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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Colin Farrell and Jessica Chastain (Wrekin Hill)Director Liv Ullman reportedly channels former mentor Ingmar Bergman in her adaptation of August Strindberg’s play about an aristocrat’s daughter (Jessica Chastain) who encourages her father’s valet (Colin Farrell) to seduce her. The buzz is mixed. Indiewire raves that the film “exists in a special cinematic category; it’s toxic, it’s hypnotic, and passionately translates Strindberg’s genius instinct for enlightening the multi-layered psychological spectrums of human desire for lust and power.” The Village Voice has a more measured response, writing that “There’s just enough bite in Chastain’s arrogant, tempestuous Julie to save the film from being an arcane dramatic exercise with great art direction.”
View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at Landmark Bethesda Row
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Kristen Stewart and Juliette BinocheA mid-career movie star (Juliette Binoche) takes on a stage revival of a work that made her famous 20 years ago, but her former role is now taken by an ingenue (Chloë Grace Moretz). Screenings of high profile titles like The Imitation Game and Mr. Turner have already sold out, but there’s a lot more to catch in the AFI’s 27th annual European Union Showcase, like this new drama from director Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep, Carlos) that has been favorably compared to Persona and The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant.
View the trailer.
Sunday, December 7 and Monday December 8 at the AFI Silver.
The series Also Like Life: The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien continues this weekend at the Freer with a 35mm print of the director’s 1993 film about Taiwanese puppeteer Li Tien-lu (1909-1998), who plays himself. The series is presented in conjunction with the National Gallery of Art, which is screening three earlier films by the director at the Goethe Institut: City of Sadness (tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the Goethe Institut), Cute Girl and Beautiful Wind (a double bill screening Saturday, December 6 at 2 p.m. at the Goethe).
The Puppetmaster screens at the Freer on Sunday, December 7 at 2 p.m. Free. The program includes an introduction and book-signing by Richard Suchenski, director of the Center for Moving Image Arts at Bard College and editor of the book Hou Hsiao-hsien.
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Standing Aside, Watching (Dir. Yorgos Servetas, 2013). Photo courtesy of HereticThis weekend the National Gallery of Art launches this month-long series devoted to a group of young filmmakers in Greece. The series is presented with the help of the Greek Film Center, Hellenic Foundation for Culture, the Embassy of Greece, and The James and Theodore Pedas Family Foundation (longtime Washington moviegoers will recognize those names with a sigh). This weekend’s offerings include September, about a young woman whose dog falls ill, and Standing Aside, Watching (pictured), which blends Sophocles with the Western.
View the trailer for Standing Aside, Watching.
September screens Friday, December 5 at 7 p.m. Standing Aside, Watching screens Sunday, December 7 at 4:30 p.m. At the Malsi Doyle and Michael Forman Theater, McKinley Building, American University. Free.
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In honor of Monkey Day (December 14), The Washington Psychotronic Film Society presents this 1979 Taiwanese fantasy directed by Chen Chi-Wha (Half a Loaf of Kung Fu, The 36 Crazy Fists). The Psychotronic curators write, “A kung fu master discovers a girl raised by monkeys [Let’s be real: kids in monkey pajamas]. Turns out she has a knack for monkey-fu. She goes bananas for an ambitious prince, but he’s just twisting her tail. And when she finds out he’s been monkeying around behind her back, princey-poo ends up with a monkey on his back ready to go ape shit! “
View a fanmade clip reel.
Monday, December 8 at 8 p.m. at McFadden’s.
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Also opening this week, Reese Witherspoon takes a hike in Wild and a new drama from the director of Dallas Buyer’s Club. We’ll have a full review tomorrow.
