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