THE WEEKEND WARRIOR Reviews and Repertory Round-Up December 6, 2024
Y2K, The Order, Unstoppable, Nightbitch, Werewolves, Get Away, The End, Hard Truths, The Girl with the Needle, Maybe More?
Hopefully you’ve already subscribed to the Weekend Warrior earlier edition for a meager $5 a month, where I’m writing about the box office for this weekend and every weekend. But let’s face it, this weekend will already be seen as a major letdown after one of the biggest Thanksgiving box office weekends of all time.
I’m going to do my best this week to review a *LOT* of movies, and that’s because there are a *LOT* of movies to watch/review, so we’ll see how we do. Some of these might definitely be shorter capsule reviews, or at least that’s the plan. And then, of course, if you live in New York City and don’t want to see any of the new movies, then there’s also lots of repertory stuff I cover lower down in this column.Between today’s reviews and the box office analysis, I wrote 12,000 words this week, so $5 a month seems like a pretty good deal to me! :)
So let’s get to some of those reviews…
Y2K (A24)
Kyle Mooney and Evan Winter co-wrote and directed this horror-comedy set in the year 1999, starring Rachel Zegler, Jaeden Martell, and Julian Dennison (from Hunt for the Wilderpeople) as a group of teens who attend a New Year’s Eve party, and when the clock strikes midnight on 2000, Y2K arrives in the form of technology out of control with killer robots.
I actually didn’t know what to expect going into this one, since I hadn’t seen the trailer or read much about it since it debuted at SXSW Film Festival. In fact, I was watching it as if it was just a pleasant coming-of-age comedy ala Superbad, Book Smart, Eighth Grade, all personal favorites of mine. In that respect, it was working much better for me than Kevin Smith’s recent The 4:30 Movie, even though it has plenty of similar elements. This includes best friends Eli and Danny (Martell, Dennison), the former who has a massive crush on the cute and popular Laura (Zegler), while dealing with other travails like school bullies, while also befriending an older stoner store clerk named Garrett, played by Mooney himself.
Even though I was significantly older in 1999, I loved how hard it goes into showing that specific era with everything from AOL to the music and world events. As many might know, I’m also a sucker for a coming-of-age film, this one impressing me as much as Didi, which is set a few years earlier. I’m constantly in awe of how a really good coming-of-age film can connect with me, despite me being being a teenager in a different decade.
I’m becoming a pretty big fan of Zegler as an actor, as I think she brings such a bright and cheerful disposition to every character she portrays; I totally can believe some teenage guy having a massive crush on her. On the other hand, I’ve never been a huge fan of Martell, though that’s made up for my joy on seeing Dennison in this, and the fact that Mooney/Winter also made his character actually from New Zealand. Mooney is also hilarious as Garrett, and he’s one of the characters that insures that people will always have something to laugh at.
Despite having similar DNA as some of Kevin Smith’s comedies, when this gets into the horror, it goes quite hard, especially with the amount of visual and practical effects required to create the makeshift killer robots. Even so, it still maintains a lower budget sensibility, which just helps hark back to the fun horror movies from the ‘80s.
I don’t want spoil anything, but there’s also an absolutely hilarious appearance by a well-known musical entity from 1999 that ends up being much more than just a cameo; that also was quite genius that they were able to make it happen.
Making a horror-comedy work is a difficult task, because you are always trying to make the viewer laugh while also keeping them terrified about what’s to come. Mooney and Winter’s Y2K does that quite effectively, creating a joyful retro-horror film that keeps the viewer invested in its characters trying to stay safe amidst the mayhem without relying merely on overused clichés.
Rating: 8/10
You can watch my interview with Kyle Mooney and Evan Winter over at Cinema Daily US soon.
THE ORDER (Vertical)
In this true-crime thriller directed by Justin Kurzel (Assassin’s Creed) and written by Zach Baylin (King Richard), Jude Law plays troubled FBI agent Terry Husk, assigned to the Pacific Northwest in the ‘80s to explore a series of robberies and domestic terrorism activities by a white supremacist gang led by Nicholas Hoult’s Bob Matthews.
I didn’t really know anything about the crimes perpetrated by neo-Nazi Bob Matthews and the sect he created after splitting from the regional Aryan Nation branch, but it’s difficult not to be haunted and disturbed that something like this took place on American soil in the early ‘80s with it being in danger of happening again in our country.
This is a fantastic film for Kurzel, working from a screenplay strong enough to bring on the likes of Law as a producer and star, as well as Nicholas Hoult in a rare villainous role. Tye Sheridan plays local law enforcement who works with Husk, along with Jurnee Smullett as Husk’s fellow FBI agent, while Marc Maron has a tiny role, appearing briefly as an outspoken Jewish talk radio host who is targeted for assassination by the white supremacists.
Really, it’s mostly about following Husk and Matthews on their own separate journeys, and I was particularly impressed by Hoult, since he’s been in so many recent movies playing very different roles, and he has such a presence in this film. He’s just come such a long way with so many great films this year, including the upcoming Nosferatu.
Kurzel effectively creates a rural version of Michael Mann’s Heat in the way it splits its time between Hoult’s activities and those by the authorities trying to find him. There’s even an early moment where Husk and Matthews meet and interact, with only one of them realizing who the other one is.
There are also aspects to the film that reminded me of Spike Lee’s BlackKKKlansman without any of the light humor that drove that film, but The Order is a terrific crime-thriller that effectively pulls you into the story and gets you interested in learning more.
Rating: 8/10
I’ve interviewed Jude Law for Cinema Daily US, and you can also watch my interview with director Justin Kurzel over there.
UNSTOPPABLE (Amazon MGM)
Anthony Robles was born with only one leg, but that didn’t stop him from becoming the top wrestler at his school, going on to becoming the star of the University of Arizona’s wrestling team. Directed by William Goldenberg – the Oscar winning editor of Ben Affleck’s Best Picture, Argo – Unstoppable stars Jharrel Jerome (Moonlight) as the one-legged athlete, something that’s presumably done with visual effects, but it’s just as much about his mother Judy Robles, played by Jennifer Lopez, who is raising a house full of kids with her abusive husband Rick, played by Bobby Cannavale. Anthony gets a lot of support on his journey from his high school coach (Michael Peña) and university coach (Don Cheadle).
Just with Lopez, Cannavale, Peña, and Cheadle alone, this is such an impressive cast that you might wonder why it’s seemingly being “dumped” into limited release against so many other movies this weekend, not actually being on Prime Video until January 16. Maybe it’s no surprise that this movie is produced by Ben Affleck (the former Mr. Jlo) and Matt Damon, who offered Amazon one of its bigger theatrical hits with 2023’s Air, who may have been responsible for bringing on Goldenberg for his directorial debut. All that behind-the-scenes stuff doesn’t really matter since it’s all about how this stands up in the overly-used sports drama genre. (It’s also a little odd that Amazon MGM has another very similar sports drama called The Fire Inside getting a wide release on Christmas Day.)
Robles’ story is certainly an interesting one, and despite its generic title, Unstoppable does have some good things going for it, but the screenplay (adapted from Robles’ own memoir) leaves quite a lot to be desired since it’s so overladen with clichés we’ve seen far too many times before, including the abuse from his deadbeat stepfather Rick.
Lopez does give a powerful and emotional performance as this mother just trying to do right by her kids while dealing with this horrible man she keeps allowing back into her life. Even so, that just makes the film feel even more schizophrenic from the wrestling stuff, which is handled quite well, probably helped by Goldenberg’s editing background.
Jerome has grown into a decent adult actor following his turn as a teen in the Best Picture Moonlight, but Unstoppable still feels very much like a jigsaw puzzle of elements being thrown together in an attempt for awards, then not getting the type of release or marketing support that can help it even be seen in theaters.
If I hadn’t seen Amazon MGM’s superior The Fire Inside (written by Moonlight’s Barry Jenkins, no less) just a few days earlier, maybe I would appreciate the inspirational story being forced down our throat with Unstoppable a bit more, but it’s easily the lesser of the two movies. Unstoppable will probably be seen mostly on Prime Video, since few will even be aware of is existence this weekend.
Rating: 6.5/10
NIGHTBITCH (Searchlight)
Amy Adams stars in this new genre-defying dramatic thriller (I guess?) from filmmaker Marielle Heller that’s based on a novel from Rachel Yoder, Adams playing a mother with a young toddler, who causes her so much stress and anxiety that she starts transforming into a dog. It sounds like a horror-comedy, but it really is not.
There’s something to say about a movie that explores what many women must go through as they are into their second or third years of motherhood with their first child, especially when they had a creative or artistic background before having that child. That’s the general idea behind Yoder’s book and Heller’s movie, and Adams certainly seems well cast for this role, having recently become a mother herself.
Nightbitch starts more like a dark comedy of how Adams’ “Mother” reacts to everything happening, with her troublesome toddler, while neglecting her own creative goals and dreams, which ultimately triggers this odd transformation. Clearly, the movie is meant more as magical realism or fantasy than something more horror-related, but not quite knowing that going in might be disappointing for those with any expectations.
Scoot McNairy plays her husband, who tries to be supportive but doesn’t fully understand what is going on with her. While I do understand how that could be a problem, his character seems to be villainized more to win over the many women who will want to watch this.
The message Nightbitch is trying to convey is certainly commendable, but it’s bogged down by so many tonal issues, it’s hard to fully appreciate what Heller may have been trying to achieve. I’m thinking that my sister and other friends that are “boy Moms” might appreciate this more than I ever could, but it just doesn’t work as well as it could have.
Rating: 6/10
GET AWAY (IFC Films/Shudder)
Nick Frost wrote and stars in this horror-comedy – the fourth horror or genre film released in a very busy weekend – about a British family that gets stranded on the remote Swedish island of Svälta during their annual rite of Karantän, in which they retell a grisly story from the community’s history.
I’ve liked Nick Frost ever since he broke out here in Shaun of the Dead, and Get Away is further proof that if an actor really wants a strong role where they can excel for themselves, they probably should just write it themselves. That said, it’s disappointing that this film, directed by Dutch filmmaker Steffen Haars, isn’t even the best horror-comedy released this week.
We meet Frost’s Richard and his family – his wife Bea, played by Aisling Bea, and older kids Sam and Jessie (Sebastian Croft and Maisie Ayres) – as they’re arriving on the remote island for their family vacation, knowing the place’s dark history that involves plague and cannibalism. It’s a set-up for a premise that mixes things like The Wicker Man and the more recent Midsommar with Frost’s own Hot Fuzz, as far as the villagers suspicious of outsiders and versa. The whole thing is a bit of a misdirect, especially with the introduction of the creepy pervert played by Eero Milonoff, who is constantly spying on Jessie, which leads you to believe that he might be the biggest threat to the family out of the many unfriendly Scandinavian villagers.
The problem is that there’s a massive twist in the movie where everything changes, which some might find novel or unique or fun, but it really pulled the rug from out of what I was expecting in a bad way, trying
It’s a shame that the star of a number of great horror-comedies isn’t able to deliver the strongest entry into that horror subgenre this weekend. Some might enjoy Get Away just fine, but the tonal problems with mixing horror and comedy are far more obvious here than in other efforts, and that’s ultimately what keeps the movie from delivering on its premise.
Rating: 6/10
THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT (Netflix)
Getting a limited release ahead of its streaming debut on Netflix is Tyler Perry’s latest historical drama, which reteams him with Kerry Washington, who plays Major Charity Adams, one of 55 women who joined the war, who end up assigned to fix the three-year backlog of undelivered mail while dealing with all sorts of discrimination and prejudice. (Apparently, I misspoke earlier saying that Perry didn’t write or direct this on his own, because the film is credited “Written and Directed by Tyler Perry,” so I’m not sure where IMDB got its information.)
The title of the film comes from the women of color sent overseas to help in the fight during WWII, but instead of fighting, they were assigned to go through the millions of undelivered letters, which is something that hugely helped the morale of American soldiers after years of fighting. Before we get to the warfront, we meet Ebony Obsidian’s Lena Derriecott King, a young black woman living in Pennsylvania, who has a white Jewish boyfriend who is sent off to war. When she learns he was killed, she decides to join the Army herself, put into a squad of black women who no one thinks will be sent to Europe. Eventually they are sent, but with the ominous presence of Major Charity Adams commanding them to be the best they can be and few others believing in them, they step up
Having not seen the doc of the same name, I appreciated the inspirational story being told by Perry here, but I wish the execution was better. The movie mostly follows a group of four or five black women around Ebony Obsidian, and I didn’t really love any of the characters or performances. For example, I’ve loved Kerry Washington for a long time, but playing a character who basically barks every one of her lines just does nothing to make this seem like a suitable role for her. (It’s good to note that she’s a producer on the film, so she definitely was involved in the decision on how to portray Adams, unlike some of the other cast.)
Of course there was a ton of prejudice and discrimination against these amazing women, but that’s driven home by making all of the white people outside of Lena’s beau absolutely horrid, including a general played by Dean Norris. You may notice a few other credits in the opening including Sam Waterston, Susan Sarandon, and even Perry pal Oprah Winfrey, but they essentially only appear for a single scene.
The Six Triple Eight isn’t a bad effort from Perry, who is clearly trying to branch out from the comedies for which he’s loved, and he does end up making a stronger film than Spike Lee’s Miracle at St. Anna. Ultimately, it’s an inspirational and important tale from history that could have been handled better and in a more interesting way.
Rating: 6/10
THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE (MUBI)
Denmark’s Oscar selection is Magnus von Horn’s period drama set in 1919 Copenhagen, in which a young worker named Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne) finds herself pregnant (from her wealthy boss, no less) and without a job, so she turns to a shopkeeper named Dagmar (legendary Danish actor Trine Dyrholm) for help her find a good home for her baby daughter. It doesn’t quite go as planned.
This is another movie where I went into it knowing absolutely nothing, and much of that has to do with a desire to see as many of the International Feature submissions as I possibly can in any given year, especially since Denmark has delivered many good ones. We meet Karoline as she’s losing her apartment after falling behind on her rent, but she also has a wealthy boss who wants to marry her (after getting her pregnant) but that won’t happen as long as his mother (who holds the purse strings) is alive. She won’t have him marrying a mere factory worker. Karoline’s husband Peter (Besir Zeciri) disappeared during WWI despite Denmark mainly staying out of it, but he returns with most of his face blown off, to find his wife with a child which she had tried to self-abort realizing she cannot provide for it. Eventually, Karoline turns to Dagmar for help, and after giving up her own baby, she helps Dagmar with her business, since she doesn’t have money to pay for said service.
This is a movie that deals with things like abortion and adoption over a hundred years ago in a country that frowned on those things, with women having a specific and lowly place in society. Part of me wishes I knew where van Horn was coming from, since he seems to just like piling one horrible thing on after another on his protagonist.
In that sense, this film reminded me of a recent international “thriller” called The Devil’s Bath, which delivers a similarly jarring and grim experience only for it to say at the very end, “Oh, yeah, this is based on a true story,” which just makes the whole experience having watched it even worse.
The fact that Denmark, the country that gave us Lars von Trier, has now delivered one of the darkest and grimmest movies maybe of all time has me slightly worried for that country’s population.
Rating: 5/10
The next two movies I’ve already seen and will review once the embargo drops.
WEREWOLVES (Briarcliff)
I never heard of Steven C. Miller before this movie, although he has directed a lot of feature films over the past 20 years, and I’m sure that Werewolves will be his widest release and probably his movie to make the most money. The high concept involves a Supermoon that rose over earth turning millions of people into werewolves, and one year later, it’s about to happen again, so the scientists create a “moonscreen” to prevent those changes, although they still have to contend with all the werewolves released with the new supermoon. Frank Grillo plays Wesley, a scientist with a big gun helping to stop the latest werewolf outbreak.
I can’t tell you how much I love werewolves and werewolf movies, so this movie’s title alone got me pretty excited about this one, but so did the involvement of Grillo, who I love as an actor and a person. It didn’t take long for me to realize that this movie is essentially just The Purge with werewolves. Maybe that’s what convinced Grillo to come on board, except that he’s already starred in some of the better movies in that series.
We meet his character Wesley as he’s preparing for the next Supermoon, trying to insure a friend’s widow (Ilfenesh Hadera) and her young daughter (Kamdynn Gary) are safe from what’s to come. Lou Diamond Philips plays Dr. Aranda, the head of (what else?) Arandacorp and the lead scientist in trying to find a cure to prevent further werewolf transformations, using a couple of experimental subjects. James Michael Cummings plays another soldier-type friend of Wesley who is arming himself up for what’s to come. When Wesley gets to Arandacorp, he learns about this new technique to keep the “Year Oners,” which of course, fails, so… werewolves!
As I watched the set-up for this movie, I decided that it was one of the stupidest movies I’d ever seen, and that’s coming from someone who generally loves the werewolf genre and is anxiously awaiting The Wolf Man next month. It expects the viewer to believe a lot of hooey about Supermoons and moonscreens and such, trying to make itself sound more intelligent than it actually is. In fact, it’s just an action shoot-em-up where it expects the viewer to be fine with lots of giant werewolves fighting against people carrying guns. In fact, just about everyone in this movie packs a gun, including Wesley and his fellow scientist Amy (Katrina Law), who spend much of the film out in the field fending off a trio of the creatures. That single mother we met earlier also randomly pulls out a 12-gauge shotgun to defend her daughter.
This movie ends up being only slightly better than any of the VOD crap that comes out in any given month, and that’s more due to the weak script than anything else but also due to the amount of flagrant overacting. As much I tend to like Grillo, he’s in full-on Schwarzenegger and Stalone mode here, even making wisecracking one-liners as those actors would do in their movies.
Werewolves is a movie full of some impressive visual effects and practical effects work, and the action itself is okay, but it also offers very little to the werewolf horror subgenre that I love. If you’re just fine watching werewolf transformations, gory violence, and a plethora of automatic weapons, then maybe you’ll be fine with it, but I was definitely hoping for more.
Rating: 4/10
HARD TRUTHS (Bleecker Street)
I’ve been a massive Mike Leigh fan for a very long time, but last year, I watched a lot of his older films that I’d never seen before, and it gave me an even bigger appreciation of his skills as a filmmaker. Leigh’s latest movie reuites him with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who received an Oscar nomination for Leigh’s 1997 film Secrets & Lies, this time playing Pansy, an angry urban Londoner who just doesn’t seem to be happy with anything or anyone, including her husband Curtley (David Webber) or her sullen son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett). Her sister (Michele Austin) and her daughters seem to be enjoying their lives much more, which just makes Pansy even angrier. Hard Truths returns Leigh to the simpler character-driven “kitchen sink drama” genre which he helped create, and this is almost a counterpart to 2008’s Happy-Go-Lucky only with Jean-Baptiste being the polar opposite of that film’s character played by Sally Hawkins.
Hard Truths is only getting a one-week theatrical release this weekend, but it will get a wide release beginning January 10, 2025, and I did write about it out of the New York Film Festival a few months back, but definitely will have more to write about it closer to release.
THE END (Neon)
Acclaimed two-time Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer (The Look of Silence, The Act of Killing) turns his attention to post-apocalyptic musicals with this movie starring Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon as the head of a wealthy family that’s sequestered itself in a salt mine after a global event. George MacKay (1917) plays their son and Moses Ingram (The Tragedy of Macbeth) plays a stranger who shows up and gets into a relationship with the Son. Oh, yeah, and it’s a musical with people randomly breaking out into song. I only got about an hour into this movie, and I hated it so much that I gave up on watching the rest of it. A movie this bad shouldn’t be 2 and a half hours long, and frankly, I’m surprised Oppenheimer was even able to get it financed. Methinks he should stick to docs.
THE DAY OF THE FIGHT (Falling Forward Films)
British actor Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire) writes and directs this sports drama, starring Michael Pitt as boxer Mike Flannigan, as a former box office who has been in prison and who reflects on his past as he’s getting ready to fight again. Co-starring Steve Buscemi, Joe Pesci, Ron Perlman, and John Magaro from Past Lives and the upcoming September 5, this premiered at the Toronto Film Festival (TIFF) all the way back in 2023, and it’s finally getting a theatrical release in New York and L.A. from one of the newer distributors.
TRAILER PARK BOYS PRESENTS: STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF KITTIES: THE BUBBLES AND THE SHITROCKERS STORY (Blue Fox Entertainment)
I have never seen a single movie or anything starring the Trailer Boys, who apparently are a super-popular Canadian comedy troupe ala the Kids in the Hall and the SCTV group, but again, I never really paid much attention to them, so when they return with this movie with the longest title in the history of film (Sorry, Borat!), I have to at least see what this is about, even if I didn’t make the time to watch it.
Speaking of which…
OH, CANADA (Kino Lorber)
Paul Schrader reteams with Richard Gere for the first time since American Gigolo in 1980 for this drama about an author and activist Leo Fife, who moved to Canada to avoid the Vietnam draft. In the film, he’s being interviewed for a documentary, and we see his former in life in flashback where the 5’ 10” Gere is played by 6’ 5” Jacob Elordi. The movie also stars Uma Thurman in her first feature film in a long time. I actually wrote a little about this from the New York Film Festival a few months back, but since I have no intention or time to rewatch it, that’s all I have to say.
LAKE GEORGE (Magnet)
Jeffrey Reiner’s crime-thriller stars Shea Whigham and Carrie Coon as Don, a hitman, and Phyllis, his target, who set off on a road trip that evolves into something else as they decide to team-up to steal money from the mobsters who hired Don to kill Phyllis. Sounds interesting, but I just couldn’t find time to watch.
THAT CHRISTMAS (Netflix)
Hitting Netflix on Friday is this new holiday animated movie based on a series of books written by the great Richard Curtis of Love Actually fame, and I’m sure some people will be excited about his latest holiday comedy, but this one was a dud in my book. It deals with the Christmas faced by the town of Wellington-on-Sea when it’s hit by a horrible snowstorm, and I just couldn’t get into it, even with Brian Cox voicing Santa, as well as other voices by the ubiquitous Bill Nighy and former “Doctor Who” Jodie Whittaker. I barely got through half hour of this movie.
Other movies out this weekend that I just couldn’t get to – I mean, did you see how many movies I reviewed above?
THE TASTE OF MANGO (Oscilloscope)
F MARRY KILL (Lionsgate)
MARY (Netflix)
OBSESSED WITH LIGHT (Film Movement)
THE INVISIBLE RAPTOR (Well Go USA)
STRIKING RESCUE (Well Go USA)
HOW TO KILL MONSTERS (Black Sky Films)
REPERTORY
That brings us to one of my favorite parts of this column… the repertory stuff, which unfortunately, I still have to stay concentrated on the New York area, despite there being lots of great stuff in L.A., too. (Not sure if anyone remembers, but I used to include some L.A. venues.)
The big news out of the Metrograph this weekend isn’t even so much about movies as it is about The Metrograph magazine that will launch with a few events this weekend. If you’ve been keeping up with all the written content that the Metrograph provides in its bi-monthly “book” and on its website, you’ll know how exciting it is for them to jump into publishing… although as always, they have yet to call on the guy who lives a block away from them to write anything. (sulk) Long-time Metrogaph pal, cinematographer Ed Lachman (whose new movie Maria is playing up at the Paris), will be on-hand Sunday for screenings of Wim Wenders’ 1982 film, The State of Things, and his own 1984 documentary, Report from Hollywood, about the making of that film on Sunday!
Another big event (that sadly is already sold out) is the latest “ACE Presents” event on Friday night, screening Elaine May’s 1976 film, Mike and Nicky, with Ms. May in attendance and in discussion with editors Phillip Schopper, ACE and Jeffrey Wolf, ACE to discuss the editing on that film.
Lino Brocka’s 1980 Philippine film Bona is getting a one-week theatrical run of a new restored DCP with filmmaker Isabel Sandoval on hand Friday night to introduce it. It’s part of the series “Nora Aunor: Filipina Superstar,” screening this weekend along with Lupita Aquino’s 1976 film, Once a Moth (1976).
The enigmatic “Urban Ghosts” series about city dwellers begins this weekend with screenings of Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960) and Jarmusch’s Permanent Vacation (1980), the latter which was probably mostly filmed in my (and the Metrograph) neighborhood!
Another new series starting this weekend is the semi-self-explanatory (takes deep breath) “An Alternate Cinema - 5 Films from the Deutche Kinemathek Archives at Berlin” (hey, they can’t ALL have cute and catchy titles!) On Saturday, it’s screening Will Tremper’s 1963 film, The Endless Night, and Ingemo Engström’s 1970 film Dark Spring, just one screening each!
“Absconded Art” will be screening Don Argott’s 2009 doc, The Art of the Steal, while “The World is a Stage” screens the 1968 Japanese film, Death by Hanging. Michael Sarnoski’s Pig screens on Saturday as part of “Nicolas Uncaged,” and then again next Wednesday. Takashi Miike’s early film, the Shinjuku Triad Society from 1995 will screen on Friday and Saturday as part of “Crush the Strong, Help the Weak.”
If you haven’t seen David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999), it will screen on Thursday night LATE as part of “Insomnia” (and again next Wednesday, and on Tuesday night, you’ll have one more chance to see Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, as well. Ozu’s Good Morning plays one last time on Thursday afternoon as part of “Do It Again.”
Jacques Demy’s 1964 classic, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, starring a 60-years younger Catherine Deneuve, is getting a pretty hefty release of a 60th anniversary 4K restoration on DCP, and Film Forum will be screening it ahead of the rest of the country this weekend. That’s also this Sunday’s “Film Forum, Jr.” Monday’s Clara Bow offering is 1925’s The Plastic Age with piano accompaniment. I’m going to assume that the 4K restoration of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear (1953) will be extended beyond its planned Dec 5 shutoff date.
It’s an annual tradition for the IFC Center to show Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) throughout the holidays, and that tradition continues on Friday with Donna Reed’s daughter, Mary Owens, doing intros the week of December 16. Brian De Palma’s Carrie continues to play at the IFC Center through the weekend and into next week, and the Friday and Saturday night late night offerings are Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and Ridley Scott’s Alien. Also playing in those slots are the 1967 film, Spider Baby, and Threads.
Lower Manhattan is getting John Waters’ Female Trouble on Friday night as part of its “Time Capsule 1974” series, but it’s already sold out there, so you night have to go to Staten Island, where it’s also playing. (Good luck with that.) Both theaters are also getting the holiday rom-com The Holiday on Saturday and you can go to Staten Island for movie parties for Elf and Robert Zemeckis’ The Polar Express on Sunday.
The Paris is in between series right now, although you can see Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night on Sunday afternoon as part of “Open to the Open Road” as that wraps up.
On Monday, you can see Orson Welles’ beloved classic, Citizen Kane, with three screenings, and there’s also a “Top Secret Cinema” screening, which may or may not be repertory. On Wednesday, the Village East will show Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, so there’s no escaping Capra!
On Saturday afternoon, you can see Mike Leigh’s Oscar-nominated 1997 film Secrets & Lies with an introduction by Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who will be on-hand for the screening of her new Leigh movie, Hard Truths. (See review above.)
NITEHAWK CINEMA PROSPECT PARK & WILLIAMSBURG
“Remembering Robin Williams” will screen Mike Nichols’ The Birdcage (1996) on Saturday and Sunday afternoon in Prospect Park and then Good Will Hunting (1997) on Monday night and Terry Gilliams’ The Fisher King on Wednesday night. Williamsburg is showing Disney’s animated Aladdin (1992) on Saturday and Sunday mornings as part of the same series.
Also in Williamsburg on Saturday and Sunday, you can watch Chris Columbus’ beloved Home Alone (1990) on Saturday and Sunday, so that’s two options for the kiddies in Williamsburg this weekend!
This Sunday is the latest “Sundays on Fire” showing secret and often quite rare Hong Kong cinema in 35mm, but I’m still feeling a bit burnt from my last experience, so I won’t be there.
Friday night’s “Midnight Movie” at Williamsburg is David Cronenberg’s classic Videodrome (1983) which is an absolute must-see if you’re a fan of horror.
Paul Nicholas’ 1982 film Julie Darling will screen in Prospect Park on Tuesday night as part of “Misfit Alley.”
Friday night will be screenings of the 1948 Oliver Twist movie, as well as John Carpenter’s The Thing from 1982. The Dickens love continues on Saturday with David Leans’ Great Expecations (1946) and Gerald Dickens in a live theatrical event of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and “Cult Cafe” is showing Bill Murray’s Scrooged (1988). That theme continues on Sunday with A Muppet Christmas Carol and A Tale of Two Cities from 1935, so yeah, if you’re not in the Christmas spirit yet, that’s just tough noogies for you, isn’t it? The one big twist is that they’re also showing the horror film, Sleepaway Camp (1983) with Long Island actress Felissa Rose in person on Sunday. On Tuesday, you can watch Charlie Chaplin in The Kid and on Wednesday, it’s the Marx Brothers’ Horsefeathers, two great films from yesteryear.
It looks like the “See It Big” series is back, this one being subtitled “Let It Snow,” which might be obvious by the selection, with this weekend screening Kurosawa’s 1975 film Dersu Uzala (which really doesn’t screen much around town) on Saturday, and Gilliam Armstrong’s 1994 Little Women and Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) screening on Sunday. Sunday’s “Always on a Sunday: Greek Film Series” offering is Vasilis Christofilakis’s fairly recent (2023) film Guest Star.
“The Complete Robert Frank” continues through December 11.
Hopefully, everyone survives the Releaseapocalypse, but I have a feeling that most people will either be staying home or seeing Moana 2 and Wicked for the 100th time. Next week, we’ll be back with Sony’s Kraven the Hunter and Warner Bros’ animated The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. Paid subscribers will be able to get an early preview of the weekend box office on Tuesday morning.
Holy crap, the Trailer Park Boys are back?