Popcorn & Candy: Float Like a Butterfly...
DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
Repertory: The Great Punch-Out: A Hard Hitting Week of Boxing at the Pickford Theater
Those of you with an interest in the pugilistic arts may want to camp out at the Library of Congress next week. The library is doing a series of boxing features, shorts, and classic fights that lasts all week long. There's a gem each and every night. On Monday, it's Humphrey Bogart's final role in The Harder They Fall, as a sportswriter who uses his position to promote a fighter who can't really fight, a scathing look at media influence and fixing fights. Tuesday, the feature is Robert Wise's The Set-Up, but the real attraction may be a rare opportunity to see Stanley Kubrick's first film, the 1951 documentary short The Day of the Fight (pictured) on the big screen. Wednesday and Thursday there are Jim Jacobs-directed documentaries on two of the greatest fighters ever, Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammed Ali. As a prelude to Wednesday's feature, Robinson's 1951 championship bout with Jake LaMotta (the inspiration for Raging Bull) will be screened. Wrapping things up on Friday is a series of shorts featuring some of histories biggest fighters in their biggest fights, including Gene Tunney, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano, among others.
Monday through Friday at the Library of Congress' Mary Pickford Theatre. Times and programs vary. Tickets are free, for reservations call (202) 707-5677.
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Special Event: Latin American Film Festival
For the next three weeks, the AFI Silver Theater plays host to the 18th Annual Latin American Film Festival (with Spain and Portugal thrown in there for good measure), which showcases over 30 films, including popular favorites from other film festivals, features, documentaries, and short subjects, and Best Foreign Language Film Oscar submissions from both Cuba and Bolivia.
At the AFI Silver Theatre until next Friday. Full schedule and descriptions of the selections here and here.
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Acclaimed Dutch documentarian Heddy Honigsmann takes her camera (a 35mm film camera, a rarity anymore among documentary filmmakers, it should be noted) into Paris' famed Père Lachaise cemetery to examine the relationship between the dead and their visitors. Forever showcases the stories and memories of the living she finds wandering among the dead, becoming a celebration of life, both those she talks to and those now gone. Père Lachaise, resting place of many artists, also allows Honigsmann to discuss the eternal nature of art, and how those buried there continue to affect the living long after their deaths.
Opens this Friday for a one-week run at E Street Cinema.
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Major Release: Across the Universe
Julie Taymor's Beatles musical opened in limited release last weekend, and expands all over the area tomorrow. It's been beset by problems, as the studio was initially unhappy with her cut of the film and created (without telling her) their own edit that differed radically enough that Taymor threatened to disown the project. Reportedly, the settled their differences and the cut that is reaching theatres is Taymor's, though some are suggesting her vision could have used a little tempering. Then again, some are declaring it a crowning achievement, so you be the judge. The story, which even most of the positive reviews admit is a little thin, centers on a love story that crosses over cultural and class lines set against the backdrop of tumultuous world events. All, of course, set to the music of the Fab Four. The question may be whether Taymor's spectacular theatrical visual sense will be enough to win over those who are likely to find the story and the candy-coated counter-culturalism to be a little on the trite side. But this is likely the sort of thing you'll be able to look at a trailer and tell immediately if you're going to be able to get into it or not, so if you're in that camp, you already know who you are, and have probably already seen, or made plans to see the film. If not, Eastern Promises is expanding to more theaters this weekend as well.
View the trailer.
Now playing at Georgetown and Bethesda Row, expands to a number of other area theaters on Friday.
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Indie: December Boys
Admit it. You're curious. You clicked through on all those links to see a scantily clad Daniel Radcliffe when he made his Equus debut on the London stage. And now you want to see him in the sort of sex scene to which you were really hoping that kiss with Cho Chang in Order of the Phoenix was leading. Or maybe you just wanted to see if young master Radcliffe could act without a wand in hand. In his first non-Potter film role since he first grasped the Sorcerer's Stone, Radcliffe plays Maps, one of four Australian orphans hoping to find a family, learning about life, friendship and love along the way. Fair warning: December Boys is reportedly every bit the sort of treacly and maudlin stuff that description suggests, and probably wouldn't get a second glance if not for its magical lead boy. But we're sure that curiosity will still get the better of some of you.
View the trailer.
Opens Friday at Dupont Circle.