Popcorn & Candy is DCist’s selective and subjective guide to some of the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
(Twentieth Century Fox TM & © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation)
With brutal attacks that remind me of how my Chihuahua greets me when I get home from work (editor’s note: bragging much?), Ridley Scott’s latest Alien adventure may well sate those who found Prometheus lacking in horror and explanations. (I’m in the minority who liked it). The movie orbits around a space colonization mission from Earth that goes awry when the ship’s crew is untimely ripped from its cryogenic sleep and its captain (an uncredited and quickly dispatched James Franco) unexpectedly dies. Among those left in his wake are his wife (Katherine Waterson), an unprepared second-in-command (Billy Crudup) and a helpful droid (Michael Fassbender). Maybe there are plot holes and maybe an experienced crew wouldn’t make the mistakes this crew does, but even if you can hard-boil an egg on its predictable space-horror beats, I jumped at every personal alien invasion. With stunning art direction, lots of gore, and not one but two sensitive performances from Fassbender, this is a thoroughly entertaining space ride. Read a full review at SFist tomorrow.
Watch the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at area theaters.
(Sundance)
The crisis in Syria is just one symptom of a world seemingly gone mad, and the destruction of the ancient and once thriving capital of Aleppo is perhaps its most heartbreaking casualty. Yet out of ruins comes great heroism and a glimmer of hope in the form of the all-volunteer group known as the White Helmets, who rushes to bombing sites in search of survivors. Syrian director Feras Fayyad documents the Syria Civil Defense group in a film that the New York Times’ Glenn Kenny writes, “is likely to make you almost ashamed of your comforts and leave you with a feeling of impotence.” Read an interview with Fayyad at Gothamist.
Watch the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at the AFI Silver.
Warren Oates (Cinelicious)
A pair of drifters (Corey Allen and Warren Oates) stumble on what may be a perfect target for home invasion, but maybe the lonely housewife who lives there (Kate Manx) could be persuaded to play along? This 1960 neo-noir from writer-director Leslie Stevens (Manx’s wife at the time) was once considered a lost film, but found elements have resulted in a 4K digital restoration. This taut genre picture suffers from a bombastic score and inconsistent acting. Stevens encourages Allen to simmer and mumble in an ersatz Brando, and seemed to have no idea what to do with the young Oates, whose line readings are so unlike the character actor’s signature grizzled diction that you wonder if he was partly dubbed. But there’s the germ of a tense, provocative thriller here.
Watch the trailer.
Sunday, May 21, Tuesday, May 23, and Thursday, May 25 at the AFI Silver.
(Adi Marineci/Sundance Selects)
A Romanian dramedy? The National Gallery of Art’s series Reinventing Realism—New Cinema from Romania continues this weekend with this droll 2015 film from director Corneliu Porumboiu (Police, Adjective) about a group of co-workers in Bucharest who look for a box of money buried on an old family property before the war. Also screening in the series this weekend is the 2016 drama Illegitimate (May 20 at 4 p.m. at the NGA), from director Adrian Sitaru. The Gallery is sharing the series with the AFI Silver, who is screening the 2015 film Aferim! (May 19 at 7 p.m. at the AFI), about a runaway slave in 19th century Wallachia.
Watch the trailer for The Treasure.
Saturday, May 20 at 2 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art. Free.
(The Freer)
Programmed by the Freer Gallery, the series Utamaro’s World on Film runs in conjunction with a display of newly discovered paintings by a 19th century master who specialized in depictions of what we know today as red light districts. The film series continues with a 35mm print of this rarely screened drama from director Tomu Uchida, who “created an impressive and wide-ranging body of work during Japanese cinema’s golden age. Meticulously recreating the Edo-period pleasure quarters that were Utamaro’s playground.” Also in the series this weekend, a digital presentation of director Kenji Mizoguchi’s 1939 film Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (Sunday, May 21 at 2 p.m. at the American History Museum).
Killing in Yoshiwara screens Saturday, May 20 at 2 p.m. at the American History Museum’s Warner Bros. Theater. Free.
(thecinemaofeasterneurope.blogspot.com)
Next week Bistro Bohem’s monthly film and beer series offers a 1964 musical parody of early American Westerns. Karel Fiala, who went on to play Don Giovanni in Milos Forman’s Amadeus, stars as a refreshing hero who cleans up “Arizona sin-town” Stetson City and endorses a drink called Kolaloka (Crazy Cola) that reportedly guarantees you’ll hit your target. Based on a 1963 stage production, this tinted black-and-white film has been called a prime example of a Czech acid Western.
Watch a clip.
Tuesday, May 23 at 7 p.m. at Bistro Bohem. Free, but make reservations at 202/735-5895 or bistrobohem@gmail.com. Guests must arrive by 6:45 pm to keep their reservation.
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Also this week, don’t forget to check out our coverage of the annual Washington Jewish Film Festival.
