Now Playing
You Can Always Complain
I would like to thank all of the Academy members for awarding me the Oscar for best movie newsletter. They said that my constant complaining really made a difference this year.
Pick of the Week:
Films of the Palestinian Film Unit plays March 18th at the Clinton from Church of Film. I caught this last year (or maybe it was the year before, time is a blur) and it’s very powerful.
“In the late 60s, three Palestinian cinematographers, Sulafa Jadallah, Hani Jawharieh, and Mustafa Abu Ali, formed the Palestinian Film Unit, dedicated to documenting and photographing the Palestinian revolution and resistance for the PLO.
So begins the story of cinema’s bravest filmmakers. While most of the Palestinian film archive was seized and destroyed, this collection pulls together five remaining pieces by the film unit, preserving the legacy of the artists who sacrificed and gave their lives for the images.”
Also Playing:
Born in Flames (1983). Directed by Lizzie Borden. Starring Honey, Adele Bertei, Kathryn Bigelow.
Playing at the 5th Ave this weekend. One of the more influential (and great) indie films from the 80s and a must watch if you’ve never seen it. “Melissa Anderson of The Village Voice wrote "this unruly, unclassifiable film— perhaps the sole entry in the hybrid genre of radical-lesbian-feminist sci-fi vérité—premiered two years into the Reagan regime, but its fury proves as bracing today as it was back when this country began its inexorable shift to the right.”
Often imitated, not screened nearly enough, and has military shill Kathryn Bigelow in it.
This Week:
Certain Women plays on March 14th and First Cow plays on March 15th—these are two masterpieces by Kelly Reichardt. One interconnected short films about women being yelled at and one about how terrible capitalism is.
At the Academy:
Fitzcarraldo opens for a run. This is the Herzog movie about an obsessive man who drags a boat over a mountain to build an opera house in the jungles of Peru. Herzog, of course, had to do all of this practically so his journey mimics his characters. The movie is good but I think the making of is more fascinating. Like, why would you do this?
Death Becomes Her opens for a run, which is fun but plays fairly often.
Song of the Sea opens for a run—a neat looking Irish animated film.
Boathouse Cinema is a new (to me) microcinema. Their next screening is March 16th so check out the calendar and website.
At Cinemagic:
Celebrate St. Patrick’s day with Maniac Cop on March. 17th, the movie about a maniac…cop.
At Cinema 21:
Mildred Pierce plays on March 14th because we all need to let Joan Crawford into our hearts.
At the Clinton:
The Nyback Showdown returns on March. 19th with dueling projectors of 16mm films powered by your hopes and your dreams, only. If you have no hopes and dreams please do not come to this screening.
From Below is a microcinema with neat showings. Follow them on social media and request to get on the mailing list. Or don’t.
At the Hollywood:
The Last Unicorn returns on March 14th (it’s also playing at the Clinton in early April) for all your boob tree needs.
Twisted Issues with Charles Pinion plays on March 14th from Rotten Revival. “After innocent, straight edge skater Paul is taunted and murdered by a carload of drunken longhairs, he is crudely resurrected by a mysterious, pot-smoking mad scientist as a masked, sword wielding psychopath with a horrifying facial skin graft and a skateboard bolted directly to his foot. Determined to enact bloodthirsty revenge on his killers and their cohorts, Paul marauds through the parking lots, warehouses, and house parties of Gainesville in a splatter fueled cacophony of homespun gore, psychedelic drugs, ‘80s skate punk culture, abrasive stock footage, and gobs of raspberry soda.” Groovy.
Mecha Panic returns with Macross Plus: Movie Edition on March 15th. “The year is 2040 and the galaxy is flourishing with several colonies and advanced technology.” Just so you know, 2040 is as far away from today as yesterday is to us is now.
Invention for Destruction plays on March 16th—a well-known and cool looking Czech sci-fi movie from the late 50s.
Space Cowboy plays on March 17th. “Joe Jennings, an innovator in the world of skydiving, has spent decades capturing breathtaking aerial moments with his camera. Driven by a passion for "camera flying" in his youth, Joe cultivated a deep friendship with fellow skydiver Rob Harris, partnering to become one of the most influential skysurfing teams in history.”
Repressed Cinema returns on March 17th with a program of 16 and 35 mm oddities.
La Llorona returns on March 18th from Can You Blame Her? This is the Guatemalan horror film from 2019 that Monica Castillo said: "La Llorona is filled with bewitching imagery and tension, even if it’s less full of surprises and jump scares than other horror movies. Bustamante uses the old haunted tale not to scare us, but to force his audience to reflect on the ways they are complicit in oppression."
Wild Boys of the Road plays on March 19th from Hollywood Babylon for a pre-code drama about teens surviving the Depression.
At Joy: Weird Wednesday—is it back? Probably. It will be a mystery. I don’t know. I’m just leaving this up here if you want to roll the dice. And not to brag, but I drove by this theater the other day.
At the Kiggins:
The Wizard of Oz opens for a run which I guess isn’t the weird AI edited version that played in the sphere in Las Vegas so what’s the point if it doesn’t look like shit?
The Quiet Man LOUDLY returns on March. 17th but didn’t want to make a big deal about it.
At OMSI:
St. John’s Cinema is celebrating Friday the 13th with a mystery movie. Who knows, maybe it will be The Sound of Music.
Word Virus Books: on March 19th there is an evening of minimal electronics and film. I couldn’t find an explanation but maybe that means someone is running an air fryer while Daisies plays?
At the Tomorrow Theater (the Hub for Cultural Snackers):
Mubi, who has recently come under fire for taking Sequoia Capital investment money, has been partnering with the Tomorrow Theater and they are doing another screening in October. Sequoia has ties to the Israeli army. Mubi has released a bunch of mealy mouthed statements. Filmmakers are urging Mubi to cut ties. If the Los Angeles Festival of Movies can cut ties with Mubi so can PAM. You can contact the Tomorrow Theater here through this link and let them know that they should’t partner with organizations like this.
Again, if the Tomorrow Theater working with a company that has direct ties to the Israeli military bothers you please let them know.
Please do not let the bastards win. Let them know you care about genocide.
We’re not talking chump change for the Sequoia investment: $100 million.
There was a good article about Mubi in Vulture recently behind their paywall.
If we can get them to divest from Mubi I will never make fun of PAM or the Tomorrow Theater ever again.
Police, Adjective (2009). Directed by Corneliu Porumboiu. Starring Dragoș Bucur.
The Romanian New Wave is a sort of neo-realist film movement from Romania that roughly starts in the late 90s. These movies are slow moving freight trains that portray a society full of bureaucracy and recovering from fascism.
Police, Adjective is a police procedural trapped in amber. It’s not so much a deconstruction of the genre as a freezing. The story concerns an undercover cop who has been tasked with busting some lousy pot smoking kids. He thinks that this is bullshit because the law is different in other countries and likely to change in Romania soon. He pushes back against his superiors until…they spend some time reading the dictionary. Yes, it’s a cop movie whose climactic scene is a defining of terms that beats our hero into submission. The beast, the blob, the bureaucracy always wins and he sets aside his morals to do his job.
It’s a film about not being able to take a stand. Our hero has nothing but his conviction and he’s quick to drop them.
Also they play a game called foot-tennis that’s, I guess, soccer combined with tennis!? What a wacky country. What’s next, pickleball?!
Criterion just put up a Romanian New Wave series on their app, but you can also watch this for free on Plex.
The tip jar is open if you are so inclined. Substack: noun, a medium that attractive people write through. From the French word le stack.