January 27th-31st: Demagogues, Dragons, and Da Da DaDaDa. Dig in.
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January '17, I would normally ask how you've already nearly passed, claim victory over your looming corpse, and revel i the idea that we inch ever closer to the Oscars, Exhibition Baeball, and that most beautiful arrival of all: spring. However, this year, seeing as 2016 came to a close with thunderous calamity and catastrophe, I can only offer the following: thank you 1st month of the calendar, thanks for being relatively kind. Yes, the great Mary Tyler Moore has recently departed, and that hurts, and while the weather outside has been mild, the weather inside, within our nation's borders, within our town squares and civic centers, within our living and dining rooms, indeed within our very selves, has been tempestuous, blustery, oppressive. So it is that the tables have turned, the winter of our souls has been met by a environment mild, perhaps because the world needed to balance the heat and friction and acidity of its human populace. Actually, it's mostly climate change, but yo, I never get to pat January on the back. So this one's for you, kiddo. Attaboy.
New and ongoing series this week include the Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese series at IFC Center and Moving Image, respectively; Modern Matinees: Le Grandi Donne and Eternal Bruce Lee at MoMA; Universal in the 70's: Part One at Metrograph; Film Forum Jr. at you guessed right Film Forum; and the eternally swank Cabaret Cinema at the Rubin Museum. The emulsified ebullience be thus;
Friday January 27th
IFC Center
DR. STRANGELOVE, or HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (1964) Dir; Stanley Kubrick
THE SHINING (1980) Dir; Stanley Kubrick
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) Dir; Stanley Kubrick
Film Forum
PANIQUE (1947) Dir; Julien Duvivier
MoMA
Modern Matinees: Le Grandi Donne
THE LEOPARD (196) Dir; Luchino Visconti
THE CHINESE CONNECTION (1972) Dir; Lo Wei
Metrograph
Universal in the 70's: Part One
TAKING OFF (1971) Dir; Milos Forman
New York Historical Society
THE SHINING (1980) Dir; Stanley Kubrick
Museum of the Moving Image
TAXI DRIVER (1976) Dir; Martin Scorsese
Landmark Jersey Loews
THE GREAT McGINTY (1940) Dir; Preston Sturges
DUCK SOUP (1933) Dir; Leo McCarey
Rubin Museum
RASHOMON (1950) Dir; Akira Kurosawa
Nitehawk Cinema
NIGHT ON EARTH (1991) Dir; Jim Jarmusch
NIGHTBREED (1990) Dir; Clive Barker
Today's Pick? It's been so long since we could share a laugh about graft, hucksterism, shysterism, nepotism, padding the ballot boxes, y'know, politics, that I cannot help but choose the great two-fer at that magnificent cathedral in Jersey City known as the Landmark Jersey Loews, a still-functioning movie palace from the Jazz age; Preston Sturges' THE GREAT McGINTY and Leo McCarey's retiring of the Marx jersey DUCK SOUP. I dare you to abject to that.
Saturday January 28th
IFC Center
DR. STRANGELOVE, or HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (1964) Dir; Stanley Kubrick
THE KILLING (1956) Dir; Stanley Kubrick
LOLITA (1962) Dir; Stanley Kubrick
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) Dir; Stanley Kubrick
THE SHINING (1980) Dir; Stanley Kubrick
Film Forum
PANIQUE (1947) Dir; Julien Duvivier
Museum of the Moving Image
NEW YORK, NEW YORK (1977) Dir; Martin Scorsese
RAGING BULL (1980) Dir; Martin Scorsese
Mid-Manhattan Library
MISTER BUDDWIG (1966) Dir; Delbert Mann
Metrograph
Universal in the 70's: Part One
DUEL (1971) Dir; Steven Spielberg
THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS (1974) Dir; Steven Spielberg
MoMA
GAME OF DEATH (1978) Dirs; Robert Clouse, Bruce Lee, Sammo Hung
THE BIG BOSS (1971) Dir; Lo Wei
THE WAY OF THE DRAGON (1972) Dir; Bruce Lee
Landmark Jersey Loews
CITIZEN KANE (1941) Dir; Orson Welles
Nitehawk Cinema
NIGHT ON EARTH (1991) Dir; Jim Jarmusch
NIGHTBREED (1990) Dir; Clive Barker
Today's Pick? Several temptations today, but the chance to catch three from the master of Jeet Kune Do, three that sit somewhat in the shadow of his most popular work, proves irresistable. Bruce Lee's debut feature THE BIG BOSS first set him front and center before the cameras; 1972's THE WAY OF THE DRAGON found him assuming control of his career as actor, writer and director; and GAME OF DEATH, finished after the martial artist auteur's premature demise, still offers some iconic screen work from the man who transformed the genre for global audiences. It's only a three-fer if you're a MoMA member, which you all are. Right? I mean, you are right? I mean, it's $85 a year, and you get full admission to what I hear is a perfectly good museum attached to their marvelous screening spaces. Look into it. And check the nunchucks at the door.
Sunday Januray 29th
Film Forum
ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN (1951) Dir; Charles Lamont
PANIQUE (1947) Dir; Julien Duvivier
VARIETY (1925) Dir; E.A. Dupont
IFC Center
DR. STRANGELOVE, or HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (1964) Dir; Stanley Kubrick
LOLITA (1962) Dir; Stanley Kubrick
BARRY LYNDON (1975) Dir; Stanley Kubrick
THE KILLING (1956) Dir; Stanley Kubrick
Museum of the Moving Image
NEW YORK, NEW YORK (1977) Dir; Martin Scorsese
RAGING BULL (1980) Dir; Martin Scorsese
Metrograph
Universal in the 70's: Part One
FRENZY (1972) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
TWO-LANE BLACKTOP (1971) Dir; Monte Hellman
MoMA
ENTER THE DRAGON (1973) Dir; Robert Clouse
THE CHINESE CONNECTION (1972) Dir; Lo Wei
Today's Pick? I finally saw Martin Scorsese's 70's Hollywood statement on 40's and 50's Hollywood musicals only a few years ago, and while I liked the effort overall, and think it an interesting experiment, a fusion between modern method/neorealist technique with old school Technicolor Americana, my big nag with the film was that it should've been an out & out musical itself. So many sequences begged for a musical interlude not diegetic. After seeing Damien Chazelle's LA LA LAND, I felt the newer scamp kicking the heels of the industry's tires might have, just maybe, solved the puzzle Scorsese couldn't, as it veers between throwback cinema panache and contempo serious relationship study. So what better time to revisit Scorsese's NEW YORK, NEW YORK, screening at Museum of the Moving Image as part of their retrospective of the director's ouevre. It screens in 35mm, it boasts the damndest romance and example of screen chemistry twixt De Niro and Minnelli, and it has that song. Filmed unforgettably. Do yourself a favor and catch a flawed masterwork in venue intended. Start spreadin' tha nah I'm not gonna say it.
Other notable screenings this week include director/star Peter Fonda's follow-up to his overwhelming EASY RIDER success, 1971's THE HIRED HAND, Monday the 30th at Metrograph as part of the series Universal in the 70's: Part One; and the new 4K resto of Michael Curtiz's master melodrama MILDRED PIERCE, a forever marriage twixt role and star Joan Crawford, and one of the great 3-Kleenex noirs of all time, unfolding at IFC Center this Tuesday the 31st. And that, as they sez, is that.
Once again, there you have it, my picks and pontifications regarding your next 7 days' worth of rep filmgoing! We'll check in again a week from now, in the early days of a whole new spin 'round the sun, for the purposes of once more rummaging through the reels and making the tough yet wonderful choices regarding our chosen love. Til then be sure to follow me on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, and be SURE to catch my new YouTube channel, Nitrate Stock TV, where I'll be checking in at screenings all over the city and giving my 2 cents on the film, the venue, the audience, any damn thing that comes to my mind. Which, as some of ya know, can be quite entertaining. . Til next time Stockahz, remember: be safe, be sound, and make sure the next guy and gal are too. Excelsior!
- Joe Walsh
P. S. As you know I like to beat the drum for what I consider worthwhile causes. Xenophobia has sadly always been present in our country, mostly dormant, but at times very awoken and tangible. Sadly, the latter is the present case, and the subject of Syrian refugees has become a veritable powderkeg. To those of you who believe we can aid these people, our fellow human beings who are desperate for our help, I suggest the heroic efforts of the good men and women at DoctorsWithoutBorders. They're providing boots-on-the-ground relief, everything from surgery and medicine to clean water. It's a small something to be sure in this maelstrom of madness, but it is just that: something.
