the coming week: oct 25

Wed Oct 27
•Dead and the Deadly -- 7:30 @ Trylon ($5).  Trash Film Debauchery screening.
•The Robber -- 7:30 @ Walker ($8).  Played at Berlin & New York Film Fest.  Discussion with director Benjamin Heisenberg follows.

Thur Oct 28
•Portrait of Hou Hsiao Hsien -- 7:30 @ Walker (FREE). Doc on Taiwanese director.  Part of Olivier Assayas retrospective.

Fri Oct 29
•Killer Sheep -- 7:00 @ Trylon ($8).  Last weekend for Milestone Films' showcase.  The 1977 Charles Burnett classic on poverty.
•My Brother's Wedding -- 8:40 @ Trylon ($8).  Also part of Milestone showcase.  Burnett's follow-up to Killer Sheep, finished 25 years later.
•Nightmare Before Christmas -- 11:30 @ Riverview ($5). Part of Riverview's month-long, weekend horror series.

•Dogtooth -- TBA @ St Anthony ($8.50).  Playing through Tues Nov 2.  2009 dark comedy from Greece.  Bizarre quasi-social experimentation involving teenagers on an isolated country estate.

•Rocky Horror Picture Show -- Midnight @ Uptown.

Sat Oct 30
•Killer Sheep -- 8:40 @ Trylon ($8).
•My Brother's Wedding -- 7:00 @ Trylon ($8).
•Carlos -- 1:00 @ Walker ($8).  Last film in Assayas retrospective.  His 2010 5-hour biopic of activist/terrorist Carlos the Jackal.
•Nightmare Before Christmas -- 11:30 @ Riverview ($5).
•Rocky Horror Picture Show -- Midnight @ Uptown.

Sun Oct 31
•Carlos -- 1:00 @ Walker ($8).

horror films roundup: oct 15

It's October, therefore you only want to watch horror films.  Here are some offerings from your local cinematheques:

•Riverview Theater -- The Thing, Fri & Sat @ 11:30

An American scientific expedition to the frozen wastes of the Antarctic is interrupted by a group of seemingly mad Norwegians pursuing and shooting a dog. The helicopter pursuing the dog crashes leaving no explanation for the chase. During the night, the dog mutates and attacks other dogs in the cage and members of the team that investigate. The team soon realises that an alien life-form with the ability to take over other bodies is on the loose and they don't know who may already have been taken over.

•Uptown -- The Room, Sat @ Midnight

This isn't so much a horror film as it is a horrible film (Hmmm, devilishly clever writing I'm sure to not regret).

•St Anthony Main Theater -- Skeletons, Fri - Thu (times vary)

You know what, this isn't a horror film either.  Maybe macabre is a better descriptor.

Two exorcists literally remove the skeletons from the cupboards from people's homes. Some fairly embarrassing secrets are revealed along the way. A case where the skeletons have hidden themselves turns the lives of all those involved. 

weekend throwbacks: mel brooks, bruce campbell & bill and ted

•Mel Brooks series at Trylon
It's the second week in the Mel Brooks series playing every weekend this month at Trylon.  My favorite of his films, Blazing Saddles, is playing this weekend, but you can't really go wrong with either.

Blazing Saddles: Fri - 7:00, Sat - 8:50, Sun - 7:00
History of the World, Pt. 1: Fri - 8:50, Sat - 7:00, Sun - 5:10

•Army of Darkness at Uptown
The AV Club is presenting this Sam Raimi zombie flick, complete with a pre-party gathering at Cause (formerly Sauce) tomorrow night.  Just in case you didn't click the last link, making a reservation to that pre-party results in penny pints.

Army of Darkness: Fri & Sat - Midnight

•Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure at St Anthony Main
MN Film Arts is bringing this classic to St Anthony for a special back-to-school screening.  What makes it special is that the tickets are $4.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure:  Fri to Thu - 9:30

late night throwbacks: dr. strangelove, rocky horror picture show & camille 2000

•Dr. Strangelove @ Riverview - 11:30 (Fri & Sat)
Who doesn't love this movie?  Seriously, I want their names and addresses.  I'm gonna pay them a visit.

•Camille 2000 @ Uptown - Midnight (Tonight)
This one seems a little risque.  But really, I know nothing of this film other than its 'X' rating.  But 1969 was such a different time for ratings- practically every movie was 'R' or higher back then.

If for some reason that's not enough of a description for you, here's the list of plot keywords on the movie's imdb page:

• Beautiful Woman
• Lesbianism
• Sex
• Group Sex
• Surrealism
• Mirror
• Erotica
• Nudity
• Female Nudity
• Inflatable Plastic Furniture
• Based On Novel
• Number In Title

Is anybody out there really doing searches of movies with numbers in their titles?  I want the names and addresses of those people as well.

•Rocky Horror Picture Show @ Uptown - Midnight (Tomorrow)
People still get into this, right?  I honestly have no idea.

friday review day: august 27th

Our daily rags came out with a couple reviews of new flicks coming to theaters near you.  Pioneer Press' Chris Hewitt and the Strib's Colin Covert review Animal Kingdom, playing at Uptown starting tonight.  The movie takes place in 1980's Austraila, and tells the story of a crime family through the eyes of a recent recruit.  Covert's particularly impressed by the acting in this film, writing:

Most crime dramas are plot-driven, but not this one. The film's fascination is the passages where we get to know and understand these personalities. Everyone has his moment to develop as a character. With its textured layers of performance, "Animal Kingdom" sinks into your consciousness.

Hewitt agrees for the most part, adding this about the movie's main character:

James Frecheville brings an odd stillness to Josh. You're never quite sure if he's going to kiss his new girlfriend, for instance, or kill her. And, although he's too young to understand the ramifications of his family's crimes, Josh is not too young to have to pay for them.

Also opening in the metro this week is Cairo Time, a movie starring Patricia Clarkson in the middle of a love triangle in the middle east (it might even take place in Cairo, if you're lucky).  Hewitt seems less than impressed with the story, but was able to muster up some praise for the film's scenery:

In fact, it's as a travelogue that "Cairo Time" works best. You may be only mildly diverted by the people and their little romance, but the setting will blow you away.

Strib contributor Rob Nelson seemed a little more upbeat on the movie, pointing to Clarkson's performance as the main attraction:

The relationship's myriad constraints are matched by Clarkson's exquisitely interior turn as Juliette Grant, a middle-aged Canadian woman who seems to be holding years of unexpressed emotion within her slow-moving and slender frame... Clarkson ("High Art," "The Station Agent") toys expertly with the possibility that prim and proper Juliette will drop her defenses, giving the film a measure of mild suspense that pays off beautifully after about an hour.

A lot of acting-heavy films opening this week.  We must be coming to the end of summer, and the start of oscar season.

life during wartime: my thoughts

I made my way down to the Uptown theater to check out the new Todd Solondz film, Life During Wartime.  It's a pretty darned good film.  I suggest you check it out, but only if you have a basic understanding of its subject matter beforehand and know what you're getting into, as it's not for everyone (intense family drama with secrets so dark the characters refuse to acknowledge their existence, making it challenging for the audience to connect emotionally and follow the story).  There's lots of discussion on suicide, sexual aggression, and incest, just to list a few of the film's themes.  Here are a few of my takeaways from the movie:

 •Trusting The Picture

I'm all about directors who love to mess with truth and play on the audience's gullibility and misplaced trust in the image (Buñuel might be my favorite in that regard).  Solondz sets up several scenes early on that made me suspect that later events might not be real.  But what surprised me was how in crucial, late scenes in the movie, I found myself wanting to believe scenes were made up in the character's mind.  Certain interactions and events that were unfolding seemed so unbearable to view that I desperately wanted those particular scenes to be dreams or someone's imagination.  Eventually, I found myself unable to trust whether acts committed in the past even happened at all.  (That last statement might've been different had I seen Happiness before watching this movie.)

 •Disconnects

There were a lot of scenes in the movie where characters were constantly coming in-between two people who were trying desperately to connect with one another (I'm thinking of at least three restaurant scenes where waiters come right in the middle of very important conversations).  You got the sense that these people were experiencing an internal isolation, but were forced to live out these traumas in the presence of strangers.  Without the comfort of privacy, these public displays denied the characters the chance to grasp their problems in less delusional terms.

 •Misplaced Anger

All of these people seemed to have experienced events so traumatic that they had no language for even approaching these subjects.  But because that anger was still there, they all expressed it in some form that ignored the real problem.  For one, these characters all irrationally feared homosexuality, as if that was the cause of their ills.  And if it wasn't gays that ruined their lives, it was just men in general.

 •Paul Reubens

Is it a coincidence that Pee Wee Herman's in a movie about redeeming oneself from committing taboo sexual acts?  Probably.

Life During Wartime will be at Uptown till Thursday, then moves to Edina starting Friday.

"the second fraud: a ponzipalooza" at uptown on wed

In two days the Uptown theater will screen The Second Fraud: A Ponzipalooza, a documentary on the Tom Petters scandal where he stole like a billion dollars from innocent old grannies (at least I think that's what the news cycles told me).  The screening's for one night only, and after the showing there will be a panel discussion.  You can get free passes at the website.