Popcorn & Candy is DCist’s subjective and selective guide to some of the most interesting movies playing around town (and theaters opening) in the coming week.
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(Pat Padua)Angelika Pop-up at Union Market
Angelika will open a state-of-the art theater at Union Market in late 2015. While we’re waiting for that to open, the chain converted warehouse space behind Union Market into an impressive three-screen “micro-cinema.” The theater is only set up for digital presentation, but the auditoriums, despite a seating capacity of 50 for each screen, have generous screens that are high enough that subtitles won’t be a problem even though the seating isn’t raked. With the vintage exploitation movie posters on display and the flat auditoriums, old-timers can close their eyes and for a second imagine they’re at the Biograph, now with added new-car smell. Food and snacks are curated by former Food Network executive Bruce Seidel and former Food Network chef Santos Loo. The pair are working on wine and beer pairings with concessions like gourmet mango cotton candy, Thai coconut popcorn and flavored crunchy kale (you may scoff, but I sampled the unusual concessions, and they’re delish). The pop-up opens Friday with director Mike Meyers’ (yes, that Mike Meyers) documentary Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon, about the Hollywood mover who managed Alice Cooper, Blondie and Raquel Welch; and the exclusive Washington-area engagement of the 20th anniversary director’s cut of Patrice Chereau’s Queen Margot.
View the trailer for Supermensch.
The Angelika Pop-Up opens today at 550 Penn Street NE, Unit E, behind Union Market between 5th and 6th Streets NE
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Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin and Liv Lemoyne (Magnolia Pictures)Stockholm, 1982. Introverted 13-year old (is there another kind?) Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) and her more outgoing friend Klara (Mira Grosin) want to form a punk band, but they can’t play any instruments. The pair tentatively approach their devout Christian classmate Hedvig, an accomplished guitarist. The misfit girls form a genuine friendship, but director Lukas Moodysson (Show Me Love, Together), who adapted his wife’s graphic novel Never Goodnight, doesn’t fall prey to the usual coming-of-age movie tropes. We Are the Best! favors character observation over plot revelation in a way that recalls the looseness of John Cassavetes. The movie isn’t as cute or catchy as its Japanese equivalent Linda Linda Linda, but it’s more satisfying, if not quite the best.
View the trailer.
Opens today at E Street Landmark Cinema.
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The AFI Silver remembers director Alain Resnais (1922-2014) with a new 35mm print of his 1968 sci-fi classic. Claude Rich stars as a man who recently attempted suicide, and is given the chance to travel back in time to ruminate on his past. It’s no Last Year at Marienbad, but what is? The film was a major influence on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as well as Steven Soderberg’s Solaris (which resembled Resnais’ film more than Lem’s novel) and isn’t screened often, so this is a rare chance to see one of Resnais’ best mid-career works on the big screen.
View the trailer.
Friday, June 13-Sunday June 15 at the AFI Silver.
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Derek Walcott in Poetry is an Island (June 13)This weekend the AFI Silver hosts the 14th annual D.C. Caribbean Filmfest. This year’s program includes opening night documentaries about poet Derek Walcott (Poetry is an Island, 6/13 at 7:15 p.m.) and calypso musician Dr. Leroy Calliste (Come with it Black Man: A Biography of Black Stalin’s Consciousness, 6/13 at 9:30 p.m.); a musical love story from Aruba featuring the songs of Aruban musician Padu del Caribe (Abo So, 6/14 at 3:15 p.m.); a drama about an 18th century slave uprising in Curacao (Tula:The Revolt, 6/14 at 5 p.m.); Romeo and Juliet as an expression of tensions between the Dominican Republic and Haiti (Cristo Rey, 6/14 at 7:15 p.m); and a documentary about black students at Yale who travel to Cuba (Black and Cuba, 6/15 at 9:40 p.m.). See the festival website for a complete list of films.
View the trailer for Poetry is an Island.
June 13-15 at the AFI Silver.
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Courtesy of Westchester FilmsThe National Gallery of Art’s series On the Street concludes this weekend with a 16mm print of director John Cassavetes’ 1959 debut. Cassavetes shot this tale of interracial love on location in New York with little funding. This breakthrough film’s jazz-like, improvisational approach, with a score composed by Charles Mingus, influenced the French New Wave and generations of independent filmmakers. Shown with the short film Weegee in New York, directed by the legendary photographer known for his grisly press photos and portraits of New York low lifes. According to the Gallery, the film, “displays no hint of life’s seamy side, but instead suggests [Weegee’s] own maturing taste for experiment and poetry.”
View the trailer.
Sunday, June 15 at 4:30 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art. Free.
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The Freer’s series Here Comes the Night: Cinema Nocturnes continues with a 35mm print of one of director Wong Kar-Wai’s most celebrated films. Hong Kong cinema icons Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung star as neighbors who believe their spouses are unfaithful. This visually sumptuous 2000 film of thwarted love in 1960s Hong Kong is one of the great modern screen romances, and was Wong’s last great film.
View the trailer.
Friday, June 13 at 7 p.m. at the Freer. Free.
