What’s Screening: July 1 – 7

~ Lincoln Spector

I don’t have much to write about this week. I’ve got no new movies to tell you about. And the selection of older films is also small.

And there are no festivals running this week.

Another chance to see (theatrically)

B- The Handmaiden (2016), New Mission, Friday through Wednesday. Check times here

This atmospheric Korean thriller boils over with lies, double crosses, larceny, surprise plot twists, and a lot of sex – much of it quite kinky. At 90 minutes, it would be a great entertainment, but at its actual length of 144, it often drags. The handmaiden of the title works for a young, wealthy Japanese lady she plans to rob. Things get messy. Overall, the good scenes in The Handmaiden are worth sitting enough to wait through the bad ones. Read my full review.

Theatrical revivals

A Playtime (1967), BAMPFA, Sunday, 5:00pm

35mm! Monsieur Hulot and assorted other specimens of humanity wander adrift and befuddled in a very modern Paris. That’s all there is of a plot in Jacques Tati’s large-scale comedy, and that’s all that’s needed. On one level, Tati is commenting on modern architecture. On another, he’s just making us laugh in his odd, almost meditative way. And even when you’re not laughing, you’re fascinated by the little details of Tati’s city-sized universe. Part of the series Indelible Moments: May I Have This Dance.

A Killer of Sheep (1977), BAMPFA, Thursday, 7:00pm

35mm. Shot in 16mm, Charles Burnett’s neorealistic non-story examines the day-to-day life of an African-American slaughterhouse employee struggling with poverty, family problems, and his own depression. Hauntingly made with a mostly amateur cast, Killer of Sheep takes us into a world most of us know about but have never actually experienced. Introduction by Ruth Gebreyesus. Another part of the series Indelible Moments: May I Have This Dance.

B Men in Black, various theaters, Sunday & Monday, check theaters and times

25th Anniversary! Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith play secret agents trying to control the many extraterrestrials running – or flying or crawling – all over the earth. And more importantly, their job is to keep all the earthlings from knowing about all these aliens. It’s a ridiculous story, but it’s fun. Of course, it created a franchise. As far as I know, the phrase Men in Black was created by John Sayles for his much better movie, The Brother from Another Planet.

Frequently-revived classics

Published by Lincoln Spector

Lincoln Spector writes about cinema, technology, and cinema technology. From 1986 through 2008, he wrote Gigglebytes, the first technology-oriented humor column. From 1977 through 2016, he wrote PC World's Answer Line column and blog.