Two very big recommendations this week. The first is the annual Arab Film Festival, which this year shines a spotlight on work from and about Palestine and Sudan. And Sunday night, I'm making my way to The Heights for Die Puppe, which is not about killing a dog (sorry)—it's a silent film about a woman pretending to be a very sexy doll.
Special Screenings
Thursday, September 26
The Batman (2022)
AMC Southdale 16
Why settle for a Batman? Read our full review here. $5. 4 p.m. More info here.
Batman Forever (1995)
AMC Southdale 16
Watch out, Gotham! There's a new director in town and he's super gay. $5. 12:30 p.m. More info here.
Beer Release & Secret Screening
Emagine Willow Creek
Falling Knife and Emagine have collabbed on a beer, Movie Preview Heckler, and to celebrate they're showing a '90s comedy. $6. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Mummy (1999)
Grandview 1&2
Mummies are so scary, I'm glad they're not real. Also Sunday. $12. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Heights
A little bit of the ultraviolence. $12. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Revolutionary Tales Shorts Segment
Main Cinema
A program of short films selected by filmmaker Rafa Renas. Part of the Arab Film Festival. $12; free for students. 4 p.m. More info here.
Tajouje (1977)
Third Avenue Bridge
A digitally restored version of one of Sudan's first narrative feature films. Part of the Arab Film Festival. $10 donation suggested. 7 p.m. More info here.
24 Hours to D-Day (2024)
Trylon
Eric Roberts wins WWII. $8. 5 p.m. More info here.
Friday, September 27
Pacific Rim (2013)
AMC Southdale 16
Why is it back in theaters this week? Who am I to say? Times, prices and more info here.
Life Is Beautiful (2023)
Main Cinema
Not the Roberto Benigni Holocaust movie. Part of the Arab Film Festival. $8/$12. 5 p.m. More info here.
The Burdened (2023)
Main Cinema
A pregnant woman is determined to get an abortion during Yemen's civil war. Part of the Arab Film Festival. $8/$12. 7 p.m. More info here.
Anxious in Beirut (2023)
Main Cinema
A filmmaker's visual diary of his life in Lebanon. Part of the Arab Film Festival. $8/$12. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Train (1964)
Trylon
Can Burt Lancaster stop the Nazis from looting French art? $8. Friday-Saturday 7 p.m. Sunday 3 & 5:45 p.m. More info here.
Saturday, September 28
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
Alamo Drafthouse
Pretty sure this is the one with the Order of the Phoenix in it. $10. 3:50 p.m. More info here.
Steel Magnolia (1989)
Alamo Drafthouse
Sally Field says director Herbert Ross was really mean to Julia Roberts but all the other ladies defended her. $10. 12:45 p.m. More info here.
Three Promises (2023)
Main Cinema
A Palestinian woman films her family in the time after the Second Intifada. Part of the Arab Film Festival. $8/$12. Noon. More info here.
A Fidai Film (2024)
Main Cinema
A documentary about the 1982 Israeli looting of the Palestinian Research Center. Part of the Arab Film Festival. $8/$12. 2:30 p.m. More info here.
No Other Land (2024)
Main Cinema
A young Palestinian activist documents the destruction of his town. Part of the Arab Film Festival. $8/$12. 5 p.m. More info here.
To a Land Unknown (2024)
Main Cinema
Two Palestinian cousins struggle to reach Germany from Athens. Part of the Arab Film Festival. $8/$12. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Teacher (2023)
Main Cinema
A Palestinian teacher's life changes when an Israeli settler kills one of his students. Part of the Arab Film Festival. $8/$12. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Spaceballs (1987)
Parkway Theater
Not exactly Mel Brooks's peak. $5-$10. 1 p.m. More info here.
Sunday, September 29
Hoop Dreams (1994)
Alamo Drafthouse
Just one of the all-time best sports docs ever. $10. 12:30 p.m. More info here.
The Shining (1980)
Emagine Willow Creek
Never marry a writer. Also Wednesday. $9. 12 & 5:30 p.m. More info here.
Die Puppe (The Doll) (1919)
The Heights
A Lubitsch silent sex comedy about a man who thinks he's marrying a mechanical doll. I am so there. Live accompaniment by Dreamland Faces. Preceded by the short film The Doll's Revenge. $20. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Edward Scissorhands (2024)
Lagoon Cinema
A dance version of the Tim Burton film. $15.25. 2 p.m. More info here.
Inshallah a Boy (2024)
Main Cinema
A woman fakes a pregnancy so that she doesn't lose her home. Part of the Arab Film Festival. $8/$12. 1 p.m. More info here.
National Theatre Live: Prima Facie
Main Cinema
Jodie Comer in a one-woman play. $20. 7 p.m. Wednesday 1 p.m. More info here.
Fight, Zatoichi, Fight (1964)
Trylon
Yeah, man! Fight! $8. 7:30 p.m. Monday-Tuesday 7 & 8:45 p.m. More info here.
Dreamworlds
Walker Art Center
Nasrin Himada curates short films by Palestinian and Indigenous filmmakers. Part of the Arab Film Festival. $12/$15. 3:30 p.m. More info here.
Goodbye Julia (2023)
Walker Art Center
A Sudanese woman wracked by guilt tries to make amends to a widow. Part of the Arab Film Festival. $12/$15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Monday, September 30
The Jerk (1979)
Alamo Drafthouse
Hey, it's that guy from the Selena Gomez show. $10. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Ruins (2008)
Emagine Willow Creek
Aughts horror sure did have it in for young American tourists, huh? $10. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
The Heights
Two sweet old ladies off their tenants. $12. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Tuesday, October 1
Being There (1979)
Alamo Drafthouse
Always thought the satire here was pretty pat, tbh. $10. 7 p.m. More info here.
Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)
Orchestra Hall
The Minnesota Orchestra performs the John Williams soundtrack you know so well. $50-$115. 7 p.m. More info here.
Wednesday, October 2
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Alamo Drafthouse
What's the other half? $10. 7 p.m. More info here.
A World Not Ours (2012)
Bryant Lake Bowl
A portrait of three generations living in a Lebanese refugee camp. Presented by Mizna. $10 in advance/$5-$10 donation at door. 7 p.m. More info here.
AXCN Gundam Fest: Mobile Suit Gundam (2024)
Emagine Willow Creek
A special screening of the new anime. $12.50. 6 p.m. More info here.
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Grandview 1&2
Plants are so scary, I'm glad they're not real. $12. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Tape Freaks
Trylon
Gotta hop on those Tape Freaks tix quick—looks like they're sold out through the end of the year. 7 p.m. More info here.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Trylon
A brand new 35mm print! $8. 9:30 p.m. More info here.
Opening This Week
Follow the links for showtimes.
Azrael
Post-apocalyptic mute zealots hunt down Samara Weaving. Well, when you put it that way...
Devara: Part 1
A new Indian action saga begins.
Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
This movie does not feel 20 years old.
Lee
Kate Winslet is WWII photographer Lee Miller.
Megalopolis
Francis Ford Coppola spent his wine fortune on this? Full review coming tomorrow.
My Old Ass
A teen finds out she'll become Aubrey Plaza when she grows up. Full review coming tomorrow.
Paul McCartney and Wings: One Hand Clapping (1974)
Paul and his other band work on Band on the Run in the studio.
Vindicating Trump
Dinesh D'Souza is such an odious little weasel.
The Wild Robot
I hear this is an emotional one.
Ongoing in Local Theaters
Follow the links for showtimes.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
It’s nice to be pandered to occasionally, so in the run up to the release of this redundant sequel I’ve enjoyed hearing how Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega geeked out on set about their shared love of Soy Cuba, as well as the Letterboxd promo where Ortega tried to sell Catherine O’Hara on The Passion of Joan of Arc. But then there were the CarMax, Denny’s, and Progressive ads reminding us the real reason why beloved films of the past can never die: $$$. And the movie itself? Well, with Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin’s quaint Maitlands having moved on via an unexplained “loophole,” the Deetz clan—Ryder's Lydia (now a famed ghost hunter), O'Hara's Delia (now an established NYC artist), and Ortega as Lydia’s sullen daughter Astrid—reunites for the funeral of its patriarch Charles (l’affair de Jeffrey Jones is navigated around cleverly). From the re-maniacal Michael Keaton and Ryder’s unstable goth mom to newcomers Justin Theroux as Lydia’s weaselly beau and current Burton GF Monica Bellucci as a soul-sucking spook, everyone here is game, and yes, there is involuntary singing and goopy mayhem. But while this silly little romp through a familiar world consistently errs on the side of goofball exuberance, the storylines race around frantically in search of a reason to happen. As for Ortega, she was good enough in the 2021 school shooting film The Fallout that I hope she frees herself from the afterlife of 20th century IP at some point and shows us what she's got. And I couldn’t help but be haunted by the fact that if he’d made the original a few years later, Burton would probably have cast Johnny Depp instead of Keaton. B-
Reagan
No one should see this movie. I’m not joking. No, really—I’m worried that if I make any jokes here you’ll think maybe Reagan is bad in a fun way, or in a way that’s at least instructive about modern conservatism. It’s bad in a mildly stupefying way, leaving you with fewer thoughts about Reagan than you had before you entered the theater, drifting along from event to event with the pacing and depth of a History Channel historical reenactment. Reagan is clearly not history, but it’s not really entertainment either. It’s barely a movie, and even to call it propaganda suggests a manipulative skillfulness it lacks. Reagan is more like a two-hour bedtime story, meant, like the man himself, to reassure those frightened by history. Read our full review here. D+
Speak No Evil
Nope, haven’t seen the 2022 Danish original, despite hearing good things about it, and yet I could tell this Blumhouse photocopy was missing something even before I checked the former’s plot synopsis. Uptight Americans Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy meet rowdy Brits James McAvoy and Aisling Franciosi while vacationing in Italy and for some reason agree to come visit their country home. The hosts begin testing the guests’ limits, and the Yanks are such ninnies they go uncomfortably with the flow until, yes, it’s too late to turn back. McAvoy does have a ball as the rural psycho, but the film never builds any real tension. And it just isn’t nasty enough, we’re allowed to identify with the victims rather than taking any pleasure in their discomfort. It’s Straw Dogs with straw men, and what fun is that? C+
The Substance
Without our shared cultural knowledge of Demi Moore’s life and career, The Substance, Coralie Fargeat’s absurdist experiment in gory meta-hagsploitation, is a fairly limp if expressively graphic satire of impossible female body standards. Moore’s presence, and her performance, give the film its moments of depth—moments Fargeat doesn’t always seem particularly interested in. Moore is an aging, discarded star who injects herself with a black-market serum that looks like radioactive pee and mitoses into the “ideal version of herself,” a perky-butted and gleam-smiled Margaret Qualley who calls herself Sue. Each woman gets to remain conscious for exactly a week apiece, spending each alternate week as a nude, comatose lump ingesting bagged nutrients. And as Elisabeth begins to sulk through her allotment of days and Sue wants more time to shine, rules are inevitably bent, with increasingly disastrous results. The subtlety-free finale, which fire-hoses blood at the patriarchy and anyone else in proximity, will either have you pumping your fist at its audacity or rolling your eyes at what a cop out it is. For better or for worse, what Fargeat is “trying to say” and her grisly overindulgence are inseparable. B-
Twisters
Twister may not be quite the summer classic that anyone who wasn’t old enough to vote in 1996 thinks it is, but it knew what it was and what it was supposed to do. This not-really-a-sequel (unless every movie about a shark is a Jaws sequel) is a bigger mess than a small Oklahoma town after an EF5. It can't really be about climate change because blockbusters have to be carefully nonpartisan, but it can’t not be about climate change because why else (as everyone in this movie is constantly saying) are there more tornadoes than ever. The goofiest part is that the chasers keep abandoning storms to instead rush into threatened towns to "help," i.e. telling everyone to get away from windows and get into the basement, which, sorry, but if you live in tornado alley and don't already know that you deserve to get swooped up into the sky. As Normal People and Hit Man showed, both Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell are better actors than they are movie stars. He needs to find another auteur to cast him against type instead of passing off his permasquint and smackably handsome grin as charisma; she needs to star in a Jane Austen adaptation or a Paddington sequel or something because I don’t believe she could find Oklahoma on a map. This will make enough money that neither of those things will ever happen, and I bet director Lee Isaac Chung never makes another Minari either. Meanwhile we’ll probably lose the National Weather Service. C+
