mpls movie screenings: week of june 20

Summer starts tomorrow.  Which reminds me, aren't there movie screenings in parks right about now:

Mpls Park Screenings
Letters to Juliet @ Father Hennepin Bluffs Park; Tues - 9:15
Goonies @ Luxton Park; Wed - 9:15
Mega Mind @ Bottineau Park; Thur - 9:15
There was supposed to be a screening of Shrek tonight, but it looks like it was cancelled due to weather.  I'm familiar with Goonies and Mega Mind, but how did last year's Letters to Juliet completely fail to register in my mind?  Maybe having Amanda Seyfried and Gael Garcia Bernal trying to carry a Hollywood film by their lonesome isn't the best idea.

Trylon
The Big Uneasy; Tues - 7:00 & 9:00 (Trylon Premiere Tuesdays)
Harry Shearer trades in mockumentary for documentary in this examination of the flood in New Orleans following Katrina.
Tampopo; Wed - 7:30 (Trash Film Debauchery)
I'm totally unfamiliar with the genre "noodle western" (and really, that name does nothing to distance itself from the more popular "spaghetti western").  This 1985 Japanese film seems different from most trash film screenings, but there looks to be plenty of laughs, stemming from a variety of characters coming in and out of this fast food noodle shop (something about "erotic noodle foreplay" just sounds funny, no?).

St Anthony
Never Stop Singing; Mon - 7:00
Thicker Than Water; Tue - 7:00
Rough Tender; Wed - 7:00
The Film Society continues their run of MSPIFF favorites, this time showing locally-produced award winners.  Tuesday and Wednesday feature the winners of MN Made Documentary and Fiction Feature, respectively, and Monday night features a free screening as part of Film Society's series "Documenting America."  Director Peter Myer will be on hand to discuss his film Never Stop Singing, a documentary on Minnesota's rich choral history.


The Heights
The Pirate; Mon - 7:30 (Pirates! Pirates! Pirates!)
Of course there's a movie in the "Pirates! Pirates! Pirates" series simply titles The Pirate!  Although it should be noted that this pirate film is a musical (in case having Judy Garland and Gene Kelly in the lead roles didn't give it away).  Although this is one of the lesser known works by Vincente Minelli, that's no reason to skip out on a film by one of the greatest directors of American musicals (An American in Paris) and melodramas (The Bad and the Beautiful).
Laura; Thur - 7:30 (The Lighter Side of Homicide)
This film, on the other hand, is one of the more popular films in this director's repertoire.  Ebert had this to say on the Otto Preminger noir classic (via wikipedia):

Film noir is known for its convoluted plots and arbitrary twists, but even in a genre that gave us The Maltese Falcon, this takes some kind of prize ... That Lauracontinues to weave a spell—and it does—is a tribute to style over sanity ... All of [the] absurdities and improbabilities somehow do not diminish the film's appeal. They may even add to it ... [T]he whole film is of a piece: contrived, artificial, mannered, and yet achieving a kind of perfection in its balance between low motives and high style. What makes the movie great, perhaps, is the casting. The materials of a B-grade crime potboiler are redeemed by Waldo Lydecker, walking through every scene as if afraid to step in something.

That should suffice for now.