Scoot on down to the "Opening This Week" section for my predictable review of the new Mission: Impossible (great action sequences, too much talking). I'm looking forward to catching Friendship over the long weekend.
Special Screenings
Thursday, May 22
The Doors (1991)
Emagine Willow Creek
The Velvet Underground scenes are still hilarious. $11.60. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
The Apartment (1960)
Grandview 1&2
Shirley MacLaine was so cute. $14.44. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
PHFFFT (1954)
The Heights
Judy Holliday and Jack Lemmon are an unhappily married couple who can’t live without each other. $13. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Making Mr. Right (1987)
Trylon
Scientist John Malkovich builds a robot John Malkovich, $8. 7 p.m. More info here.
Friday, May 23
Hmong Filmmaker Showcase
Walker Art Center
Films from Twin Cities Hmong directors. Free. 7 p.m. More info here.
Saturday, May 24
Battle Royale (2000)
Eagles #33
Japanese kids fight to the death. $5. 7 p.m. More info here.
Return of the Jedi (1983)
Parkway Theater
Hits different now that we know the Emperor didn’t die, huh? $5-$10. 1 p.m. More info here.
Hundreds of Beavers (2024)
Parkway Theater
That’s too many beavers! $12/$17. Costume contest at 7:30 p.m. Movie at 8 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.
The ’80s Action Extravaganza II: The Quickening
Trylon
Hope you already got your tickets. $45. 4 p.m. More info here.
Sunday, May 25
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Emagine Willow Creek
You couldn’t make this movie today. (Too many of the people in it are dead.) Also Wednesday. $10.60. 3:45 & 6:15 p.m. More info here.
The Handmaiden (2016)
Emagine Willow Creek
Twisty, filthy fun from Park Chan-wook. $11.60. 2 p.m. More info here.
Twilight (2008)
Grandview 1&2
Who knew we were looking at indie cinema’s two future stars? $14.44. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Miles Ahead (2015)
Parkway Theater
Don Cheadle is Miles Davis (and he directs too). $15/$20. Music from the Larry McDonough Quintet at 7 p.m. Movie at 8 p.m. More info here.
Young Frankenstein (1978)
Trylon
One of the all-time great movie parodies. 3, 5:15, & 7:30 p.m. Monday-Tuesday 7 & 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Monday, May 26
Jaws (1975)
Alamo Drafthouse
Sorry but Memorial Day is way too early to screen Jaws. $11.91. 4:45 p.m. Wednesday 7 p.m. More info here.
Terminating Mystery Movie (1989)
Alamo Drafthouse
A South Asian Terminator knock-off. Free; donation requested. 8 p.m. More info here.
Silver Bullet (1985)
Emagine Willow Creek
A Stephen King werewolf movie starring Gary Busey. $7.60. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
North by Northwest (1959)
The Heights
The funnest Hitchcock, in 70mm. Also Wednesday. $19. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Tuesday, May 27
The Vourdalak (2024)
Alamo Drafthouse
A pre-Dracula vampire story comes to the screen. $11.91. 8 p.m. More info here.
Catacomb Cinema Club
Bryant Lake Bowl
Trivia and a horror movie. What more can you want? $12/$15. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1975)
Parkway Theater
David Bowie is a sad spaceman. $9/$12. 8 p.m. More info here.
Wednesday, May 28
Black Tight Killers (1966)
Emagine Willow Creek
The Japanese title translates literally to "Touching me is dangerous." $7.60. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Bajo un sol poderoso (Beneath A Powerful Sun) (2022)
Main Cinema
A filmmaker sorts through his past. Part of the Minnesota Cuban Film Festival. $12. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Hidden Fortress (1958)
Trylon
The Trylon preps for its Star Wars June with the Kurosawa movie that inspired George Lucas. Free for Trylon Club members only. 7 p.m. More info here.
Opening This Week
Follow the links for showtimes.
Friendship
Tim Robinson thinks Paul Rudd is his new buddy.
The Last Rodeo
A middle-aged man starts bull-riding again.
Lilo & Stitch
Sorry, it’s not “live action” unless there’s someone dressed in a Stitch costume.
Mission: Impossible–The Final Reckoning
How is it that the only prominent person in this dumb country suspicious of AI seems to be Tom Fuckin’ Cruise? The most consistent action franchise this side of John Wick wraps up (or does it?—you really think that peppy lil guy is about to retire?) with Cruise’s agent Ethan Hunt fighting to prevent an all-powerful artificial intelligence called The Entity from starting a nuclear war. But The Final Reckoning is no more immune to bloat than any other blockbuster—you could lop a full half-hour of talking from this nearly three-hour adventure and no one would be the wiser. The script hunts for loose ends from previous installments just to tie them up, and the supporting cast is uneven—if Pom Klementieff has a truly fierce shooting-people face, Esai Morales remains a nonentity of a villain. By next month, you’ll remember The Final Reckoning as the MI where Tom hunts through a nuclear sub at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean and climbs around on a biplane as the wind resistance does weirder things to his face than Vanilla Sky. Both incredible set pieces, worth the price of admission even. But you’ll probably forget most of the rest. I already have. B
Narivetta
A new Indian action drama.
Ongoing in Local Theaters
Follow the links for showtimes.
The Encampments—ends Thursday
Fight or Flight—ends Thursday
Juliet & Romeo—ends Thursday
The Ruse—ends Thursday
Shadow Force—ends Thursday
Sinners
Ryan Coogler’s Jim Crow vampire flick is a truly rare thing: a wholly self-assured mess. Technically and narratively, Coogler knows exactly what he wants to do, whether or not you can keep up, and each of the performers are just as committed. You get Michael B. Jordan distinguishing the murderous twins Smoke and Stack without resorting to caricature, Delroy Lindo as an aged bluesman. Hailee Steinfeld as a seductive quadroon, Jack O'Connell as an undead banjoist, Wunmi Mosaku as a wise hoodoo woman, Saul Williams as a preacher with a new wave hairdo, and I could just keep going. They all populate a vividly simulated Clarksdale, Mississippi to which Jordan’s gangsters have returned to open a juke joint soon targeted by bloodsuckers—you could call this August Wilson’s From Dusk to Dawn. There are visual moments that split the diff between cornball and visionary (I truly did not know Autumn Durald Arkapaw had this in her) and more ideas—about Black spirituality and its vexed relationship to Christianity, about the social role of music, about integration as a deal with the devil—than your average multiplex sees in a whole summer. And if Coogler never slows down to develop those ideas, they still pack a conceptual wallop that complements the film's lived-in texture. This world is so engrossing that by the time the vamps come calling, I almost wished Coogler would just let his people have their one night undisturbed. But America’s not really like that, is it? A-
Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted
No, that is not a euphemism. Soul eccentric Jerry Williams (aka Swamp Dogg), the author of songs you may know like “Don’t Take Her (She’s All I Got)” and songs you should know like “I’ve Never Been to Africa (And It’s Your Fault)” has been a cult legend since Total Destruction to Your Mind dropped in 1970 (and he was a music industry pro for a decade before that). He deserves a documentary as idiosyncratic as his genius, and directors (and musicians) Isaac Gale and Ryan Olson deliver. This is music doc as hangout movie—we’re not barraged by talking head testimony to the 81-year-old singer’s legacy, but instead we get to lounge out in the California sun with Swamp and his bandmates and roommates as they reminisce about the past. And though Swamp lives out in L.A., there’s plenty of Minnesota local color: Singer Dizzy Fae appears in one segment and rapper Greg Grease narrates. This one’s a pure delight. A-
Things Like This—ends Thursday
Warfare—ends Thursday
