L.A. is the greatest place on earth to watch movies. Here are this week’s best picks.
1) Electra Glide in Blue/Drive at the New Beverly (FRIDAY 3/12, 7:30PM)
The Association of Moving Image Archivists Student Chapter at UCLA presents a super rad double feature Friday and Saturday night at the New Bev. Both shows are guaranteed to satisfy, as Drive co-star and all-around badass Ron Perlman is scheduled to appear at the Friday night show and Electra Glide in Blue writer Robert Boris is scheduled to appear during the Saturday night show. I haven’t seen Electra Glide in Blue, but IMDb tells me it’s about a motorcycle cop trying to come to grips with his place in society after coming back from the Vietnam war. How does that tie in with Drive? Is the Driver supposed to be a veteran, or just a quiet guy with a penchant for extreme violence? Those questions will be addressed in this intriguing double feature of a ’70s cult classic and a great recent film. Buy your tickets here.
2) The Sandlot at the Cinefamily (FRIDAY 4/12, MIDNIGHT)
If you’re my age, you probably grew up with Scotty, Squints, Ham, Yeah-Yeah, and Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez. And you probably have a very particular sense memory whenever you hear “Tequila” by The Champs. You know exactly who “The Beast” is and you probably still have a crush on Wendy Peffercorn. Don’t know what I’m talking about? It’s The Sandlot, ya L7 weenie! Cinefamily celebrates this Gen Y classic on its 20th anniversary with an awesome midnight screening. Prepare for a lot of quoting along and a lot of good memories courtesy of Squints himself (actor Chauncey Leopardi)! Come celebrate your long-lost, squandered youth with this retro flashback party. Buy your tickets here.
3) Upstream Color at Laemmle Theaters (opens FRIDAY 4/12 and runs all week)
Writer-director Shane Carruth will be doing an in-theater Q&A after the 4:20 and 7:10 screenings of his film Upstream Color at the Santa Monica Laemmle location. If you can’t make it out to either of these screenings, the film will also be playing in North Hollywood, Pasadena and Claremont. All the buzz on the film has been incredible, earning raves out of Sundance and re-invigorating interest in Carruth’s debut, the time travel puzzle film Primer. A hard film to describe (especially having not seen it yet), the IMDb synposis says, “A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives.” So, an ageless organism. And from the trailer, there looks to be a lot of stuff with pigs. Guess we’ll all have to see it to understand. Buy your tickets here.
4) Safety Last! at the LACMA (THURSDAY 4/18, 7:30PM)
A new surge of appreciation for Harold Lloyd’s comic genius has resulted in a plethora of news for silent comedy fans, including the release of Safety Last! on a new Criterion Blu-Ray. It’s this digitally remastered, 90th anniversary DCP that will be screening Thursday at the LACMA. The iconic image of Lloyd hanging off the hands of a clock has never looked better! The screening will include a discussion with Harold’s granddaughter and curator of the Harold Lloyd estate, Suzanne Lloyd. Buy your tickets here.
5) Undercover Man/So Dark the Night at the Egyptian (THURSDAY 3/18, 7:30PM)
The Film Noir Foundation and Noir City present this double feature of Joseph H. Lewis films noir. Although not a super well-known name even amongst film fans, Lewis directed two of the greatest films noir, 1950’s Gun Crazy and 1955’s The Big Combo. Undercover Man and So Dark the Night are two of his lesser seen noirs, the latter not available on DVD. The former stars Glenn Ford as a T-Man who goes undercover to bust an Al Capone-like criminal on tax evasion. The second film is set in the French countryside, when two young lovers go missing, a vacationing police detective gets involved in their recovery–with deadly results! Buy your tickets here.
If you make it out to any of these screenings, let us know how it went in the comments section. Happy viewing, Los Angeles!
