I usually have a blast writing dumb little quips. It's maybe the most fun part of my job most weeks. But I gotta tell you, coming up with one-sentence summaries of earnest TCFF documentaries I haven't seen (which may be very good) can be a real slog. The sacrifices I make for you!
Special Screenings
Thursday, October 24
Longlegs (2024)
Alamo Drafthouse
A screening of Osgood Perkins's overhyped serial killer flick, with a pre-recorded Q&A with the director and a first look at his up-and-coming follow-up, The Monkey. Also Friday-Saturday, Monday. $14.50. 6:50 p.m. More info here.
Clue (1985)
Grandview 1&2
Speaking of board games, did you read my feature on tabletop gaming in MN? Also Sunday. $12. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
The Heights
Brooke Adams's weird eye trick is worth the price of admission alone. $12. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Nosferatu (1922)
Lagoon Cinema
With live original accompaniment by the Quarkestra Orchestra. 7 p.m. $20.25. More info here.
Someone Lives Here (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
How a carpenter began building tiny shelters in Toronto. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. Free. 1 p.m. More info here.
A Decent Home (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
A look at the difficulties mobile home dwellers face. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. Free. 1:15 p.m. More info here.
Black Outside (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
A Black man hikes from Mexico to Canada along the Pacific Coast Trail. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. Free. 2 p.m. More info here.
His Name Is Ray (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
Follows a man who lives on the streets of Toronto. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. Free. 3 p.m. More info here.
A School Grows in Watts (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
Wouldn't be a film festival without a "heroic inner city charter school" documentary. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. Free. 3:15 p.m. More info here.
Black Table (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
A look at the surge of Black students accepted to Yale in the early '90s. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. Free. 4 p.m. More info here.
Band on the Run (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
A documentary about the band Hot Freaks. Not the Minneapolis one. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 5 p.m. More info here.
A Light Touch
Marcus West End Cinema
A block of short comedy films. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 5:15 p.m. More info here.
My Town - Part 2 (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
Former Minnesota Gov. Cory Hepola keeps visiting small towns throughout the state. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 7:15 p.m. More info here.
Ghosts From the Machine (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
A young man tries to raise his brother from the dead. I'm sure all goes as planned. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. Free. 7:45 p.m. More info here.
The Sore Losers (1997)
Trylon
"A southern psychedelic sexploitation cinematic romp & stomp," it says here. $6. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Evil Dead (1981)
Trylon
You've got lots of chances to see the Sam Raimi classic this weekend. $8. 9:30 p.m. Friday 7 & 9 p.m. Saturday 5, 7 & 9 p.m. Sunday 3 & 5 p.m. More info here.
All Eyes on Me
Walker Art Center
A selection of short films about muscular bodies. Whoa! $12/$15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Friday, October 25
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1980)
Alamo Drafthouse
Will you people keep it down? I'm trying to watch the movie. $15.04. 8 p.m. More info here.
Les Algues vertes (2023)
Alliance Française
A reporter discovers an environmental cover-up. $10 donation requested. 6 p.m. More info here.
Hocus Pocus (1993)
Insight Brewing
Oh look, another movie from your childhood. Free. 8 p.m. More info here.
Let the Right One In (2008)
Main Cinema
Not to be confused with Let Me In. $11. 9:45 p.m. Wednesday 7 p.m. More info here.
Scream (1996)
Marcus West End Cinema
Not to be confused with Scream (2022). Also Saturday. $6.51. 10 p.m. More info here.
Farming While Black (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
A documentary history of how Black farming has declined in the U.S. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. Free. 1:15 p.m. More info here.
The Power of Intention (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
Follows the leaders of an Indigenous dance group in Mexico. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. Free. 1:30 p.m. More info here.
The Drive (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
Four young men drive across Australia for mental health awareness. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. Free. 1:45 p.m. More info here.
Ain't Got Time to Die (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
A woman living in an RV in Montana undergoes cancer treatment. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. Free. 2:45 p.m. More info here.
When Does Freedom Begin (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
Formerly incarcerated men in Connecticut become community leaders. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. Free. 3 p.m. More info here.
Paper Marriage (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
A Chinese immigrant pays an unemployed man to marry her so she can stay in the U.S. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. Free. 3:15 p.m. More info here.
Bob Trevino Likes It (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
Two people strike up an unexpected friendship. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 5 p.m. More info here.
Tie Your Monsters Down
Marcus West End Cinema
A block of short films. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 5:15 p.m. More info here.
Don't Move (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
A woman is injected with a paralytic agent in the woods and struggles to get to safety before it takes full effect. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 5:45 p.m. More info here.
Superboys of Malegaon (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
An Indian filmmaker convinces his town to help him make a movie. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Queen of the Ring (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
The story of pioneering female wrestler Mildred Burke. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 8:15 p.m. More info here.
Hauntology (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
A queer horror anthology. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 8:30 p.m. More info here.
Hocus Pocus (1993)
Orchestra Hall
Witches, with strings. Also Saturday. $59 and up. 7 p.m. More info here.
Saturday, October 26
Coraline (2009)
Alamo Drafthouse
A little girl visits a creepy world. Also Sunday. $9.50/$11.50 12:40 p.m. More info here.
Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Emagine Willow Creek
A little witch learns to believe in herself. $16.35. 3 p.m. Sunday 3 & 7 p.m. Monday-Wednesday 7 p.m. More info here.
Ringu (1998)
Main Cinema
He was always my favorite Beatle. $11. 9:45 p.m. More info here.
Nosferatu With Radiohead (1922)
Main Cinema
The silent vamp classic synched to Kid A and Amnesiac. Dystopian! $11. 7 p.m. More info here.
Community Collage: The Bright Side Of Community (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
The story of a Mankato photo project. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 10 a.m. More info here.
Men of Character (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
The Mounds View High School track and field team aims to unseat unbeatable champs Wayzata. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 10:15 a.m. More info here.
The Midway Point (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
Two kids with autism fall in love. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 11:30 a.m. More info here.
Green Works (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
A movie about how 3M is saving the environment lol. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. Free. 12 p.m. More info here.
Wild Hope: Mission Impossible (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
The story of the man who invented the Impossible Burger. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 1:30 p.m. More info here.
Nickel Boys (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
Really looking forward to this one. The Colson Whitehead novel, adapted by RaMell Ross, director of Hale County, This Morning. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 1:45 p.m. More info here.
A Little Family Drama (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
Revelations abound when a Mexican-American family reunites. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 3 p.m. More info here.
Blitz (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
Director Steve McQueen recreates WWII London. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 4:45 p.m. More info here.
Minnesota Lynx Commissioner's Cup (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
A housecleaner tells her employer she can talk to the dead. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 5:30 p.m. More info here.
Prayer Warrior: Four Days with Frankie Luvu (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
An animated documentary about the life of adventurer Donn Beach. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 6:30 p.m. More info here.
For the Living (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
Cyclists travel the route a 10-year-old Holocaust survivor once walked from Auschwitz to Krakow. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $13. 6:45 p.m. More info here.
Days When the Rains Came (2024)
Marcus West End Cinema
The Twin Cities Film Fest closes with this coming of age film. $25. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Mia
Revisit the work of unproblematic auteur Woody Allen. Free. 2 p.m. More info here.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Parkway Theater
Is it a Halloween movie? A Christmas movie? Who can say? $5-$10. 1 p.m. More info here.
Hocus Pocus (1993)
Riverview Theater
Enough. $5/$7. 11:45 p.m. More info here.
Warren Miller's 75 (2024)
Riverview Theater
I love that the Riverview is that place for both musical singalongs and extreme sports movies. (This is the latter, if you're wondering.) $17.60-$22. 4 & 7 p.m. More info here.
Sunday, October 27
The Guest (2014)
Alamo Drafthouse
Dan Stevens's first (and maybe best?) weirdo role. $14.50. 6:50 p.m. More info here.
Brandon Lake & Phil Wickham Present: For the One (2024)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16
"An intimate, unforgettable journey into the heart of worship and tour life." $16.35. 4 p.m. Monday-Tuesday 7 p.m. More info here.
Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space (2024)
AMC Southdale 16/Emagine Willow Creek
IYKYK. (Personally IDK.) AMC: $15. 4:30 p.m. More info here. Emagine: $12.50. 6 p.m. More info here.
The Exorcist: Extended Director's Cut (1973)
Emagine Willow Creek
More like The Extra-cist. $9. 12 & 6 p.m. Wednesday 1 & 6 p.m. More info here.
Train to Busan (2016)
Trylon
The best part is when he says, "I have had it with these motherfucking zombies on this motherfucking train." $8. 7 p.m. Monday-Tuesday 7 & 9:30 p.m. More info here.
Monday, October 28
Creature of the Black Lagoon (1954)
Alamo Drafthouse
An unrequited The Shape of Water. $12. 6;45p.m. More info here.
Halloween II (1981)
Emagine Willow Creek
John Carpenter says he was drunk when he came up with this sequel's big twist. $6. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
The Uninvited (1944)
The Heights
"Stella by Starlight" was written for a ghost movie. Who knew? $15. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
National Theatre Live: Frankenstein
Main Cinema
In Danny Boyle's staging, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller trade off playing the doctor and the creature. $20. 7 p.m. More info here.
Tuesday, October 29
Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
Alamo Drafthouse
Not so new anymore, is it? $7. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Shining (1980)
The Heights
Never marry a writer. Also Wednesday. $12. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Claire Facing North (2024) + Animal (2022)
Main Cinema
A Minnesota-made film about a woman who bonds with a hitchhiker while visiting Iceland. Preceded by the animated short Animal. $11. 7:15 p.m. More info here.
The Phantom of the Opera (1929)
Parkway Theater
The Lon Chaney classic, with original score performed by Paris 1919. $15/$20. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Wednesday, October 30
Heretic (2024)
Alamo Drafthouse
A sneak peek at the new A24 flick, including a livestream Q&A with Hugh Grant—and presented, just this once, in Smell-O-Vision. $14.50. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Visitor (1979)
Alamo Drafthouse
Is this cult-loved sci-fi/horror flick everything its admirers say? You'll have to see for yourself. $10. 8 p.m. More info here.
The Guest (2014)
Emagine Willow Creek
In case you don't feel like driving out to Woodbury. $6. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Grandview 1&2
Again, a little closer than Woodbury. $12. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Trick 'r Treat (2007)
Lagoon Cinema
Gotta love a good ol' fashioned horror anthology movie. 7 p.m. $12.25. More info here.
Hausu (1977)
Trylon
A Trylon Halloween tradition. $8. 7 & 9 p.m. More info here.
Opening This Week
Follow the links for showtimes.
Close Your Eyes
A Víctor Erice film is an event, if only because there are so damn few of them. Maybe you know The Spirit of the Beehive, the 1973 classic that outwitted Franco’s censors; in the half-century since, Erice has only released three features, the most recent (till now) 30 years ago. Considering that buildup, the film’s runtime (169 minutes), and Erice’s age (84) you might expect Close Your Eyes to deliver something epic and career-capping. And, in its baggy, subdued way, it does. In the ’90s, an actor (Jose Coronado) disappears from set during the filming of The Farewell Gaze. (Engaging footage from this historical drama roughly bookends Close Your Eyes.) Years later, the movie’s director (Manolo Solo), long since retired to a small fishing village, is interviewed for a TV documentary about the mystery and decides to begin the search once more for his old friend. There’s an undertow of sadness here, a mood clearly anchored in Erice’s own frustration with the movie business, but—a real spiritual feat—no real bitterness, Movies about aging, friendship, and the persistence (or failure) of memory often ring false because they make so much damn noise about their topics’ importance. But Close Your Eyes never raises its voice and lets us see for ourselves. And so Erice earns his fantastic, perhaps miraculous conclusion. A-
Conclave
Edward Berger may think he’s cooked up something more substantial than a chewy Vatican potboiler here—a meditation on faith in the modern era, or some other middlebrow (papal) bull. Who knows and who cares? The crowd I saw it with thought Berger’s flamboyant pope opera was funny as hell (pardon the expression, Father) and they were right. Watching old guys from around the world in funny clothes politic, gossip, and backstab is just solid entertainment. Cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine milks everything he can from the ornate setting and bright costumery, and this cast knows how to project an ominous seriousness that’s forever camp adjacent. We’re talking Ralph Fiennes working his timeworn visage of existential indigestion, John Lithgow looking more like Donald Rumsfield than ever, Sergio Castellitto as a gregarious bear who wants to repeal Vatican II, Isabella Rossellini as a mysterious nun, and, for the ladies, a little Stanley Tucci. You’ll guess most of the twists, groan at some, and even get blindsided by a few. Still, without giving too much away, it’s hard not to notice that none of the scandals here are as horrific as those the Catholic Church has covered up in real life. B+
My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock
A film essay on the portly old dude.
Venom: The Last Dance
I could have sworn we already had a Venom movie this year.
Your Monster
Melissa Barrera falls for the monster in her closet.
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-
Megalopolis
An undisciplined cornball’s autocratic celebration of humanism, Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis is a movie for people who manically deem any mere mess of a film “batshit” and therefore essential viewing, for cineastes who refuse to distinguish between the incomprehensible and the incoherent, or for sentimentalists who consider the completion of a quixotic project as achievement enough. If Ayn Rand had written The Power Broker about a pretentious tech guru with a bad haircut, she might have imagined Adam Driver’s Cesar Catilina, who is determined to build the city of the future from a substance called Megalon, flattening housing developments in the process. And he's apparently the hero. Ambition isn’t always a positive attribute, after all, and if anything, film history treats megalomaniacs far too kindly, squinting past what we see for evidence of what we should have seen. Ultimately, what’s most disappointing about Megalopolis is that this is exactly the movie that Coppola wanted to make. Read the full review here. C
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
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 the 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. Read the full review here. 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+
The Wild Robot
What happens when an all-purpose droid designed to perform just about every utilitarian task crash lands on a human-free island? Short answer: She learns intuition and love from the wild animals around her. Longer answer: After she accidentally smooshes a family of geese, ROZZUM Unit 7134 (aka Roz) makes it her task to raise the sole survivor, a runt. Lotsa nice messages about motherhood and such here and the animation has a brisk sense of physical comedy. Lupita Nyong'o is fun as Roz, and so’s the rest of the all-star voice cast—Pedro Pascal as a wily fox (is there any other kind?), Catherine O’Hara as a hedgehog mom who keeps losing count of her progeny. But I was so impressed with how casually Lilo & Stitch creator Chris Sanders captured the everyday, no-big-deal, unsentimental brutality of the animal world in the first part of the film that I was a little bummed when the critters all learned to get along in order to survive. Sorry, I’m just an “overwhelming indifference of nature” guy, what can I say? B
