DCist’s subjective and selective guide to some of the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
—
Bringing up Baby and His Girl Friday
This weekend the AFI’s Howard Hawks series screens two of the director’s best films, which happen to be two of the best movies of all time. Hawks was planning an adaptation of Ben Hecht’s play set in the world of tabloid journalism, The Front Page. But when Hawks had a secretary read the part of Hildy Johnson, he had the brilliant idea of turning reporter Hildy Johnson from a man to a woman. The result was His Girl Friday (1940), that rare rom-com where the romance doesn’t take any of the bite from its scathing and hilarious indictment of a bloodthirsty media. Cary Grant co-stars and can barely keep up with Russell, who thought screenwriter Charles Lederer didn’t give her enough zingers — she brought in her own writer. Grant also plays second banana in the ur-screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby (1938), a delirious Freudian romp of man vs. nature that features a dinosaur skeleton, a mischievous dog, and not one but two live cheetahs. With Katherine Hepburn in one of her greatest roles.
View the trailers for His Girl Friday and Bringing up Baby.
Bringing Up Baby screens Thursday, February 14–Saturday, February 16 and Monday, February 18. His Girl Friday screens Thursday, February 14–Sunday, February 17 and Wednesday, February 20.
—
What do Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors, and Nirvana’s Nevermind have in common? These iconic albums made generations apart were recorded at the same Los Angeles Studio, which also hosted less successful ventures like Evel Knievel’s sole recording attempt. Former Scream/Nirvana/Foo Fighters drummer Dave Grohl directed this documentary, and spoke with the diverse musicians who logged time in the studio, including Neil Young, Stevie Nicks, Trent Reznor, Rick Rubin, John Fogerty, and Krist Novoselic.
View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at West End Cinema.
—
Ciné-Concert: Thomas Ince’s One a Minute
Silent movie man Thomas Ince figured in Peter Bogdonavich’s 2001 film The Cat’s Meow, which revolved around the sensational legend that Ince was killed by newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst. But what of Ince’s movies? My friend Brian Taves, author of Thomas Ince: Hollywood’s Independent Pioneer, takes a serious look at this cinematic pioneer, whose milestones include the first American film cycle to star Asian performers. Taves introduces the team of Tsuru Aoki and Sessue Hayakawa in the 1914 melodrama, O Mimi San (1914). Shown with One a Minute (1919), about the age old battle between independent commerce and chain stores. Andrew Simpson accompanies on piano.
Saturday, February 16 at 2:00 pm at the National Gallery of Art. Free.
—
When arthouse-minded moviephiles think of Iranian cinema, they tend to think of naturalistic dramas like A Separation or the allegorical films of Abbas Kiarostami. But Iranian moviegoers love romantic comedies, few of which are seen in the west. Schoolchildren try to play matchmaker for their strict headmistress in No Entry for Men, directed by one of Iran’s most popular TV comedy stars.
View the trailer.
Friday, February 15 at 7:00 pm and Sunday, February 17 at 2:00 pm at the Freer. Free.
—
Rudy Ray Moore was a stand-up comic when he heard a homeless man riffing about an urban legend named Dolemite. Moore worked the pimp figure into his act, and in 1975 co-wrote the first of a series of Blaxploitation classics.
View the trailer.
Monday, February 18 at 8:00 pm at McFadden’s.
—
Also opening this week, the latest installments of two franchises whose episodes have shed a profound light on the passage of time: 56 Up, Michael Apted’s most recent visit with the documentary subjects he has followed since they were seven years old; and A Good Day to Die Hard. We’ll have a full review of A Good Day to Die Hard later this afternoon, and of 56 Up tomorrow.
