Movie Blog: July Highlights: Hepburn, Keaton, Grier

The weather's been beastly hot for the last few days. Whether or not it stays that way through the rest of July, there are plenty of options at the Twin Cities' rep and art houses to keep you indoors and out of the sun.

With Roman Holiday playing at the Guthrie, the folks on the other side of the river -- the Film Society of Minneapolis-St. Paul -- thought it the perfect time to bring some of Audrey Hepburn's classic movies back to the big screen, including (yes) Roman Holiday.

This being summer, the series focuses on some of the lightest concoctions in her filmography (no Wait Until Dark here), like the happy-go-lucky version of Truman Capote's actually somewhat rougher Breakfast at Tiffany's, the Hitchcock-lite thriller Charade, and Billy Wilder's love hungover Sabrina. The only major gap in the line-up by my estimation is Stanley Donen's irresistible Two for the Road. Maybe next time.

All films will be playing at St. Anthony Main, along with the usual assortment of newer offbeat movies which, this month, include the Norwegian thriller Headhunters, father-and-son-on-the-lam Outback drama Last Ride, and Sacrifice, the newest film from Chen Kaige (most famous here for the Oscar-nominated Farewell My Concubine). More details here.

Meanwhile, over at the Trylon, they're scaling back their series to match your summery short attention span. That's right, the "Microseries" are (is?) back.

Each weekend in July will boast a different theme, represented by two films. In calendar order, they'll cover Coppola's Godfather epic (the first movie will mark the theater's first screening with their new HD projector), Francois Truffaut's noir movies based on the works of Cornell Woolrich, Buster Keaton classics with live musical accompaniment from Dreamland Faces, and imposing Blaxploitation star Pam Grier vehicles from both then (Foxy Brown) and ... well, a much newer then (Jackie Brown).

All this month, they're kicking off the work week with Monday and Tuesday screenings of local premieres (an ongoing series that represents one of the best opportunities Twin Cities cinephiles have to stay in sync with what's getting written up in Film Comment these days). This month's offerings include Juan of the Dead and A Simple Life (which technically aren't "premiering" here, as they were both selections at this year's MSPIFF, but why nitpick).

If that's not enough, you can also enjoy Trash Film Debauchery's July 25 presentation of Stephen King's laughable directorial debut, Maximum Overdrive, which is notable for pretty much two things: 1) the incongruous presence of Yeardly Smith (the voice of Lisa Simpson) and, 2) the blazingly bad taste choice to show a little leaguer getting mowed down by a steamroller. King has since admitted that he spent much of the '80s coked up, if that offers up any explanation.