DCist’s highly subjective and selective guide to some of the most interesting movies playing in the coming week.

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Selma Blair and Jordan Gelber (Jojo Whilden/Brainstorm Media)

Dark Horse

Abe (Jordan Gelber) is a thirty-something toy collector who lives with his parents (Christopher Walken and Mia Farrow). At a wedding he meets the brooding, insecure Miranda (Selma Blair) and is inspired to an unconventional and one-sided courtship. Director Todd Solondz’s latest is reportedly his most gentle to date, but even though the trailer plays it as a comedy — with a typical uplifting pop Hollywood soundtrack no less — Solondz is bound to tap on the more sinister meaning inherent in the title. Expect his signature uncomfortable humor, without the shock-tactics of his well-acclaimed and disturbing movies like Happiness.

View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at E Street Landmark Cinema.

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Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg in Breathless

Bonjour Tristesse and Breathless

Pixie-like actress Jean Seberg stars in a pair of films at the National Gallery this weekend, shown as part of From Vault to Screen, a showcase of recent film preservation efforts. Director Otto Preminger discovered Seberg in a casting call for his St. Joan, and after that film’s commercial disappointment cast her in Bonjour Tristesse as a spoiled ingenue spending the summer with her rich playboy father (David Niven). Shown with one of the landmarks of the French New Wave, Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, the movie that made Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo poster children for generations of hipsters.

View the trailers for Bonjour Tristesse and Breathless.
Screens Saturday, August 18 at 2:00 pm at the National Gallery of Art. Free.

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Diana Rigg and George Lazenby

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Sean Connery walked away from the lucrative James Bond series after five films. It wasn’t the last time the big screen would see the original Bond, but the unenviable Australian actor who replaced him is the only man to make just one big-screen Bond picture. George Lazenby would make a number of television appearances in parodies of 007, but although he is the least-remembered of the Bonds, I still know Bond fanatics who swear by this movie, not least because his female foil is The Avengers’ Diana Rigg. The AFI has been showing new 35mm prints in their Bond series, so it’s a good chance to catch up on 007’s big-screen exploits before Sam Mendes’ arthouse Bond vision hits screens this fall. And follow the unverified twitter account of someone who may or may not be Lazenby. Whoever is behind it, they’re more consistently and strangely funny than Horse eBooks has been lately.

View the trailer.
Sunday, August 19 at 7:45 pm and Tuesday, August 21 at 6:45 pm at the AFI.

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KiIler Clans

The Freer’s 17th annual Made in Hong Kong festival closes with a 1976 martial arts classic from the legendary Shaw Brothers studio. The Freer summarizes Killer Clans thusly: “rival assassins fall for the beautiful daughter of the man they’ve been hired to kill.” Yes please! Based on a popular novel with the vivid title, Meteor, Butterfly, Sword.

View the trailer.
Friday, August 17 at 7:00 pm and Sunday, August 19 at 2:00 pm at the Freer. Free.

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Choking Hazard

A blind philosopher holds a seminar on in an archetypal cabin in the woods. His students debate reason vs. instinct. The brain hungry have other plans. Sure, it’s a zombie horror comedy. What’s so special about that? Choking Hazard is an existential zombie horror comedy from the Czech Republic. And while you can’t expect it to be informed by the delirious cinematic experimentation of the Czech New Wave, you can always hope.

View the trailer.
Monday, August 20 at 8:00 pm at McFadden’s. Free, suggested donation $5.

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Also opening this week: Joachim Trier channels Robert Bresson at his most depressing in the character study Oslo, August 31; and Julie Delpy directs and stars in a romantic comedy with Chris Rock, 2 Days in New York. We’ll have full reviews tomorrow.