DCist’s guide to some of the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
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The National Gallery of Art’s series L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema continues this weekend with a little-seen 1977 film by Larry Clark (not to be confused with Larry Clarke, the director of Kids) that has a reputation as one of the great movies about jazz. Co-written by Clark and Love Boat star Ted Lange, Passing Through is the fictional story of African American jazzman Eddie Warmack (Nathaniel Taylor, Sanford and Son’s Rollo) released from prison after killing a white gangster. Clark was cinematographer for the 1972 documentary Wattstax, and this film was his master’s thesis for UCLA. Look for jazz pianist Horace Tapscott in a supporting part. The film will be introduced by jazz singer Revalyn Gold.
Saturday, March 30 at 2:30 pm at the National Gallery of Art. Free.
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A young woman with medical issues learns that she is descended from vampires in this avant-garde riff on the Twilight franchise. Vampires are not ordinarily part of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, but the Freer Gallery offers what may be the most unusual program in this year’s annual springtime celebration. Sanguivorous, whose great horror movie title is a real word that means “blood-eating,” is an hour long silent Japanese movie from 2009. The screening will be accompanied by jazz musicians Tatsuya Nakatani, an Osaka based musician who creates his own instruments, and saxophonist Edward Wilkerson, Jr., a member of Chicago’s great Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians,
View the trailer.
Wednesday, April 3 at 7 p.m. at the Freer. Free.
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Antoine Bertrand and Patrick Huard (eOne)The son of a Montreal butcher, David (Patrick Huard) is a 42-year-old schlub who can’t seem to get anything right. His girlfriend is pregnant but doesn’t want David involved because he’s not good father material. His friends at his father’s shop are tired of him letting them down again and again. And now his past has come back to haunt him. Twenty years ago, David gave early and often to his neighborhood sperm donation clinic. The clinic erroneously issued his prolific specimens to hundreds of recipients, and now 142 fruits of his loin want to know the man behind code name Starbuck. The movie goes for the easy bad jokes early: David wears a Yellowstone tee shirt, and I mean, he delivers meat for a living, but it eventually gives way to something like a study of parental pride and growing up. The movie raises interesting issues about paternity but also skirts issues – with hundreds of half-siblings running around Montreal, wasn’t there a good chance that they could pair up and mate? Vince Vaughn has signed up for the remake (called The Delivery Man). It seems to have its heart in the right place, but Starbuck finally doesn’t deliver.
View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at Landmark E Street Cinema.
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Mild-mannered lexicographer Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper) learns how to get down from exotic dancer Sugarpuss O’Shea (Barbara Stanwyck) in Howard Hawks’s classic comedy loosely based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Screenwriters Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder gave Stanwyck one of her signature lines: “I love him because he’s the kind of guy who gets drunk on a glass of buttermilk.”
View the trailer.
Saturday, March 30 at 11 a.m.; Sunday, March 31 at 5:15 p.m.; Wednesday, April 3 at 7 p.m. At the AFI Silver Theatre.
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A group of archaeologists remove a sacred doll icon from a Mexican temple, unleashing a gang of creepy walking dolls ready to deliver a high priest’s revenge. A presentation of The Washington Psychotronic Film Society, fine purveyors of cult cinema since 1989.
View a clip.
Monday, April 1 at 8 p.m. at McFaddens.
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Tickets are now available for the 27th annual FilmFest DC, which launches April 11 with Underground, a biopic about the young Julian Assange. Featured themes include The Lighter Side, a selectiuon of comedies; Trust No One, a showcase for spy movies, Justice Matters, and more of what FilmFest DC has delivered for nearly three decades. Stay tuned to this space for selected festival coverage, and check out the schedule here.
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Also opening this week, what may be the worst movie I’ve seen this year: G.I. Joe: Retaliation. See my full review here.
