On Sunday, the Trylon begins its second annual Bleak Week, a death march of seven films largely devoid of hope. I'm not gonna hit all of 'em like I did last year (I don't need to see Come and See again so soon) but I will be strapped in for Béla Tarr's long, slow Sátántangó. Lucky me?
If your tastes are more fun-inclined, well, the Heights is doing a couple Terminator double features. And below, I've added new reviews of I Love Boosters, Is God Is, and Obsession.
Special Screenings
Thursday, May 28
A Mighty Wind (2003)
Emagine Willow Creek
Christopher Guest takes on aging folkies. $12. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
North Loop Green
As I never tire of reminding you, George Will loved this movie. Free. 7 p.m. More info here.
His Girl Friday (1940)
Heights Theater
Cary Grant tries to convince ex-wife Rosalind Russell that she is a real newspaperman. $13. 7 p.m. More info here.
GoldenEye (1995)
Parkway Theater
Gotta say, the Brosnan Bonds are all one big blur to me. $9/$12. Music from the Swongos at 7 p.m. Movie at 8 p.m. More info here.
Killer of Sheep (1977)
Walker Art Center
Charles Burnett’s masterpiece about blue-collar Black life in L.A. Free. 7 p.m. More info here.
Friday, May 29
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Heights Theater
The Terminator is a good guy now???? $13. 3:15 & 6:30 p.m. Monday-Wednesday 7 p.m. Thursday 3:45 p.m. More info here
Alligator (1980)
Heights Theater
He’s gonna chomp ya! $13. 9:45 p.m. More info here.
Saturday, May 30
The Handmaiden (2016)
Alamo Drafthouse
Park Chan-wook at his porniest. Which is pretty damn porny! $10.99. 3 p.m. More info here.
The Met: Live in HD: El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Lagoon Cinema/Marcus West End
An opera about Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Also Wednesday. Prices, showtimes, and more info here.
Batman (1989)
Emagine Willow Creek
I’m old enough to remember when a Batman movie was a novelty. Also Wednesday. $11. 3:20 & 6:30 p.m. More info here.
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Heights Theater
Love the eating noises so much. $13. 11 a.m. More info here.
The Terminator (1984)
Heights Theater
Arnold travels back from the distant future of 2029. $13. 2 p.m. Sunday 2:30 p.m. Double feature with Terminator 2: Judgment Day: $20. Saturday 4:30 p.m. Sunday 5 p.m. More info here.
10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
Heights Theater
Why don’t they make teen comedies based on the classics anymore? $16. 9:45 p.m. More info here.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Parkway
Would you people keep it down? I’m trying to watch the movie. $10/$15. Midnight. More info here.
Perfect Days (2024)
Mia
Wim Wenders’s lovely film about a Japanese public bathroom custodian’s daily routine. Free. 2 p.m. More info here.
The ’80s Action Extravaganza III
Trylon
Seven-and-a-half-hours of action. $50. 4 p.m. More info here.
Sunday, May 31
Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
Alamo Drafthouse
You may know this film’s foe better as “the Smog Monster.” Sold out. 4:15 p.m. More info here.
Frances Ha (2013)
Alamo Drafthouse
Love you, Greta. $13.99. 7:15 p.m. More info here.
Revolutionary America (2026)
AMC Southdale 16/Marcus West End
A reverent look at the founding of the U.S. Through Tuesday. Prices, showtimes, and more info here.
Tekkonkinkreet (2006)
AMC Southdale 16/Marcus West End
The anime’s 20th anniversary. AMC: $15. 4 p.m. Monday 7 p.m. More info here. Marcus: $13. 3:40 & 6:20 p.m. Monday 7:25 p.m. More info here.
WWE Clash in Italy (2025)
AMC Southdale 16
Wrasslin’. $15. 1 p.m. More info here.
Paris, Texas (1984)
Grandview 1&2
Harry Dean Stanton is a drifter. Then again, isn’t he always? Also Thursday. $14.14. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari (2021)
Heights Theater
Still creepy and mind-expanding. $20. 11:30 a.m. More info here.
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Lagoon Cinema
Matt Damon is wicked smaht. $11. 2 p.m. Wednesday 4 & 7 p.m. More info here.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Roxy’s Cabaret
Will you people keep it down? I’m trying to watch the movie. Free. 7 p.m. More info here.
Monday, June 1
Mystery Voyage
Alamo Drafthouse
A rare kung fu flick from 1990. $13.99. 10 p.m. More info here.
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Alamo Drafthouse
Where it all began. Well, actually, there was the TV show first, of course. But you know what I mean. $13.99. 6:45 p.m. More info here.
Badlands (1973)
Edina Mann
The movie rules so hard. Sissy Spacek is so great. Martin Sheen is so skinny. Also Wednesday. $12.12. 7 p.m. More info here.
Pieces (1982)
Emagine Willow Creek
A killer is turning women into jigsaw puzzle pieces! $9. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Zodiac (2007)
Trylon
Obsessing over serial killers? Bleak! Sold out. 7 p.m. More info here.
Tuesday, June 2
Cape Fear (1991)
Alamo Drafthouse
De Niro so scuzzy here. Prices, times, and more info here.
A Room With A View (1985)
Parkway Theater
This has way more dick than you remember. $15. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Tribe (2014)
Trylon
A student experiences cruelty at a school for the deaf. $8. 7 & 9:30 p.m. More info here.
Wednesday, June 3
Office Romance (2026)
Alamo Drafthouse
Advance screening of a new J.Lo romcom. Sold out. 7 p.m. More info here.
Death Becomes Her (1992)
Alamo Drafthouse
The cult classic returns. $20. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Grease (1976)
The Commons
I’ve been told it’s “the word.” Free. 8:55 p.m. More info here.
Tape Freaks
Trylon
Not even Bleak Week can stop the Tape Freaks. Sold out. 7 p.m. More info here.
Testament (1983)
Trylon
A nuclear bomb takes out San Francisco. $8. 9 p.m. More info here.
Passing Through (1977)
Walker Art Center
Freed from prison, a saxophonist seeks guidance from his mentor. $12/$15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Thursday, June 4
Trainspotting (1996)
Alamo Drafthouse
Whatever happened to Kelly Macdonald? $13.99. 7 & 9:45 p.m. More info here.
Putney Swope (1969)
Capri Theater
Robert Downey Sr.’s scathing take on race and advertising. $5. 7 p.m. More info here.
Smithereens (1983)
Emagine Willow Creek
A Jersey girl travels cross-country to become a punk. $9. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Stolen Kingdom (2025)
Heights Theater
A look at Disney World’s underground exploring community. $15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Best in Show (2000)
North Loop Green
Dog people are weird. Free. 7 p.m. More info here.
Purple Rain (1984)
Parkway Theater
Never heard of it. $9/$12. Trivia at 7:30 p.m. Movie at 8 p.m. More info here.
The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act (2026)
Emagine Willow Creek/Riverview Theater
The conclusion of the online series, in theaters. Emagine: $14.50. 6:30 & 9 p.m. More info here. Riverview: $7. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
The Life of Oharu (1952)
Trylon
A Japanese woman falls in love with a man below her social status, with terrible consequences. $8. 7 p.m. More info here.
A Different Image (1982)
Walker Art Center
A Black art student struggles to define herself authentically. $12/$15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Opening
Follow the links for showtimes.
Backrooms
When Chiwetel Ejiofor disappears into a mysterious yellow building, Renate Reinsve goes in after him.
A Blind Bargain
A reimagining of the lost Lon Chaney silent film starring Crispin Glover.
The Breadwinner
We’re still doing Mr. Mom shit in 2026?
Phi Phong: The Blood Demon
A new Vietnamese horror flick.
Pressure
Eisenhower vs. the weatherman.
Tuner
A piano tuner gets mixed up with criminals.
Ongoing in Local Theaters
Follow the links for showtimes.
Corporate Retreat—ends May 28
Godzilla Minus One—ends May 28
Hokum—ends May 28
More like ho-hum. Writer/director Damian McCarthy’s previous feature, Oddity, was constrained but effective, reaching its conclusion with the fatalist logic of a folktale. But though this attempt at an atmospheric chiller is focused on one locale, it sprawls too far both narratively and thematically. Adam Scott is Ohm Bauman, a blocked novelist with a bad attitude who travels to Ireland to spread his parents’ ashes at the site of their honeymoon, finish his damn book, and, yes, grapple with C H I L D H O O D T R A U M A. And wouldn’t you just know it, he stays in one of those old hotels with a room no one must enter because it’s haunted by a witch. There’s no shortage of events in Hokum: provincial oddballs drift in and out of the story with various motives and preoccupations, Bauman flashes back to harsh images from childhood, there’s even a suicide attempt. Yet through it all, Scott doesn’t just seem annoyed with the other characters—he seems irritated to be in this movie in the first place, and there’s something all too contagious about his peevishness. If he’s wondering when we can just get this nonsense over with and move on, why shouldn’t you and I as well? C
I Love Boosters
Every time I see a movie with Keke Palmer or LaKeith Stanfield in it, I think about how much of our time directors waste by making movies without Keke Palmer or LaKeith Stanfield in them. In Boots Riley’s Seussian celebration of art, communism, and Oakland, Palmer’s Corvette is part of a crew of high-end shoplifters, along with Naomi Ackie’s Sade and Taylour Paige’s Mariah, who draw the ire of girlboss designer Christy Smith (Demi Moore). Aided by Poppy Liu as a Chinese factory worker, Eiza González as a dirtbag leftist, and a device powered by dialectical materialism, they struggle to forge a global, multi-racial, working-class alliance. The film’s design team, led by Everything Everywhere All at Once costumer/Tierra Whack collaborator Shirley Kuratais, is playing a game no one else even knows the rules of, and the whole shebang is funny as hell. Of course, if you slow down and try to puzzle it all out… wait, why are you doing that? If I have a better time at the movies this year, I’ll be a very lucky man indeed. As for Stanfield—I’m not gonna give it away, but he’s in this. Damn is he in this. A
Is God Is—ends May 28
Part buddy comedy, part Tarantinonian meditation on revenge, part 21st century Southern Gothic, Aleshea Harris’s adaptation of her Obie-winning play glides onto the screen like it was written for it. Kara Young and Mallori Johnson are Racine and Anaia, far-from-identical twins with burn-scarred bodies (Racine’s arm, Anaia’s face and chest) who communicate telepathically when need be. A demand from their long-lost mother (Vivica A. Fox) that they wreak vengeance on the father who burned them all sends the women on a quest, where they encounter colorful foes: Erika Alexander as a storefront preacher, Mykelti Williamson as a silent lawyer, and Janelle Monae as their dad’s bougie, abused new wife. Boots Riley regular Young (the communism explainer from I’m a Virgo and Crying Black Mother in I Love Boosters) is fiery and commanding as the twin seduced by the pleasures of wrath and violence, while Johnson balances her out in the harder role as the more empathetic sister. And as the final boss, Sterling K. Brown plays against type with sociopathic aplomb. This one deserved a bigger push—from the studio, from critics, from its audience. A-
The Last One for the Road—ends May 28
Michael
This is the story of a sweetly eccentric young fellow who merely wants to collect exotic animals, visit children in hospitals, and share his incredible talents with the world. With the help of agent (and, incidentally, the film’s executive producer) John Branca (Miles Teller), our hero wriggles free of his abusive, domineering father (Colman Domingo) and embarks on his first solo tour in 1988, finally his own man—presumably it was all smooth sailing from there. A glitzy extended ad for the disgraced superstar’s estate, Michael follows in the footsteps of the modern music biopic not only as a form of brand management, but as a means of score-settling—from NWA to Elton John, every star wants to be a victim nowadays. Michael has a made-to-order villain in Jackson paterfamilias Joseph, but with his grotesque prosthetics and Nixonian hunched shoulders, Domingo is actually more cartoonish than Mike Myers is in his brief borscht-belt turn as CBS head Walter Yetnikoff. The lesson of Michael Jackson’s life is that the further you retreat into escapist fantasy the more inescapably your neuroses surface, and that plays out with his fandom: The more irreparably Jackson’s reputation is tarnished, the more his worshippers demand a portrait of a saint’s life. And so they get as lousy a movie as they deserve. Shout out to Janet Jackson, who refused to participate and therefore simply doesn’t exist in this Michaelverse. C
Obsession
I’ll say this for the “must see” horror flick of the summer—you should probably see it. Which is more than I say about most of the lukewarm bloodbaths (some of them not even Oz Perkins’s fault) that are regularly touted as the best thing to happen to the screen since the chainsaw. Michael Johnston’s Bear is so hapless he can’t acknowledge his crush on pal/co-worker Nikki (Inde Navarrette) even when she asks him about it point blank. So, like so many doomed losers before him, he makes a magical wish for her love, an overturning of the natural order that goes wrong is ways both predictable and un-. Like any effective horror movie, there are all sorts of psychosexual subtexts you can tease out of this scenario—the (male) anxiety that true love is smothering, the (again male) desire to efface female personality—but though YouTube-weaned auteur Curry Barker has a genre-adept’s knack for pacing and execution, Obsession doesn’t have much conceptual play. But it also doesn’t give us the easy “slay girl” catharsis of, say, Companion, and what truly sets it apart is Navarrette’s committed performance of a woman trapped in a man’s fantasy. B+
Project Hail Mary
Anyone who has a heart will love this adorably techno-optimistic film about Ryan Gosling buddying up with an intelligent alien who looks like a rock as they save the galaxy together. I guess so, anyway—I’m extrapolating from the fact that even a soulless monster like me thought it was pretty cute. Interstellar parasites are gobbling up the stars, including our sun, and as will happen when the Earth is in danger, only a middle school science teacher can save the day. Ryland Grace (which sounds like a name Gosling would give if he wanted to check into a hotel in secret) is recruited by a grim German bureaucrat (the great Sandra Hüller, who deserves all the Hollywood blockbuster cash that comes her way) to research these solar gluttons. His insights prove so invaluable he’s sent on a suicide mission to the only star that’s proven impervious to the baddies to learn how to counteract them. There he meets an alien scientist on the same quest for his own world, who he dubs Rocky, and both species work together to etc. etc. as their unique friendship and so on and so forths. Drew Goddard’s script, adapted from the much-loved Andy Weir novel, has the same plucky scientific spirit as Goddard’s script of Weir’s The Martian, and Gosling remains likeable as ever, though I do wish he’d find some new ways to be likeable. The pleased laughter all around me at the screening was so delightful I felt left out a little. Maybe someday when the wizard grants me a heart I’ll give this another go. B
Silent Friend
Look folks, this is a two-and-a-half-hour movie about a solitary ginkgo tree and its effects on three different people at three different moments in time. (Whispering to my date: That’s the Silent Friend.) I will refrain from calling the movie “meditative” because too many reviewers already have, and the adrenaline junkies among you know what that critic’s euphemism really means. But I’m the guy writing the review here, and I was engrossed in Hungarian writer/director Ildikó Enyedi’s essay of sorts on the interrelationship between humans and their natural environment, a milder exploration of some of the same themes as Richard Powers’s novel The Overstory. Tony Leung Chiu-wai (in a role written explicitly for him) is a Hong Kong professor marooned at a solitary German university during Covid. Luna Wedler becomes that university’s first female student at the turn of the 20th century, and she explores her sexuality by studying photography. Enzo Brumm is a first-gen university student, just off the farm, studying poetry and out of step with the free-living ’70s, who falls for a botanist and winds up caring for her geranium while she’s off hiking with her latest lover. Each is an outsider in some way, each suffers from loneliness and detachment while exploring new ways of connection, each illustrates the blurred lines between human technology and natural systems. And Leung’s presence, already indelible in Wong Kar-Wai’s films decades ago, has only deepened with age. A-
