#select theaters and this being the first time I’ve seen it and it’s at Alamo Drafthouse makes me think it’ll have the same release as

[bethannangel]

I am not okay. I knew this would happen and I was not prepared. This movie will be my downfall

[ourdallasvideofestthings]

THE THIRD MAN - Restored in Stunning 4K - Trailer

BART CHAT 5/13/19

Greetings all 

This week we bring you the first part of the Dallas Medianale. if this word is new to you it is a mix of media and well ale as in the Venice Biennale except if it for video art, performance, and installation and it is in Dallas, and as the ale part suggests it is every other year, and that year is this year and it starts on Saturday night

 at The MAC and it is free. Each time we have held it has been a different experience. This year part one has been curated by Charles Dee Mitchell.  Dee has selected some amazing work from 5 unique artists that use different media and use that media in completely different ways. Rather than being all video installation the work as a whole looks at our in photos LED  lights and video. These works have been shown in major museums and galleries around the globe and we bring them to you at the MAC.  In case you have not been to the new MAC in the Cedars it is1503 S Ervay St, Dallas, TX 75215 and the Show will run until July 14th.

This work is really amazing I [particularly am entranced by the animation of Allison Schulnik, that is like nothing you never have seen before). For a deeper dive read the Collette Copland review in Glasstire, where she interviews Dee about the show. The second part of the Medianale will be a mix of single-channel video art and video and performance and will be at the Latino Cultural Center just after the MAC show ends on July 17th and 18th, and I am working on that now.

This week, we have The South Asian Film Festival Yes, Dallas is lucky enough to have both an Asian Film Festival Dallas and a South Asian Film Festival and both are really good. This is the 5th South Asian festival and I’m sorry to say that I don’t know anything about the films this year, but I’ve seen great films in the past 4 years, so go see what you can. Thursday is opening night at The Perot Museum and it is usually a great program. I hope to be at opening night so see you there.  

Around town, on Saturday night the Dallas Press Club is honoring North Texas Legends including Bill Young from KERA who works with us on Frame of Mind. Each year, Jim Schutze, the great columnist from the Dallas Observer, Rick Gosslin, Karen Borta,  Eric Nadel, Rick Warme, Wes Turner and the special treat of an appearance of Ellen Kampinski. Ellen was on our board for many years and she was the person who had faith in me to write a column in the Dallas Morning News and who also spent many hours editing my copy and teaching me how to write. The reason that some of what you are reading makes sense is because of her patients (and because Tamitha Curiel helps with edits). Because of Ellen, I was able to be published in a newspaper, something that I know made my mother very happy, which made me happy.

So what else is going on?  The Texas Theater is showing Hail Satan! by Penny Lane, which I wrote about last week; it’s a must see. They continue to show the film about Orson Welles, The Eyes of Orson Welles and The Third Man, which has Orson in it along with lots of good music; not to mention, it’s a pleasure to watch. There is also a newly restored version of The Shining (so many classic moments like, “Here’s Johnny!” and “Redrum” along with that great Steadicam work) and James Cameron’s The Abyss. The Big Movie at the Magnolia is the original A Star is Born.

One more thing to put on your calendar: My friends Mark Ridlen and Reed Robinson have been telling me about a film called Cotton Candy that was shot here in Dallas and is coming up on its 40th anniversary.  We are helping with this screening here on May 25th at The Alamo in Lake Highlands, with Clint Howard in attendance.

So that is it for this week. See you at the Medianale!

Bart Weiss

Artistic Director, Dallas VideoFest

[weekendwarriorblog]

30 Minute Experiment: Movie Theaters #30ME

Okay, let’s do this. Very early on in doing this experiment, and even back when I started this blog, I wanted to use it to talk about something other than movies. I’ve written more than enough about movies for one lifetime, and that probably won’t stop anytime soon, but in the last 24 hours a few things happened that made me think that I probably should address the elephant in the room that no on can agree on: When to reopen movie theaters. After I already decided to share some of my ideas and queries about how to handle this, a few things happened. In fact, a lot of things happened, but we’ll get to those in due time.

So yeah, I’m definitely on the forefront of people who really want to be back in a theater or even a screening room seeing movies again. Unlike so many people out there, I don’t have a giant display screen or a home theater or anything that allows me to have any sort of satisfactory experience watching movies at home. I mean, I do it because sometimes the job entails it. When I wrote reviews for Film Journal, MOST of the movies I was reviewing were only available to review via screener link and many of them would barely get a theatrical release. In some cases, my review was and maybe still is the ONLY review of that movie on RottenTomatoes. That’s how small these movies are.

As the various politicians in Washington and our own state and local politicians try to figure out how to reopen the economy, there’s only one thing I want to know and that’s when theaters will be able to reopen, when all those hard-working and under-appreciated people like the projectionists and ticket takers will be able to get back to work. But more importantly, when can we all get back to seeing movies in theaters safely?

As many probably know, I’m not one of those guys who necessarily needs to go see a movie on a crowded Thursday or Friday night among the first audiences. I didn’t get to see Avengers: Endgame until the Tuesday after opening for some reason, maybe cause I wanted to see it in IMAX in the same theater I saw Avengers: Infinity War.

I’m used to going to movies and press screenings where there are just a handful of people there and there’s so much social distancing already that it shouldn’t be a concern. I’ve been perfectly fine going to the movies and not having anyone sitting around me for years now so it’s not like I need to cozy up to some stranger now anytime soon.

A few of the things that happened in the last couple days included a bit of a war of words between AMC (the biggest theater chain in the country and in the NYC area), NATO (the organization that runs the entire theater franchise) and Universal Pictures, who chose to skip a theatrical release for a few of their films including this month’s Trolls World Tour and June’s The King of Staten Island (which was supposed to premiere at SXSW and play Tribeca). As you probably know, a lot of the festivals have already been cancelled or going virtually in order to provide content, support the filmmakers and themselves while still allowing viewers to be safe. 

It just so happens that the day after this feud, John Fithian, the head of NATO spoke with Variety (no idea how long ago this was conducted) about the situation, which you can read here:

https://variety.com/2020/film/features/theaters-reopening-plan-coronavirus-john-fithian-1234592228/

(Also, a very angry friend of mine went off on social media about the very idea of movie theaters being up and running by July, but I’m not gonna call him or her out as I know where they’re coming from, and I consider him/her a dear friend.

So I’m gonna talk about some of the issues and how they can be handled even while hundreds of theaters owners and representatives from NATO and the movie studios are probably having these very discussions on how to reopen movie theaters safely.

First of all, if Christopher Nolan’s Tenet is the first big studio movie that will be released on July 17 (which is 12 weeks a way, give or take?) followed by Disney’s Mulan the following week, that gives those involved a LOT of time to make sure everything is safe and that numbers have come down appropriately before reopening. Remember that a lot of this is being determined by the governors of various states as well as local politicians and the CDC. Things are being rolled out in phases. 

Let’s just assume that movie theaters might be Phase 2 or 3 and in New York, I doubt we’ll see those phases before June. Still, that gives theaters a lot of time to figure things out.

The big concern is that a packed theater will mean no social distancing. Well, you know what? You don’t have to have packed theaters. Just sell 25-50% of the tickets depending on the size of the theater, and with reserved seats being the norm these days, it’s mostly easy enough to figure out how to make sure people are watching movies safely by alternating seats and spreading the audience out across the theater.

This might be a problem for places like my dear, beloved and much-missed Metrograph since their smaller theater only holds 54 people and when it’s full, it is PACKED. Then again, I’ve also seen press screenings when there’s only five or six of us in there and it’s comfortable and safe. It might be a bigger problem when they premiere movies in there with guest QnAs. That’s definitely going to be one of the first problems the owners of Metrograph will have to figure out, but they also have a restaurant upstairs and make a good amount of money from events that are equally packed. I mean, you can barely get around at some of those events when the 150-180 seat theater lets out.

But most of these theaters have reserved seating and the ones in New York that don’t like the Film Forum and Quad Cinema... they’ll just have to figure out a way to block off or remove seats  or make it a little more dummy proof for their patrons, who are often older folks who might be in the worst danger if infected by COVID.

Limiting seating also leads to other issues because it’s not just a matter of having one seat open, then block off every other seat. You have to remember that couples and groups of friends want to go to movies together, and listen, these groups are going to get together to do other things regardless of whether they’re expected to social distance or not. They’re young people and they want to hang out. There’s also the consideration of families. Are you gonna make some three-year-old sit six feet away from their parents, and then separate them as well? No, that’s just silly.  What can be done is that you can sell reserved seats in groups so if someone is buying just one ticket, they’ll have a selection of single seats. If there are two people going together, they can buy a block of two. Families? They can buy a block of four or six or whatever’s needed. This isn’t that hard and concessions can and will have to be made. 

I feel like theaters were already taking some precautions like wiping down seats and limiting seating even BEFORE things went completely crazy and so far, no one has come forward and said that it was specific movie theaters that caused CORONA to spread even more rampantly in NYC. The last movie I saw in theaters was The Invisible Man in a moderately full 200 seat theater on a Saturday afternoon, and the theater (which had those reclining seats) already had so much separation between patrons that it was relatively comfortable and didn’t feel packed or unsafe. I’m not really sure what places like the Alamo or Nitehawk will do since they also serve food and anyone who’s gone to either one knows that two people next to each other share a table. Sometimes, at more crowded screenings, you’re sharing a table with a strange and you’re sitting WAY TOO CLOSE. Again, just sell tickets in blocks. If you’re going solo, then you’ll have a number of choices, and if you’re going as a couple, you can share a table. 

This idea gets a little more complicated when you realize that most regular moviegoers like to sit in certain seats. Like I prefer an aisle seat and not too far back either but also not right at the screen. This adds another issue when people are as picky as I am and don’t want to be stuck in the middle of a row (or want to be in the middle) and don’t want to be too close or too far back. Again, these are all easy things to figure out and I’m sure it wouldn’t take much tinkering with the technology to make it work in the way it needs to work.

At this point, there really shouldn’t even be a need for ticket sellers unless someone can only pay in cash (which I’m sure is a thing) and I’m sure concessions can be made to sell tickets safely even if it’s a matter of there being plexiglass in front of the ticket seller who will have to wear gloves and mask while dealing with customers. Honestly, we should be at a point where everyone has a smart phone or a printer at home where they can just bring that to be scanned... and scanners can wear gloves and masks as well. You have to realized that 90% of the day, especially in hours where I go to see movies, there is so little business that the people who work at a theater can safely take off their masks... there’s also this thing called testing which is continuously being ramped up and I’m confident that some of the ideas being thrown out there (like having temperature scanners making sure no one might have a fever).

The way to deal with smaller theaters where you can’t really do much social distancing? Just play movies on more screens so that an audience that might fill five medium size theaters would be spread out over a bigger space... Oh, damn. My timer just went off which means I’ll have to continue this subject at another time.

The fact is that there are a lot of things to keep people safe when reopening theaters and no one involved with movies, whether it’s the studio or filmmakers or theater workers or moviegoers themselves wants anyone to get sick or worse die just because they want to go out and see movies in the way they were meant to be seen. Anyway... to be continued...

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND August 30, 2019  - Labor Day Blahs

I was trying to decide whether to do one of these this week, because it’s Labor Day weekend, and this is likely to be a particularly short column because I HAVEN’T SEEN ANYTHING! In fact, I’m not even doing my regular Box Office Preview column over at The Beat, because there just doesn’t seem to be much point to it. There used to be a time when studios would release movies over the four-day holiday weekend but not so much anymore, and this is a particularly weak Labor Day with no new movies opening in 1,000 theaters or more. No, it’s more about reexpanding movies already in theaters like Spider-Man: Far from Home in order to try to make more money before the summer is over.  But if this is boring, you can also read my 2019 Summer Box Office wrap-up over at The Beat.

The only new “wide” release is BH Tilt’s latest release DON’T LET GO, a thriller directed by Jacob Estes (Rings) and starring David Oyelowo and Storm Reid from A Wrinkle in Time, and it’s not even opening in 1,000 theaters. It might not even get into the top 10.  Apparently, BH Tilt is now going as “OTL Releasing” but I don’t think this movie has as much buzz as Leigh Whannell’s Upgrade, released by Blumhouse’s distribution branch in June 2018 to make $4.7 million opening weekend and $14.4 million total domestic. I don’t see Don’t Let Goopening that big as its plot is far vaguer, and I think if this make more than $4 million over the four-day holiday, it would be considered a coup since it’s only playing in less than 1,000 theaters. Who knows? I might even go see it on a lark.

Interestingly, there are two foreign language films from other countries (because as hard as it might be to believe, they speak other languages in other countries!) getting moderate releases this weekend: Sujeeth’s Bollywood action-thriller SAAHO (Yash Raj Films) and from Mexico, Ariel Winograd’s Spanish language TOD@S CAEN released by Lionsgate’s LatinX division Pantelion Films. I will be the first to admit that I’m not the best person to gauge interest in either movie because they’re not my communities, so I rarely see much marketing for these films.

Opening on Thursday, Saaho actually looks pretty cool, and if I can find three hours of time over Labor Day, I might actually check it out. It’s being released in three languages versions: Hindi, Telugu and Tamil, all with English subtitles, and that seems very groundbreaking, and it will also be in IMAX theaters. This could be another hit for Yash Raj ala the “Dhoom” series—Dhoom 3 opened with $3.4 million in 239 theaters in 2013 -- and possibly the studio’s widest release since 2018’s Thugs of Hindostan.

Check out the Hindi trailer below:

(Oddly, Saaho was supposed to be released on India’s Independence Day August 15, but then was pushed back to American Labor Day. Bollywood films tend to get day and date releases nationwide to avoid piracy.)

Tod@s Caen (pronounced “todos caen” – don’t yell at me! It wasn’t my idea!) stars Omar Chapparo, the hot Mexican star from Pantelion’s hits No manches Frida and its sequel plus How to Be a Latin Lover. No manches Frida grossed about $11.5 million after its $4.6 million opening over Labor Day in 2016 while the sequel opened slightly bigger this past March but grossed less. Latin Lover was a huge crossover success for Chapparo and Pantelion, grossing $32.1 million.  This is likely to be more in the former category and opening in 365 theaters, it probably can make around $3 million or more.

STREAMING AND CABLE

There aren’t many movies I can recommend, but at least I can recommend the new Netflix series THE DARK CRYSTAL: THE AGE OF RESISTANCE, which is a prequel to the 1982 Jim Henson movie that was made quite lovingly using the same puppeteering techniques as well as some of the same designers from the original movie. Plus the series has an absolutely brilliant voice cast that includes Taron Egerton, Helena Bonham-Carter, Anya Taylor-Joy, Alicia Vikander, Sigourney Weaver, Natalie Dormer, Lena Headey, Jason Isaacs, Theo James, Mark Strong, Toby Jones, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Simon Pegg and many, many more. As someone who wasn’t really a fan of the original movie, I found myself quite wrapped up in this series, having watched the first five episodes so far, and I think fans and non-fans alike will dig it.

You can read my interview with the writers over at The Beat.

(Netflix is also releasing a movie called Falling In Love, starring Christina Millan and Adam Demos... but that title... I just can’t!

Amazon Prime will begin streaming its own fantasy series, the very different Carnival Row, starring Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne, on Friday. It’s a steampunk noir crime series in which Bloom is an inspector trying to solve some Jack the Ripper style murders of the city’s fae and puck population, fantastical creatures who act as the city’s slave labor. I didn’t enjoy this nearly as much as it just doesn’t feel like my kind of thing even though I do love Victorian era stuff usually. I think it just hasn’t found its footing in the couple episodes I’ve seen. I also interviewed a few of the actors which will be on The Beat later today.

LIMITED RELEASES

Okay, I definitely lied as I’ve also seen Kim Farrant’s ANGEL OF MINE (Lionsgate), an amazing psychological drama starring Noomi Rapace as a woman whose daughter died but whom thinks that her neighbor’s daughter is actually her own. Also starring Yvonne Strahovski, Luke Evans and Richard Roxburgh, this mostly Australian film is actually a little like the recent After the Weddingin terms of the strangeness of its premise but it’s handled more like a thriller and Rapace gives another stirring performance. It will be in select cities starting Friday, and I recommend checking it out, especially if, like me, you’re a long-time fan of Ms. Rapace.

Never got around to seeing Gavin Hood’s new movie OFFICIAL SECRETS (IFC Films), because I’m such a fan of Keira Knightley, and in this one she plays Katharine Gun, a British intelligence specialist handling classified information in the lead-up to the Iraq War in 2003. She receives a shocking memo from the NSA seeking help in collecting information on UN Security Council members to blackmail them into supporting an invasion of Iraq.

Hannah Pearl Utt’s BEFORE YOU KNOW IT (1091) stars the co-writer/director as stage manager Rachel Gurner who lives in her childhood apartment with her sister Jackie (Jen Tullock), father Mel (Mandy Patinkin) and preteen niece Dodge (Oon Yaffe) above the theater they own and operate. After a tragedy, the two sisters find out their mother, long thought dead (Judith Light) is still alive working on soap operas and they need to come to terms with that. The movie also stars Mike Colter and Alec Baldwin and it opens in select cities.

Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst also has a new movie as director, a thriller called THE FANATIC (Quiver Distribution), starring Devon Sawa from Final Destination and John Travolta. Travolta plays movie fan Moose who is obsessed with his favorite action hero Hunter Dunbar, played by Sawa. With the help of his paparazzi photographer friend Leah (Ana Golja), Moose tries to find Moose as his interactions with the celebrity become more dangerous as Moose becomes more obsessed.

Liam Hemsworth from “The Hunger Games” stars in Malik Bader’s Killerman (Blue Fox Studios) as a New York money launderer who wants to find answers after waking up with no memory and with millions in cash and drugs, as he’s chased by a team of dirty cops. The movie also stars Emory Cohen, Diane Guerrero (“Orange is the New Black”) and Suraj Sharma from Life of Pi, and it’s getting a small theatrical release in select cities.

Now playing at New York’s Film Forum is Marjoline Boonstra’s doc The Miracle of the Little Prince (Film Movement) which looks at the sustained global popularity of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince in the eight decades since it was first published.

Opening in IMAX theaters Thursday and then nationwide Sept 6 is the Chinese animated film Ne Zha (WELL Go) about a young boy with superpowers who must decide between good and evil.

There’s a couple other things but I’m so behind for the weekend that I’m done.

REPERTORY

A few rep things to mention before we get to the regular theaters. The Wachowski’s original The Matrix will be celebrating its 20thanniversary with a rerelease across the nation in Dolby theaters, so I’ll be seeing that Thursday night. The Alamo in Brooklyn is also screening a special 70mm print of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, and that’s where I’ll be on Saturday.

METROGRAPH (NYC):

On Friday, the Metrograph will begin screening a 35mm print of Eric Roehmer’s 1986 film Le Rayon Vert, but there lots of series continiung through the weekend including the “Shaw Sisters” series which is fairly interesting so far. Angie Chen’s Maybe It’s Love (1984) plays again on Thursday evening –that’s a weird one—and Ann Hui’s Starry Is the Night (1988) will play tomorrow and Sunday and a few others. If you want to see a weird and really bad but very funny horror film, you have to check out Angela Mak’s The Siamese Twins on Saturday night, plus there’s a few more I haven’t seen. The Metrograph has also expanded its “Godard/Karina Late Nights” series so that you can see Alphaville (1965) and Pierrot Le Fou (1965), both beloved classics, through the weekend, as well as this weekend’s offering to the series, 1962’s Vivre Sa Vie. This week’s Late Nites at Metrograph  is Leo Carax’sHoly Motors (2012) and Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue but you can also see the late Japanese filmmaker’s excellent Paprika (2006) through the weekend, as well. This weekend’s Playtime: Family Matinees  is another Ray Harryhausen classic, 1963’s Jason and the Argonauts.

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

The New Bev ends its month of mostly showing Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood before returning to repertory fare next week, but its Weds. matinee is the 1953 Western comedy Calamity Jane, this weekend’s KIDDEE MATINE is Disney’s The Ugly Dachsund (1966) starring Dean Jones, and then on Monday, you have two chances to see Michael Mann’s 1995 crime-thriller Heat, although you’ll have to see it at 9:30AM cause the usual 2pm matinee is sold out.

AERO  (LA):

Thursday begins a “Sellers and Southern Double Feature” series (?) of Dr. Strangelove (1964) with The Magic Christian (1969), Friday is a double feature of 1999’s Office Space with Kevin Smith’s Clerks(1994) and then on Saturday is a Mad Max TRIPLE Feature of the first three movies: Mad Max (1979), The Road Warrior (1982) and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). Sunday is a special screening of Thom Anderson’s 2003 film Los Angeles Plays Itself, and Monday begins Aero’s “Heptember Matinees” series as in Katherine Hepburn, and it kicks off with 1940’s The Philadelphia Story.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Marty and Jay’s Double Features runs through next Thursday and there are one or two of these double features every day with a mix of classics and esoteric and rare stuff. You can click on the link to see all that’s playing.

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER (NYC):

“Make My Day: American Movies in the Age of Reagan” continues up at Lincoln Center through Tuesday with highlights like Robocop, David Cronenberg’s Videodrome, Scorsese’s The King of Comedy and The Last Temptation of Christ, Conan the Barbarian, First Blood and more.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

This week’s Weekend Classics: Staff Picks Summer 2019 is the original, classic King Kong, while Waverly Midnights: Staff Picks Summer 2019 is Office Space (1999) and Russ Meyers’ Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970). Late Night Favorites: Summer 2019 is Aliens, Suspiria and Eraserhead, just in case you missed any of those the dozen other times they’ve been shown.

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

Saturday’s “Beyond the Canon” offering is a double feature of Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Wadja from 2012 and Wim Wender’s 1974 film Alice in the Cities. BAM is also showing the second part of its “Programmers Notebook: On Memory”  with offerings like Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, Christopher Nolan’s Memento, Kurosawa’s Rashomon, Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (of course) and more!

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

“See It Big! 70mm” will screen Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One on Friday and Saturday evenigs but ALSO, they’re showing one of my favorite comedies It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) in 70mm on Saturday afternoon.

ROXY CINEMA (NYC)

Tonight and Sunday, the Roxy is showing the 1965 film Juliet of the Spirits. On Saturday, the theater is showing Agnes Varda’s 1965 film Le Bonheur.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

This week’s Friday night midnight film is Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.

This weekend, the Egyptianin L.A. is taken over by the Cinecon Classic Film Festivaland you can find out what that consists at the official site.

Next week, New Line releases It: Chapter Two, which I probably will have seen by the time you read this but probably will still be under embargo.

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND March 29, 2019  - DUMBO, UNPLANNED, THE BEACH BUM, HOTEL MUMBAI

This is going to be another weekend where I haven’t really seen any of the wide releases except for a few that opened limited first. Next week will probably be the same as I head to Las Vegas for CinemaCon and will miss most of the bigger press screenings.

Sadly, I would have loved to have seen Tim Burton’s DUMBO (Disney) in time to review it for you, as I am generally a fan of Disney’s classic animated movies (vs. the Jeffrey Katzenberg wave from the ‘90s, most of which I still haven’t seen), as I am a fan of Tim Burton and much of the cast of this one. It includes Michael Keaton and Danny De Vito, both reuniting with Burton after Batman Returns, and Eva Green, who has appeared in a few of Burton’s recent movies… AND she once called me a “pervert.” (The story is funnier if I don’t explain why.) But the story of Dumbo is classic Disney in the sense that it reminds me of all the wonders of watching movies as a kid filled with joy and awe… as opposed to now where I always feel a sense of dread, wondering if a movie will be half as good as it hopes. Anyway, I’ll see this on Thursday night and maybe write something Friday if I’m up to it.

I’m less likely to see UNPLANNED (Pure Flix), a movie that I’m shocked even exists, let alone is being released into 1,000 theaters. This is almost like the polar opposite of the great Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake in that it’s a biopic about Abby Johnson, a Planned Parenthood clinic director who was so shaken by witnessing her first abortion (not her own) that she became an anti-abortion activist. Besides sounding like something out of Jordan Peele’s upcoming The Twilight Zone show, it’s also horrifying to think that the Pro-Life crowd is now trying to recruit the Christian Right to their cause through movies, one that received Pure Flix’s first R-rating, no less.

After premiering at SXSW, Harmony (Spring Breakers) Corine’s new movie THE BEACH BUM (NEON), starring Matthew McConaughey and a typically oddball cast including Snoop Dog, Zak Efron and Jonah Hill, will also open wide this weekend. I’ll probably try to catch this just cause I’m so curious about Corine’s oddball auteur sensibilities. Spring Breakers was actually a bit of an anomaly, and it was one of his few movies I actually liked, compared to something like Mister Lonely, which I found unwatchable despite its similarly-odd cast, which included Werner Herzog.

Then there are two movies expanding nationwide this weekend, both of which I’ve seen and enjoyed, the first of them being Anthony Maras’ directorial debut HOTEL MUMBAI (Bleecker Street), a terrific ensemble piece starring Dev Patel, Armie Hammer and Jason Isaacs – three actors I truly love – about the terrorist attacks on the luxurious Hotel Taj in 2008. I was really impressed with how Maras and his cast and crew tell this harrowing story that’s not quite on par as Peter Greengrass’ United 93 but has a similar impact as you watch it and see how these amazing people came together to prevent even more people from dying. I also should point out that the primarily Indian cast beyond Patel are also excellent, showing there’s a lot of talent coming from India that have yet to break out in a big way Stateside.

Focus will also expand Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s drama The Mustang into an unknown number of theaters, and I also recommend this movie if you have an opportunity to see it. It’s a wonderful movie starring Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust and Bone) as a convict who finds a way to fight against his anger issues and violent tendencies by training a wild horse in the prison’s program. Since I haven’t seen the other three movies above, as of this writing, I recommend seeking out Hotel Mumbai or The Mustang if they’re playing wherever you live.

LIMITED RELEASES

I was a bad boy this weekend and didn’t watch any of the screeners I was supposed to watch, so that means I’ve only seen one of the movies opening in select cities this weekend, and that was Kent Jones’ DIANE (IFC Films), which played at Tribeca last year where it won two awards. It stars Mary Kay Place as a Massachusetts woman named Diane, who puts most of her time into helping others in her big family over herself while also dealing with her son Brian’s (Jake Lacy) ongoing addiction that has him going in and out of rehab. Personally, I found it a slog when I saw it at Tribecalast year.

Opening in New York (Village East and Alamo Drafthouse, the latter a part of their Drafthouse Recommends series) and L.A. (three Laemmle theaters)  is Sophie Lorain’s French coming-of-age comedy SLUT IN A GOOD WAY (Comedy Dynamics), a movie that I haven’t gotten around to watching the screener, as of this writing, but what a great title, huh? It stars Marguerite Bouchard, Romane Denis and Rose Adam as three teenage girls exploring their first taste of freedom, all three of them in love with the guy who works at “Toy Depot” – a sex shop -- where they each apply for part-time jobs.

Also opening in select cities is Alison Klayman’s documentary THE BRINK (Magnolia) which follows former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon through the 2018 mid-term elections as the controversial Breitbart founder tries to reinvent himself by getting involved in the European Parliamentary Elections of 2019 with his “global populist movement.” I’ll be curious to see how this compares to Errol (The Fog of War) Morris’ American Dharma, which premiered during film festivals last September but (as far as I know) still hasn’t been released yet. I’m not even sure it found distribution but Bannon is not a very popular figure among American liberals (for good reason), so I can’t imagine many critics would approve of either film.

This week’s Saban Films’ offering is Sarah Daggar Nickson’s thriller A VIGILANTE, starring Olivia Wilde as an abused woman who sets a course to help victims rid themselves of their domestic abusers while also hunting down her husband, whom she needs to kill in order to truly be free. It will play in select theaters Friday after a month on DirecTV.

Downton Abbey director Michael Engler reunites with Downton writer/creator Julian Fellowes who adapted Laura Moriarty’s bestselling book The Chaperone (PBS Distribution Masterpiece Films). The amazing Haley Lu Richardson (Split) plays Louise Brooks before she became a movie sensation in the ‘20s and is just a student in Wichita, Kansas. When she is sent to New York to study with a dance troupe for the summer, her mother requires a chaperone, a role taken on by the by-the-books Norma Carlisle (Elizabeth McGovern).  This witty period piece opens Friday at New York’s Landmark West 57 and Quad Cinema and then expands to L.A.’s Laemmle Royal, Playhouse 7 and Town Center 5 on April 5.

The Discovery Channel is also giving Ross (Born into Brothels) Kauffman’s new documentary Tigerlanda release in New York on Friday just a day before it premieres on the cable channel Saturday. It’s a film about a group of Russians trying to protect the last Siberian tigers from extinction, and it’s produced by Fisher Stevens of the Oscar-winning The Cove.

Cocaine Cowboys director Billy Corben returns with the doc Screwball (Greenwich), another film set in Miami, this one that looks into Major League Baseball’s doping scandal and how it affected New York Yankee’s Alex Rodriguez. It opens in select cities following its debut at TIFF last year.

The makers of The ABCs of Evil, Tim League and Ant Simpson, return with The Field Guide to Evil, a horror anthology featuring short films by eight (actually nine) foreign horror filmmakers telling folktales about myth and lore, including Peter Strickland (Berberian Sound Studio), Can Evrenol (Baskin), Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz (Goodnight Mommy) and Agnieszka Smoczynska (The Lure). I missed this movie at Fantasia last year (‘cause I didn’t go) but it will be opening in most Alamo theaters (about 40 nationwide) on Friday.

This week’s Bollywood release, opening in about 100 theaters nationwide, is Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s thriller Super Deluxe (Prime Media), the second film from the director who won the Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film at the 59thNational Film Awards in India. It’s a film about how fate messes with the life of a group of people, as fate is wont to do.

Renowned indie distributor Jeff Lipsky’s seventh feature as a director, The Last (Plainview Pictures), will open in New York at the Angelika and CMX New York on Friday, then will expand to other cities including L.A. on April 26. It involves a large Jewish family of four generations learning that their 92-year-old matriarch, a Holocaust survivor (Rebecca Schull) has a secret that shocks the entire family.

Opening in L.A. at the Laemmle Music Hall is the Holocaust drama Sobibor (Samuel Goldwyn Films) from reputed Russian actor/director Konstantin Khabenskiy (he appeared in Timur Bekmambetov’s Wanted and Nightwatch), playing Soviet prisoner Alexander Perchersky, who led a rebellion at the Nazi’s Polish death camp Sobibor in 1943 in order to escape, freeing hundreds of Jews.

As a counterpoint to Unplanned, there’s Josh Huber’s romantic comedy Making Babies (Huber Brothers) about a couple played by Eliza Couple and Steve Howey who spent five years trying to have kids, so they start exploring other medical and spiritual ways to conceive a child. The movie also stars Ed Begley Jr. and the late Glenne Headly and will open in select cities.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Besides playing at the Egyptian in L.A. (see above), John Lee Hancock’s THE HIGHWAYMEN will be available on the Netflix streaming service after playing in select theaters for a couple weeks. I finally caught it last week, and really enjoyed it. It stars Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson as former Texas rangers Frank Hamer and Maney Gault, recruited by the Governor of Texas (Kathy Bates) to hunt down and kill Bonnie and Clyde, whose crime and killing spree has gotten out of hand. Hamer and Gault travel across stateliness trying to find them, following the different clues left behind. This is definitely my kind of movie, not just due to the subject matter, but also seeing such great actors as Costner (possibly the last of the bonafide movie stars?) and Harrelson taking on such great roles to show a different side of the story than the one mostly known from the Warren Beatty movie. I really enjoyed both actors’ performances and the general tone of the film, although I do feel that it was a little too long and drawn-out and not in a good way ala David Fincher’s Zodiac. But it does pay off, and it’s a shame that more people won’t be able to see this on the big screen because the film looks great due to the cinematography by John Schwartzman. I’ll also give a shout-out to my pal Johnny McPhail who plays the farmer who witnesses one of Bonnie and Clyde’s brutal murders. Rating: 7.5/10

Also, Friday sees the return of Santa Clarita Diet for its third season, again with Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant. 

LOCAL FESTIVALS OF NOTE

The big festival starting in New York this week is the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s annual New Directors/New Films, which always has interesting stuff although it’s definitely getting more indie and esoteric in recent years. It kicks off tonight with Chinonye Chukwu’s prison-set drama Clemency, starring Alfre Woodard and Aldis Hodge, which recently won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. The festival’s Centerpiece Is Alejandro Landes’s Monos, another Sundance prize-winner, starring the wondrous Julianne Nicholson as an engineer who travels to the South American jungle and is taken captive by teenage guerillas. The Closing Night film on April 6 is Pippa Bianco’s Share– ALSO a Sundance prize-winner! – which deals with sexual assault and the role of the internet, something which seems very relevant and pertinent. There’s a lot of interesting foreign films and a good amount from women filmmakers in this year’s line-up, which you can read more about here.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

This weekend, the Metrograph begins its Total Kaurismäki Show, as in Finish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki, who has been making festival-winning films for almost 40 years and has YET to have a film nominated for an Oscar. This Friday, the series begins with some of the director’s lesser-seen ‘80s movies Hamlet Goes Business  (1987),Calamari Union  (1985) and Crime and Punishment (1983), as well as Shadows in Paradise  (1986), Ariel  (1988) and then the 1990 film The Match Factory on Saturday. This week’s Late Nites at Metrograph  offering is Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner: The Final Cut  (1982/2007) and Playtime: Family Matinees (which has become my idea of comfort food in terms of cinema) is showing Abbot and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde  (1953). Sadly, I’ll be out of town on Tuesday when the Metrograph is presenting Claire Denis’ The Intruder (2004) with a QnA by Ms. Denis who will also introduce No Fear, No Die (1990) right afterwards. (If you also can’t make this night then never fear as BAM is beginning a full-on Denis retrospective, which you can read more about below.)

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Tarantino’s reopened rep theater continues to kill it with a single screening of Mike Nichols’ 1966 film Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, on Weds. afternoon. This week’s double features are John Boorman’sPoint Blank  (1967) and The Outfit (1973) on Weds. and Thurs., Fellini’sLa Strada (1954) – one of my personal faves – and Il Bidone  (1955) on Friday and Saturday, then the ‘30s musicals Dames and Footlight Paradeon Sunday and Monday. The weekend’s one-offs are midnight screenings of Kill Bill Volume 1on Friday and the comedy anthology Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) on Saturday. The weekend’s KIDDEE MATINEE is The Black Stallion (1979) and there will be a special 20thanniversary screening of the Wachowski’s The Matrixon Monday. Tuesday night’s GRINDHOUSE double feature is two directed by Roger Corman -- The Trip (1967) and The Wild Angels (1966).

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Bob & Wray: A Love Story continues with a double feature of Virtue  (1932) and Viva Villa (1934) on Weds., a reshowing of Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon (1937) on Thursday as well as a Fay Wray double feature of Once to Every woman (1934) and They Met in a Taxi  (1936). Friday sees a reshowing of the double feature of The Mystery of the Wax Museum and The Vampire Bat, both from 1933, and a double feature of Lee Tracy movies, Doctor X (1932) and Carnival  (1935). On Saturday, there’s a special screening of the early Fay Wray film The Wild Horse Stampede with piano accompaniment, plus a double feature of John Ford’s The Whole Town’s Talking  (1935) and Frank Capra’s  You Can’t Take It With You  (1938), both written by Robert Riskin. This weekend’s Film Forum Jr. is the Disney animated classic Bambi (1942).

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Besides a Weds. double feature of John Lee Hancock’s new movie The Highwaymen with his 2002 baseball film The Rookie starring Dennis Quaid, the Egyptian begins Noir City: Hollywood – The 21stAnnual Los Angeles Festival of Noir, running all weekend. It begins Friday with the double feature of Trapped (1949) and The File of Thelma Jordon  (1950), continues Saturday with Appointment with Danger (1951) and Shdow on the Wall (1950), Sunday is Sudden Fear and The Narrow Margin, followed on Monday by City That Never Sleeps and 99 River Street from 1953 and on Tuesday with Playgirl and Hell’s Devil Acre, both from 1954. (This series will continue next week as well.)

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

On Saturday night, BAM will start a new series called “Beyond the Canon” (pairing a classic with a more recent film which it inspired) with a double feature of Anna Rose Holmer’s The Fits (2015) and Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975). At the same time, BAM is kicking off Strange Desire: The Films of Claire Denis, which will run until April 9 and will show some of the French filmmaker’s best films, including Beau Travail (1999), White Material  (2009), 35 Shots of Rum and more recent films like her upcoming English language debut High Life, starring Robert Pattinson.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

On Thursday, MOMI is having a special presentation of Alexandre Rockwell’s 1992 film In the Soup, starring Steve Buscemi, Stanley Tucci, Seymour Cassel, Jennifer Beals, Carol Kane and Jim Jarmusch as part of the 9thAnnual Queens World Film Festival with Rockwell in discussion with former director (and QWFF Spirit of Queens honoree) David Schwartz. To prepare for Mike Leigh’s fantastic new film Peterloo, MOMI is also presenting Past Presence: Mike Leigh’s Period Films, showing the master’s earlier films Topsy Turvy (1999), Mr. Turner (2014) and Vera Drake (2004). It will include a preview screening of Peterloonext Wednesday with Mike Leigh in person!

IFC CENTER (NYC)

I guess Weekend Classics: Early Godard is continuing this week after all with a 35mm print of Weekend (1967) while the winter season of Late Night Favorites ends with Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain (1973) as well as David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (2001).

MOMA (NYC):

Modern Matinees: B is for Bacall continues with Douglas Sirk’s 1956 film Written on the Wind on Weds, Vincente Minelli’s Designing Woman  (1957) Thursday and Young Man with a Horn (1950) on Friday.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

This week’s Friday midnight offering is Mandy director Panos Costamos’ 2010 debut Beyond the Black Rainbow.

Next week, it’s a doozy of an April opener with Warner Bros’ Shazam! taking on Paramount’s Pet Sematary and the STX drama The Best of Enemies trying to pick up any remaining scraps of business. I’ve only seen one of them.

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior  Movie Preview November 27, 2019 – KNIVES OUT, QUEEN AND SLIM, THE TWO POPES, 63 UP

You might notice that this column is no longer called “What to Watch This Weekend.” There are reasons for that I will not go into in much detail right at this time. I’ve always considered myself an original and when I recently learned the title had already been used long before “I came up with it,” I had to change gears and go back to a more familiar title. I have a feeling that few people read this column each week to even notice the difference.

Of course, Disney’s Frozen 2 will win the weekend, but the big new release has to be Rian Johnson’s KNIVES OUT (Lionsgate), which has such a to-die-for cast, including Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield and many more. You can read my review of that here, and obviously I’m very bullish on recommending this to people since it’s such a fun whodunit, much better than last year’s Murder on the Orient Express. I really hope this does well since it will allow Johnson to keep making cool and original movies like this.

The other movie opening this weekend is Lena Waithe’s QUEEN AND SLIM (Universal), directed by Melina Matsoukas (who directed that long-form Beyoncé music video), and starring Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith. 

I wasn’t going to review this, but I might as well use this space to talk about the problems I had with the movie. I feel I might be mainly on my own with this one, but it reminded me so much of Moonlight, a movie I was pretty non-plussed by, yet that not only went to the Oscars but won Best Picture that year. Huh. 

I feel like Queen and Slim is another example of a movie that will be pushed for its SJW message even if the story has so many issues that I’m shocked so many people are overlooking them. The essential premise has Kaluuya and Turner-Smith as a couple who meet on a Tinder date, she a defense lawyer whose client has just been sentenced to death. After an awkward meet-cute at a diner, they drive off but are stopped by a police officer. One thing leads to another, the officer ends up dead, and the defense lawyer decides, “We should make a run for it,” and that’s exactly what they do.

That’s one of the big problems I had with the movie and it continued throughout, which is why I think this movie should have been called “Bad Decisions: The Movie,” because these are clearly two smart individuals, yet they are constantly doing really stupid things, which makes it really hard to root for them. On top of that, I wasn’t too impressed by Matsoukas/Waithe as a filmmaking team, as the movie had a lot of beautiful shots but really didn’t have much of a flow, making Matsoukas’ music video background far too obvious. It’s very typical of a new filmmaker wanting to create this beautiful-looking movie and losing sight of the actual narrative storytelling, which isn’t great. And then there’s the message Waithe is trying to drive home, clearly inspired by #BlackLivesMatter, but it just goes completely overboard at times, and no one in this movie acts like normal people might act in order to resolve their issues. 

In other words, Queen and Slim is trying to be an arty film in what is a business where movies that cost a lot of money need to make that money back, and I see this as a pretty big risk on Universal’s part for a movie that just isn’t that great.

You can read about how the above movies might fare at the Thanksgiving box office over at The Beat.

LIMITED RELEASES

There are, thankfully, a fewer number of limited releases this weekend, the big one being Netflix’s THE TWO POPES, starring Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins, which is absolutely fantastic. Directed by Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles from a screenplay from Anthony McCarten (Darkest Hour). Basically, it’s about the relationship between Popes Francis (Pryce) and Benedict (Hopkins) as the latter is being criticized for allowing Catholic priests to get away with repeated sexual abuses against young parishioners. I saw this movie quite some time ago, and I really need to see it again before writing any sort of review, but it will probably be in my top 25 mainly for the amazing script and the performances by the two leads. This will open in select cities on Wednesday and be on Netflix December 20, and maybe I’ll have a chance to rewatch so I can write more about it at that point. Regardless, it’s another movie opening this weekend I recommend seeking out.

Opening at the Film Forum on Wednesday is Michael Apted’s excellent doc 63 Up (Britbox), the culmination of the 56 years he has spent following the lives of a number of British kids from different classes over the course of their lives. I’ve loved this series since I first discovered it, probably around the 21-Upyears, but it’s amazing how every seven years, you can revisit these people and learn more about them. There are a few of the subjects that you’ve begun to really care about, but at a time when class struggles play such an important part in the conversation and films like Parasite and Knives Out (see above) and M. Night Shyamalan’s new series Servant, it’s amazing to watch this venerable doc series in that context. I’m not sure if Apted will make it seven more years to make 70 Up, but if not, this is a fine conclusion to his masterful masters thesis. 63 Up will open at the Landmark Nuart in Los Angeles on Dec. 6 before hitting Britbox.

Getting a week-long run in New York and Los Angeles starting Friday is Ladj Ly’s intense police thriller LES MISERABLES (Amazon), which is France’s selection for the Oscar’s “International Film” category, and it’s an amazing film that follows a group of cops trying to cover up the shooting of a kid from the projects. Like many police dramas, it involves a rookie who is thrust into this world of crime, and I’ll definitely have more to say about this before its official theatrical release in January.  

Also getting a qualifying run in New York and L.A. this week is Emily Taguchi and Jake Lefferman’s documentary After Parkland (ABC Documentaries/Kino Lorber), which I somehow have missed so far, but I’ll probably have a chance to see it in 2020 when it’s getting its official release. As one can gather from the title, it’s about a number of families from the Marjory Stoneman Dougle High School trying to get through the Parkland shootings that left 17 dead.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Before we get to this section, I want to give a quick shout-out to VitalThrills.com who have an absolutely amazing Streaming section that you should be using as a resource, since it’s quite complete, maybe the best one on the internet?

If you’ve been putting off seeing Martin Scorsese’s 3-1/2 hour THE IRISHMAN, because you feel that’s too long to be sitting in a movie theater, it’s now on Netflix so you can watch it over and over, stopping and starting whenever you want. Happy?

While I’ve mostly been using this section for Netflix stuff (because it’s the only streaming/cable company that sends me regular PR), I’m excited that M. Night Shyamalan’s SERVANT will be debuting on Apple TV+ on Wednesday (today!), and that will be another darkly funny thing to watch with the family after Knives Out. You can watch the first three episodes, but I wrote a review of the first half of the season, which you can read here.

French filmmaker’s animated I Lost My Body will hit Netflix this Friday with its amazing story of the romance between a pizza delivery guy and a librarian, based on Guillaume Laurant’s novel “Happy Hand.” Also, Mati Diop’s Cannes-winning film Atlantics, which I STILL HAVEN’T WATCHED!!! Will hit the streaming network on the same day, so I’ll stop having excuses for not having seen it. Also hitting Netflix Thursday is the holiday comedy HOLIDAY RUSH, starring Romany Malco, La La Anthony, Sonequa Martin-Green and the legendary Darlene Love.

Also, Disney+ will be adding The Wonderful World of Disney Presents the Little Mermaid Live! to its library on Wednesday as well as Pixar’s Cocoon Friday, along with the fourth chapter of its ongoing series including one you might have heard of called The Mandalorian.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

The Metrograph once again wins the Repertory Wars this weekend. Its Noah Baumbach Residency continues this weekend with the filmmaker’s 2010 film Greenberg and 2017’s The Meyerowitz Stories, both starring Ben Stiller, as well as screenings of Working Girl (1988), Pauline at the Beach (1983) and Five Easy Pieces (1970). (I don’t think Baumbach will be at any of these.) The annual Holidays at Metrograph series begins this week with 1934’s The Thin Man, Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and the 1940 film Remember the Night this Friday and Saturday. Filmmaker Whit Stilman will be back at the Metrograph, once again showing his 1990 film Metropolitan (another Metrograph holiday mainstay) on Sunday, and he’ll also introduce a screening of 1998′s The Last Days of Disco. Welcome To Metrograph: Redux will screen George Cukor’s 1950 film Born Yesterday, Clint Eastwood’s 1995 film The Bridges of Madison County (with screenwriter Richard LaGravanese  introducing the screening Saturday night) and David Lean’s 1945 film Brief Encounter. Late Nites at Metrograph  screens Terry Zwigoff’s 2001 film Ghost World, starring a VERY young Scarlett Johansson, while Playtime: Family Matinees  will screen the appropriate Miracle on 34thStreet, the one from 1947.

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE BROOKLYN (NYC)

Next week’s Terror Tuesday is Charles B Pierce’s The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972) in a new 4k restoration with a QnA with Pierce’s daughter moderated by Mohawk director Ted Geoghegan, then the Weird Wednesday is Liam Neeson in Sam Raimi’s Darkman (1990) in 35mm. (The latter is a fantastic film if you haven’t seen it yet.)

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Today’s Weds. Afternoon Classics matinee is Samuel Fuller’s 1959 film The Crimson Kimono and Friday’s “Freaky Fridays” offering is David Cronenberg’s Existenz (1999). The weekend’s “Kiddee Matinee” is Jon Favreau’s Elf(2003), starring Will Ferrell, and Saturday’s midnight is a repeat of David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. Otherwise, it’s mostly screenings of Once Upon a Time … in Hollywoodthis weekend.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Opening this week is a 70thAnniversary 4k restoration of Robert Hamer’s Kind Hearts and Coronets, starring the great Sir Alec Guinness in 8 roles! Also this week, you can see a 4k restoration of the 1951 comedy The Man in the White Suit (on Weds and Sunday), as well as the 1955 film The Ladykillers, both directed by Alexander Mackendrick and also starring Guinness. Another repertory film getting a few screenings this weekend is the 1951 film The Lavender Hill Mob (another Guinness film!) and Carol Reed’s The Third Man from 1949 will get a full-week 70th anniversary presentation. This weekend’s Film Forum Jr. is To Kill a Mockinbird… ookay. On Sunday, you can see the 1975 Hal Ashby classic Shampoo in a single screening, and then on Monday night, there’s a single 35mm screening of Masaki Kobayashi’s 1964 film Kwaidan, based on four ghost stories by Lafcadio Hearn, introduced by Monique Truong, who has written a book about Hearn. Oh, it’s also over 3 hours long.

AERO  (LA):

The AERO’s “Happy Thanksgiving 2019” movies include Planes, Trains and Automobiles on Wednesday, Singin’ in the Rain on Friday, and Saturday is a triple feature of “Satirical Cinema: Using Comedy to Underminte Hate” of Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (1940), Mel Brooks’ The Producers(1968) and Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit… yeah, one of these movies doesn’t match up to the others, and also isn’t really repertory. Sunday is a Charlie Chaplin double feature of City Lights(1931) and The Circus (1928). Tuesday’s “Christmas Noir: A Hardboiled Holiday” matinee is Blast of Silence from 1961.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Friday is a “Black Friday Double Feature” of mall-related horror films with Chopping Mall (1986) and Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge (1989), and then Saturday is an all-day The Lord of the Rings trilogy starting at 1pm.

MOMA  (NYC):

The newly renovated museum continues it’s “The Contenders 2019” series, but Modern Matinees: Iris Barry’s History of Filmwill continue through the week, as well. Vision Statement: Early Directorial Workswill return on Monday with Julie Dash’s 1991 film Daughters of the Dust, then Darren Aronofskiy’s Pi(1998) and Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali(1955) on Tuesday.

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER (NYC):

If you want to find me this weekend, I’ll be spending a lot of time up on the Upper West Side (MTA-permitting) for the continuing “Relentless Invention: New Korean Cinema 1996-2003” for a bunch of movies, including Bong Joon Ho’s 2000 debut Barking Dogs Never Bite. You should also check out Varda by Agnès while you’re up there.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

“The Collected Terrence Malick” continues this weekend with screenings of some of Malick’s more recent films: Voyage of Time: Ultra Widescreen Version, The New World: Theatrical Version (Friday) andLimited Release Version (Sat.), as well as Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey on Saturday, and then the “Brad Pitt version” of Voyage of Time on Sunday. Also, Malick’s classic The Tree of Life will screen Friday and Sunday.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Weekend Classics: May All Your Christmases be Noirwill screen The Night of the Hunter (1955), Waverly Midnights: Spy Games screens Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959) in a 4k restoration, while Late Night Favorites: Autumn 2019 will screen… I can’t even. It’s movies they’ve shown a dozen times or more… Matt Zoller Seitz’s “Movies with MZS” continues next Tuesday with a screening of Moonstruck with screenwriter John Patrick Shanley.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

Thursday/Thanksgiving is your last chance to see Buster Keaton’s Battling Butler (1926) and The Navigator (1924) from out of the Cohen Films vault.

ROXY CINEMA (NYC)

Continuing its Nicolas Cage series by screening 1989’s Vampire’s Kiss in 35mm on Weds, Friday and Saturday nights, plus another screening of Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) on Sunday.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

This week’s Friday midnight is the uncut version of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1990 film Santa Sangre.

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

On Sunday, you can take the family to a matinee of Muppet Christmas Carol.

That’s it for this week. I’ll be taking a week off from the Box Office Preview over at The Beat, but the Weekend Warrior (sigh) will be back here with all the limited releases kicking off December.