to any of the storytelling.
Besides Nicholson and Ziegler, Baker does have a decent cast including Sophie Okonedo as one of Janet’s suitors, the always great Elias Koteas and more, but that does very little to make up for the fact that the story is just bland and not particularly interesting.
I’m really not that familiar with Annie Baker’s work, though apparently, she’s a beloved playwright? Unfortunately, there was just nothing about Janet Planet that got me even remotely interested in learning about Ms. Baker’s other work, and frankly, I have no idea why A24 is releasing this, thinking it might make money. Not one of the company’s better business decisions in my opinion. This movie is just a complete bore with very few redeeming qualities other than the presence of Nicholson.
Rating: 4.5/10
There are also a few docs this weekend, which I had trouble getting to due to time constraints, though the ones I’ve watched are definitely worth seeking out.
COPA 71 (Greenwich Entertainment)
Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine direct this doc exec. produced by Serena and Venus Williams as well as US soccer star Alex Morgan. It was the opening night doc of the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and will open theatrically at New York’s IFC Center (with QnAs!) and will be available on digital platforms, but also will open in L.A. and other areas on July 15. It covers the events surrounding the very first woman’s World Cup in August 1971, decades after FIFA banned women’s soccer. It involves teams from England, Argentina, Mexico, France, Denmark and Italy gathering at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City for what became an unofficial woman’s world cup, the story being told by the amazing women who were involved.
INVISIBLE NATION (Abramorama)
Vanessa Hope’s doc, opening in a few select Los Angeles theaters this Friday, follows the presidency of Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen, as she fights for the future of her country’s democracy with unprecedented access to the leader, as she tries to get international recognition for Taiwan’s right to exist.
HUMMINGBIRDS (Extra Terrestrial)
Opening at the DCTV Firehouse down in my hood for a one-week run ahead of its premiere on POV/PBS on July 1 is this personal coming-of-age story from Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía "Beba" Contreras, a “punk rock portrait” of their last summer of their youth on the Texas-Mexico border, as they transform their hometown of Laredo into a cinematic wonderland.
There is lots of other stuff out this week, which I just couldn’t get to…
CHESTNUT (Utopia)
FEDERER: TWELVE FINAL DAYS (Prime Video)
TRIGGER WARNING (Netflix)
AGENT RECON (Quiver Distribution)
AMERICA’S SWEETHEARTS: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleadesrs (Netflix series)
NYC REPERTORY
This weekend’s special guest at the Metrograph is French-Cambodian filmmaker Davy Chou who will be on hand for “From Director to Producer: Davy Chou Selects,” showing his Return to Seoul, as well as Arthur Harari’s Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle (2021), Kavich Neang’s Last Night I Saw You Smiling (2019), and a program of Cambodian shorts, each only getting one showing over the weekend.
“Piping Hot Pfeiffer” (as in Michelle Pfeiffer!) will screen Jonathan Demme’s Married to the Mob and Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons, both from 1988.
There is so much showing as part of “Visionary Auteurs: Five Decades of MK2,” that I recommend clicking on that title to see what’s up, since I’m not familiar with its offerings.
Although the “Filmcraft: Tom Fleischman” series was this past weekend, you’ll have more chances to see Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon and Robert Altman’s Nashville this weekend and early next week.
“Modern Families” continues to show Greg Araki’s Totally Fucked Up and Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman into early next week, and Marc Singer’s doc Dark Days (2000) will run this weekend as part of “Animal Farm: Moles”
This weekend’s new additions to the “‘90s Noir” series are Nicolas Winding Refn’s early crime-drama Pusher from 1996 and Drew Barrymore in 1992’s Poison Ivy.
Almodovar’s All About My Mother (1999) will run this weekend and early next week as part of “Ethics of Care,” while “Dream With Your Eyes Open” also continues with a number of repeat showings, including Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Tropical Malady from 2004.
There’s also the “TV in Review” series which I don’t know enough about to comment on.
I somehow missed that Vittoria De Sica’s Shoeshine (1946) was playing at Film Forum in a new 4k restoration, but it will continue this week if that floats your boat. This weekend’s “Film Forum Jr” is Laurel and Hardy in Way Out West (1937).
Playing this weekend as part of “Arnold Schwarzenegger: Action Hero” are Total Recall and The Last Action Star, while Late Night Favorites will play the Oscar-winning Jonathan Demme-directed Silence of the Lambs. Prince’s Purple Rain and David Byrne’s True Stories will continue to play as part of “Let’s Go Crazy: Cult Musicals.” Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover will also continue to play through the weekend.
Playing as something dubbed “Charlie XCX Presents the Brat Collection” will play the 1966 comedy Daisies in 35mm on Thursday and Saturday. On Monday and Tuesday, that series will screen Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine, as well as Todd Phillips’ Project X on Tuesday and then Parker Posey in Party Girl on Wednesday. George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road will play in 35mm every day from Thursday through Sunday.
Ahead of the release of his new movie, June Zero, filmmaker Jake Paltrow gets to curate a selection of films as part of “Origin Stories: Jake Paltrow’s Notes On June Zero,” a fairly esoteric series of international features including movies from Milos Forman and Abbas Kiarostami.
Ahead of the release of the new doc about Powell and Pressburger, MOMA is doing “Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger,” running from Friday through the end of July. You can see what’s playing by clicking on the title of the series.
Tonight (Thursday) is your last chance to see Fritz Lang’s classic Metropolis on the big screen, at least here. I’m sure it will be back at Film Forum someday.
On Friday, you can see an archival 35mm print of the 1992 theatrical English-dubbed compilation of Speed Racer episodes released theatrically.
Just like every arthouse theater in the city, FilmLinc is giving a prologue to some new movie from an auteur, in this case a retrospective of French filmmaker Catherine Breillat called “Carnal Knowledge: The Films of Catherine Breillat,” which will include Fat Girl (of course), Bluebeard, The Sleeping Beauty, and her other films ahead of the release of Last Summer next Friday.
NITEHAWK CINEMA PROSPECT PARK & WILLIAMSBURG
It’s already sold out but Prospect Park is screening the horror classic Hellraiser on Thursday night, preceded by a musical performance. The weekend’s brunch offerings at Prospect Park are Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Conan the Barbarian and the 1994 The Little Rascals, directed by Penelope Spheeris. Next week on Tuesday, there’ll be a 35mm screening of Abel Ferrara’s Dangerous Game and then on Wednesday, Prospect Park is screening the Paul Verhoeven-directed Basic Instinct with a live pre-show drag performance.
Thursday night at Williamsburg, you can see the Polonia Brothers’ 1996 film, Feeders, with a QnA by Mark Polonia to follow. Friday and Saturday night’s midnight offering is the classic Midnight Cowboy (1969) or your other option at midnight those nights is Yann Gonzalez’s Knife + Heart from 2018. This weekend’s brunch offering on Saturday and Sunday is The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension.
The Agnieszka Holland retrospective concludes this weekend with screenings of Europa, Europa and The Secret Garden. “See It Big at the ‘90s Multiplex” has some cool movies this weekend with David Lynch’s The Straight Story, Sam Raimi’s Darkman, and Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy all screening on Saturday.
On Thursday night, you can see Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess as part of “Science on Screen,” and you can watch the Jim Henson classic, Labyrinth (1986), starring a very young Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie, on Friday night or Sunday afternoon. On Friday night, they’re also screening Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) to celebrate the release of Mary V. Dearborn’s book “Carson McCullers: A Life” with a book signing as part of the program. Saturday night’s “Club Cafe” screening is John Waters’ Serial Mom from 1994. The Oscar-winning Bicycle Thieves (1948) will screen on Sunday afternoon.
Next week, the new prequel A Quiet Place: Day One will open, as will a bunch of other odds and ends.