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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Chen Chao-jun, Wang Yu-wen and Jen Chang-bin (Big World Pictures)On a rainy night in Taipei, a couple of young thieves break into a pay phone; at the same time, a student is distracted from his homework by a huge waterbug, which he impales with a compass. His parents think he may be descended from a god, but like any disaffected youth, he’s restless and plays cat and mouse with the petty crooks he looks up to as cool. Originally released in 1992, Rebels of the Neon God was the debut feature from director Tsai Ming-liang, who has earned a reputation for challenging arthouse films like 1998’s The Hole, about a strange disease and an even more decrepit apartment building. In the ’90s, most Chinese films turned up in the U.S. in grainy prints with occasionally muddy images; but Rebels, which was never commercially released here, has been given an HD restoration that looks too clean. Call me a luddite, but the sight of coarse film grain gives films like this not just visual texture but energy, and the new “improved” look is fundamentally at odds with the film’s raw, French New Wave-inspired mood. But if you want to see what bored kids did in Taipei in the ’90s, the crisp skating rink and video arcade footage makes this a fascinating, if somehow whitewashed, time capsule.
Watch the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at E Street Landmark Cinema.
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Bruce Boxleitner and Cindy Morgan in Tron. Viewmaster scan courtesy of Neatocoolville.The upcoming Adam Sandler vehicle Pixels imagines a world where arrested adolescents with mad video game skills can save the world. But Sandler is not the first hero for gamers. Jeff Bridges stars as a hacker/arcade artist sucked into a digital game of gladiator in this cheesy but endearing 1982 adventure. The film combines then-new computer technology with a visual style that recalls the silent era. Computer-world sequences were filmed in black and white and then selectively colored, giving the bland, deadpan face of Bruce Boxleitner a quality that almost recalls the stone puss of Buster Keaton. The effects may look cheap today, but it’s far more charming and visually elegant than the busy CGI of the reboot. The AFI won’t be bringing back the stunning 70mm print they screened a few years ago, but they will be screening a 35mm print, brought to you by this summer’s installment of their popular ’80s series.
View the trailer.
Saturday, July 11-Tuesday, July 14 and Thursday, July 16 at the AFI Silver.
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Chloe Arnold, Luke Spring Jason Samuels Smith (Vitagraph Films)This well-meaning documentary gives the viewer a brief history of tap dancing (intriguingly attributed to a cultural exchange between Irish and African slaves in the Caribbean) while covering professional and amateur dancers from around the world, and I mean around the world. It’s an ambitious undertaking for a 72-minute film that tries to do far too much. The film may be a labor of love for director Dean Hargrove, who created Matlock and produced 34 Perry Mason TV movies, but the film’s most compelling subjects, like a young dancer whose career was sidetracked by cancer, feel short-changed, while a look at an adult tap group in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania seems better suited to a human interest story in a news magazine. Which is too bad, because much of the film’s dance footage is shot in a studio setting that shows off the dancers’ entire bodies. The material was there for a fine documentary, but the filmmakers’ needed to better organize their footage and spend more time with its most endearing subjects. Co-producers Chloe and Maud Arnold, both D.C. natives, will appear at selected screenings this weekend.
Watch the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at Angelika Pop-Up and Angelika Mosaic. On Friday, July 10, the Arnolds will appear for a live performance and Q&A after the 7 p.m. show at Angelika Mosaic and for a Q&A only after the 9 p.m. show at Angelika Pop-Up. On Saturday, July 11th, they will appear for a live performance after the 11 a.m. show at the Angelika Pop-Up.
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Shake it off, shake it off!If you didn’t get tickets to see Taylor Swift at Nationals Stadium Monday night, the Washington Psychotronic Film Society offers consolation counter-programming in the form of this 1982 Hong Kong horror-fantasy. As the curators explain it, “It’s hard to explain this fantastic film which involves Black Magic, animated corpses, people pissing their pants, and hopping Chinese zombies, but that’s just about what it’s about. Throw in some bad dubbing, some kung fu with Count Dracula and you’ve got one crazy mother-truckin’ movie.”
Watch the trailer.
Monday, July 13 at 8 p.m. at Acre 121, 1400 Irving Street NW #109
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The Freer’s series Celebrating Vietnamese Cinema launches this weekend with director Nguyễn Đức Việt’s 2014 drama about the aftermath of a wartime massacre in central Vietnam. The Honolulu Museum of Art writes, “former guerrilla leader Mr. Thap (Trung Anh) cannot forget the pain of war. As head of the small riverside hamlet—and a survivor of that massacre—he constantly reminds his fellow villagers of the importance of revenge. But for the next generation of villagers, including Thap’s own daughter, matters are less clear cut. Through trials and tribulations, the stubborn village elder finally discovers that community preservation instead may require building bridges and repairing old wounds.” Actress Thuy Hang will appear in person.
Saturday, July 11 at 2 p.m. at the Freer. Free.
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This is a busy weekend for film; among the titles opening tomorrow that I didn’t get a chance to review are:
—the documentary Batkid Begins! (at E Street Landmark Cinema), about a five-year old cancer patient granted his last wish (buzz: awwwww!)
—Manglehorn (at Cinema Arts Theatre), director David Gordon Green’s film about Al Pacino and his sick cat (buzz: he’s really good with that cat)
—Jimmy’s Hall (at Landmark Bethesda Row), what may be the last film from director Ken Loach (buzz: Irish Footloose, accent on klunky exposition)
—Strangerland (at Angelika Pop-Up), starring Nicole Kidman and Joseph Fiennes as parents of teenage children who disappear in the Australian desert (buzz: it’s no Picnic at Hanging Rock).
Notable repertory screenings include the National Gallery of Art series Maysles Films Inc.: Performing Vérité, which this weekend includes Meet Marlon Brando (Saturday, July 11 at 2 p.m.) and What’s Happening! The Beatles in the USA (Sunday, July 12 at 4 p.m.). These screenings are free and will be in the Gallery’s West Building Lecture Hall.
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Also opening tomorrow: Amy, a portrait of the late Amy Winehouse. We’ll have a full review tomorrow.
