DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Blow-Up Michelangelo Antonioni made three English-language films during the course of his career. These three were made from 1966-1975, as part of a contract with MGM undoubtedly designed to try to cash in on his popularity in the foreign art-house circles by making some higher-profile pictures with bigger English and American stars. And it worked with... [continue]

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Reds This week at Popcorn & Candy we bring to a close our completely unintentional three week series of leading with Communism-linked films. And Warren Beatty's career-peak Reds is a fitting trilogy conclusion, as it combines elements from both featured films of the last two weeks. Reds and Zhivago share a common setting (the Russian Revolution)... [continue]

Good morning, D.C. We hope you're not too groggy from staying up into the wee hours watching the inexhaustible analysis of last night's two big speeches from the Democratic National Convention. And we hope you weren't playing any drinking game that involved a shot for every time a pundit brought up the Huxtable family; if so, you'll undoubtedly be nursing a nasty hangover. Are the talking heads working off the same pop culture reference cheat... [continue]

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Trumbo While not necessarily a household name when it comes to American patriots, novelist and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo earned the title. Caught squarely in the House Un-American Activities Committee's crosshairs during the early days of the red scare, Trumbo was one of ten industry figures jailed for refusing to give testimony before the committee. At a... [continue]

Good news for all those who've lamented the unavailability of high quality, unrestricted digital content from D.C.'s most storied independent record label. Dischord Records' catalog has been available via the iTunes store and some other online sources for a few years now, but those recordings were most often only available at relatively low 128 kbps quality, and contained all the usual DRM restrictions. Not only that, in many of those stores a Dischord track cost... [continue]

"Revolution girl style now!" Most of the girls who took the stage at the 9:30 Club early in the day on Saturday weren't yet born 17 years ago when that rallying cry kicked off the International Pop Underground Festival and gave a name to Bikini Kill's first record. But if the exuberance onstage and in the crowd was any indication, the spirit of that revolution is still going strong. Saturday's showcase was the culminating event... [continue]

We love to pick apart our ranking in the multitude of lists on which our fair city appears. A new one came out today: StubHub, the online ticket marketplace, has compiled a list of the 20 "Most Rockin'" cities in America for 2008, based on summer ticket sales. Out of 90 cities in the ticket sellers' database, D.C. came in 18th. Not too bad, we suppose, and all the cities that came in ahead of... [continue]

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Doctor Zhivago My earliest distinct memory of seeing a movie in a theater is at the age of four or five. Was it the latest from Disney, or maybe a Lucas space opera? No, it was Doctor Zhivago, which was showing at the local college. Whether or not my mother—or the lack of a ready babysitter—can... [continue]

First things first. Let's get this whole controversy bit out of the way. Ben Stiller's Hollywood action satire, Tropic Thunder, has drawn the ire of a number of groups representing the mentally disabled. The offense is taken at a plot point which has Stiller's Tugg Speedman, an action hero desperate to be taken seriously, playing a character in the mold of Sean Penn's in I Am Sam. Speedman's performance in this past role is a... [continue]

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Man on Wire When I was eight, I visited the Grand Canyon with my mother, and the only way I'd get up to the edge was on hands and knees. If I went today, the result would probably be the same. You never know when a stray wind is going to whip up and cast you... [continue]

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. The Apartment There's a scene early on in The Apartment where Jack Lemmon's C.C. Baxter is talking to the object of his affection, a certain Miss Kubelik, an elevator operator at his office played by Shirley MacLaine. Baxter reveals that his position at the insurance company they work for allows him access to employee files, and... [continue]

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. The Parallax View This week in Popcorn & Candy, what's old is new again. We've got Cold War satire that's just as appropriate now, a TV series that was at its best in the '90s reborn on the big screen, and ancient Rome through the lens of the mid-20th century. But topping the list is Alan... [continue]

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired Roman Polanski’s story is pretty familiar by now. Busted for sex with a minor and found guilty in a highly public trial, the director, during the prime of his career, fled to France to dodge a prison sentence and has never come back. Those are the basics, but just how accurate... [continue]

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Hellboy II: The Golden Army So we're aware that none of you were planning on seeing any movies this week, as you're saving your money for at least a half-dozen viewings of The Dark Knight next weekend. Or was that just me? OK, the fact is that with two comic book movies already gone by this... [continue]

On the blocks around Dupont Circle yesterday evening, there were more bikes than usual for a standard evening commute. Their point of convergence was the corner of 20th and R Streets NW, adjacent to the outdoor diners at La Tomate, most of whom looked on in some confusion as the crowd continued to gather at the corner, and members of the press set up microphones at the Washington Area Bicyclist’s Association’s podium. Organizers reminded the... [continue]

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... [continue]

If you made it out to Mission of Burma's show at the Black Cat on Saturday night, it's likely you're still hearing those songs running through your head. If that's the case, it's probably because you can hear little else. The band may now be firmly entrenched in middle age, but don't tell them that there's a mellowing process that's supposed to go along with reaching your 50s. Saturday's show was quite possibly the loudest... [continue]

Bellman Barker MONDAY >> Provided any passing storms don't interfere, Fort Reno is back tonight. Indie rockers and Three Stars alums Bellman Barker are playing in the top slot, with the countryish The Moderate and jazz-punk experimentalists Gestures kicking things off. Free, 7:15 p.m. >> Some world music acts try to throw in too many different genres. Decide whether Rupa & the April Fishes, a San Francisco band, can pull off the multi-style approach... [continue]

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. My Life to Live The AFI has returned to it's regular presenting schedule, which means that their Godard retrospective continues marching on. It's rather appropriate that My Life to Live is the first film to screen after the documentary festival: Godard infused his fourth feature with a realistic energy that came directly from the cinéma vérité... [continue]

There has been no shortage of filmed analysis of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath during the last three years. And much of it has been quite good, particularly Spike Lee's sprawling (and riveting) four-hour documentary, When the Levees Broke, which also screened at SILVERDOCS this year. But one doesn't really realize what's missing from these other films until watching Trouble the Water, Carl Deal and Tia Lessin's take on the material, which is both harrowing... [continue]