DCist’s selective and subjective guide to some of the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
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A black hard-rock trio from Detroit cuts a blistering proto-punk record in 1974 and just misses getting signed by Clive Davis. They refused to change a name that may have seemed threatening forty years ago, but is quaint today. Death’s album sessions languished in a garage for decades before hipsters rediscovered their small label single, and Drag City finally released their debut album in 2009. Directors Mark Christopher Covino and Jeff Howlett made the right call to not let the music carry the movie. What makes this a great music documentary, as well as a moving one, is the hopes and struggles of the Hackney family, and the vivid personalities of the survivors. Thankfully, righteous talking heads like Henry Rollins are kept to a minimum.
View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at the AFI Silver Theatre.
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David Lynch followed up his landmark Eraserhead with a 1980 film that masterfully bridges his dreamlike vision with old-fashioned social melodrama. In Victorian England, John Merrick (John Hurt) was born with a disfigurement that caused him great physical and emotional pain. He came under the care of Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins). Where does caring end and exploitation begin? Themes of compassion and exploitation recur in Lynch’s work again and again, and in The Elephant Man Lynch evokes and transcends the look of classic cinema. That gorgeous look is thanks to cinematographer Freddie Francis, who photographed Jack Clayton’s The Innocents and went on to direct his own exploitation movies like Trog. Shown as part of the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award tribute to Mel Brooks, who produced the film after championing Eraserhead as a great comedy. The AFI is showing an archival 35-millimeter print, so don’t miss this chance to see the kind of rich tonal range that you can only get from light passing through celluloid.
View the trailer.
Saturday through Tuesday at the AFI Silver Theatre.
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Abdi Rashid Yusuf and Pilou Asbæk (Magnolia)A Danish Cargo ship is hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, and it’s up to Copenhagen businessmen to negotiate their charges’ release — or not. The buzz is good around director Tobias Lindholm’s second feature, a high-seas adventure turned psychological thriller. The cast includes former hostages and a negotiator who worked on the cases dramatized for the film.
View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at Landmark E Street Cinema
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The Freer’s 18th annual Made in Hong Kong film series continues with a blockbuster thriller, Hong Kong style. Five police officers are kidnapped, and co-directors of police affairs Aaron Kwok and Tony Leung Ka Fai (Election) fight over who’s to blame. Hong Kong genre pictures are often superior to their American counterparts — Infernal Affairs runs rings around its American remake, Martin Scorsese’s weak The Departed. Word is that this thriller wants to be this year’s Infernal Affairs, but falls short of the prize.
View the trailer.
Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Freer Gallery. Free.
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“Tell-tale”D.C. Shorts teams up with burlesque show Tilted Torch for an evening that promises “sexy short flicks, stripping chicks and sideshow tricks.” Short films include One Nightstand, which apparently isn’t about furniture, The Game, Abduct Me, The Order, Big Dumb Fuck, Tell-Tale, and A Christmas Carrot. Live acts include burlesque artists and sideshow performers like Malibu, Maria Bella and Cheeky Monkey Sideshow founder Swami YoMahmi, and Staxx Burly-Q Revue producer Shortstaxx.
Friday June 28-Saturday June 29 at VisArts at Rockville, 155 Gibbs Street, Rockville. $15.
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Also opening this week, a documentary about background singers, Twenty Feet from Stardom; and the culmination of White House Annihilation week, White House Down. We’ll have full reviews tomorrow.
