It’s already the last week of the film series this semester. Can you believe it?
GHOSTBUSTERS
1984. USA. Dir: Ivan Reitman. With Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray
105 min. Wednesday, Dec. 5. 8 p.m. $5
The week kicks off with this rare happy marriage of thrills, laughs, and spectacle. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and others gallivant around New York City, destroying phantoms and making jokes about it. Enlivened by Murray’s deadpan brilliance and some truly inspired set pieces, “Ghostbusters” endures as one of (relatively) recent Hollywood’s funniest crowd-pleasers. Also, its effects and jokes make it a movie that will benefit as much from the communal viewing experience as it will from the Goldsmith’s big screen.
ALICE
1988. Czech Republic. Dir: Jan Svankmajer. With Kristyna Kohutova
84 min. Thursday, Dec. 6. 8 p.m. FREE
Meet Jan Svankmajer. He’s one of the world’s leading animators, having spent the last few decades quietly crafting a bizarre, surrealistic, and utterly original world. He makes some unexpected objects come to life. One gets the sense that his studio must have something of a smell to it. “Alice” is his take on a certain Lewis Carroll book. But if that sounds somehow over familiar, rest assured that this introspective, grotesque little film is like nothing else out there. If Tim Burton’s sugary 2010 yawner was a big blue slushee, Svankmajer’s variation is a cloudy liquor of unknown origin. Bottoms up!
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
2012. USA. Dir: Christopher Nolan. With Christian Bale, Tom Hardy.
165 min. Friday, Dec. 7. 8 p.m. $5.
Have you heard about this movie? He wears a black cape and fights some guys. One of them is really buff and has a lot of tubes. I think Morgan Freeman was there too. I don’t know. You should check it out, maybe. It’s a gas.
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
1946. USA. Dir: Frank Capra. With James Stewart, Donna Reed.
130 min. Saturday, Dec. 8. 8 p.m. FREE
Yes, Christmas time is here again. But don’t put Capra’s best-known feature in a box with fake snow and mall Santas before you’ve taken the opportunity to see it on the big screen with fresh eyes. Jimmy Stewart stars as a man who has it very rough indeed, but with a bit of luck – and a touch of divine intervention – he might yet feel the holiday glow. Frank Capra was one of cinema’s smartest storytellers, an indefatigable optimist who understood warmth, harshness, and the relationship between the two. Come to the movies on Saturday, and he might yet get that Scrooge in you to loosen up.