Popcorn & Candy is DCist’s selective and subjective guide to some of the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.

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Oscar Isaac and Elizabeth Olson (Phil Bray/Roadside Attractions)

In Secret

In nineteenth century Paris, the domineering Madame Raquin (Jessica Lange) forces her sexually repressed niece Therese (Elizabeth Olson) to marry her cousin, the sickly Camille (Tom Felton, Harry Potter‘s Draco Malfoy with a terrible haircut). Courage to Camille, who makes the mistake of introducing his lovely wife to his alluring friend Laurent (Oscar Isaac). Based on the Emile Zola novel that inspired The Postman Always Rings Twice, (self-reflexive casting: Lange starred in the 1980s remake), it’s a set up that promises a juicy bodice ripper. But when bodices are ripped, the well runs dry. This is the first feature directed by one-time teen actor Charlie Stratton (Summer Camp Nightmare), and he’s working with an excellent cinematographer in Florian Hoffmeister. But Stratton, who also wrote the screenplay, has no idea what do do with his actors. His talented leads are wasted and lost, his supporting characters damned to unsympathetic single dimensions.

View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at E Street Landmark Cinema. and Angelika Mosaic.

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L.A. Confidential: only a bad man would live in a house this modern.

Los Angeles Plays Itself

The AFI’s Overdrive: L.A. Modern series continues this week with a new digital remaster of director Thom Andersen’s fascinating 2003 documentary on the representations and misrepresenations of Los Angeles in the movies. The film’s running time may be daunting, but the range of clips—from established classics to forgotten underground films (Andersen’s title comes from 1970s gay porn)—and the incisive commentary make it an easy three hours. I only wish the director would update it to include the Malibu mansion featured in most of David DeCoteau’s direct-to-video talking animal movies. Introduced by the National Building Museum’s Deborah Sorensen.

View the trailer.
Sunday, February 23 at 3:45 at the AFI SIlver.

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Despite the Gods

Remember Boxing Helena? The 1993 directorial debut of Jennifer Lynch, daughter of David Lynch, that was almost universally panned. Jennifer Lynch has made several features since then, including the 2008 Bollywood horror movie Hisss. One of the highlights of this year’s D.C. Independent Film Festival, which runs through Sunday, is Despite the Gods, director Penny Vozniak’s document about this troubled production. Tonight’s screening will be followed by a Skype Q&A with Jennifer Lynch. See a full schedule of the festival’s events here.

View the trailer.
TONIGHT, February 20 at 7:00 pm at the US Naval Heritage Center and Saturday, February 22 at 9:00 pm at the Goethe Institute.

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From Una Lee and Chris Lynn’s “A Rolling Mind”

Restless Journeys: Recent Experimental Cinema

Organizers of the experimental music festival Sonic Circuits have joined with the Martin Luther King Library to offer an evening of recent experimental films on Super 8 and digital formats. Local filmmaker, sound artist, and educator Chris Lynn curated the selection, which includes work by Lynn, Patrick Tarrant, Tara Nelson and Una Lee.

TONIGHT, February 20 at 7:30 pm at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. Free.

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They Live

“They influence our decisions without our knowing it. They numb our senses without our feeling it. They control our lives without our realizing it.” “They” are aliens in John Carpenter’s 1988 satire They Live, but “they” could as easily be modern advertising executives, as philosopher Slavoj Žižek discussed in The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology. Žižek failed to note the irony in the world’s defense against such insidious ideology being played by one-time pro wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, but there you go. The AFI will be screening a 35mm print.

View the trailer.
Friday, February 21, Saturday, February 22 and Wednesday February 26 at the AFI Silver.

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Also opening this week, a pair of Oscar nominees: the final film by anime director Hayao Miyazaki, Best Animated Feature nominee The Wind Rises, whose English-language version features the voice talents of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Werner Herzog; and Omar, a Palestinian film nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. We’ll have full reviews tomorrow.