What’s Screening: February 9 – 15

~ Lincoln Spector

Wednesday is Saint Valentine’s Day. To celebrate, here are five romantic pictures that will play on big screens this week. And if you’re not in a loving mode, here’s eleven other movies.

Festivals & Series

Festival Recommendations

I’ve reviewed four films playing at the Mostly British Film Festival

Saint Valentine’s Week

A+ Before Sunrise (1995), 4-Star, Wednesday, 7:30pm

If there’s a film in this world more romantic than Before Sunrise, I haven’t seen it. A young man and a young woman meet on a train, then spend an afternoon and night walking, talking, and flirting in darkening Vienna. The only suspense is whether they’ll have sex. Eventually, director Richard Linklater created an 18-year trilogy. Read my full article about the three films.

A Amelie (2001), Sebastopol, starts Wednesday

The best word to describe this Parisian romantic comedy is magic. Audrey Tautou stars as a very unusual young woman who not only is looking for love, but also trying to avoid it. Amelie also spends much of her life making other people happy. Much of the magic comes from the music score by Les Jours Tristes, Neil Hannon, and Yann Tiersen. I’ve never seen Paris so beautiful.

A- Mississippi Masala (1991), New Mission
֍ Friday, 12:15pm
֍ Saturday m 2:45pm

Here’s a rare thing: A mixed-race, American romance where neither of the lovers are white. The woman in the relationship is ethnically Indian, although she, and her parents, were born and grew up in Uganda. Now they’re in Mississippi, where she (Sarita Choudhury) falls in love with a local African American (Denzel Washington). And suddenly, people who have been hurt by racism all their lives become bigots. Not a good thing. Written by Sooni Taraporevala, and directed by the brilliant Mira Nair.

A- Harold and Maude (1971), Balboa, Wednesday, 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.

B The Son of the Sheik (1926), Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, Saturday, 7:30pm

Valentino on Valentine’s Day! You can’t discuss Rudolph Valentino’s last and most famous movie without confronting outdated attitudes about romance and sex. The film’s treatment of rape is deeply offensive by today’s standards (as is the use of white actors in swarthy makeup)–and this in a movie designed to appeal to female libidos. But if you can put aside 21st-century values, it’s still a lot of fun. And yes, I know several modern women who find the movie sexy. Live piano accompaniment by Frederick Hodges.

Movies that play over & over

Vintage films on the big screen

A+ Some Like It Hot (1959), New Parkway
֍ Wednesday, 5:00, with a 4 Course Meal for TWO!
֍ Wednesday, 6:45pm without the special meal

I’m not sure if this gender-bending farce is the best American film comedy of all time, but it’s close. I doubt you could find a more perfect example of comic construction, brilliantly funny dialog, and spot-on timing. There are no random gags here; every laugh comes from the characters and the tightly built situations. Read my Blu-ray review.

A In the Heat of the Night (1967), 4-Star, Friday, 7:30pm

The Best Picture winner of 1967 is one really good noir. A brilliant, African American homicide detective from Philadelphia (Sidney Poitier) finds himself in a small, redneck town in Mississippi when an important member of the community has just been murdered. Rod Steiger plays the bigoted sheriff who slowly realizes that this Black man is much smarter than he is. Warren Oates plays an almost comic figure as a not-too-smart cop. Written by Stirling Silliphant and directed by Norman Jewison. Haskell Wexler’s unique cinematography (for its time) helped change the way color films looked.

A Fantasia (1940), Lark
֍ Saturday, 10:00am
֍ Sunday, 12:15pm
֍ Monday, 8:00pm

Decades before rock videos and popular marijuana, Walt Disney and Leopold Stokowski turned music into funny, surreal, and frightening images. Countless visual artists took major works of classical music and created something very special. Of course, they had plenty of help from some famous composers, including Beethoven, Bach, Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky (the only one who lived to see the movie). Not every piece is brilliant, although even the weakest parts are still worthwhile. A great achievement and an entertaining two hours.

A- Sorry to Bother You (2018), BAMPFA, Saturday, 7:00pm

Sold Out! Telemarketer Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) rises quickly in the company thanks to his “white voice,” while his co-workers go on strike, creating a wedge between him and his friends (and lover). Meanwhile, something very sinister is going on. Boots Riley’s first movie is at times hysterically funny, and in its commentary on wealth and poverty, occasionally shocking. Riley creates a very dark view of current American society, where poor people will do anything to keep a roof over their heads. Read my full review.

A Blade Runner: the Final Cut (1982), Opera Plaza runs through the week

Based on Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Blade Runner remains surprisingly thoughtful for ’80’s sci-fi – especially of the big budget variety. It ponders questions about the nature of humanity and our ability to objectify people when it suits our needs. The art direction and the music alone would make it a masterpiece. Read my longer essay.

A- The Public Enemy (1931), Balboa, Thursday, 7:30pm

James Cagney lights the screen on fire as a violent thug with a little bit of heart (very little) and—because he’s Cagney—the grace of a tiger. Once Public Enemy hit theaters, neither Cagney’s career nor grapefruit at breakfast would ever be the same. Not quite the best of the early pre-code gangster epics (that would be Scarface), but the one with the best lead performance. On a double bill with Little Caesar, which did for Edward G. Robinson what Public Enemy did for Cagney. Part of the Stanford’s massive Warner Bros series.

A- Malcolm X (1992), Balboa, Tuesday, 7:30pm

Spike Lee’s epic opens with actual video of police officers beating Rodney King – a very powerful indictment of white America. The movie almost becomes a musical before it goes back to being a serious film. Malcolm (Denzel Washington) is arrested and converts to Islam while in prison. From there he changes entirely and becomes a major leader of Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam. Malcolm wants nothing from white people. Eventually, Malcolm’s views change, and with that, his life is in danger. The cast includes Delroy Lindo as a gangster, Al Freeman Jr. as Elijah Muhammad – the head of the Nation of Islam. Angela Bassett plays Malcolm’s wife.

B+ The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011), 4-Star, Thursday, 7:30pm

The nature of the civil rights movement changed dramatically in the mid-to-late 1960’s, and this American/Swedish documentary tracks the black power movement from Stokely Carmichael’s heyday until heroin ravaged Harlem. The film’s Swedish origin is something of a gimmick. Most of the footage consists of news footage shot by Swedish crews for Swedish television. Occasionally we get the original narration (with English subtitles, of course). The bulk of the narration is made up from recent interviews with African American activists, and the point of view is definitely theirs.

B+ The Departed (2006), Balboa, Tuesday, 7:30pm

Martin Scorsese’s intense police thriller, and his one big Oscar winner, carries you along like a river, offering fascinating characters, moral ambiguity, graphic violence, and surprising plot twists that heighten the suspense. A remake of the Hong Kong police thriller Infernal Affairs, it follows two undercover moles: one a cop pretending to be a gangster, the other a gangster pretending to be a cop. It’s full of plot holes, but you probably won’t notice them until you’re leaving the theater.

B+ Fight Club (1999), Roxie, First showing February 9

25th Anniversary! This is one strange and disturbing flick. Edward Norton wants to be Brad Pitt. Who wouldn’t? Pitt’s a free-spirited kind of guy and a real man. Besides, he’s shagging Helena Bonham Carter. On the other hand, he just might be a fascist. Or maybe…better not give away the strangest plot twist this side of Psycho and Bambi, even if it strains more credibility than a Fox News commentary. And Carter gets to say the most shocking and hilariously obscene line in Hollywood history.

Six Star Wars movies, 4-Star
I’m not going to review all the Star Wars movies. These films changed cinema for the better…but more for the worse. The first film, originally called Star Wars but eventually renamed A New Hope, was silly and extremely entertaining. The second, The Empire Strikes Back, takes the story into darker territory and makes the three heroes more complex people (which really isn’t saying all that much). The third, The Return of the Jedi, manages to balance between the lighter and darker aspects of the other two while heading towards a rousing happy ending. Read my two articles, Revisiting the original Star Wars trilogy and The Last of Star Wars.

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.

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