May 12th 2016. Pick of the Day.
New York City's premiere resource for classic film screenings in the metropolitan area. Offering reviews, recommendations, venues and a host of links keeping classic film and the silver screens alive.
New and continuing series this day include the soon-to-expire Anna & Jean-Luc at Film Forum, Modern Matinees: Fifteen By Otto Preminger at MoMA, Labor of Love: 100 Years of Movie Dates at BAM CInématek, and Becoming Meryl Streep at IFC Center. The frivolous flicker be thus;
Film Forum
PIERROT LE FOU (1965) Dir; Jean-Luc Godard
BAND OF OUTSIDERS (1964) Dir; Jean-Luc Godard
MoMA
Modern Matinees: Fifteen By Otto Preminger
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM (1955) Dir; Otto Preminger
Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet
NOT RECONCILED (1964) Dirs; Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet
BAM Cinématek
Labor of Love: 100 Years of Movie Dates
SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (1961) Dir; Elia Kazan
Syndicated
FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH (1982) Dir; Amy Heckerling
BowTie Chelsea Cinema
SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER (1959) Dir; Joseph L. Mankiewicz
IFC Center
KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979) Dir; Robert Benton
Director Robert Benton in person!
Nitehawk Cinema
DERANGED: THE CONFESSIONS OF A NECROPHILE (1974) Dirs; Alan Ormsby & Jef Gillen
Today's Pick? If ya know me ya know Godard is never near the top of my list. So meh. Sinatra's perf in Preminger's heroin melodrama however, a sordid but brave exposé of an underground culture in its day, nearly snags my Pick. Benton's Kramer title card always brings a smile, but only because it served as the punch line to one of my friend's best jokes (DM me if ya want the exacts). And in the words of Don Corleone, Kazan, eh, Kazan...
No, there is a clear winner tonight. Teen comedies rarely arrive with knowing and assured direction and script. Most manage to achieve the heights scaled by the Tom Criuse vehicle LOSIN' IT (directed, and I say this with all seriousness and shame, by L.A. CONFIDENTIAL's Curtis Hanson) or Rob Rosenthal's ZAPPED! On very rare occasions we're gifted something like John Hughes' THE BREAKFAST CLUB, which managed to balance a type of 80's-era neorealism with a slapstick mentality that belonged more to Buster Keaton. No mean feat. Hovering just somewhere slightly beneath that rare ether came a film from the same decade that attempted to deal with late adolescent issues in a very adult manner, without losing any of the whimsy of being 17. Few films possess the power to transport you back to your teens. Fewer films possess the power to recreate that ache you felt in that era, the one that drove you from your youth in a mad dash to finally become a adult. The otherwise unfortunate Cameron Crowe, he of JERRY MACGUIRE and ALMOST FAMOUS and VANILLA SKY infamy, actually, at one point, provided some quality product in the celluloid arena. Later he'd do so with directorial debut SAY ANYTHING, an absolute and assured masterpiece. His first great contrib to the silver screen came as scribe, and it hasn't lost an ounce of its power to identify, explain, even define. Again, not many films may boast this ability. Which is why the surname Spiccoli will always be a thing. Trust me.
Amy Heckerling's FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH unspools at one of the city's newest and most attractive venues, Bushwick's SYNDICATED, which borrows the model already established by the Alamo Drafthouse and our very own Nitehawk Cinema by offering up food 'n booze 'n flicks all in the same instant. I'm just hoping they brought enough pizza for everybody.
For more info on these and all NYC's rep film screenings in May '16 click on the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. 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 soon with new Picks 'n perks, til then safe, sound, make sure the next knucklehead is too!
P. S. Winter's icy grip seems to have loosened on our fair metropolis, but milder weather aside some of our fellow NY'ers have still yet to be made whole in the wake of the 2012 storm. Should you be feeling charitable please visit the folks at OccupySandy.net, follow their hammer-in-hand efforts to restore people's lives, and donate/volunteer if you have the inclination and availability. Be a collective mensch, Stockahz!
