Popcorn & Candy is DCist’s selective and subjective guide to some of the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
In 1985, Potomac, Maryland was the site of a music festival that promoters hoped would be a local Woodstock. Filmmakers Jeff Krulik and John Heyn (creators of the iconic Heavy Metal Parking Lot) assembled footage taken of that weekend party (made with a microphone reportedly stolen from coverage of Reagan’s inauguration ) and tracked down performers like Asylum and attendees 25 years later. Krulik and Heyn will appear at the AFI in person tomorrow night for a Q&A, along with producers Rudy Childs and Billy Gordon.
Watch the trailer.
Friday, August 28 at 7:30 pm at the AFI Silver.
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Julia Garner and Lily Tomlin (Aaron Epstein/ Sony Pictures Classics)Elle (Lily Tomlin) is a lesbian poet who helps her troubled granddaughter (Julia Garner) in this low-budget sort-of-comedy from Paul Weitz, the director of American Pie. Tomlin has come a long way from Moment by Moment, and fans may turn out for her performance as a surly, reluctant matriarch, but the film’s progressive themes are expressed in the most banal aesthetic, from its uninspired photography and NPR-lite soundtrack. Sam Elliot turns in a decent supporting performance as one of Elle’s old flames (in an example of food symbolism I’m not sure I want to parse, he’s boiling corn when his visitors arrive), but nobody gets much traction out of a predictable script.
Watch the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at Landmark E Street Cinema, Landmark Bethesda Row and AMC Shirlington.
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Tabu (center) co-stars as Inspector General Meera DeshmukhA husband and wife accidentally kill a man whom they catch photographing their teenage daughter in this Hindi revenge thriller. Drishyam is one of a handful of Indian films playing in the Washington-area suburbs next week that fall outside the radar of the local English-speaking press, to the detriment of adventurous moviegoers who might be curious about a 163 minute drama that currently holds an IMDb rating of 9.0. I haven’t seen it, but if the farther reaches of Northern Virginia are your stomping grounds and you’re in the mood for a new thriller as the summer release season comes to an end, take a chance.
Watch the trailer.
Playing at Regal Countryside Stadium 20, Sterling, VA.
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Kino Lorber, IncAptly-named director Franck Ribière long assumed that the superiority of French cuisine translated to their beef. But his eyes and tastebuds were opened when, accompanied by French butcher Yves-Marie Le Bourdonnec, he travelled around the globe in search of the world’s best steak. Steak (R)evolution is not a particularly well-crafted documentary, many of its interviews conducted on the fly under erratic sound and light conditions. But from Brooklyn to Buenos Aires, you will salivate over the cuts of meat lovingly prepared and consumed before your eyes and growling stomach.
Watch the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at E Street Landmark Cinema.
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Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta and Robert DeNiroThe AFI Silver celebrates the 25th anniversary of one of Martin Scorsese’s finest hours with a new DCP restoration. It’s too bad they’re not showing a print. But when this anniversary presentation played New York it was on the tiny screens at Film Forum, whereas Washington-area residents will be able to see it on the AFI’s huge main screen. Does that amuse you? The Goodfellas template has been borrowed many times since 1990, occasionally by Scorsese himself, but here’s your chance to revisit on the big screen a movie that lost the Academy Award for best Picture to Dances with Goddamn Wolves.
Watch the trailer.
Friday, August 28-Sunday, August 30 at the AFI Silver.
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Claudia Cardinale (Courtesy Photofest)The National Gallery of Art’s retrospective of the Italian production house Titanus continues this weekend with a DCP restoration of one of the all-time greats—and you can see it for free (though this title often brings out long lines, so get there early). Prince Don Fabrizio Salina (Burt Lancaster, dubbed in Italian) is the patriarch of a proud noble family in decline as the modern world changes around them in 1860s Sicily. Director Luchino Visconti specialized in lush epics that are meant to be seen on the big screen, and this 1963 film is his masterpiece. If the ornate scenery and graceful cinematography wasn’t pretty enough for you, the film also co-stars Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale.
Watch the trailer.
Saturday, August 29 at 2 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art, East Building Auditorium. Free
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Do you like gladiator movies? Then the Washington Psychotronic Film Society has something special for you next week as it taps the infamous Golan-Globus catalogue for their 1983 version of the Roman hero’s classic adventures. Director Luigi Cozzi (under the name Lewis Coates) is in charge of a cast that includes Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk) as Hercules, with B-movie queen Sybil Danning as Ariadne.
Watch the trailer.
Monday, August 31 at 8 p.m. at Acre 121.
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Also opening this week, Margot Robbie, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Chris Pine are the last people on earth in the post-apocalyptic thriller Z for Zacaraiah. We’ll have a full review tomorrow.
