WEEKEND UPDATE (APRIL 23- 25)
Movie houses are reopening which is great news for our indie film house friends. Always remember, for any cinemas reopening for indoor screenings, please check their Covid safety protocols. Masks are not just about protecting yourself, and you are in their house. Respect the rules!
Here’s our round up of picks for the next few days. Don’t forget to check out our THEATERS page, as well as VIDEO STORES page, to see what’s happening at other spots.
San Francisco’s ROXIE THEATER DRIVE IN presents Talking Heads in STOP MAKING SENSE (1984) this Sat 4/24. Considered by many to be the greatest concert movie ever made, Jonathan Demme’s groundbreaking Talking Heads film, filmed across three live shows at Los Angeles’s Pantages Theater, is aurally exuberant and visually stunning: Who can forget David Byrne’s big suit, or his dance with a floor lamp? The black stage, simple white lighting, and long takes allow viewers to immerse themselves in the music without distraction, giving a sense of being at the performance itself. Featuring “Psycho Killer,” “Burning Down the House,” “Slippery People,” “Take Me to the River,” and much more. Further info HERE
Also, you can help pick the reopening movie for The Roxie HERE!
Arizona’s LOFT CINEMA presents the original 1954 Kaiju spectacular GODZILLA (1954) on Fri 4/23 and Sun 4/25, and the ORIGINAL version of KING KONG VS GODZILLA (1962) on Sat 4/24 in their open air cinema. More info HERE.
The MAHONING DRIVE IN in Pennsylvania has horror fans well looked after this weekend with IT CAME FROM THE 80s Triple Features ! Two nights of triple-bills showcasing demonic forces from beyond and tiny killer terrors! Horror fan favorites and rarely screened gems presented from glorious 35mm film prints (except where noted). All films will be preceded by a collection of curated vintage horror trailers. On Fri 4/23 it’s FROM BEYOND (1986) + THE KEEP (1983) + AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION (1982) and on Sat 4/24 CHILD’S PLAY (1988) + BASKET CASE (1982 / Digital) + OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN (1983). More info HERE.
More Drive In action at Miami’s NITEOWL DRIVE IN. Lineup includes CROSSROADS (Fri 4/23 8pm), GUMMO (Fri 4/23 10:30pm), GHOSTBUSTERS (Sat 4/24 8pm), EX MACHINA (Sat 4/24 10pm) and HARRY POTTER & THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (Sun 4/25). More info HERE.
This Sat 4/24 at NYC’s MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE / QUEENS DRIVE IN catch THELMA & LOUISE (1991) + DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN (1984). A Double Feature of fierce, free-spirited women seek independence on the open road or in the big city in two iconic American movies. More info HERE.
Over at HOLLYWOOD THEATRE Portland check out ELASTIC TIME: A RICHARD LINKLATER MASTER CLASS. Hosted by Shawn Levy $12 per class/$10 for Hollywood and Movie Madness Members .The pandemic has turned our collective sense of time inside out: disrupting routines, lengthening days, and obliterating the calendar’s familiar touchstones. It’s the perfect moment to delve into the work of Richard Linklater, the American filmmaker who has spent his career exploring (and manipulating) the passage of time. The Master Class is hosted by Shawn Levy, a bestselling author and former film critic for The Oregonian and KGW-TV. More info HERE.
Santa Ana’s FRIDA CINEMA is open again! On Sat 4/24 Catch the movie that’s all about the magic of the collective experience of movie going with CINEMA PARADISO (1988). More info HERE
COOLIDGE AFTER MIDNITE presents SNAPPER in their Virtual Cinema. The untold story of an unfinished early 90s film about a man-eating turtle that wreaks havoc on a lakeside community in New England. Through unearthed behind-the-scenes set footage, photos, newly digitized film reels of daily footage, and never-before-told stories from the filmmakers, this short documentary tells the story of an idea that almost became a reality. The film also provides a window into the local Boston special FX makeup and horror communities of the 1980s and 1990s. This and more, including Q&A’s in their Virtual Cinema lineup! More info HERE.
SECRET FORMULA presents a BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1991) SING ALONG on Fri 4/23 and a STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION TV PARTY on Sat 4/24. More info HERE.
FILM FORUM NYC presents Vittorio De Sica’s IL BOOM (1963 / New Restoration). Amidst Italy’s “economic miracle” (“il boom”) of the early 1960s, everybody’s dancing to Chubby Checker’s “The Twist”… and getting filthy rich – everyone except archetypal Everyman loser Alberto Sordi (the great star of Mafioso, The White Sheik, I Vitelloni, etc., etc.), who’s in hock to his eyeballs. And everyone in Rome seems to know it, except his beloved status-proud wife Gianna Maria Canale. But then rich, rich matron Elena Nicolai (long-time La Scala mezzo stalwart tour-de-forcing in her first movie role) offers him a way out: enough lire to get out of debt – and to re-establish himself – in exchange for … No, not that. Biting satire made even blacker by Piero Piccioni’s persistently perky score, and scripted by De Sica’s longtime collaborator Cesare Zavattini (Shoeshine, The Bicycle Thief, Umberto D., Gold of Naples, etc.). Never released in the United States, and screened here only a handful of times in fifty-four years, this is its first long-run New York City engagement, with brand new English subtitles. Screens In Cinema and Virtually. More info HERE
IFC CENTER NYC continues to dish out the best new indie movies on the big screen since reopening their cinema plus the Oscar nominated shorts and plenty of Oscar 2021 nominated features. See what’s on the lineup HERE.
At the HOLLYWOOD LEGION THEATER in L.A enjoy the marvelous Technicolor classic THE WIZARD OF OZ in 35mm! Screens Fri 4/23. More info HERE.
Amongst the Virtual Screenings via METROGRAPH NYC online is OTHELLO (1952). In the first film Welles made after decamping to Europe—and rather miserably shot in fits and starts over three years and across two countries—nearly every frame imparts a feeling of its imminent unraveling. Welles stars, in blackface, as a seething Othello, whose tenuous grip on sanity loosens in an unsettling world that’s collapsing around him. Scenes are littered with unidentified, looming shadowy figures; the camera jumps around mid-scene, destroying any sense of stability; and the dubbed dialogue and non-ambient sounds contribute to a layer of sonic disconnect. This multifold expressionism is paired with fragmentary, disorienting edits, creating an intensity that matches (and sometimes transcends) Shakespeare’s words. Othello marked the thundering start of a new, ambitious phase in Welles’s cinematic style. More info HERE.
Fri 4/23 at Detroit’s gorgeous REDFORD THEATER is THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971). Starring Starring Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, and Cybill Shepherd, a group of high school friends come of age in a bleak, isolated, atrophied North Texas town in 1951 that is slowly dying, both culturally and economically. More info HERE.