Before I begin, I know what you’re all thinking – why should I even read on? After last week, hasn’t the Wesleyan Film Series reached the pinnacle of awesomeness? Isn’t there no place to go but down? Have you no mercy, Wesleyan Film Board? While these are all valid questions, faithful readers and fellow filmgoers, I can assuage your anxiety by saying that there is indeed more greatness to come on the film series. So take a deep breath, it will all be okay.

 

That said, there is also much to look forward to in theaters outside of our very own Goldsmith Family Cinema, as some of Tinseltown’s best and brightest are set to release new films this fall. First and foremost is Spike Jonze’s big-studio debut, the long-awaited “Where The Wild Things Are.” As the reigning king of ‘dirty surrealism’ in film, Jonze is bound to inject vivid visual vocabulary into this project, which opens on Oct.16. Next, the Coen brothers’ “A Serious Man,” which is set to be released on Oct. 2, has one of the most hilariously promising trailers in a while, and is bound to be another Coen classic. Soderbergh’s “The Informant,” out today, features a mustachioed Matt Damon, which alone should be enough incentive to see it. Finally, a film I’ve personally been looking forward to seeing is “The Road,” which is based on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name and directed by John Hillcoat (“The Proposition”). It’s a post-apocalyptic saga of a father and son battling the elements. 

 

Now that your appetite for coming films is comfortably whet, let me once again excite you with a preview of this week’s Film Series calendar. Get ready to travel to outer space, communist Cuba, the psychotropic American West, and grimy ’40s N’awlins, all without leaving sunny Middletown. 

 

STAR TREK

2009. USA. Dir J.J. Abrams. With Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto. 127 min.

TONIGHT, Sept. 18, 8p.m., $5

In what might be the most entertaining movie of the year so far (not to mention one of the most intelligently self-aware reflections on the sci-fi/action genre in recent memory), “Lost” creator J.J. Abrams constructs a tight, intricate, fun, ‘balls-to-the-wall’ action movie experience. The film manages to shake the nerdy ‘Trekkie’ stigma that formerly plagued the franchise (sorry, Shatner fans) and turn it into an intense popcorn flick that appeals to sci-fi dweebs and film fans alike. If the uber-abundant lens-flares and skull-rattling sound design haven’t permanently satisfied your senses after seeing it the first time, come see it again and “go where no man has gone before…”

 

SOY CUBA (I AM CUBA)

1964. Cuba/USSR. Dir. Mikhail Kalatazov. With Sergio Corrieri. 141 min.

SATURDAY, Sept. 18, 8 p.m., FREE

It is often difficult to separate art from artist, but in the case of this propaganda documentary—commissioned by the communist Soviet regime for Cuba—the pure and adulterated beauty of the work overcomes all, especially any radical political connotations. The seemingly never-ending tracking shots and expressive cinematography are enough to make any commie-hater turn red, even if just for two hours. This very virtuosity prompted filmmakers like Scorsese and Coppola to push for a restoration and re-distribution of this film in 2000—so it must be good. Whatever your political leaning, “Soy Cuba” will blow you away on the big screen.

 

DEAD MAN

1995. USA. Dir. Jim Jarmusch. With Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer. 121 min.

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 23, 8 p.m., $5

Last year’s screening of “El Topo” was a sensational introduction to the elite ‘trippy western’ genre, and “Dead Man” is indubitably a brilliant second installment. Hollywood rebel and acclaimed Indie auteur Jarmusch (“Stranger Than Paradise,” “Down By Law”), creates a wondrous black and white wasteland around a never-better Johnny Depp. Neil Young’s amazing score is the perfect aural backdrop to this twisted tale, which is peppered by equally poignant moments of brutality and beauty. Jarmusch’s delicate, intriguing portrayal of Native American culture here is also notable, and provides an intriguing flip-side to the surrealism and postmodernism that characterizes much of the film. Be you a fan of Depp’s swagger, Jarmusch’s filmic virtuosity, the great myth of the American West, or just a damn good time in general, mosey on over and be transformed.

 

PANIC IN THE STREETS

1950. USA. Dir: Elia Kazan. With Richard Widmark, Jack Palance. 93 min.

THURSDAY, Sept. 24, 8 p.m., FREE

The second chapter in the semester-long Elia Kazan Centennial Film Series takes us to the grungy, dark alleys of post-war New Orleans. The tense, tight narrative follows a police chief and a federal health officer as they scour the Big Easy in search of two murderers who may be infected with a deadly, contagious plague brought to the U.S. by their late victim—a race against an epidemic and towards justice. Kazan’s noir tendencies here give the film a visual style more advanced than that of his preceding films, and intense performances by Widmark and Palance (in his first-ever film role) mark this film as a watershed in both Kazan’s career and in the crime/thriller genre. “Panic in the Streets” is a flick as infectious as they come.