Buncha cool stuff to see this week. The Walker kicks off its Hilton Als-curated Radiant Waves series, which connects film and the art of Keith Haring, with Shirley Clarke's poignant if problematic Portrait of Jason and Ric Burns' sprawling 2006 Warhol doc. Also, I want to put in a word for Mizna's Insurgent Transmissions series, which has been showing a Palestinian film on the last Wednesday of the month at Bryant-Lake Bowl. And as someone who can waste hours watching old Teri Garr interviews with David Letterman, I'm for sure hitting up One From the Heart at the Trylon.
Special Screenings
Thursday, June 20
Dr. Seuss: The Lorax (2012)
Audubon Park
Danny DeVito speaks for the trees. Free. 9 p.m. More info here.
Ghost: Rite Here Rite Now (2024)
Emagine Willow Creek
A concert film from the Swedish rockers. $20. 7 & 8 p.m. More info here.
Jesus: A Deaf Missions Film (2024)
Emagine Willow Creek
The gospel, signed for a deaf audience. $15. 6:30 p.m. Sunday 3:30 p.m. More info here.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
Emagine Willow Creek
One of the only multiverse movies I truly love. All week. $3. 11 a.m. More info here.
Moonlight (2016)
Grandview 1&2
Barry Jenkins's gorgeous study of a young man growing up in Miami. $12. 9:15 p.m. Saturday 11:59 p.m. More info here.
The Great Escape (1963)
Heights Theater
The role Steve McQueen stole from Rick Dalton. $12. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Abroad (2024)
Main Cinema
A Korean couple travels to see the Aurora Borealis, but when the woman disappears the boyfriend is the chief suspect. $10. 7:15 p.m. More info here.
To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar (1995)
Parkway Theater
Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo are drag queens. Ah, the '90s! $9/$12. Pre-show burlesque show hosted by Queenie Von Curves at 7:30 p.m. Movie at 8 p.m. More info here.
Despicable Me (2010)
Riverview Theater
The birth of the Minionsverse. $1. $10.30 a.m. More info here.
Friday, June 21
Wonka (2023)
Armatage Park
Better than you'd expect from a musical Willy Wonka origin prequel, I'll give it that. Free. 9 p.m. More info here.
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Riverview Theater
Midnight movies that start at 10:30? I'm not complaining. $5. 10:30 p.m. More info here.
One From the Heart (1981)
Trylon
Francis Ford Coppola followed up Apocalypse Now with... a musical starring Teri Garr and featuring Tom Waits songs. $8. Friday-Saturday 7 & 9 p.m. Sunday 3 & 5 p.m. More info here.
Portrait of Jason (1967)
Walker Art Center
Gay raconteur and hustler Jason Holliday talks and drinks and talks and drinks and Shirley Clarke's camera captures it all. Essential. $12/$15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Saturday, June 22
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Emagine Willow Creek
Pretty sure this is the Harry Potter movie with the half-blood prince. Also Wednesday. $9. 11:40 & 6:40 p.m. Sunday 12 & 6:10 p.m. More info here.
Mamma Mia! (2008)
Lake Nokomis Community Center
Pierce Brosnan sings! Free. 9 p.m. More info here.
The Omega Man (1971)
Parkway Theater
Charlton Heston survives an apocalypse. Again! $5-$10. 1 p.m. More info here.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Parkway Theater
Will you people keep it down? I’m trying to watch the movie! With live shadow cast performance by Transvestite Soup. $10-$15. Midnight. More info here.
Andy Warhol: A Documentary (2006)
Walker Art Center
Ric Burns' four-hour doc makes some big claims for the trickster artist, and backs them up with some great archival footage and in-depth interviews with experts and contemporaries. $12/$15. 1 p.m. More info here.
Sunday, June 23
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Emagine Willow Creek
Celebrate the 25th anniversary by singing along to "Uncle Fucka." $16.35. 4 & 7 p.m. Wednesday 7 p.m. More info here.
Pariah (2011)
Emagine Willow Creek
Dee Ree's critically acclaimed coming-of-age film about a Black teen lesbian in Brooklyn $10. 4 p.m. More info here.
The Man Who Laughs (1928)
Parkway Theater
The silent classic that inspired the creation of the Joker, with an original soundtrack from Chris Strouth's Paris 1919. $12/$17. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
The Passenger (1975)
Trylon
Jack Nicholson assumes the identity of a dead businessman in a North Africa hotel. What could go wrong? $8. 7 p.m. Monday-Tuesday 7 & 9:30 p.m. More info here.
Monday, June 24
Interview With the Vampire (1994)
Emagine Willow Creek
Compare and contrast with the AMC series. $6. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
No One Asked You (2024)
The Main Cinema
Lizz Winstead and her crew travel the U.S. supporting the right to abortion. $10. 7 p.m. More info here.
Tuesday, June 25
Stomp the Yard (2007)
Father Hennepin Bluff Park
Frats battle to get a great street dancer on their team. Free. 9 p.m. More info here.
The Land Before Time (1988)
Riverview Theater
That's a long time ago! Also Wednesday. $1. $10.30 a.m. More info here.
Wednesday, June 26
Foragers (2022)
Bryant Lake Bowl
The traditional act of gathering food becomes a form of Palestinian resistance. $5-$15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Switchblade Sisters (1975)
Emagine Willow Creek
Rival girl gangs are ready to rumble! $6. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Hook (1991)
The Commons
Every turn-of-the-'90s Robin Williams movie is like "Can this middle-aged Baby Boomer accept adult responsibilities without betraying his childlike nature?" Ugh. Free. 9 p.m. More info here.
Milk (2008)
Grandview 1&2
The assassination of Sean Penn by the coward Josh Brolin. $12. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
The Fifth Element (1997)
Showplace ICON
Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich save the world. $7. 7 p.m. More info here.
Opening This Week
Follow the links for showtimes.
Chestnut
A recent college grad gets romantically entangled with a married couple.
The Bikeriders
They could have tried a little harder with the title.
The Exorcism
A Russell Crowe demonic possession movie with a Rotten Tomatoes score in the 30s? Could be a classic.
Ghostlight
A construction worker joins a community theater production of Romeo and Juliet.
Robot Dreams
A lonely dog builds himself a robot companion.
Thelma
A nonegenarian (June Squibb) gets scammed online and then tracks down the evildoers to get her money back—it’s kinda like The Beekeeper if Phylicia Rashad hadn’t needed Statham to avenge her. Squibb is generally wonderful as the plucky old gal, but despite some cute moments the whole shebang still felt a little too “hooray for the aged” overall. For me, that is. Everyone seems to love this movie. Maybe my experience was flavored by an excessively enthusiastic MSPIFF crowd? Or maybe I really do expect too much from movies? B-
Ongoing in Local Theaters
Follow the links for showtimes.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die
No really, what we gonna do about this? Rebooted in 2020 with Moroccan-Belgian directing duo Adil & BilallIn honoring the bludgeoning legacy of Michael Bay, this franchise sticks to the basics: Two Miami cops banter and shoot people until it’s time to blow up something big. But the fourth installment in the series adds (ugh) heart, as Will Smith’s Mike and Martin Lawrence’s Marcus have to clear the name of their dead captain (Joe Pantoliano) after a cartel-adjacent thug (Eric Dane, aiming for sociopathic and hitting somnolent) posthumously frames him as dirty. In between wisecracks and explosions, I couldn’t help but wonder why these movies bum me out so much. Is it the abrupt shifts from comedy to sentimentality to brutality? The way they accentuate Smith’s most unattractive qualities as an actor (especially a smug self-righteousness)? The dreary sense that this is all people are really looking for from movies? I can’t deny that Bad Boys: Ride or Die does give the people what they want—the ladies behind me were practically giddy when an alligator ate the character they’d hoped he would. But if I had to pick, I’ll go with die. C
The Fall Guy
David Leitch’s latest collection of bad quips and big booms isn’t quite the headache that Bullet Train was. But it is the kind of movie where we’re told that a dog will bite a guy in the nuts on command, and then two minutes later the dog bites a guy in the nuts on command, and then the audience claps with glee. And it’s also one of those behind-the-scenes “love letters to the movies” that makes you wish everyone involved loved movies just a little less. There are some fine over-the-top stunts and action sequences, but Leitch often undercuts them with rampant too-muchness—why set Ryan Gosling’s fight with goons on a flatbed truck to Emily Blunt singing “Against All Odds” at karaoke, and then cut back and forth between the two? Gosling and Blunt do have some chemistry, as two attractive people with acting skills will, but He’s Just Ken was clearly over-rewarded with praise last year. If he coasts on his tics (that smirk ‘n’ gaze, those quick, clipped replies) for the rest of his career, Barbie will have a lot to answer for. C+
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Prequels, to use a technical cinematic term, suck. But if Origins of Furiosa is the movie George Miller has to make in order to shred more dudes underneath the wheels of a giant truck in a desert, who's gonna complain? Anya Taylor-Joy is winningly stoic as the title character, Alyla Browne even better as her even younger self, and Tom Burke (the posh junkie from Joanna Hogg's The Souvenir) is gallant as somebody named Praetorian Jack. As for Chris Hemsworth, still making good use of his freakishly enhanced Asgardian physique, he gets a few too many bits of scenery caught in his teeth as he chomps his way through the wasteland, but that's part of the fun. Worth it alone for the War Rig battle, the kind of sequence literally no other director would even think to film even if they knew how. A-
Haikyuu!! THE MOVIE: Decisive Battle at the Garbage Dump
I Saw the TV Glow (read the full review here)
Writer/director Jane Schoenbrun once again reconfigures the trans coming-out narrative as a horror story, as open to peril as to promise. Two teens growing up in the ’90s bond over a Buffy-style show; as the edges of supposed fiction and supposed reality blur, the knowledge they gain about their potential selves brings suffering, whether they accept or retreat from that insight. A jarring remix of ’90s kid culture, recollected in something less than tranquility, I Saw the TV Glow reinstates the TV as the box of ominous mystery it once was, solid enough not just to represent other worlds, but to contain them. The weird is familiarized, the familiar is enweirdened. And in Brigette Lundy-Paine and Justice Smith, Schoenbrun has two leads who know how to communicate within Lynchian blend of heightened mood and flattened affect. A-
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Thanks in part to Andy Serkis’s unparalleled gift for portraying a motion-captured being with nuance and sympathy, screenwriters Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver somehow created a non-laughably epic saga out of an intelligent simian’s rise to power with their rebooted Planet of the Apes trilogy. At least that’s how I remember it—this fourth installment (with frequent Jaffa/Silver collaborator Josh Friedman taking over the script) is so ape-by-numbers I’m kinda afraid to rewatch its predecessors. The plot concerns a struggle over the legacy of Serkis’s honorable Caesar (along with some nasty human weaponry), and as ever, the chimps are curious, the gorillas brutal, the orangutans wise, the humans deceptive. Despite a few fine action scenes, Kingdom is as humorless as the trilogy but without its grand sweep, as misanthropic but without its capacity to imagine looming disaster. I’ve always been leery of how these films toy with the eco-nihilist claim that Earth is better off without humans, but this sort of IP busywork does make me think twice. Will ape and human someday learn to live together in peace? Who gives a fuck? C+
Tuesday
Good on Julia Louis-Dreyfus for taking chances, I guess. Here she’s the mom of a terminally ill teen (Lola Pettigrew). When the girl unexpectedly bonds with the bird that announces death (literally—it talks) and convinces her new friend to hold off, mom grows determined to prevent the harbinger of doom from finishing its task. This could have worked as a short story, but as placed before us by writer/director Daina Oniunas-Pusić, it’s just silly. Not only does Tuesday veer wildly between brooding pathos and quick laughs, but it can’t even settle on a comic tone, jumbling together absurdism, black comedy, and sitcom schtick. Personally, I checked out right around the time that the death bird rapped along with Ice Cube. C
