Pick of the Week:
The Heartbreak Kid (1972) Directed by Elaine May. Starring Charles Grodin, Cybill Shepherd, Jeannie Berlin.
The Heartbreak Kid is playing at the Hollywood on July 26th. Not a hoax. Not a dream. Not the Farrelly version. This is one of the key American films of the 70s and is rarely screened because a pharmaceutical company owns the rights to it. It’s available to rent, so it’s streaming but hasn’t been remastered or re-released on physical media. It’s being held hostage by capitalism. You can only rent whatever weird DVD rip is out there.
Elaine May is one of the great American directors. It’s an“anti-romantic comedy” about a nebbishy Jewish man (played by Grodin) who upends his life for a shiksa (played by Sheperd). This is basically a Philip Roth novel.
This movie is rarely screened. It’s funny! It’s about terrible people! I’ll see you there.
Also Playing:
Repo Man (1984). Directed by Alex Cox. Starring Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Estevez.
Playing at the Clinton on July 20th, it’s Alex Cox’s comedy about how terrible LA was under the Reagan administration. A wonderful and weird movie, as our pal Ebert said, “I saw Repo Man near the end of a busy stretch on the movie beat: Three days during which I saw more relentlessly bad movies than during any comparable period in memory. Most of those bad movies were so cynically constructed out of formula ideas and "commercial" ingredients that watching them was an ordeal. Repo Man comes out of left field, has no big stars, didn't cost much, takes chances, dares to be unconventional, is funny, and works. There is a lesson here.”
This Week:
They Live and The Thing are playing at Cinemagic on July 20th. They Live would make a great double feature with Repo Man, alas it’s playing at the same time so you’ll have to make some decisions. Both movies are great.
Cinemagic is playing staff picks this week, including:
Phantom of the Paradise: I’ve been meaning to watch this one and there was a Revolutions Per Movie about it! De Palma!
Rent: about how tough it is living in New York under the shadow of AIDs. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, etc.
Rubin & Ed: a weirdo Crispen Clover cult film
Anti-Christ: a movie I hope to never watch again
Pirate of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl: a decent blockbuster that unfortunately stars Johnny Depp.
Gattaca is also playing at Cinemagic on July 22nd—a quintessential 90s movie about designer genes starring personal friend Ethan Hawke.
At the Academy this week:
Tremors: the Kevin Bacon worm classic.
Django: a famously violent western and part of the director’s “mud and blood trilogy.” One of Alex Cox’s favorite films. It’s had a huge influence on genre films of all stripes and if you haven’t seen it before you’ve seen something referencing it.
Grease: a movie about 40 year olds playing teenagers about how terrible the 50s were.
The Hub for Cultural Snackers is playing movies for pride—most of these played last month at various theaters.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch on July 20th
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert on July 20th
Bound on July 21st, which I don’t think played last month. The classic Wachowskis lesbian crime caper.
The Matrix on July 21st
Ex-Machina plays at the Clinton on July 19th. I’ve never seen this but people like it. I think I might hate Alex Garland’s movies?
Mars Express plays on July 20th—it was so popular the Clinton brought it back!
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind plays at the Clinton on July 21st. Another seminal millennial film I haven’t seen. People like this one, but I’ve always found Gondry a little too… precious?
Noir City comes to the Hollywood in July. So take refuge from the heat and the weather with:
Gilda on July 19th
The Window on July 20th
Never Open that Door on July 20th
Night has a Thousand Eyes on July 20th
The Man Who Cheated Himself on July 21st
In a Lonely Place on July 21st—I also want to recommend the book it’s based on. It’s wonderful and takes on noir from a feminist angle, kind of. They changed a bunch of stuff for the movie.
The Witches is playing outdoors on July 20th which is, again, none of my business. Why anyone gave Nicholas Roeg a kids movie to direct I’ll never know. It’s very good and very creepy but if you watch a movie outside bugs will get on you.
Deadbeat at Dawn plays on July 23rd at the Hollywood. A grindhouse crime film in which the director did everything from directing to stunt work and, rumor has it, sold tickets, popcorn, and swept the floors at the theater.
1994 - the Year in Videos plays at the Hollywood on July 24th. Here’s a scorecard for what they might play.
Jaws continues to eat up the competition at the Hollywood.
Blast of Silence (1961). Directed by Allen Baron. Starring Allen Baron, Molly McCarthy, Larry Tucker
This is an oddball neo-noir from the 60s. What’s the difference between noir and neo-noir? Mostly the time period and filming techniques used. Neo-noirs are more self-aware and speak to different anxieties, but those anxieties are usually the same in America, right? We’re always fighting loneliness and scrambling for food, shelter, money, and trying to claw whatever we can from society. It's the style that changes.
*smokes cigarette*
Blast of Silence is narrated from the second person. There’s a history of noir having a first person narrator but a second person narrator isn’t something you see much in film—it’s a literary technique. The only other movie I can think of that was narrated in the second person was an adaption of A Man Asleep, which creates an effect of being depressed.
Here the second person narrator tells us the story of a mean lunkhead, a weird loner who’s a hitman for the mob. The narration makes him more isolated and distant making it seem like there is no place in the world for this guy.
*smokes cigarette, coughs*
It was also shot on location in New York (illegally), and is a great tour of the city in the 60s. It was a small budget affair, and sort of an early indie hit. It’s mesmerizing.
*smokes cigarette, coughs, dies*
You see the tip jar link and you want to support writing about film, even if you find it terrible. You smoke a cigarette. You click the link. You realize that you are broke and that capitalism is the disease killing us all. You notice the lights in the house across the street flicker, turn off. And then the same for every house. You are now in darkness. You smoke. The last thought you have is that you wish you had tipped. The darkness takes over.
