FRIDAY (2/10). ALIEN. 8 p.m. GOLDSMITH FAMILY CINEMA.
By Anna Rabinovitch
For those of you who’ve seen James Cameron’s pumped up war-film-in-space, “Aliens,” the original “Alien” is completely different. Combining and reworking the slasher and sci-fi film, director Ridley Scott (“Blade Runner,” “Gladiator”) creates an intensely thrilling and atmospheric venture. Sexual anxiety pervades, embodied by the famously phallic-looking aliens with wet, dripping vaginal mouths. The original 1979 trailer incited viewers with the tagline: “In space no one can hear you scream.”
“Alien” is a frightening film, whose thrills derive from the wonderful element of suspense that so many recent horror films lack. Scott restricts visual access to the parasitic creature, á la Jaws, so that it is what we don’t see on the screen that produces the horror. Scott builds up to that horror through an intensely atmospheric mood created from the pacing and set design.
That’s not to say that there aren’t some of the most shockingly scary moments in film history, including an alien exploding from a man’s chest, which I guarantee will make you have nightmares for weeks. This is a classic that if you haven’t seen, you should, and if you have, you should see it on the big screen.
SATURDAY (2/11). IT’S ONLY MONEY. 8 p.m. FREE. GFC.
Alert. You have been brainwashed by mainstream culture. Alert. A Jerry Lewis comedy is not an orgy of idiocy. Jerry Lewis is a comic genius. He goes from madcap to meta, deadpan to delicious at a pin’s drop. Get educated with “It’s Only Money.”
WEDNESDAY (2/15). JUNEBUG. 8 p.m. GFC.
By Anna Rabinovitch
I have to be honest here: as a huge “O.C.” fan, I went to see “Junebug” in theaters mainly for Ben McKenzie (star of “The O.C.”) plays a supporting role in the film. But getting that out of the way, I will say that what I found was a little gem of a film that deserves recognition for its sincerity and sensibility. The film is about an estranged son who returns to his small hometown in North Carolina to visit his family with his sophisticated, gallery owner wife. The story sounds like it could be an over-the-top melodrama, but this film is anything but. It subtly and poignantly explores family dynamics, tensions within a marriage, and the clash of people from different cultures.
Director Phil Morrison’s minimalist style allows the actors to fully portray the complexities and contradictions of their characters. Amy Adams won a Sundance prize for acting, and Ben McKenzie gives a surprisingly earnest performance (and I must admit, looks pretty hot, even with a mustache).
THURSDAY (2/16). IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. 8 p.m. FREE.
By Anna Rabinovitch
“Mood” is an amazing film and, blessedly, the most accessible of director Wong Kar Wai. His non-linear films are an acquired taste. (Editors Note: But so is soda! You didn’t drink it when you were a baby because the little bubbles bothered your itsy bitsy mouth. Now, you love it).
The stories are fastened together by a delicate style and evocative mood. Set in Hong Kong in 1962, actors Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are neighbors who discover that their spouses are having an affair. The two initially encounter each other only when they pass in the hall or on the stairs and their behavior begins very formal. Leung and Cheung become cautious friends, and consider starting a love affair themselves. The repressive interaction of these two characters and their feelings is so erotic that a simple greeting in the hallway is transformed into a form of foreplay. Wong infuses into each frame intense color and passion; his cinematic world reveals that it is not about what is spoken but rather what is shown that counts. It is the visual potency of style and gesture that makes this film one of the sexiest, tragic, and intoxicating you’ll see.
(Should also be noted: “2046” on Friday the 17th is a continuation of this film and it is an awesome thing to see them sequentially in big screen living color)
MIDNIGHT MOVIE!!!! SATURDAY (2/11), 12 a.m. FREE. GFC
THE WARRIORS
“West Side Story” meets “Assault from Precinct 13” in this urban dystopian masterpiece. The Warriors, a bunch of dudes who kill stuff, are just trying to make it back to their digs in Coney Island alive. Unfortunately, every gang in the city wants them dead. You have your depraved mime gang, your Prohibition-era mobster gang, your frothing at the mouth hillbilly gang, your Buddhist monk gang, your skinhead gang, your lesbians that pack heat gang and rollerblades!!!
Glorifying gang violence never was so glorious. Come see the New York’s most notorious midnight movie of the new century.
SPECIAL EVENT. TUESDAY (2/14). 7:30 p.m.
WESLEYAN ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL: BROKEN WINGS.
The Festival kicks off even tastier than milk and honey with “Broken Wings” on Tuesday. The star of the film, Maya Maron, will speak at the screening.
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