DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
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Kinyarwanda
What it is: The story of a genocide.
Why you want to see it: “Islands in the stream” may not be your first choice of song for the soundtrack to a study of the Rwandan massacre of 1994, in which ethnic conflict exploded in a devastating slaughter. But it is a tender moment of celebratory unity – sung in karaoke at a house party – just before the attacks that prove the song’s hope of “tender love … and a dedication” falls though. Beautifully photographed, and with a cast of professional and amateur actors, this is Hotel Rwanda minus the Hollywood machine. Filmmaker Alrick Brown will be on hand for Q&As after the Friday night shows.
View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at West End Cinema.
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A Clockwork Orange
What it is: The 40th anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s paen to/cautionary tale of future ultraviolence.
Why you want to see it: It may be one of the more disturbing references ever made on The Simpsons, but ithe prevalence of Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange in popular culture is a testament to the film’s polarizing staying power. Kubrick’s stylish images and Anthony Burgess’s language are the perfect backdrop to Malcolm MacDowell’s iconic rebel.
View the trailer.
Friday through Thursday at the AFI.
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Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
What it is: The mysterious, divisive film that won Palme D’Or at Cannes last year.
Why you want to see it: The films of Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul are an acquired taste, as is this festival darling. I make camp with the “most boring Yeti movie ever made” end of the critical spectrum, but DCist’s Ian Buckwalter appreciates Weerasethakul’s quiet mysteries, and wrote last year:
Does the film have limited appeal to audiences raised on Hollywood storytelling conventions? Sure. But am I telling you to go see it, despite its dreamlike tone, deeply buried subtexts, and dogged resistance to easy explication and analysis? Unquestionably, yes.
[With] Apichatpong’s unconventional narratives, gorgeous sense of composition and thoroughly original voice, Uncle Boonmee has all of the things that have made the director so fascinating for film nerds.
Most filmmakers — and by extension, most film audiences — only tap into a fraction of what the medium is capable of. Abstraction isn’t just the realm of capital-A Art, and subtext capable of extensive debate and interpretation isn’t limited to literature. Uncle Boonmee is a film that combines those qualities with a narrative that, once you get past the flashbacks and dreams, is remarkably straightforward. It’s a film that will linger in your thoughts and dreams for a long time after waking from its intoxicating slumber.
Read the rest of Ian’s review here.
View the trailer.
Sunday, December 11 at the Freer. Free.
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A Spring for the Thirsty Yuri Ilyekno: Ballad of Ukraine
What it is: The National Gallery’s tribute to a Ukranian cinematographer/director.
Why you want to see it: The name may not be familiar to many moviegoers, but arthouse aficionados may know his work. Ilyenko provided the stunning cinematography of Sergei Paradjanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, and was at the helm of his own series of what the gallery calls “painterly, allegorical films. This weekend the gallery screens two of Ilyenko’s directorial efforts. A Spring for the Thirsty (1965), is ”a fable of rural decay and renewal as an old peasant recalls feelings of love and loss “ The Eve of Ivan Kupala is an adaptation of Gogol’s story On the Eve of Ivan Kupala’s Day. The director’s son will be on hand at both screenings.
View a clip from The Eve of Ivan Kupala.
A Spring for the Thirsty screens Sunday December 10 at 2; The Eve of Ivna Kupala screens Sunday December 10 at 4. At the National Gallery. Free.
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What it is: The latest in the Avalon Theatre’s Lions of Czech Cinema series.
Why you want to see it: The residents of Mourinov, a Moravian village so remote that the road ends there long for a proper asphalt avenue. The road to success lies with deer-calling champion Franta, whose way with a horn is Mouravia’s great hope. Will the townspeople lure the European Deer Championship, and its accompanying infrastructure?
View the Czech trailer.
Wednesday December 14 at 8 at the Avalon. $10.
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Also opening this week, Aki Kaurismaki’s Le Havre, and the Jonah Hill vehicle The Sitter. We’ll have full reviews tomorrow.
