July 6th 2013. Pick Of The Day.
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The Nitehawk Cinema in bright and bubbly B-Burg gets the day in classic screenings going with twin brunchtime unspoolings of Walter Hill's THE LONG RIDERS and Ivan Reitman's GHOSTBUSTERS. Both great ensemble pieces that depicted gunslingers of vastly differing variety, and accompanied by the theater's usual fine fare, but misses as my Pick today. It's gonna be 95 degrees today. I'm sleepin' in.
Sidney Lumet's debut feature 12 ANGRY MEN gets a week-long booking in its new DCP resto at Film Forum. Took it as my Pick yesterday first chance I got, so my rules render this offering verboten to me today. Plus they're angry, they're men and there's 12 of them! It's July 6th, I want something a little more romantic...
MoMA's massive trib to a true film pioneer, Allan Dwan and the Rise and Decline of the Hollywood Studios, slowly winds to a full stop with today's offerings of SANDS OF IWO JIMA, SILVER LODE and SLIGHTLY SCARLET. The former was the director's lone collaboration with megastar John Wayne, the middle one of a batch of Westerns he made with middling star John Payne, and the latter reunited Payne and Dwan for a boundary-pushing gangster noir. All worth your time, just not today.
Astoria's Museum of the Moving Image resumes its excellent See It Big! series with today's double bill of F.W. Murnau's SUNRISE and Erich Von Stroheim's GREED. Both screening in stunningly pristine 35mm prints and featuring live musical accompaniment, so should you need an excuse to finally visit the recently renovated space you could do worse that take in today's bill of fare. I myself choose another tale of love and avarice this day as my Pick, one that wears its ghastly soul on the outside. Keep readin'...
The Silent Clowns Film Series resumes its 16fps hijinks with a resurrection of Douglas MacLean's ONE A MINUTE at Lincoln Center's Library for the Performing Arts. Pianist Ben Model's the man, but it just misses as my Pick today.
Anthology Film Archives plunges into its Surfin' AFA series with screenings of Abie Thomas' PALM BEACH and the magnificently unhinged John Milius' BIG WEDNESDAY. If you can't actually make it to the beach today you could do worse than catch some waves in the last and best replication of NYC's one proud grindhouse culture. Waves shmaves, sez me, but only considering the quality and importance of the flick I HAVE Picked today. You're headin' toward it...
John Cassavetes' OPENING NIGHT screens today as part of BAM's trib to the godfather of American indie cinema. Gena Rowlands kills as a Margo Channing updated for the early 70's, strangely affected by the death of a fan. VERY hard to take sides against, but a prima donna with a harder heart to melt is on display today, so I gotta pass.
Also at BAM, and giving MoMI a run for its money, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY screens as part of the newly renovated Harvey Theater's Big Screen Epics series. I never lose my sense of awe watching this unequivocal masterpiece whether projected in 70mm or broadcast to my flatscreen, but today a wholly different tale of the human heart besting all encumbrance wins mine own. Sorry H.A.L. And open the goddam pod bay doors already!
Frank Oz's LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS brings the creepy camp to St. Nicholas Terrace in northern Manhattan. Outdoor screenings in the summertime can't be beat, unless a masterpiece of monster-human interrelations goes toe-to-toe with said. As is the case this day. Sorry Seymour. And feed Audrey for Chrissakes!
Midnight fare about our cinema-mad burg includes Terry Gilliam's BRAZIL at IFC Center, INDIANA JONES AND THE I COULDN'T REALLY GIVE A GOOD GODDAM at the Landmark Sunshine, and the 80's sex romp HARDBODIES at the Nitehawk Cinema. In order; tempting, fuck off, and tater tots and root beer woo hoo! However a true masterpiece of fantasy cinema screens this day as part of a weekend trib to its maker, and it struck me that while it may unspool sorta routinely on our rep screens I don't believe I've chosen it as my Pick yet. So I'm correcting that now.
Jean Cocteau's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST screens today at Anthology Film Archives, along with the auteur's BLOOD OF A POET and ORPHEUS. Cocteau's never far from AFA's sked but this is a great opportunity to catch the surrealist poet's cinematic CV. If anything treat yourself for the 1st or hundreth time to a big screen viewing of his take on the classic fable. It never disappoints.
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Be safe and sound and make sure the next knucklehead is too! Have a great weekend and check the Twitter feed and/or the Facebook page to stay updated on my daily Picks! 5 in a row for the Yanks! GO NYC!!!
-Joe Walsh
