DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
What it is: The 25th anniversary of what some have called the greatest rock and roll documentary of all time.
Why you want to see it: By any rights, Jeff Krulik should have his own reality show. The auteur behind Ernest Borgnine on the Bus has an affectionate penchant for characters with unusual fixations, like the man who saved Hitler’s hat and, on the flip side, those Obsessed with Jews. Twenty-five years ago this year, Kruilk and John Heyn, a Lewis and Clark for their time, drove around the parking lot of the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland before a Judas Priest concert — and a legend was born. Time marches on: the Cap Centre was imploded in 2002 to make way for one of those godawful town centers; Judas Priest announced that this year would mark their final world tour. But we’ll always have Heavy Metal Parking Lot. Join filmmakers and Priest fans who appeared in the original film, which will be screened with its successor Heavy Metal Picnic.
What to expect: Hair and its discontents.
What not to expect: Time to stand still.
View clips from Heavy Metal Parking Lot.
Friday June 17th, 9:30 p.m., at the AFI Silver.
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The Staple Singers. Courtesy Magnolia Pictures.What it is: A history of gospel music that will make you wanna testify.
Why you want to see it: Documentary filmaker Don McGlynn specializes in passionate musical subjects, be they wild man Louis Prima or incendiary bluesman Howlin’ Wolf. But he has found his most intense music yet in the gospel titans assembled in Rejoice and Shout. From humble beginnings of a 1902 record that sounds more like a barbershop quartet, through the surprising electric guitar stylings of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, to the downright sensual voice of Mavis Staples, this is music that is not afraid to spell out emotion. Whatever your belief system, these powerful voices can move you to your very soul and make you want to shout. Whether that be the power of music or a higher power is up to you.
What to expect: Some of the most soulful voices you will ever hear.
What not to expect: To be unmoved.
View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at the West End Cinema.
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From Amos Poe’s film The Foreigner, featured in Blank City.What it is: A document of the New York underground film (and music and art) scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Why you want to see it: This summer’s best-reviewed (with reservations) blockbuster celebrates analogue home movies with the help of copious amounts of digital special effects. But this week’s hotly anticipated (by me) documentary may be the truest homage to film grain you’ve seen since…last month’s These Amazing Shadows. Director Celine Danhier documents the creative scene that emerged from the shellshocked Lower East Side of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Long before Whole Foods set up on the Bowery and CBGB’s was replaced by a boutique that sells $200 black jeans, filmmakers like Amos Poe and Richard Kern documented a scene that is a direct inspiration to 21st century independent music and film — and still seems a little scary today. Poe and Kern are among the talking heads, along with Debbie Harry, Steve Buscemi, John Lurie, Thurston Moore, Ann Magnuson and John Waters; Basquiat, Patti Smith and Richard Hell are just a few of the people you’ll see featured in the vintage footage.
What to expect: Gritty inspiration.
What not to expect: Everyone to be co-opted — bills gotta be paid, you know.
View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at E Street. Special Q&A with director Celine Danhier following the 8 p.m. shows on Friday, June 17th and Saturday, June 18th. No Wave author Marc Masters appears at the 6 p.m. show Sunday, June 19th. Join the film’s producers for an after-party on Saturday, June 18th at 9 p.m. at Dodge City, (917 U Street NW) with
DJ sets by Celine Danhier, Marc Masters and the We Fought The Big One DJs, and drink specials with ticket stub.
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Who Took the Bomp? Le Tigre on Tour
What it is: The D.C. premiere of a documentary that follows the feminist punk-electronic band Le Tigre on their farewell tour.
Why you want to see it: A spiritual descendent of the scene documented in Blank City, Riot Grrrl pioneer and former Bikini Killer Kathleen Hanna paved her own way with the influential Le Tigre. The band “confronts sexism and homophobia in the music industry while tearing up the stage via performance art poetics, no-holds-barred lyrics, punk rock ethos, and whip-smart wit.” Director Kathy Fix (Magnetic Fields doc Strange Powers), assembled concert footage, archival interviews and backstage footage into this vital portrait of an iconic band.
What to expect: Rock and roll.
What not to expect: Patriarchal hegemony.
View Le Tigre performing “Deceptacon” from the movie. Saturday, June 18 at 8 pm at Gold Leaf Studios, 443 I Street NW. Advance tickets available here for $6; $10 at the door. Doors open at 7 p.m. with a presentation of Where the Girls Go, a D.C.-based queer lady-ish magazine sharing local events, parties and stories.
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Garrett Morris and Andrea Marcovicci in The Stuff.What it is: Schlockmeister Larry Cohen’s prescient satire of consumerism.
Why you want to see it: “Pre-swhu-huh?” you may ask. Cohen made his mark with the mutant homicidal baby series It’s Alive. Horror movies are often manifestations of deep societal anxieties — sexual hysteria in vampire movies, mindless consumerism in zombie pictures, growing pains in I Was a Teenage Werewolf, clothing manufacturer’s inconsistent sizing practices in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Thus the intelligent B-movie is no oxymoron, and The Stuff is enjoyable, thoughful and just well-acted enough to put the lie to the notion that Psychotronic necessarily equals “bad.” A natural fount of bubbling sweet white stuff is found in Alaska and marketed as a dessert. But is the stuff…alive? Michael Moriarty (whose aw-shucks with a hint of menace would have made him perfect for The Killer Inside Me) investigates the titular material’s mysterious contents for a rival company, only to find himself face-first in it. Could this satirical story of the killer inside us have foretold 21st century cupcake mania? You will eat a cupcake. You will eat a cupcake.
What to expect: Better acting than you’d think.
What not to expect: To leave The Passenger not yearning for a cupcake.
View the trailer.
Tuesday at 8 p.m. at The Passenger. Suggested donation $2.
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What it is: The Hirshhorn’s summer flying saucer series.
Why you want to see it: Tonight’s feature is the Washington classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, but next week we’re invaded by the less-frequently revived The War of the Worlds, a 1953 adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic about Martians and paranoia. If the horror movie reveals society’s fears, then the alien invasion picture specifically exposes the raw nerve of a politically anxious nation. And the great Other of 1953 was Big Red. Producer George Pal (born György Pál Marczincsák, he was part of a long tradition of was one of a great tradition of Hungarian animators) graduated from Puppetoon shorts to feature films that combined live action and special effects in a way that may seem corny to audiences who grew up on Pixar and CGI. But his little green men have an unforgettable charm, and, as the trailer puts it, “[fill] the screen with a mighty panorama of earth-shaking fury!”
What to expect: A scapegoat.
What not to expect: To be alone in the universe.
View the trailer.
June Thursdays at 7 at the Hirshhorn. Free.
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Also opening this week: Michael Winterbottom’s foodie road movie The Trip and this week’s superhero, Green Lantern. We’ll have full reviews tomorrow. Come back on Monday for our in-depth coverage of this year’s Silverdocs.
