What’s Screening: October 13 – 20

~ Lincoln Spector

We’re well into October, and you know what that means. We have more horror flicks, but also more Oscar bait. The horror flicks are obvious. But why Oscar bait? The best movies are held back in hope of getting a nod from the Academy. Anyway, I don’t think that any of the movies playing this week will win a prize, except for Eismayer.

Festivals & Series

New films opening theatrically

A- Joan Baez I Am a Noise (2023), Rafael, Opera Plaza, Piedmont, opens Monday

If you’re expecting a collection of concert footage, you’ll be very disappointed. You get a bit of it, but not much. Neither will you get a cry for peace and justice. Instead, you get an aged yet still physically fit woman, who tells you about her life, good and bad – mostly bad. There’s little about her famous lovers: Bob Dylan,  ex-husband David Harris, and strangest of all, Steve Jobs (who’s never mentioned in this film). The big surprise for me was that for many years, she was using Quaaludes.

New films opening streaming

A Eismayer (2023)

What’s it like in the Austrian army? Charles Eismayer is a tough man whose job is to make the recruits ready for war, and he gives little slack to his charges. He’s also a family man, with a wife and child. But Eismayer is also gay, and one of his charges (also gay) sees straight through him. He has other problems: Eismayer has lung cancer. Based on an actual incident.

Another chance to see (theatrically)

A In a Lonely Place (1950), 4-Star, Sunday, 6:30pm

Nicholas Ray critiqued masculinity in many of his films, but rarely as strongly as he does here. Early on, the movie feels like an exposé of Hollywood. Then it becomes a murder mystery. It ends up studying the worst of masculinity. Humphrey Bogart, in one of his best performances, plays a screenwriter who hasn’t written a hit in a decade. He’s a man whose violent temper makes any good relationship impossible. Charming and friendly, he will inevitably lash out physically at those he loves. Gloria Grahame plays the woman with the bad luck to fall in love with him. An amazing character study disguised as film noir

A- The Thing (1983 version), Castro, 7:00pm

John Carpenter created a remake that’s better than Howard Hawks’ 1951 original – even if it’s much more gruesome. Things get dangerous for a group of men (no women) in a science station in Antarctica. Communication or transportation is shut down. Worse, an intelligent, evil, and ravenous alien is killing everything it can. What’s more, it’s a shapeshifter, so you don’t know if you’re talking to your best friend or a monster intent on eating you. But with all the grisly effects, the most horrible makeup in the film is Kurt Russell’s eyeliner. On a double bill with They Live, which I haven’t seen.

B+ The Lost Boys (1987), Vogue, Friday, 9:30pm

This clever and funny teenage vampire movie was shot in Santa Cruz, and is clearly set there (even though they give the town another name). So, you have the undead partying in the summer nights on the beach and the boardwalk, all dealing with teenage angst. But then, what do you do when peer pressure tells you to become an immortal bloodsucker? Hey, all the cool kids are doing it! A lot of fun in a horror movie that refuses to take itself seriously. It’s even occasionally scary.

B+ Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 version), Vogue, Tuesday

Phil Kaufman‘s San Francisco-based remake of the classic alien invasion movie isn’t quite as good as the low-budget, 1956 original, although it comes close. One by one, Donald Sutherland’s friends and loved ones turn into emotionless pod people, and he knows that he too will be lost if he can’t stay awake. A very good sci-fi thriller.

B Häxan (1922), 4-Star, Friday, 8:00pm

The film’s 100th anniversary! Striking, frightening imagery holds up much of this Danish silent. Director Benjamin Christensen mixes documentary and narrative techniques to show us how medieval superstitions caused horror and mass hysteria, and how the Church cruelly tortured and killed men and women (mostly women) for consorting with Satan. Occasionally, Christensen seems to be just showing off. About a quarter of the film (mostly at the beginning and end) is downright boring. Nevertheless, it’s well worth watching. Live music by The Unsound Orchestra.

Movies that play all the time

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.