August 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.
Yo knuckleheads! I'm back with a missive concerning your well-earned cash and hard-earned time on this big blue marble spinning 'round the sun. In other words a Pick, which I understand has become a more and more elusive tchothcke to those of you who follow this site loyally, but the world has differing weights, both online and off, so if you'll bear with me I promise to still offer anywhere from 2-3 articles a week regarding the NYC rep film circuit. Plus the calendar. Plus the Twitter feed. Plus the Facebook page look, this is getting exhausting just typing about the workload, and I haven't even adressed the resumption of the podcast. Let's take easy steps, shall we? And begin with this entry. A quite good one at that, mesez.
New and ongoing series this day include the Fellini trib at IFC Center, Modern Matinees: Summer with Judy Holliday and Gaumont: Cinéma Pour Tout le Monde, both at MoMA, Joe Dante at the Movies at BAM Cinématek, and Cabaret Cinema at the Rubin Museum. The shimmering shenanigans be thus;
IFC Center
AMARCORD (1973) Dir; Federico Fellini
THE ABYSS (1989) Dir; James Cameron
Film Forum
SUDDEN FEAR (1952) Dir; David Miller
MoMA
Modern Matinees: Summer with Judy Holliday
BELLS ARE RINGING (1960) Dir; Vincente Minnelli
Gaumont: Cinéma Pour Tout le Monde
OH! QUE MAMBO (1959) Dir; John Berry
CITY OF WOMEN (1980) Dir; Federico Fellini
BAM Cinématek
THE BURBS (1988) Dir; Joe Dante
Williamsbridge Oval Recreation Center
E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) Dir; Steven Spielberg
Rubin Museum of Art
UP THE JUNCTION (1968) Dir; Peter Collinson
Nitehawk Cinema
NEAR DARK (1987) Dir; Kathryn Bigelow
Today's Pick? Well I've got a full week to choose the lesser-known but very promising noir on display at Film Forum, the Joan Crawford vehicle SUDDEN FEAR, so I can pass tht up for the moment. Just for the moment. Dante's black farce THE BURBS fared poorly in its day yet found a new life amongst film afficionados tuned to such dark antics. IFC Center hoists a pair of vastly different masterworks, with Fellini's AMARCORD and James Cameron's THE ABYSS, both unified by the common theme of beginning with the letter A. And I will never choose Tha Shpielz's entry into pop mediocrity, which led him to a lucrative wilderness period yet somehow stands as his most influential decade. Go figure. Nah, there's but one choice to make this day, which boasts sweltering heat, manners less than pristine, and genuine bloodthirst. It's NYC after all, ya spent a summer here?
Kathryn Bigelow's absolutely perfect NEAR DARK, which stood for a full two decades in my esteem as the greatest vampire film ever made, that is until Thomas Alfredson's LET THE RIGHT ONE IN unseated it, screens at the Witching Hour at BillyBurg's glorious Nitehawk Cinema. Still my fave new cinema in the 5 boroughs. Substitute tap root beer for human blood and you'll understand how I relate to this film's undead predators. And don't get me started on the tater tots. I don't wanna think about their equivalent. Maybe eyeballs? At best?
For more info on these and all NYC's rep film screenings in August '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. Summer's canine dusk-til-dawn's have soundly parked themselves over our fair metropolis like the giant saucers from INDEPENDENCE DAY, but warmer weather notwithstanding 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!
