What’s Screening: June 30 – July 6

~ Lincoln Spector

I have friends who love vintage wine. They carefully store their bottles and, on special occasions, take them down and pop the cork. But what about vintage cinema? Physical film also rots. But there’s another kind of cinematic decay. If people don’t watch movies, or just watch them at home, the motion pictures we love will disappear. Perhaps not physically, but in our minds. So go to a local cinema, buy a ticket or two, and watch an old movie in a theater.

Another chance to see (theatrically)

A Frozen (2013), 4-Star,
֍ Saturday, 10:00am
֍ Sunday,4:00pm
֍ Sunday, 7:00pm
By the time this Disney animated feature came out, my kids could go to the movies by themselves, and therefore I missed a real treat. Yes, it follows the conventional formula for Disney animated features – with a fairyland princess, a handsome hunk, songs, and adorable animals. But this time, you’ve got two princesses, one becoming queen, both basically good but with a sibling rivalry that could destroy the kingdom. And you don’t know which handsome hunk will marry the ingenue we really care about. It’s also beautiful to look at.

A- Little Miss Sunshine (2006), 4-Star
֍ Wednesday, 5:00pm
֍ Thursday, 7:30pm

I’m glad this movie is a comedy; a drama with these characters would be unbearably depressing. Little Miss Sunshine puts a supremely dysfunctional family on the road in a broken-down VW bus, with the goal of entering their prepubescent daughter into a beauty contest for girls too young to have any business with such things. The result opens a window into the souls of four damaged adults and two youths destined for damaged adulthood, while delivering a steady stream of strong, deep, and sustained laughs.

Theatrical revivals

A Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), BAMPFA, Wednesday, 7:00pm

It’s hard to describe Chantal Akerman’s masterpiece – now considered Sight & Sounds’ official greatest film ever – without making it sound boring. The film follows three days in the life of the title character, a widow played brilliantly by Delphine Seyrig. The static camera shows her cooking whole dinners from start to finish. She cleans her small, one bedroom apartment. She shops, then she talks with her teenage son. She also turns tricks to make enough money to get by. But her repetitive and demeaning life is wearing her down, creating accidents and mistakes. Something is going to blow. The film runs more than three hours and 20 minutes, and yet, it’s fascinating all throughout. Read my essay. Part of the series Ambassador of Cinema: Tom Luddy’s Lasting Influence at BAMPFA.

A Bringing Up Baby (1938), Stanford
֍ Saturday, 15pm & 7:30pm
֍ Sunday, 4:15pm & 7:30pm

How does one define screwball comedy? You could say it’s a romantic comedy with glamorous movie stars behaving like broad, slapstick comedians. You could point out that screwballs are usually set amongst the excessively wealthy, and often explore class barriers. Or you could simply watch Howard Hawks’ Bringing Up Baby, a frivolous and hilarious tale about a mild-mannered paleontologist (Cary Grant), a ditzy heiress (Katharine Hepburn), and a tame leopard (a tame leopard). On a Cary Grant double bill with She Done Him Wrong, which I enjoyed years ago. Part of The Best of Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock series.

A- Aparajito (1956), BAMPFA, Saturday, 4:30pm

This is the middle of Satyajit Ray’s great Apu trilogy, but the film works for itself. We follow the protagonist, Apu, from late childhood into late adolescence. Here, his view of India and the world widens considerably. In many ways, it’s a much more optimistic film than its predecessor; this kid just might going places. But there’s a heavy price to pay for advancement out of his class. The weakest film of the three, but still excellent. Read my essay on the trilogy. Part of the series, Ambassador of Cinema: Tom Luddy’s Lasting Influence at BAMPFA.

A- Harold and Maude (1971), Vogue
֍ Wednesday, 7:30pm
֍ Thursday, 7:30pm

At a time when young Americans embraced non-conformity, free love, ecstatic joy, and 40-year-old Marx Brothers movies, this counterculture comedy romance between an alienated and death-obsessed young man and an almost 80-year-old woman made total sense. The broad and outrageous humor helps considerably. But I do wish screenwriter Colin Higgins had found a better ending. See my full discussion.

A- My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Balboa
֍ Friday, 11:00am
֍ Saturday, 7:30pm

Dubbed. This Studio Ghibli feature may be one of the best cartoons ever for very young children. Adults can also enjoy the beautiful animation and their childrens’ delightful reactions. Two children and their father (mother is in the hospital) move into a rural house that turns out to be haunted. But it’s not haunted in a bad way. The magical creatures, including the powerful Totoro, make friends with the new people in the neighborhood.
Warning: You should tell your kids beforehand that it takes place before everyone had a phone in their pocket.

A- Blue Velvet (1986), Roxie, Saturday, 9:10pm

You could call this picture a murder mystery without a murder, but David Lynch has never been strong on genre. It’s really about the ugly reality hidden within tranquil suburbia, where two wholesome youths (Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern) stumble over a group of cruel men led by a terrible sadist (Dennis Hopper). Their primary target: a strange, European woman who can’t leave for some serious reasons (Isabella Rossellini). Don’t worry much about the story; just go where the movie takes you.

B+ I’m No Angel
(1933), Stanford
֍ Thursday, 5:50pm & 9:20pm
֍ Friday, 5:50pm & 9:20pm

In what I believe is probably Mae West’s best movie (I haven’t seen them all), she deals with carnies, lions, snooty millionaires, crooks, and a very young and sexy Cary Grant. Mae West – the character, not the human being – isn’t entirely about sex. To a large degree, she’s about knocking down the rich, the snooty, and the hypocritical. The final act takes place in a very funny and unlikely court. Who else would be told that she’ll meet a tall and handsome man, and she says disappointedly, “Only one?” As she says in the movie, “It’s not the men in your life; it’s the life in your men.” That line, and the entire screenplay, were written by West. On a double bill with Blonde Venus, which I don’t believe I’ve ever seen.

Continuing engagements

Movies I can’t review

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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.