July 5th 2014. Pick of the Day.

Happy July 5th, the little known and severely underloved younger calendar sibling to the government-sanctioned, corporate-sponsored behemoth that is Independence Day. Or yesterday, if you're into the whole brevity thing. While not as augured as its flashier, more commercial older bro, and yes that's a partially fair designation as it wasn't fast enought to the pens of Jefferson, Paine, Adams et al, it is the calm serene solace that represents the end of chaos and disorder. And yes, while this quietude has gone from once following our Revolutionary War, to now waking the aftermath of Macy's fireworks display and Joey Chestnut's competitive hot dog vomit, our gratitude for a day of recuperation remains as hearty and healthy lo these 238 years hence. Our constitutions both federal and individual remain intact. The former maybe moreso.

So on this perfect Saturday of nothing-to-do-ness, let's explore our options on NYC's beloved rep film circuit. Today's continuing series include Time Regained: Cinema's Present Perfect at IFC Center, See It Big! Science Fiction (Part Two) at Museum of the Moving Image, Big Screen Epics at BAM Cinématek's Harvey Theater, and The Sir Run Run Shaw trib screening as part of the 2014 NYC Asian Film Fest at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The tomfoolery looks thus;

Nitehawk Cinema

JAWS (1975) Dir; Steven Spielberg

THE SEXUALIST (1973) Dir; Kemal Horulu

Film Forum

A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (1964) Dir; Richard Lester

IFC Center

BRIGADOON (1954) Dir; Vincente Minnelli

THE 400 BLOWS (1959) Dir; François Truffaut

THE LOCKET (1946) Dir; John Brahm

CITIZEN KANE (1941) Dir; Orson Welles

TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (1991) Dir; James Cameron

JAWS (1975) Dir; Steven Spielberg

Museum of the Moving Image

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) Dir; Stanley Kubrick

BAM Cinématek

JAWS (1975) Dir; Steven Spielberg

Film Society of Lincoln Center

THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN (1967) Dir; Chen Chiang

Landmark Sunshine Cinema

WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? (1988) Dir; Robert Zemeckis

Today's Pick? When Stanley Kubrick set his unpredictable sights on the science fiction genre, following a pair of equally controversial films, 1962's LOLITA and 1964's DR. STRANGELOVE, that some feel were the first worthy of the monicker Kubrickian, it began as a mildy ambitious attempt to adapt a short story by the prolific Arthur C. Clarke, titled The Sentinel. It was a slim tale, focusing on an extraordinary archaelogical dig on the moon, wherein a foreign object is uncovered and, after contact is made, a piercing radio signal is transmitted deep into space, ostensibly to the item's owner. Whether it portended interspecies contact optimitsic or ominous was left to the reader. The contact was the point. And it was imminent.

What also seemed imminent during that tense decade was the very real possiblity of worldwide nuclear conflict. Kubrick had tackled that dread in his prior effort, daring to produce a comedy on the topic that would allow audiences some slight release from the looming scare. Following that film's success, and emboldened by box office results, and energy and imagination seemingly inexaustible, Kubrick launched full bore into his work of future speculative fiction, picking the brains of NASA scientists, pulp authors and design wizards. What initially began as a modestly budgeted 6 million dollar gamble, for a genre rarely afforded more than B-movie money or respect, almost doubled to 10.5 mil and went a year and a half over schedule. When it was released in April '68, audiences had changed; the Cold War raged on red hot still, but a new peacenik movement had bloomed in the meantime, the Hippies. After a lukewarm opening and a wildly divided reception from critics worldwide, the film's chances seemed middling at best. Until this new social dropout crowd embraced the film, and it, like EASY RIDER the year before, became the go-to-freakout for the LSD counterculture. Things had shifted that fast in 4 years; Kubrick went from blackly comic social elite to prophet for the Woodstock generation. And yet he himself hadn't changed, it just seemed like the world was following his instincts from film to film. He'd gone from reader of the zeitgeist to its informer.

As for the film itself I'll simply give you my take; if LOLITA is dark scalding farce directed at American consumerist culture and STRANGELOVE inclusively mocks our desire for self-eradication, then Kubrick's majestic, balletic space opera is the closest thing to a love letter the man ever wrote to the human race. It is the one instance of the filmmaker ever suggesting that we are better than our mistakes, superior to the machinations we have designed against ourselves, and, indeed, worthy of survival and even evolution. A routine stroll through Staten Island might've changed his tune on that issue, but let's be glad the boy was born in the Bronx. Hope springs eternal there.

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY screens today at 3pm and 6:30pm at Astoria's Museum of the Moving Image. Yes, a ride on the Discovery One is so much more desirable than the R train, but it also costs less. And its doors open. Mostly.

For more info on these and all NYC's remaining classic film screenings in July '14 click on the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. For the monthly overview and other audio tomfoolery check out the podcast, and follow me on SoundCloud! For reviews of contemporary cinema and my streaming habits (keep it clean!) check out my Letterboxd page. And be sure to follow me on both Facebook, where I provide further info and esoterica on the rep film circuit and star birthdays, and Twitter, where I provide a daily feed for the day's screenings and other blathery. Back tomorrow with a brand new Pick, til then my origin and purpose, still a total mystery.

-Joe Walsh

JoeW@NitrateStock.net

P. S. Even though we're coming into the summer months and therefore not often as mindful of the displaced, some of our fellow NY'ers are yet to be made whole since Hurricane Sandy hit nearly two years ago. Check in with the good folks at Occupy Sandy to see if you can't still volunteer/donate to our neighbors in need. Be a mensch.