L.A. is the greatest place on earth to watch movies. Here are this week’s best picks.
1) Easy Rider/Five Easy Pieces/The Last Detail at The Egyptian (SATURDAY 3/9, 7:30PM)
This epic triple feature is essential viewing for any fans of New Hollywood cinema and especially fans of that era’s biggest star, Jack Nicholson. All three films are screened as part of the American Cinematheque’s On The Road: Cinematic Journeys series which runs through the entire month of March. Capturing the era’s anti-establishment mentality and shiftless nomadic quality, this program gives incite into a small window in Hollywood where legitimate counter-culture filmmakers dominated the cinematic landscape. Buy your tickets here.
2) Looper/Brick at The New Beverly (MONDAY 3/11, 7:30PM)
In less than a decade, Rian Johnson has established himself as the most exciting new filmmaker to come out Hollywood in years (and not just because we think so). Now the New Bev is giving the uninitiated a look at 2/3rds of the burgeoning auteur’s body of work. 2006’s Brick is a much-buzzed about detective yarn in the style of noir authors Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, but set in a modern suburban high school. Johnson’s latest flick Looper is a sci-fi mind-bender that builds its alternate reality with the real-world believability of genre classics like Blade Runner. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Bruce Willis, the film’s worth checking out for the makeup job and JGL’s Willis impression alone. Buy your tickets here.
3) The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp at The Cinefamily (TUESDAY 3/12, 7:45PM)
Presented in glorious 35mm from a restored print, this screening of Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger’s sprawling classic is a must-see event. Shot in gorgeous Technicolor during the height of that process and release in the midst of World War II, Colonel Blimp is both a stunning visual achievement and a savvy piece of wartime propaganda. The film begins during WWII where we’re introduced to the elderly title colonel, then flashes back to the beginning of the century where we meet him as a young officer newly returned from fighting in South Africa. The film chronicles his friendship and love for a German officer and his British wife, then traces their journeys through WWI as their paths cross and diverge again and again. Over the course of forty years (and more than two and a half hours), Powell & Pressburger reveal the pathos and strength of the main characters with the deftness of true master storytellers. Don’t miss this one. Buy your tickets here.
4) Aliens at Arclight Hollywood (WEDNESDAY 3/13, 8PM)
Now here is a movie you really want to see in the ‘Dome. James Cameron’s best movie by a country mile, Aliens is the perfect action movie set against the sci-fi framework established by Ridley Scott in Alien. Having recently seen Aliens with a rabid, late-night audience, I can tell you what a pleasure it is to see in theaters, on the big screen. And trust me, you won’t be alone in quoting the dialogue of your favorite characters. “I can drive that loader,” indeed, Ripley. Indeed. Buy your tickets here.
5) The Sadist at The Cinefamily (WEDNESDAY 3/13, MIDNIGHT)
Featuring one of the all-time slimiest, most villainous performances in a low budget gem by Arch Hall, Jr., The Sadist is a drive-in treasure. This midnight screening is the perfect venue to exalt in the film’s trashiest dialogue and most outrageous, exploitation plot twists. Hall, Jr. plays a thug who terrorizes travelers at a gas station and the whole thing is filmed like a one-act play. Featuring an above average script by writer/director James Landis and cinematography by future superstar lenser Vilmos Zsigmond, The Sadist is a must-see for fans of B-exploitation pictures. The story itself is based on the true exploits of teenage spree killers Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate, predating Terrence Malick’s Badlands by a decade. 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!
