Popcorn & Candy is DCist’s selective and subjective guide to some of the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
Mel Brooks (Courtesy WJFF)
Okay, sometimes Nazis are funny—but is it ever okay to laugh at the Holocaust? Can free speech exist with taboos? The Washington Jewish Film Festival and the Washington Improv Theater present director Ferne Pearlstein’s 2016 documentary, which blends a portrait of Auschwitz survivor Renee Firestone with provocative discussion and irreverent jokes from Mel Brooks, Gilbert Gottfried, and Sarah Silverman, as well as newly unearthed footage from Jerry Lewis’ never-released comedy about the Holocaust, The Day the Clown Cried.
Watch the trailer.
Tuesday, February 21 at 7:30 p.m. at Edlavitch DCJCC, 1529 16th Street NW.
Hamid Said (Courtesy of the Freer)
DINGOMARO
The 21st annual Iranian Film Festival continues this weekend with a documentary about musician Hamid Said, who lives in South Iran and travels by motorcycle taking his Afro-Persian music around the country. This screening will be at the African Art Museum. This weekend, the festival continues its survey of the work of Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami with a digital presentation of his 1999 film The Wind Will Carry Us (Saturday February 18 at the AFI Silver).
Watch the trailer.
Dingomaro screens Saturday, February 18 at 2 p.m. at the lecture hall of the National Museum of African Art, 950 Independence Ave SW. Free.
(Buena Vista Pictures / Skellington Productions)
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS
The series Toon Tunes continues at the Library of Congress this weekend with a 35mm print of the Tim Burton-produced fantasy about Jack Skellington, a resident from “Halloween Town” who stumbles through a portal to “Christmas Town” and decides to celebrate the holiday, with charmingly macabre results. The film’s score is by frequent Burton collaborator Danny Elfman. Advance tickets for the screening are already sold out, but standbys are encouraged to line up starting at 6:30 p.m. Available seats will be released five minutes before show time. Read more about the 2016-2017 concert season here. Disclosure: I work in the Music Division but did not work on this program.
Watch the trailer.
Friday, February 17 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, February 18 at 12 noon at the Mary Pickford Theater, third floor of the Library of Congress’ James Madison Building. Free. Advanced tickets are sold out, but the standby line forms at 6:30 p.m.
Benoît Ferreux (The Criterion Collection)
The National Gallery of Arts jazz on film series continues this weekend with a 35mm print of Louis Malle’s 1971 film about a 14-year old boy whose love for jazz is so strong he steals Charlie Parker records. Murmur has been favorably compared with The 400 Blows in the pantheon of coming-of-age movies.
Watch the trailer.
Friday, February 17 at 2:30 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art East Building Auditorium. Free.
Craig Sheffer and Pia Zadora (artist’s rendering via That Was a Bit Mental)
Celebrate President’s Day with the Washington Psychotronic Film Society and this 1984 sci-fi musical comedy. As WPFS curators describe it, “Aliens come to Speelburgh, USA, looking for the source of rock & roll. They don’t find it because they didn’t go to Little Richardton. They do find Dee Dee and Frankie. When Frankie won’t let Dee Dee sing with his band, the aliens form a band so their leader can steal Dee Dee’s heart. Who will win the battle of the bands? Will everyone be safe from the tentacled monster in Lake Eerie? Will the chainsaw killer find love?”
Watch the trailer.
Monday, February 20 at 8 p.m. at Smoke and Barrel.
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Also opening this weekend, a Wall street broker (Dane DeHaan) checks in to an unusual clinic in the sci-fi thriller A Cure for Wellness. We’ll have a full review tomorrow.
