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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The AFI launches a tribute to producer-director William Castle this weekend with a 35mm print of Joe Dante’s loving Castle homage Matinee (Saturday, October 11 at 2:40 p.m.), starring John Goodman as Castle, and a free screening of the documentary Spine Tingler! The WIlliam Castle Story (Sunday, October 12 at 2:40 p.m.). But the main event is a series of rare screenings of the shockmaster’s films. This week’s Castle classics include 35mm prints of the “Illusion-O” tinted thriller from 1960 13 Ghosts (Monday, October 13 at 9:30 p.m.); The 1959 Vincent Price vehicle The House on Haunted Hill (Tuesday, October 14 at 9:30 p.m.), whose original theatrical release featured a plastic skeleton bursting out of a cabinet; and Homicidal (Wednesday, October 15 at 9:30 p.m.), whose 1961 theatrical release featured a “fright break” and promised sensitive patrons a refund if they signed a yellow card admitting to their cowardice. The most entertaining screening next week may be a DCP presentation of The Tingler (Thursday, October 16 at 9:30 p.m.), starring Vincent Price as a scientist who discovers a deadly parasite. On the film’s 1959 release, Castle had theaters rigged with actual buzzers installed under lucky audience members’ seats. Note: the screening of The Tingler will NOT be an interactive show.
View the trailer for The Tingler.
The Tingler screens Thursday, October 16 at 9:30 p.m. at the AFI Silver.
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Clark Terry and Justin Kauflin (Radius-TWC)Director Alan Hicks is a drummer who studied under jazz trumpet legend Clark Terry, and initially approached the film project as simply an homage to his mentor. Terry’s long career has plenty of material to fill a documentary portrait with the typical historical background and context, but Hicks realized that the portrait of his teacher would be best served if he showed Terry’s generosity with his students. Thus blind pianist Justin Kauflin became an essential co-star of the film. In my review of the film for Spectrum Culture, I wrote that, “The friendship between the legend and his young student in Keep on Keepin’ On is integral to their true story. This is a film about an elder statesman, but it is also a film about a young man trying to find his voice… Terry performed with some of the great jazz legends, but the most crucial part of the film’s basic biography seems to be a particular incident from Terry’s childhood. A series of drawings depicts a scene out of Terry’s youth when he was just learning the trumpet. Terry asks a shady-looking character to tell him how to play jazz. This mysterious gatekeeper tells the boy to look in the mirror when he’s playing and wiggle his left ear at the same time. The young Terry realizes that this was, as he puts it, “jive shit,” but this misguided tutelage was a lesson he always held dear. Terry promised to himself that if he mastered jazz, he won’t keep the secret to himself. He’ll pass it on to others.”
View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at the AFI Silver. Director Alan Hicks will appear for a live performance by Justin Kauflin at these weekend screenings: Friday, October 10 at 5 and 7:20 p.m.; Saturday, October 11 at 2:45 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7:20 p.m.; Sunday, October 12 at 12:30 and 2:45 p.m.
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Love SteaksThis showcase of new cinema from Germany, Switzerland and Austria opens its 22nd year with the Washington premiere of director Christian Schwochow’s period drama West. After the 7 p.m. screening Friday night, actor Jacky Ido will appear in person and director Schwochow will join the discussion via Skype. Other festival highlights include the intriguing title Love Steaks (October 11 at 1 p.m. and October 13 at 9 p.m. at E Street) and a 3D screening of Cathedrals of Culture (October 11 at noon at the Goethe Institut), in which six directors, including Wim Wenders and Robert Redford, train 3D technology on their favorite architectural works, from the Berlin Philharmonic to Norway’s Halden Prison to the Salk Institute.
View the trailer for West
October 10-16 at Landmark E Street Cinema and the Goethe-Institut. See the festival website for a complete schedule.
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Ballou (Saturday, October 18 at 2:30 pm) Next week, Docs In Progress, in partnership with Our City Film Festival, offers a free panel on documentary filmmaking in Washington, D.C. as part of its festival of short and feature length documentaries (all workshopped through Docs in Progress) that look at D.C. beyond the politics and tourist traps. Panel speakers include Bill Gentile (American University), Erica Ginsberg (Docs In Progress), Kiley Kraskouskas (Thinking Forward Media), and director Jeff Krulik (Heavy Mental Parking Lot). Festival highlights include a 2008 documentary about Ballou High School’s marching band (Ballou, Saturday, October 18 at 2:30 p.m.); the 2012 film The Legend of Cool “Disco” Dan (Saturday, October 18 at 7 p.m.); and a documentary about the much-loved and long-gone K Street rock club The Bayou: DC’s Killer Joint (Sunday, October 19 at 8 p.m.).
View the trailer for The Bayou: DC’s Killer Joint.
The free panel on Documentary FIlmmaking in Washington, D.C. will be held on Tuesday Oct 14, 2014 at 8:15 p.m. in Room 101 of the McKinley Building at the American University School of Communication, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW. Screenings will be held October 18 and 19 at the Burke Theatre, U.S. Navy Memorial, 701 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.
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Also opening this week, the ninth annual Spooky Movie International Horror Film Festival at the AFI Silver. Stay tuned for more coverage.
