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

The Edukators

The truest sign that a film has managed to give a balanced treatment to divisive issues is if people on both sides accuse it of pandering. Such was the case with The Edukators, a fantastic, rough-edged film that came out of Germany in 2004. The plot concerns a trio of would-be bohemian revolutionaries: the boys enjoy messing with authority by breaking into bourgeois houses and rearranging furniture while leaving cryptic, vaguely threatening notes. The girl attends protests, and rails on about the unfairness of the fat cat whose Mercedes she smashed, and who is now squeezing her for recompense. But when their causes come together and they try to pull their break-in stunt on the middle-aged square Mercedes owner, he comes home and the three panic and kidnap him, only to find that he's a former radical like themselves.

The film met criticism from leftists who felt that it reinforced the idea that conformity is the natural result of age and good sense, and conservatives who felt that it was too sympathetic to its wide-eyed and foolish young agitators. Both sides take a myopic view of a film that actually refuses to take either side, instead insisting that things aren't really so black and white — a stance that in this day and age is pretty much radical itself. But beyond all the philosophizing and political debate (which, to be fair, does get a bit long winded in the film's second act), The Edukators is actually an energized thrill, a movie full of engaging plot, affecting emotion, and provoking ideas.

View the trailer.
Monday evening at the Goethe-Institut at 6:30 p.m. $6.

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TOTALLY AWESOME 2: MORE FILMS OF THE 1980s

Last year's collection of '80s classics at the AFI was so popular that the theater has put together another installment for 2008. Get set for a deliciously campy summer. The fun starts tomorrow with The Goonies, and continues with 20 memorable and lovably dated films from the decade. There's great visual fantasy like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth; highly quotable classics from "Nobody puts Baby in a corner," to "demented and sad, but social," to "I WANT MY TWO DOLLARS!!!!"; a few dark sci-fi titles that tested the limits of Hollywood's dry ice supplies (The Thing, Aliens, Poltergeist); and underappreciated cult hits like They Live and Near Dark.

Their biggest score, though? Two late-night screenings next weekend of Ladies and Gentlemen: The Fabulous Stains, a punk-rock classic that has never seen the light of day on home video aside from bootleg copies taped from infrequent basic cable airings over the years (though it will thankfully finally see an official release in September). The movie is full of actors who would go on to be stars of various levels, including Diane Lane, Laura Dern, and Brent Spiner, featured cameos by members of The Clash, The Sex Pistols and The Tubes, and was co-scripted by Jonathan Demme. Aside from all that, it's a little slice of low budget grrl rock heaven. Don't wait for this one to be available to your Netflix queue.

Kicks off tomorrow at the AFI with Goonies, and runs through September. See schedule for full listing.

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Jaws

There are blockbusters, and then there's the original blockbuster. Star Wars may have changed event movies forever, but it was Jaws, two years earlier, that really showed the true potential of a film to become a commercial juggernaut. The film is practically unmatched in pop culture influence; I once met a girl who quoted the "need a bigger boat" line without having ever seen the movie or being aware where it came from. Go to a beach anywhere in the world and start humming the theme music and see how quickly people get twitchy. What gets lost in its pervasive influence sometimes is just how brilliant a piece of pure entertainment it is. Sure, we all know the shark is mechanical now, and its jerky motion almost looks quaint in the digital age, but there's a beautiful simplicity in this fish tale that never fails to thrill, even when you've seen the movie enough times to know the exact split second that porker is going to rise up through Chief Brody's chum line.

Jaws kicks off a retrospective of the films of Steven Spielberg, concentrating on the first two decades of his career, including less-discussed early gems like Duel and Sugarland Express that have actually aged quite well.

View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow and plays almost every day for the next week at the AFI. See schedule for showtimes.

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Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

We loved Alex Gibney's documentary on Hunter S. Thompson when it premiered at SILVERDOCS a couple of weeks ago. And judging from the response of the packed house in the AFI's Silver theatre, we weren't alone. It helps when your subject is as wildly charismatic as Thompson, but Gibney continues his already stellar track record as a documentarian by knocking this one out of the park. He succeeds in making a film that is both informational and inspiring, with enough background to pull in those unfamiliar with the good Doctor and enough Gonzo antics to satisfy his legions of fans. With Thompson's spiritual doppelgänger Johnny Depp on board to narrate from Thompson's own writings, Gibney allows the dearly departed to essentially tell his own story, and pulls no punches in painting a portrait of a man who was loved despite his many public imperfections.

View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at E Street Cinema and Shirlington.

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Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts

Scott Hicks, the director of Shine, returned to the realm of fact-based classical music filmmaking with this documentary about probably the most famous living composer of orchestral & art music in the world. By all accounts, Hicks' documentary suffers from lack of personality, both in the film, and in its subject. As documentary subjects go, the pleasant, down to earth, and rather insular Glass could probably not be more different from the subject of the documentary mentioned immediately above this. Still, as famous as Glass is, there is remarkably little material on film about him, probably owing in large part to the aforementioned insular nature. But for those interested in Glass the man, separate from his music, this film would seem to at least be a good starting point.

View the trailer.
Tomorrow at 3 p.m. and Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art's East Building Auditorium.