Movie Blog: This Week's Best Bets
OK, I'll cop to a little mistake in last week's column. The screening I said would be happening on Thursday last week -- The Day the Earth Stood Still at the Heights Theater in Columbia Heights -- is actually scheduled for this week. So count that as a bonus screening option for this very crowded week.
Here are five suggestions for the next seven days:
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Monday, Sept. 17 & Tuesday, Sept. 18: [rec] 3: Genesis (Trylon Microcinema)
In what some corners regard as the most controversial act of revisionism this year, the popular [rec] series of Spanish horror movies steps out from behind the ersatz camcorder verite that marked the first two installments. Instead, the army of infected and angry souls crashes a wedding. In the end, it doesn't matter whether you like the third one or not. The fourth -- [rec] 4: Apocalypse -- is already in the works.
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Tuesday, Sept. 18 through Thursday, Sept. 20: Red Hook Summer (St. Anthony Main)
In the same way that it's always tough to tell which critics to trust whenever Oliver Stone releases a movie, you sort of have to take it on faith that a new Spike Lee joint will, at worst, still be worth playing the odds. Though I'm personally more looking forward to his forthcoming documentary on the making of Michael Jackson's Bad album, Lee's newest love letter to growing up Brooklyn has been getting reasonably enthusiastic reviews.
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Wednesday, Sept. 19: Found Footage Festival (Heights Theater)
Sometimes things remain lost for a reason, so common wisdom says. How many times has common wisdom led you toward the tedious, the middlebrow, or the non-offensively forgettable? Take a walk on the wild side with this year's collection of nutty found videos, hosted by Joe Pickett (The Onion) and Nick Prueher (The Late Show with David Letterman). As Handsome Boy Modeling School graduate Guido Sarducci exclaimed, "You won't be sorry for long."
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Thursday, Sept. 20: The Renegades: American Avant-Garde Film, 1960-1973 (Walker Art Center)
World class director Apichatpong Weerasethakul (whose Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and whose Tropical Malady is one of my favorite dozen or so movies since Y2K) personally selected the films that make up this 90-minute program of experimental movie classics, many of which he says inspired his elliptical, mystic films. Odds are, if you're into this sort of thing, the titles will be plenty familiar to you. But only fools would pass up another opportunity to screen George Kuchar's Hold Me While I'm Naked (SFW), Kenneth Anger's Invocation of My Demon Brother, or Paul Sharits' T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G. Fools, I tell you.
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Thursday, Sept. 20: Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live in Budapest (Riverview Theater)
Don't stop them now. Queen's epic 1986 concert (coming right on the heels of their legendary performance at Live Aid) is coming to the big screen for the first time, completely remastered and with 5.1 surround sweetening. People always forget just how many memorable hits Queen had. Do yourself the favorite of taking a reminder at Riverview this week.
