Popcorn & Candy is DCist’s selective and subjective guide to some of the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
Rachel Weisz (IFC)
Alice (Rachel Weisz) isn’t who she says she is in the latest film from director Joshua Marston. The movie opens with elliptical scenes that introduce a mystery whose answer isn’t particularly satisfying. It’s clear that Weisz’ character is a pathological liar, so there’s no joy when Tom (Michael Shannon) recognizes her as someone from his past who disappeared. Shannon is as reliable as ever, and it isn’t Weisz’ fault that none of the characters she creates is believable enough to get invested in. Despite moody cinematography and some good performances, the movie just doesn’t work, and the fault seems to lie with Marston, who’s unfortunately come a long way from the gritty neorealism of his debut feature, Maria Full of Grace.
Watch the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at Landmark Bethesda Row
Richard Jenkins and Margo Martindale (Jonny Cournoyer/Sony Pictures Classics)
A New York artist (The Office‘s John Krasinski, who also wrote and directed the film) returns to his small-town home when his mother (Margo Martindale) is diagnosed with cancer. This indie dramedy is getting mixed reviews even from its defenders. Matt Zoller Seitz writes on RogerEbert.com that it’s “just good enough to make you wish that it were better.” While Seitz credits the supporting cast (including old standby Richard Jenkins) and a handful of key scenes, many reviews are less forgiving, like Indiewire’s David Ehrlich, who calls it, “the kind of toothless and emotionally counterfeit cancer dramedy that gives America’s independent cinema a bad name.”
Watch the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at Landmark E Street Cinema, Landmark Bethesda Row, AMC Shirlington, and Angelika Mosaic.
(The Criterion Collection)
The AFI Silver’s Wim Wenders series continues on Labor Day with the four-hour director’s cut of a movie that doesn’t have a good reputation at any length. Called “the ultimate road movie,” it charts a strange family dynamic as Dr. Faber (Max von Sydow) creates a device to help his blind wife (Jeanne Moreau) see images, and their son (William Hurt) travels around the world to collect images for his mother. The Silver will be showing a new 4K digital restoration, and although I’m a film purist, the transfers in this series have reportedly been excellent. So even if the movie lives down to its reputation, this will be a rare chance to see cinematographer Robby Müller’s typically gorgeous images on the AFI’s big screen.
Watch the trailer.
Monday, September 5 at 1 p.m. at the AFI Silver.
Next week the Documentary Center at the George Washington University launches a monthly lecture and documentary series with a spotlight on “Roots: Films that Defined the Documentary Form.” Linda Dittmar, editor of From Hanoi to Hollywood: The Vietnam War in American Film will be on hand next Thursday for a screening of the 1974 documentary Hearts and Minds, which looked at the Vietnam War at its height. Upcoming films in the series include Primary (October 13), Gimme Shelter (November 10) and The Times of Harvey Milk (December 8).
Watch the trailer for Hearts and Minds.
Thursday, September 8 at 7 p.m. at The George Washington University
Cloyd Heck Marvin Center Amphitheater (third floor) 800 21st St., NW
Courtesy of Photofest
Saturday afternoon, conductor Gillian B. Anderson leads the Cinemusica Viva for a ciné-concert accompanying a program of silent film classics projected in glorious 35mm. D. W. Griffith’s 1919 drama is set in London’s Chinatown, and stars Richard Barthelmess as a Chinese man who falls for Lillian Gish. The program is “an attempt to recreate Griffith’s own effects when first presenting the film: special lighting at specific moments, a shadow play instead of live pantomime for the musical prelude, and Chinese, Balalaika, and western instruments.” Preceded by short silents “The Taming of the Shrew” and “A Modern Garrick.”
Saturday, September 3 at 2 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art’s East Building Auditorium. Free.
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Also opening this week: Stellan Skarsgard stars as a vengeful plowman in the comic thriller In Order of Disappearance; and the documentary Starving the Beast looks at the battle to reform America’s public universities. We’ll have full reviews tomorrow.
