THE WEEKEND WARRIOR Sept. 13, 2024

SPEAK NO EVIL, THE KILLER’S GAME, GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS, MY OLD ASS, WILL & HARPER, WINNER, THE 4:30 MOVIE, THE CRITIC

Welp, I’d been warned that this was one of the craziest weeks for movies with over 35 releases, but of the wide releases, I only was able to watch one of them and then there are a couple limited releases, so I guess it wasn’t so bad. I have seven relatively short reviews this week.

SPEAK NO EVIL (Universal)

James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi, and Scott McNairy star in James Watkins’ remake of the Danish horror film that premiered at Sundance a few years back and has been on the Shudder streaming network ever since. The general premise is exactly the same with two couples meeting while on holiday in Italy and hitting it off, so that one of the couples – Americans living in London – visit the others in their remote countryside home where all sorts of strange occurrences get them seriously worried for their safety.

I’m sure a lot of people who saw the original movie will wonder why bother doing a remake, especially since so much of that was in English, and it actually used the lack of subtitles to create even more tension when the visiting couple couldn’t understand what their hosts are saying. I watched the movie virtually at Sundance and reviewed it as well. I’m not in the critical camp that feels that all remakes are a bad thing, and in many ways, I like the ‘80s remakes of The Thing and The Fly more than the originals.

That aside, I’m glad to say that this new version written and directed by Watkins (The Woman in Black) definitely lives up to the original movie in terms of tension, even though the set-up is generally the same. It does a lot more with the premise and eventually goes to many different places, so having already seen the original, you may be surprised when it does change things up. 

It takes some time before you start seeing the differences, the big one being that we learn a lot more about Davis’ Louise and her husband Ben (McNairy), including the fact that they have had some marital issues that just exacerbates when things start getting weird. The kids in this one are far more interesting as well, and they get a lot more to do, while the kids in the original were basically just there.

I’ve been a fan of McAvoy for years, and just goes to town on the character of Paddy, who is just as funny and menacing as his counter-part in the Danish film, and he takes things even further at times. In fact, this whole cast is very good, which is another thing that this remake brings to the movie. Another positive is that this new film just looks amazing with great panoramic scenery setting up the two main locations, Italy and the England countryside. Sure, there may be a few moments that are noticeably absent, but Watkins effectively captures the mood while still having some fun. (I’m not sure anyone is ready for how the Bangles’ cover “Eternal Flame” is used in this version, for instance.)

I’m going to avoid any further spoilers as far as the differences between the two movies, especially as this remake goes into a completely different direction in the last act, one that’s far less grim and off-putting and something more akin to Straw Dogs. It also explains a lot more about what is reallyl happening than the original movie that sometimes left you scratching your head about the characters’ motivations.

Blumhouse has made a solid remake that works quite well on its own but shouldn’t be spoiled too badly if you’ve already seen (and even like) the original movie and may automatically think you know where things are going.

Rating: 8/10

I also did a video review with Matthew Schuchman over at Cinema Daily US, which you can watch here.

THE KILLER’S GAME (Lionsgate)

Dave Bautista stars in this action-comedy directed by former stunman J.J. Perry and co-starring Sofia Boutella, Pom Klementieff, Sir Ben Kingsley, Terry Crewes, Scott Adkins, and wrestler Drew McIntyre. In the movie, Bautista plays assassin Joe Flood, who falls in love (with Boutella’s character) but then is told that he has a life-threatening illness, so he decides to put out a hit on himself, only to learn that the doctors were wrong, and he’s not dying. Yeah, it’s a pretty high-concept action movie for sure. Unfortunately, the press screening for this was dumped onto the same night as Speak No Evil, so I had to decide which one to see/review, and I went with the horror film, which I reviewed above. I still hope to see this, but I’m not sure it will do very well.

DAN DA DAN: FIRST ENCOUNTER (GKIDS)

This new Anime offering in wide release previews the first three episodes of the upcoming Anime series based on Yukinobu Tatsu’s popular Manga, which will stream via Crunchyroll in October. I probably never will be an expert on modern-day Anime, because I just don’t watch enough of these theatrical releases, though I expect Anime fans who didn’t already see this at Anime NYC will go out to see it in theaters this weekend. I really don’t know much about it, except that it has horror elements, so maybe it will benefit from being released on Friday the 13th. too.

AM I A RACIST? (SDG Releasing)

I’m not going to review this new “documentary” from right-wing commenter Matt Walsh (not to be confused with the actor/comedian of the same name, formerly of the Upright Citizens Brigade) and director Justin Folk, being released by the conservative website DailyWire. I saw the trailer, and that was enough for me, though I can still imagine this doing well in wide release. It’s opening in 1,500 theaters, which should get it into the top 10, possibly with $3 to $4 million. 

GOD’S NOT DEAD: IN GOD WE TRUST (Fathom Events)

Similarly, I also have no interest in this movie hitting theaters on Thursday, because I have not seen any of the other God’s Not Dead faith-based films. These have had diminishing returns over the past few years, and with plenty of other right-wing competition in Reagan and The Forge, it might have a hard time finding eyes even if it’s playing in 1,399 theaters.

Also, AMC is releasing the concert film, USHER: RENDEZVOUS IN PARIS, into roughly 2,000 theaters, but honestly, the fact that AMC doesn’t allow A-List users to use their A-List for this release (as was the case with Taylor Swift and Beyonce movies and most Fathom Events) makes me too annoyed to say too much about this, even though it’s likely to break into the top 10 even if it’s not playing more than once or twice on most screens.

THE BOX OFFICE CHART

Another weekend with a lot of movies being released with no estimated theater counts. While I liked Speak No Evil, I’m concerned that no one really wants to see much playing in theaters other than Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. One thing I forgot to mention in my Gold Derby preview is that Friday is the 13th, which gives Speak No Evil an advantage since horror tends to be popular on that non-holiday.

1. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Warner Bros.) - $49.3 million -56%
2. Speak No Evil (Universal) - $17 million N/A
3. The Killer’s Game (Lionsgate) - $7.8 million N/A
4. DAN DA DAN: First Encounter (GKIDS) - $4.2 million N/A
5. Deadpool and Wolverine (Marvel/Disney) - $3.7 million -47%
6. Reagan (Showbiz Direct) - $3.1 million -35%
7.Am I Racist? (SDG Releasing) - $3 million N/A
8. Usher: Rendezvous in Paris (AMC) - $2.5 million N/A
9. It Ends with Us (Sony) - $2 million -46%
10. Alien: Romulus (20th Century/Disney) - $2 million -48%

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This week’s “Chosen One” is…

GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS (Juno Films)

Opening at the Film Forum in NYC on Friday is Shuchi Talati’s amazing directorial debut, a coming-of-age film about an Indian girl named Mira (Preeti Panigrahi) going to an exclusive Himalayan boarding school who we meet as she’s giving a speech to the school, having just been selected as head proctor. Mira is 16 years old and reaching the age where she’s begun to explore her sexuality, but her fairly young mother (Kani Kusruti) really wants her to be focused on her studies, even though she’s immediately charmed by Mira’s new male friend Sri (Kesav Binoy Kiron). 

Although I didn’t see Girls Will Be Girls at Sundance, it apparently won a few awards, including the World Cinema Audience Award and an acting award for Panigrahi, both well-deserved. This was a surprisingly nice discovery movie for me, since I try to catch whatever’s playing at Film Forum whenever I can, even though it’s not nearly as convenient as seeing movies at the Metrograph. (I mean, what is?) But I did wake up early to go see a press screening of this, and I’m glad I did, because I generally love coming-of-age movies, but especially ones that have such a distinctive voice as Ms. Talati does, while introducing us to Mira and her complicated exploration of love and sex.

I was really impressed with how Shuchi Talati tells this story, touching upon things we’ve seen in other great coming-of-age films (including one of my favorites of this very year, Didi), but also giving it such a different perspective by taking advantage of the location and the different cultures at play. One thing that might be of interest to those who don’t attend many foreign films, because they don’t care for subtitles, is that much of Girls Will Be Girls is actually in English.

There’s so much talent on display in Ms. Talati’s film, a rare movie from India that doesn’t necessarily require action or big dance numbers to keep its audiences invested in following Mira’s story. 

Rating: 8.5/10

MY OLD ASS (MGM) 

Megan Park’s new comedy premiered at Sundance back in January, starring Maisy Stella as 18-year-old Elliot, who takes hallucinogenic mushrooms with her friends and ends up encountering her 39-year-old self, played by the inimitable Aubrey Plaza. Her older self warns the younger Elliot to stay away from a guy named “Chad,” and sure enough, Elliot almost immediately meets Chad (Percy Hynes White), who works at her family’s cranberry farm.  

This is a very different movie from what I was expecting, since it’s not just a high-concept comedy based around the Looper-like meeting of the same person from two different times in their life. I also hadn’t seen Ms. Park’s previous film, The Fallout, which is on Max, since that was more of a drama based around a school shooting, and I would have been more perplexed if I had known her work from that. 

I was obviously more familiar with Plaza than I was with Stella, and I was a little disappointed that Plaza really does not appear in the film very much. In fact, most of the trailer is taken from the 10 to 15 minutes where the two Elliots meet, and then it goes off and just follows the young Elliot until much later in the movie. Those going to see the movie just for Plaza may be disappointed by this fact, but I thought Stella was quite good, since she’s in every single scene and ends up interacting with every actor in great scenes. Part of Elliot’s journey is coming to terms with her sexuality, because she spent most of her life thinking of herself as queer or lesbian, and her new attraction to Chad causes her to rethink much of her way of life.

I saw a similar teen romance movie co-starring Percy Hynes White at Tribeca, and after I reviewed it positively, someone noted that White had some accusations against him for some of the things that have gotten other male actors cancelled. I still haven’t done much reading on it, except that I heard he was bumped from Season 2 of “Wednesday” because of them. The thing is that I really like him as an actor, and he’s just as good a romantic lead as he was in that movie, so it’s a shame if he couldn’t keep it in his pants to continue what would have been a thriving career.

That said, his presence didn’t really detract from my enjoyment of what the filmmaker was trying to do with this movie. Her sophomore feature is quite entertaining in terms of where it goes with its fairly high-concept premise. It ends up being surprisingly heartfelt, especially when you learn the truth about Chad and how he affected Elliot’s later life. I’d recommend this for fans of coming-of-age dramedies, as this is a great take on that tried-and-true Sundance genre.

Rating: 7.5/10

This will open in select cities on Friday and then wide on September 27, and you can watch my interview with Mses. Park and Stella over at Cinema Daily US. 

WILL & HARPER (Netflix)

Another Sundance movie I’ve been looking forward to seeing after editing Abe Friedtanzer’s review over at the dead-as-a-doornail Above the Line is this documentary directed by Josh Greenbaum (Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar), which follows actor/comedian Will Ferrell as he goes on a road trip across America with his long-time friend Harper Steele, a former “SNL” head writer who came out to tell her friend that she was transitioning to live life as a woman. 

This is a movie that I was really curious about, since I have quite a few trans friends, including one I knew from her former life who came out to me, and then proceeded to document her entire transition for the world, which sadly, wasn’t all smooth sailing. Will & Harper doesn’t get into the nitty-gritty as it’s just as much about these long-time friends exploring their new relationship and learning how to interact with people around the country as a trans woman, especially the more conservative areas.

What I really appreciated about the movie is that it’s able to play with Ferrell’s star power, since sometimes, he’s recognized as this comic movie star and sometimes, he dresses up as different characters to make sure the focus isn’t taken away from Harper. It ends up being a fairly straight-up bit of storytelling, as it’s as much about the two of them interacting with the rest of the world as each other. 

I was pretty disappointed by how much misgendering Harper has to deal with in certain states, particularly Texas, but she’s originally from Iowa, so maybe she knew going into the trip that she was going to have to deal with some of that. 

Will & Harper is quite an entertaining movie that allows the viewer to have a bit more fun than documentaries normally allow, and I can only hope that this being on Netflix and Ferrell’s involvement might get some people to see trans living in a new light.

WINNER (Vertical)

The third movie from Sundance that I heard about from editing Abe Friedtanzer’s ATL review is this new movie from Susanna Fogel (“A Small Light,” “The Flight Attendant”), starring Emilia Jones (CODA) as Reality Winner, a Texan who joins the U.S. Air Force straight out of high school as a translator, hoping to get to Pakistan to help people. When that doesn’t happen, she eventually gets a job as an NSA contractor where she ends up leaking intelligence that gets her sentenced to over five years in federal prison. The movie also stars Connie Britton, Zack Galifianakis, and Kathryn Newton as Reality’s family.

I really don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on politics, so maybe it wasn’t too surprising that I may have missed the news story in 2017 when Reality Winner leaked information about Russia’s involvement in trying to rig the election of Donald Trump. It really was a blip for me, but having not been a very big fan of Fogel’s films, including last year’s Cat Person, also starring Emilia Jones, I was a little concerned this movie wouldn’t be for me either.

Surprisingly, and not for the first time, I was completely wrong, as the way Fogel tells this story really creates an intricate portrait of Reality and gets you quite invested in her journey. Some of the family stuff drags things down a bit, but Britton is just fantastic as her mother Billie, and Galifianakis is enjoyable as Reality’s academic father who is dealing with an addiction to painkillers. He also wants her to go to college, though her decision to join the Air Force right out of high school is a brash one that ends up biting her in the butt later. Reality also gets involved in a romance with a guy played by Danny Ramirez, which falls apart, because she’s so driven to follow her own dreams. It’s one of the film’s subplots that didn’t feel that necessary, even if it happened in real life.

Overall, there’s just so much to like about this movie, but one reason it feels head and shoulders over Cat Person was that it just looked fantastic, being shot by Steve Yedlin, who has shot most of Rian Johnson’s films, and edited by Joseph Krings ACE, both working with Ms. Fogel for the first time. 

Ms. Fogel has delivered a satisfyingly rich portrait of a woman who was labelled as much a traitor to her country as she was considered a hero, as the United States began to get dragged further into the hugely divisive party-centric place where it is now. When you consider that Winner got five years in prison and was treated really horribly for leaking five pages, it’s pretty shocking.

Winner is probably Fogel’s best film to date, and I personally thought Jones was better in this movie than she was even in the Best Picture winner, CODA, so hopefully people will find it, even though it’s getting a fairly minimal theatrical release this weekend. 

Rating: 8/10

THE 4:30 MOVIE (Saban Films)

Kevin Smith returns with this coming-of-age comedy set in and around a New Jersey movie theater in 1986 where a teen boy named Brian David (Austin Zajur) wants nothing more than to ask his crush, Melody (Siena Agudong) to the local movie theater. Once he gets there with his two friends, they fall afoul of the theater manager (Ken Jeong) who bans them.

I have a notoriously hot and cold relationship with Kevin Smith and his work, but other than Yoga Hosers, I have never outright hated anything he’s done, and I didn’t mind him returning to the “Clerks” and “Jay and Silent Bob” well a few times, but it’s also nice seeing him do something so different. As far as I can tell, this is the first time he’s done a coming-of-age film where the main characters are all kids, but clearly, there’s some influence from John Hughes and Stand By Me on Smith’s works that he hasn’t really had a chance to explore.

The majority of the film is about the romance between teenage Brian David and his high school crush Melody, who he finally asks out after having a bit of a touchy-feely moment in the pool the summer prior. They’re both terrific young actors, as are Reed Northrup and Nicholas Cirillo, who play Brian’s friends who are constantly getting him and themselves into trouble at the movie theater.

Probably the most aggravating aspect of the movie is Ken Jeong as “Manager Mike,” who runs the movie theater where much of the story takes place, since he once again takes things way over the top to the point where he just isn’t funny. At least the kid actors (who are generally good) have some help from the likes of Kate Micucci and Rachel Dratch playing mothers, and then there are lots of other cameos like Rosario Dawson (from Clerks II) and Justin Long (from Tusk), though the latter creates a character that makes him far less recognizable. I also generally enjoyed the fake trailers Smith created, including one featuring his daughter Harley Quinn.

The 4:30 Movie ends up being one of Smith’s sweeter and more sentimental films, and it’s also refreshing for him to get away from the Jay and Silent Bob rut he seems to have fallen back into by not just throwing them into the script along with some of the other characters. I’m not sure the film will do that well in theaters (and I’m not even sure if Saban Films will report box office), but this coming-of-age film does offer some nice moments that make it worth checking out.  

Rating: 6.5/10

THE CRITIC (Greenwich Entertainment)

Directed by Anand Tucker, this period drama/mystery set in 1930s London stars Sir Ian McKellen as theater critic Jimmy Erskine, who has a bee in his bonnet against the stage actress Nina Land, played by Gemma Arterton. As Jimmy begins to struggle with keeping his job at the Daily Chronicle as his personal sexual preferences start becoming more common knowledge, Nina demands to know why he’s constantly going after her. The film also stars Mark Strong as Jimmy’s editor and the newspaper publisher David Brooke, Ben Barnes as a portrait artist who is having an affair with Nina, despite the fact that he’s married to David’s daughter, with Lesley Manville playing Nina’s mother.

I actually was at the premiere of this at TIFF last year, and I generally liked it, mainly because I do love British films, and this one has a cast that includes many personal favorites, including Arterton and Strong, but also Barnes and Manville. I mean, I would watch the first two of those in everything, and I’ve grown to like the latter after interviewing them. I was pleasantly surprised to learn later that this was based on a book adapted by Patrick Marber, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Notes on a Scandal, and Tucker does a fine job with his crew to recreate ‘30s London and doing it for a reasonable budget, too, apparently.  

For the most part, it’s what McKellen and the other actors bring to these characters that makes this far more interesting than it might have been otherwise, as we meet Erskine and learn his predilections for “rough trade,” at a time when the British government and police officers (wearing armbands not unlike the Nazis would) were not kindly to homosexuals. (If you saw The Imitation Game, just look at what happened to the pioneer Alan Turing decades later!)

Much of the story involves the conflict between Jimmy and Nina, but it leads to some unexpected places, as Jimmy starts going to great lengths to keep his job reviewing theater for the newspaper. I’m not sure all of the twists worked so well, since it took me away from what I was enjoying, but as I said before, the cast does a lot to sell all of it.

The Critic certainly won’t be for everyone – maybe not even other actual critics – but I enjoyed what Tucker and his cast were doing in terms of creating something that had humor and drama while leading into pretty dark places.

Rating: 6.5/10

Look for my interview with Anand Tucker over at Cinema Daily US soon. 

Other movies out this weekend include…

HOW TO MAKE MILLIONS BEFORE GRANMA DIES (Well Go USA)
BORDERLAND: THE LINE WITHIN (Skylight Pictures)
HERE AFTER (Republic Pictures)
DEAD MONEY (Samuel Goldwyn Films)
BOOGER (Dark Sky Films)
TRILOGY: NEW WAVE (Utopia)

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REPERTORY

METROGRAPH

First of all, on Saturday at 4:30pm, the American Cinema Editors (ACE) will be continuing their monthly program with a screening of Robert Altman’s classic, Short Cuts, followed by a QnA with editor Suzy Elmiger. (Unfortunately, it’s already sold out, but maybe there’ll be open seats.)

More new series starting at the Metrograph this weekend, including “Fernando di Leo: Pulp Maestro,” showing three films from the Italian master of crime cinema who had such a huge influence on Quentin Tarantino. This weekend, you can see di Leo’s “Milieu Trilogy,” which includes The Boss (1973), The Italian Connection (1972), and Caliber 9 (1972). 

Another exciting series is “We Want Moore,” a short retrospective of Demi Moore, who stars in the new Coralie Fargeat film The Substance next week. Sadly, she won’t be on hand for a QnA or anything (as was the case with Carol Kane last month), but you can catch Striptease (1996) on Friday and Saturday night, pretty late.

Another series about a filmmaker I know exactly nada about is “One More Time: The Cinema of Daniel Pommereulle,” which will include a program of shorts and his two The Zanzibar Group movies. Sorry, but you’re on your own with this one.

As part of “Under My Thumb,” you can catch final screenings of American Beauty and Basic Instinct on Thursday afternoon/evening, and then over the weekend, you can watch Paul Verhoeven’s Elle (2016), starring the Oscar-nominated Isabelle Huppert, Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite (2018) – an Oscar WINNER! – and Terrence Malick’s Badlands from 1973.

Two Japanese films are on-hand for this week’s “Rabbit on the Moon: Folk Tales, Tall Tales, and Local Myths” offerings, Ugetsu from 1953 and the fairly recent anime, Inu-Oh (2021). 

“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” will screen Sara Gómez’s One Way or Another from 1977, while “Daring Motion: The Films of Mark Lee Ping-Bing” screens Huang Hsin-yao’s The Great Buddha (2017) over the weekend and A Time to Live and A Time to Die and Dust in the Wind on Monday.

FILM FORUM

John Ford’s legendary Western The Searchers (1956), starring John Wayne and Natalie Wood, will play in a new 4k restoration at Film Forum starting Friday (but I feel I’d be remiss to mention that the Paris will have a brand-new 70mm print of the same movie showing in October). Unfortunately, it looks like the “Spielberg” series really is ending this Thursday, so that’s your last chance to see some of the master’s classic films. Sunday’s “Film Forum Jr.” is John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley (1941), starring Roddy McDowall and Walter Pidgeon. 

NITEHAWK CINEMA PROSPECT PARK & WILLIAMSBURG

On Sunday, at Prospect Park, you can catch the monthly “Sundays on Fire” secret Hong Kong 35mm screening put on by Subway Cinema each month. The “Reeks like Teen Spirit” series continues at Prospect Park this weekend with screenings of John Waters’ Cry-Baby (1990), starring Johnny Depp, on Saturday, and Greg Araki’s fairly recent restoration of Nowhere next Wednesday. On Monday, you can see Fulci’s The House by the Cemetery (1981), which happens to be one of my pal Ted Geoghegan’s favorite horror movies.

Over at Williamsburg, they play a classic as part of the “Bad Neighbors” series, the original Bob Zemeckis The ‘Burbs, starring Tom Hanks, which was just announced would be remade as a television series. Williamsburg is also getting into the “Reeks Like Teen Spirit” series with 2004’s Napoleon Dynamite (celebrating its 20th anniversary) on Saturday and Sunday at brunch time, and Greg Araki’s 1993 film Totally Effed Up on Monday. On Tuesday, you can see Jody Hill’s comedy Observe and Report (2009) with an introduction by the Nitehawk projectionist as part of the “Re-Consider This” series.

BAM (BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC)

It’s become fairly common for New York rep theaters to do series related to upcoming movies, and that’s the case with “I’m Not Myself Today: Films That Inspired A Different Man,” which is a series programmed by Aaron Schimberg, whose new movie A Different Man opens next Friday. (See how that works?) It’s a pretty great series that includes To Be Or Not To Be, Shoot the Piano Player, Bigger Than Life, The Driller Killer, and much more. They’re also showing David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, which probably inspired another movie opening next week, The Substance.

MUSEUM OF MOVING IMAGE

As part of “Queens on Screen,” you can go see Walter Hill’s 1979 classic, The Warriors, and this weekend, they’re all showing two films by Joanna Hogg, Archipelago (including a book signing by “Joanna Hogg” author Shonni Enelow) and The Eternal Daughter. The tribute to late Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden continues with screenings this weekend of Tharlo, The Sacred Arrow, and Balloon. Also, this weekend, MoMI is showing Mel Brooks’ hilarious Young Frankenstein (1974) on Friday and Saturday as part of its “MoMI Moviehouse.” As part of its semi-regular Greek film series, “Always on a Sunday,” it will show the 2022 puppet movie, Karagiozis: The Movie. On Tuesday, they’re showing a 10th anniversary screening of The Babadook with filmmaker Jennifer Kent in person for a QnA, as she will be in town for that sort of thing next week.

MOMA

I’m not sure how I almost missed this, but thanks to the Subway Cinema News, for their weekly Asian cinema newsletter for letting me know that the Museum of Modern Art is starting a fantastic retrospective called Chaos and Order: The Ways of Johnnie To, which runs from Thursday until Oct. 13. Wish I knew earlier cause Master To will be doing QnAs after screenings of Exiled (2006) and The Mission (1999) respectively. I personally have only met and interviewed To once, but I’m a huge fan, and there’s a lot in this series that I have never seen. Saturday, you can also see 2008’s Sparrow and the crime thriller classic, Election (2005) as well as 1995’s Loving You and PTU (2003) on Sunday. Again, if I knew about this beforehand, I would have planned to see some of these, but most of them will get repeats later in the series.

Paramount in the ‘70s continues through the weekend with screenings of Dustin Hoffman’s Marathon Man (1977), Albert Brooks’ Real Life (1979), Jonathan Demme’s Citizens Band (1977), and William Friedkin’s Sorcerer (1977). 

IFC CENTER

Opening at the IFC Center (and at the Laemmle Noho in L.A.) and playing through the weekend is a new black-and-white print of Julian Schnabel’s Basquiat (1996), starring Oscar nominee Jeffrey Wright, and both Schnabel and Wright will be on-hand for intros and QnAs! Friday and Saturday night’s “Late Night Favorite” is the street gang classic, The Warriors (1979). New restorations of Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas and Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby continue playing through the weekend, as well. Jennifer Kent will be at the IFC Center on Monday and Wednesday showing her movies and doing QnAs with her breakout horror film The Babadook on Wednesday, as it celebrates its 10th anniversary, and its follow-up, The Nightingale, on Monday.

CINEMA ARTS CENTRE

On Thursday, you can watch the sci-fi classic, The Incredible Shrinking Man, from 1957. The Jim Jarmusch retrospective as part of Night Owl Cinema continues on Friday with Dead Man (1995), starring Johnny Depp. On Saturday, you can see the original Jurassic Park (1993) with the “Best Picture Cast,” as well as see Paul Newman’s Cool Hand Luke (1967) as part of Cult Café on Saturday night. Studio Ghibli’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind plays (in a dubbed version) on Sunday, as does Yasujiro Ozu’s Floating Weeds (1959) and then on Monday, they’re showing Return to Reason: Short Films by Man Ray, made between 1923 and 1929. Keeping in that vein, the 1926 silent film Mother will screen on Tuesday with live accompaniment.

ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES

This week, the Anthology in the East Village is having a one-week revival of Marcel Ophul’s 1976 documentary, The Memory of Justice, inspired by the book, “Nuremberg and Vietnam: An American Tragedy”, by Telford Taylor, written during the Vietnam War and reflecting on issues raised during his work as Chief Counsel for the Prosecution at the Nuremberg Trials. The theater is also celebrating the work of Rainer Werner Fassbinder collaborator, Ingrid Caven, in conjunction with the new book, “Ingrid Caven: I Am Fiction” with screenings of Fassbinder’s Mother Küster’s Goes Go Heaven, Jean Eustache’s My Little Loves, and La Paloma from Daniel Schmid. 

ROXY CINEMA

On Friday through Monday, you can see John Casavetes’ 1968 film, Faces, starring the late Gena Rowlands, and his movie A Woman Under the Influence will show again on Sunday.

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER

“Isso é Brasil: Cinema According to L.C. Barreto Productions” continues through Sunday

QUAD CINEMA

The Merchant Ivory doc continues to play through the weekend.

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE

This week’s “Alamo Time Capsule 1979” is the original George Miller Mad Max. 

The big movie next week is Paramount’s new animated Transformers One, which I haven’t seen yet, and not sure I will, while Halle Berry returns to horror with Never Let Go.