January 17th 2013. Pick Of the Day.

MOMA drags itself by its elbows into the second of its three day trib to the I-Berg as WILD STRAWBERRIES screens at 1:30pm. Victor Sjöström's aging doctor sets out on a long car trip to recieve an honor from his alma mater, and a journey through the consequences of his life choices ensues. Often imitated and ranks among Bergman's finest two hours. Not my Pick, if only in defiance of my sworn enemy January.

Film Forum's New Yawk New Wave careens through its second wild week with notable efforts from the underground, experimental and indie film scene from postwar NYC. Screening for a second day is their subway double bill, DUTCHMAN and THE INCIDENT. The former features a tour-de-force battle of the sexes and races as ace acting vets Shirley Knight and Al Freeman Jr. test each other during a long hot journey through the tunnels. The latter showcases a cross-section of acting talent portraying a cross-section of city dwellers held hostage by nutso street punk Tony Musante. He makes Ed McMahon weep. Need I say more? Screening as a two-fer today, I already used yesterday's Pick for the Musante-McMahon steel cage match. So we move on. Stand clear.

Lord knows I love me some Shirley MacLaine. Really and truly. Shirlz circa the early 60's is pretty much my dream gal. Well one of them anyway, but very high on the list. Normally a movie musical wouldn't tempt me as I'm not the genre's biggest fan, but SWEET CHARITY is an exception. The pedigree alone is intriguing enough to warrant attendance; based on Fellini's NIGHTS OF CABIRIA, adapted for the stage by Neil Simon with songs from Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields, and directed and choreographed for stage and screen by genius filmmaker and walking timebomb Bob Fosse. Need more? MacLaine is joined in the dancehall by pals Chita Rivera and Paula Kelly. And later Sammy Davis Jr. pops in just because he was that kinda cat, baby. Dig?

Seedy and shabby and shot in glorious widescreen Technicolor, it has both Vincente Minnelli and Kurt Weill in its DNA. Expected to follow the fortunes of its stage forebear and smash box office records, it instead died an ignominious death. Posters were used to wrap fish just days after its release. I'm making up that last part, but I'm not too far off. Having a crush on the perky ginger from my adolescent days I caught this a few times on the tube back in the day when seven channels seemed choice aplenty. I mostly admired it for its ambitions, but realized even then it was too long, too uneven, and simply relied far too much on the charm of its star to mask its shortcomings. Still fascinating and its underdog status really tempts as it unspools tonight at the Clearview Chelsea Cinemas, but I'm reserving my Pick for an even LESSER seen effort, whch is also a better, tighter film, offering its own unique cinegeek pedigree and counting amongst its laurels perhaps its stars finest perf.

Okay that last boast may be just a smidgen too much even for me, but I'm still choosing this flick as my Pick today.

Some what-if's in life never come with an answer. What if Akira Kurosawa and John Ford had actually teamed up on TORA TORA TORA? What if Ridley Scott had cast Dustin Hoffman in BLADE RUNNER? "What if Lee Van Cleef...?" is its own category entirely. Thankfully we will never have to ask what would result from a collaboration between James Woods and James B. Harris whence undertaking the first screen adap of a James Ellroy novel. Geeks like me who routinely gave late night cable fare at least a 15 minute fair shot window know the answer. One of the grittiest, grisliest and, frighteningly, most charming portraits of a fascist psychopath with a badge the screen has ever seen. Daringly doing nothing to tone down the source material, director Harris, he of Kubrick-partner fame and helmer of THE BEDFORD INCIDENT and the Woods-starring FAST WALKING, embraces the cold heart of the 80's both in neon wet street aesthetic and shallow character gratification. Or does he? Woods' Lloyd Hopkins is updated Dirty Harry, except he's the bad guy. And he knows it. And the filmmakers want us to know it. HARRY had a larger fucked up world to operate in, Hopkins is our eyes and ears in this squalid L.A. We judge this environment as he does, and are complicit with the unhinged killer cop and all his attendant mayhem and charisma. Ellroy was probably perfectly okay with that.

Or it's just a sleek, tautly plotted lone badge Western update. The Hell do I know? What I will attest to is the sure hand behind the proceedings, the grim Ellroy nighttime West coast, and the solid perfs from all involved, including character stalwarts Raymond J. Barry, Charles Haid, the awesome Charles Durning and stars Leslie Anne Warren and Woods, who share the single most uncomfortable seduction scene since Travis met Betsy. Don't I just sell these things?

COP screens tonight at 7:30pm @ the 92YTribeca as part of their L.A. LAW series.

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Be safe and sound, Stockahz! Back tomorrow with more of the unmissable classics screening in our fair Metropolis! One day I'll type that and Superman will appear for real!

-Joe Walsh