DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

The common knock against Frank Capra is that his films are sappy, sentimental pieces in which the American Dream always prevails. The good guys and bad guys are always clearly defined, and the iron-clad morality of the former always trumps the latter. But who can really blame the guy? That's the way things panned out for Capra, who pretty much lived out the clichés his critics claimed were unrealistic propaganda. To be fair, despite their happy endings, his heroes never had an easy road to get there. And the evil and ugly forces that stood in the way were just as much a part of Capra's America as his idyllic view that any adversity could be overcome with hard work and good intentions.

And nowhere is that dual view of the shortcomings and possibilities of this country put more explicitly on display than in 1939's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, which earned the filmmaker yet another Best Director nomination (Mr. Smith had the misfortune of going up against Gone With the Wind that year, so he wasn't able to add to the three he'd already won). The film also served as the star-making vehicle for Jimmy Stewart, who plays a young scout leader chosen by a corrupt governor to fill out the term of a deceased Senator. The political machine back in his state figure they're installing a pushover, but when he tries to actually do some good, they attempt to steamroll him, leading up to a filibuster on the Senate floor that is as inspiring as it is fantastical. But since cynicism about the ability of Congress to actually work for the public good is never in short supply, the film's wildly optimistic take on the potential of government has never grown dated or stale. And while the film is screening as part of the AFI's excellent program of films celebrating Jimmy Stewart's centennial (the actor was born 100 years ago this past Tuesday), it's always a good film to watch when the tiring rhetoric of election season is getting you down.

View the trailer.
At the AFI on Saturday and Monday at 1 p.m. Be sure to also check out The Philadephia Story, The Shop Around the Corner, and Destry Rides Again, three other great Stewart films playing this week.

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Standard Operating Procedure

The verbal worth of pictures was defined by a popular saying long ago, and the latest film from the highest profile documentarian short of Michael Moore seeks to squeeze every one of those thousand words from the infamous pictures that came out of Abu Ghraib. Errol Morris' forte has long been the interview, using unusual procedures and devices to coax the facts out of his subjects. In this case, he talks extensively with many of the soldiers in front of and behind the cameras (including Lynndie England) in an attempt to drill down into the situations, intentions, and policies that led to the images that shocked and angered so many. Morris' films are relentless in their search for deeper truths and explanations for sometimes inexplicable behavior, and often raise more questions than they answer. But his journeys are more interesting than most others' destinations, and we're curious to see just where he goes with this subject matter.

View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at E Street, Bethesda Row, and Shirlington.

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Wild River

We continue to be grateful that the Library of Congress has revived its regular film screenings at the Mary Pickford Theater. They have a talent over there for finding forgotten gems that simply can't be seen anywhere else, due to their being long out of print (or never released) on VHS and still not available in digital form. Next week their streak continues with a screening of a highly regarded but now obscure political work from director Elia Kazan, which addresses the clash of rural culture and technological progress that came with the Tennessee Valley Authority, as it tells the story of one particular landowner who steadfastly refuses to make way for a dam that will flood the land she lives on. In addition to having Kazan at the helm, the movie boasts a powerhouse cast including Jo Van Fleet as the landowner, Lee Remick as her granddaughter, and Montgomery Clift as the federal agent tasked with rousting Van Fleet. It's a shame this isn't available for home viewing, as few performances as the amazing Monty Clift graced us with before his early death, but at least the LOC is giving us this viewing opportunity.

Plays Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Library of Congress' Mary Pickford Theatre.

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Breathless

Few opening statements in film have been as loud or as ballsy as Jean-Luc Godard’s first film. As jarring to the status quo as first records by The Stooges, The Clash, or The Ramones, Breathless accomplished much the same thing as those albums: taking the familiar, slicing it up and then reassembling it into something wholly new and, in the context of the time, shocking as well. Godard’s reverence for Hollywood genre flicks might have made Breathless into nothing but hollow homage, with its rapid fire cultural reference points, if not for the fact that he blew genre conventions up with just as much love as he paid tribute to them. The plot is a fairly generic bit of pulp fiction; a reckless criminal on the run, the girl who must decide whether her love for him is more important than his being brought to justice. That Godard made something so revolutionary out of something so commonplace is just another part of the movie’s magic, as is the fact that the sheer audacity on display is still enough to get the pulse racing even now, nearly half a century after its release.

View the trailer.
Tonight through Monday at the AFI.

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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I'm throwing this in at the bottom since you obviously don't need me to tell you that it's out this week. No matter what else is recommended, chances are a substantial portion of you will find yourselves at a theater this weekend to catch the latest adventures of Dr. Jones. No judgment here, I'll be right there with you. I'm not going to summarize the plot; all I really know is that there's a crystal skull of some sort, probably contained in some ancient vault, and unless Indy gets it out of the hands of the wrong people, some really bad stuff is going to go down. Since the joy of the Indiana Jones movies is mostly contained in the edge-of-your-seat, can't-wait-to-see-what-happens-next thrill of the 1930s serials they pay homage to, reading up too much beforehand kind of spoils the fun. And yeah, Indy's an old man now, but I have a feeling once he dons the fedora and cracks the whip, no one is going to much care whether he seems more like Grandpa Jones than Doctor. I just thank Lucas and Spielberg for refraining from bring back Shortround as an adult.

View the trailer.
Now playing...well, pretty much anyplace with a projector.