Popcorn & Candy is DCist’s selective and subjective guide to some of the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
Iggy Pop and Ron Asheton (Byron Newman/Magnolia Pictures)
James Newell Osterberg, Jr.—aka Iggy Pop—followed an unusual career arc. As a young man in the mid-’60s, the rock star-in-training seemed an almost straight-laced drummer, but he wasn’t far from becoming the wild and frequently shirtless force of nature who once smeared peanut butter on his chest on stage. Today, you can hear a version of the Stooges’ incendiary “Search and Destroy” on an Audi commercial (it probably helps somebody put their kids through college), but this seminal proto-punk band was one of the most influential in rock. Oddly, it’s hard to see that influence in director Jim Jarmusch’s fairly safe documentary portrait of the band. Iggy Pop is of course front and center, most of his interviews conducted in what seems like the most mundane of locations: his laundry room. Yet Jarmusch fails to find a compelling narrative in the Stooges’ story, and leaves important questions unanswered. Like: how did producer Don Galluci get more out of the Stooges on Fun House, their best album, than higher profile producers John Cale and David Bowie? (Guitarist James Williamson mentions Bowie’s awful mix of Raw Power in passing, but where’s the follow-up?) Gimme Danger has some great footage that Stooges’ fans will want to see on the bigscreen, but with animated sequences that are now standard operating procedure for music docs, this is a thoroughly conventional movie about a band that gleefuly smeared peanut butter on convention.
Watch the trailer.
Opens Friday at Landmark E Street Cinema.
Marta Kubisová
Even if your cultural knowledge runs to Czech new wave cinema like Daisies, you may never have heard of Marta Kubišová. One of the great Czech pop stars of the 1960s, she was a member of the Golden Kids before embarking on a solo career that ended with the 1977 occupation of Czechoslovakia. An outspoken activist, Kubišová became a target of the secret police, and after decades of suppression was finally able to make a comeback during the Velvet Revolution. YouTube has plenty of clips of the artist at her peak, and the Embassy of the Czech Republic is screening director Olga Sommerová’s documentary about this dissident pop star.
Watch the trailer.
Thursday, November 3 at 6 p.m. at the Embassy of the Czech Republic, 3900 Spring of Freedom Street, NW. Free, but RSVP is required by today, November 2. Register here.
David Bowie and Kim Novak
David Bowie fans have seen The Man Who Fell to Earth and other high-profile movie appearances by the late chameleonic singer. But how many have seen Bowie’s star turn as a former Prussian officer who resorts to turning tricks? David Hemmings (star of Blow-Up, a major influence on the young Bowie) directed this ill-fated 1978 drama co-starring Marlene Dietrich and Kim Novak. My film series Shooting Stars: Bowie and Prince on Film launches Friday night with a 35mm print of a seldom-revived title that Bowie dismissively called “my 32 Elvis movies rolled into one.” Free tickets are already sold out for the series, but standbys are encouraged to line up starting at 6:30 p.m. as available seats will be released five minutes before show time. For more information, call (202) 707-5502. Learn more about the Library of Congress’ 2016-17 concert season here.
Watch the trailer.
Friday, November 4 at 7 p.m at the Mary Pickford Theatre, third floor of the Madison Building, Library of Congress. Free. Tickets are sold out. but a standby line forms at 6:30 p.m.
(c)DEF Media GmbH B-MOVIE: LUST & SOUND IN WEST-BERLIN 1979-1989
The 24th annual edition of the Film|Neu festival, a showcase for films from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, runs from November 3-6 this year, and closes with this look at “music, art, and chaos” in West-Berlin before the wall came down. Programmers describe the film as, “a fast-paced collage of mostly unreleased film and TV footage from a frenzied but creative decade, starting with punk and ending with the Love Parade, in a city where it was not about long-term success, but about living for the moment.” A closing night reception before the screening includes a complimentary B-Movie Cocktail and Berliner, and a Q&A will follow the screening. See the whole festival schedule here.
Watch the trailer.
Sunday, November 6 at 7:30 pm at Landmark E Street Cinema. $17.
As part of its silent movie showcase, all of which feature live musical accompaniment, the AFI Silver will screen a 35mm print of this sci-fi spoof from 1924. John G. Blystone (best known for the films he made with Buster Keaton and Laurel & Hardy) directed this dystopia set in a 1960 where a plague has wiped out the adult male population and women run the planet, including the White House. The last surviving adult male is Ozark resident Elmer Smith (Earle Foxe), who becomes “a prized specimen to be fought over.” Film score composer Gabriel Thibaudeau will perform live with the film.
Saturday, November 5 at 3 p.m. at the AFI Silver.
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Also opening this week, art-house stars go Marvel with Benedict Cumberbatch and Tilda Swinton in Doctor Strange; and Mel Gibson directs Hacksaw Ridge, starring Andrew Garfield as a World War II soldier who refuses to carry a weapon. We’ll have full reviews on Friday.
