This picture is from the movie THE BAND'S VISIT.
THIS FRIDAY, AUGUST 1st: Come see SUPERBAD at our backyard screening room. Produced by Judd Apatow and starring Jonah Hill and Michael Cera, SUPERBAD is the story of a couple of young men trying to get laid. Capturing the end of today’s innocence (which is rather filthy, itself), this is a pretty funny movie. Doors open at 8:45, film starts at 9:00pm. Suggested donation $5. Candy/Soda $1. Popcorn is free.
I have been using the website FACEBOOK to inform people about our weekly film-screenings. The site allows me to send out an invitation to come see the movie with all the details. If you would like to have this weekly emailed invitations please email me requesting I put you on this list. It is a relatively simple little email, with a link to the Facebook page with the info. You can check it out here.
Lots of new movies this week, with bunches of copies of both THE BANDS VISIT and HAROLD AND KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY. The former is a lovely little comedy from Israel about an Egyptian band lost and stranded, and the latter is a comedy about stupid American stoners. Both have merits.
Lots of other noteworthy stuff, including a bunch of Swedish silent films by Victor Sjostrom and some great docs, including IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS, the new Scorsese Rolling Stones film SHINE A LIGHT, and SURFWISE about the strange life of Dorian Paskowitz. There is also a good batch of kids movies, including two from Michael Ocelot (PRINCES AND PRINCESSES and KIRIKOU AND THE WILD BEAST) and some good new additions.
Also Friday will be a new month (August, for those of you keeping score), and with it will come a new month of HIGHLIGHTED ADDITIONS. I will tell you about them next week, but if you come in on the weekend, look especially for REPO MAN, ANIMAL HOUSE and the entire six season collection of KING OF THE HILL.
Alrighty then,
Ken
PS We are selling merchandise for the Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema. You can buy T-Shirts and Camisoles for $12. Cute baby onesies for $10. Hoodies for $20. And very awesome blankets, with cool carrying cases for $27. Word up!
............//RELEASE OF THE WEEK//............
THE BAND’S VISIT.
Drama/Comedy/Foreign (Hebrew/English/Arabic).
Sasson Gabai/Ronit Elkabetz/Saleh Bakri.
Directed by Eran Kolirin.
* This is the tale of a band. An Egyptian cop band in Israel to play at an Arab Cultural center lost in a sandy hick town with no hotels and no clear cut compadres. So what will happen? Not much. As will happen on most occasions in most places on the planet earth, they eat and sleep with the help of the kindness of strangers. Not that bridges are formed. Not that resolutions are discovered. Not that conflict is really even discussed. No, just life. Life happens. Awkwardly, and with great dignity. This very Jarmuschian film is about the moments in between the dialogue. If you love a slow movie, this one is for you.
............//NEW TITLES//............
THE BAND’ VISIT.
* See Release of the Week.
DOOMSDAY.
Action/Suspense.
Rhona Mitra/Bob Hoskins/Sean Petrwee.
Directed by Neil Marshall.
* A kinda of Mad Maxish tale of a brutal future where Scotland has been quarantined for 27 years after some demented virus mostly wiped everyone out. Now the virus is resurfacing elsewhere and some groups are sent in to try to find a cure. There they find a savage culture full of murderous factions.
HAROLD & KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY.
Comedy.
Kal Penn/John Cho.
Directed by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg.
* Follow up to the hilarious 2004 film about noted stoners Harold and Kumar. In this one, they are somehow mistaken for terrorists after smuggling a bong onto a plane. Duh, get stoned before you get on the plane.
INGEBOR HOLM.
Drama/Foreign (Swedish).
Directed by Victor Sjostrom.
* The first of two double features discs highlighting Victor Sjostrom’s career. On this disc (along with A MAN THERE WAS) is this silent black & white film from 1913 about a family who falls apart when the husband/father dies.
KEANOSHOW: COLLECTION OF SHORT FILMS OF DAVE MCKEAN.
Shorts.
Directed by Dave McKean.
* From the writer and director of MIRRORMASK comes this collection of short films.
LUCKY MAN.
Drama.
Frank Vincent/Vincent Pastore.
Directed by Ruvin Orbach.
* Phil Leotardo and Big Pussy from the Sopranos together again in this short film about organized crime.
A MAN THERE WAS.
Drama/Foreign (Swedish).
Directed by Victor Sjostrom.
* From 1917 comes the other half of the double feature with INGEBOR HOLM. This one is also a silent black & white film about a sailor contemplating revenge.
MAN WOMAN AND THE WALL.
Drama/Thriller(ish)/Foreign (Japanese).
Aoi Sola /Keita Ohno/Hiroto Kato.
Directed by Masashi Yamamoto.
* So…in this borderline softcore movie, the real question is which of the sleazy guys who are spying on Satsuki (Sola) will she end up with? The full on psycho boyfriend, who is bugging her room with cameras and mics and calling secretly with perverted calls? Or the charming journalist (Ohno) next door, who is driven to distraction by the paper thin walls that separate their apartments. Although the box says “mature audiences only”, aside from a couple extended sex scenes, this movie is not going to replace anyone’s heavy internet usage.
THE OUTLAW AND HIS WIFE.
Drama/Foreign (Swedish).
Directed by Victor Sjostrom.
* The first movie on the second Sjostrom double feature disc (along with a doc on the man himself simply called VICTOR SJOSTROM), this is about a thief and his wife who live in the mountains of Sweden. Like the others, it is silent and filmed in black & white in 1918. (Ah, 1918. That date used to have wonderful significance for Yankee fans).
............//DOCUMENTARY//............
HUMAN BODY: PUSHING THE LIMIT.****Oops, only in Blu-Ray****
Documentary.
Directed by Dan Clifton and Mark Radice and Jeremy Turner.
IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS.
Documentary.
Directed by James Longley.
* Considered by many to be the best doc about the Iraq conflict, this film interviews Iraqis who have lived through the war and through the occupation by foreign troops.
ROLLING STONES: SHINE A LIGHT
Roc-Doc.
Mick/Keith/Ron/Charlie.
Directed by Martin Scorsese.
* Filmed in 06 at the fabulous Beacon Theatre in the NYC, Scorsese attempts to see something deep in the leathery skin of the Rolling Stones.
SURFWISE
Documentary/Surfing.
Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz and his nine kids and multiple wives.
Directed by Doug Pray.
* Doc Paskowitz raised his 9 children in a 24 foot trailer without any formal education and with a tyrannical sense of leadership. Their co-religions are Judaism, Surfing and Good Diet. That’s just like me, minus the surfing and good diet.
VICTOR SJOSTROM.
Documentary/Foreign (Swedish).
Directed by Gosta Werner.
* The other feature on the disc with THE OUTLAW AND HIS WIFE, this is a doc on the man himself, who’s career spanned 25 years. Featuring other Swedish film greats such as Ingmar Bergman.
............//TELEVISION//............
SPACED: THE COMPLETE SERIES.
Television/Comedy/BBC.
Nick Frost/Simon Pegg/Jessica Hynes.
* This show is to SHAUN OF THE DEAD and HOT FUZZ what FREAKS AND GEEKS is to KNOCKED UP and THE FORTY YEAR OLD VIRGIN. Namely, the breeding ground for a fantastic comedy team that is now comfortably settled into making movies. The show itself is kind of a slacker comedy about two friends pretending to be a couple to rent a room together in stuffy drunk woman’s house.
TWO FAT LADIES.
Television/Cooking/BBC.
Jennifer Patterson/Clarissa Dickson Wright.
Directed by Patricia Llewellyn.
* Yeah, baby. I want to eat with these chicks! Counting calories be damned!
............//FAMILY//............
CORDUROY: AND MORE STORIES ABOUT CARING.
Family.
KIRIKOU AND THE WILD BEAST.
Family/Animation.
Directed by Michael Ocelot
PHINEAS AND FERB: THE FAST AND THE PHINEAS.
Family/Disney/Action/Adventure.
PRINCES AND PRINCESSES.
Family.
Directed by Michael Ocelot.
THE WIGGLES: YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE DANCING.
Family/Music.
............//NEW ADDITIONS//............
ARMY OF DARKNESS.
Action/Comedy/Adventure/Horror/Fantasy.
Bruce Campbell.
Directed by Sam Raimi.
* Our first DVD off the third film of the EVIL DEAD series.
THE BIRDCAGE.
Comedy/Musical.
Robin Williams/Gene Hackman/Nathan Lane/Dianne Wiest/Calista Flockhart.
Directed by Mike Nichols.
* Our first DVD of this very funny American version of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES.
BATMAN BEGINS. ****ALSO BLU-RAY****
* Four new replacement DVD copies and a blu-ray, too.
CARS.
* Another replacement DVD copy.
THE X-FILES: COMPLETE 2nd SEASON.
* Replacement copies.
****
No comments:
Post a Comment