What’s Screening: June 16 – 22

~ Lincoln Spector

What can you see in the cinema this week? The best works of Spike Lee and Mel Brooks (did they ever work together?). A laughably bad movie that has caught up on us over the decades. One of the greatest Best Picture winners of the century, and several LGBTQ films sponsored by the month of June.

Festivals & Series

Theater closing

Bad news: According to Iris Kwok of Berkeleyside, another East Bay movie theater, the Albany Twin, is now dark. I shouldn’t be surprised. Cinemas are dropping like flies. But this one feels personal. The Albany Twin is a short walk to my home. The first film I saw at the Twin was Raging Bull, during its first run. The last one I saw, was You Hurt My Feelings.

Promising events

Glen or Glenda (1953), New Mission, Saturday, 3:30pm

Ed Wood is considered by many to be the worst filmmaker ever. His films are watched not because of his artistry, but by his laughably bad blunders. I saw this one decades ago at a bad-movie marathon, and laughed with everyone else in the theater. And yet, the movie’s theme about a man who wants to be a woman, has caught up to us. Wood was a transvestite, and the film’s original theme seems to be normal in the 21st century.

Comedy Shorts Night, Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, Saturday, 7:30

The museum will screen four short movies (about 20 minutes each). I love the first two: Charlie Chaplin’s The Rink and Buster Keaton’s Neighbors. Those two together are worth the admission price. I don’t know the other films: What Price Goofy and Bacon Grabbers. I don’t know those movies, but they’re starring Charley Chase and Laurel & Hardy, which suggests they’ll be funny. Greg Pane will provide live music on the piano. What Price Goofy will be screened in 35mm!

Another chance to see (theatrically)

A- 12 Years a Slave (2013), Lark, Monday, 10:00am & 8:00pm

In 1841, con artists kidnapped Solomon Northup – a free-born African American living in upstate New York, and sold him into slavery down south. This film, based on Northup’s memoirs, shows us the horrors of slavery through the eyes of an educated man turned into a beast of burden. Chiwetel Ejiofor gives an Oscar-worthy performance as Northup, horrified, trapped, and mostly helpless. Beautiful yet daring photography, combined with minimalist editing, intensify the horrors. The film easily earned its Best Picture Oscar. Read my full review.

A- Milk (2008), Balboa, Friday, 7:30

I’m always a sucker for an historical epic, but I rarely get to see one set in a time and place that I remember. This Harvey biopic manages to be sprawling but never boring, and inspiring without preaching. I’ve always known that Sean Penn was a great actor; it’s nice to discover that he can do “happy” as well as more tragic emotions. James Franco is also very good in what you can call the “chick” part.

B+ The Birdcage (1996), New Mission, Sunday, 11:00am

Brunch! The American movie version of La Cage Aux Folles is warm and loving entertainment. And when it’s appropriate, it’s side-splittingly hilarious. A middle-aged, very gay couple must pretend they’re not only straight but culturally conservative (Robin Williams and Nathan Lane). Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest play the conservatives they must trick. Directed by Mike Nichols from a screenplay by the amazing Elaine May.

B- The Handmaiden (2016), 4-Star, Tuesday & Wednesday, 7:30pm

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 through the bad ones. Read my full review.

Theatrical revivals

A+ Do the Right Thing (1989), New Mission, Monday, 6:00pm

Spike Lee’s masterpiece just may be the best fiction film ever made about race relations in America. For a 34-plus-year-old film, it feels very much like the here and now. By focusing on a single block of Brooklyn over the course of one very hot day, Lee dramatizes and analyzes everything wrong (and a few things right) about race relations in America. This beautifully made film is touching, funny, warm-hearted, and humane. Read my Blu-ray review.

A The Producers (1967, original version), Vogue, Wednesday & Thursday, 7:30pm

A long, long time ago, before digital cinema and even Dolby Stereo, Mel Brooks was actually funny. And he was never funnier than in his directorial debut. Both Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder (in his breakout performance) play comedy to the hilt as a desperate pair scheming to make a fortune off a very bad Broadway musical called Springtime for Hitler. A gorgeous, laugh-inducing gem. Read my report.

B- Desert Hearts, 4-Star, Thursday, 7:00pm

This lesbian romance meant more when it was made than it means today. A college professor lands in Reno to get a quick divorce, but a much younger woman falls for her, and the professor learns an important lesson. The film is set in the 1950s (or at least the early ’60s), when this sort of relationship had to be hidden. The characters are likable, but they often seem to be there just to further to plot.

Continuing engagements

Frequently-revived classics

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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.