Last weekend was kind of a disaster, even though people seem to think that the box office is thriving, mainly due to the showings for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and Sony’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day. While those have proven they can make $450 million and $650 million just in North America respectively and make it look relatively easy, the fact that nothing else is even making a dent is worrying, especially with easy slam dunks like the high-concept rom-com One Night Only or a third iteration of a popular comedy franchise like Super Troopers 3. The fact that NEITHER of those could make $6 million last weekend in fairly wide releases is worrying, even as smaller indies like Tony and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma had platform openings that could be developed into decent expansions later in the month, despite huge competition over the next few weeks.
The craziness begins this weekend with something like six or seven wide releases, although I only have theater counts for a few of them, and only two of them stand any chance of taking second place away from The Odyssey. And both of those movies involve dinosaurs. Go figure.
It Follows director David Robert Mitchell makes his major studio theatrical debut, working with JJ Abrams and Bad Robot for THE END OF OAK STREET (Warner Bros.), starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor as two parents living in the suburbs when a big portion of their small town is transported into a primordial setting filled with ferocious dinosaurs. Universal has had massive success with its Jurassic World/Park franchise, because audiences absolutely love dinosaurs, and that is likely to be the primary draw for Mitchell’s new film, although Anne Hathaway is no slouch, having already been in three other movies, including summer hits The Devil Wears Prada 2 and The Odyssey.
It’s been quite some time since McGregor has done a big studio movie like Oak Street, and that was probably the Birds of Prey movie for Warner Bros. that got slapped hard by being released just ahead of COVID. As far as the rest of the cast, I always love seeing PJ Byrne, and knowing his past work in films like Final Destination 5, I’ll be sorely disappointed if he isn’t eaten by a dinosaur in the movie.
Despite having at least one semi-Alist actor, I’m not sure that Mitchell is that known, with his earlier film It Follows having been so long ago, so that leaves it to the dinosaurs, the actors and JJ Abrams’ name (which might vary on whether you’re a “Star Trek” or “Star Wars” fan) to get people into seats. Fortunately, reviews for this have been surprisingly good, currently at 84% on Rotten Tomatoes as I write this, and these last-minute positive reviews and reactions could end up helping anyone who was undecided about it.
I feel like Oak Street might struggle to get to $30 million this weekend, maybe falling slightly short of that, while it tries to fend off an almost sure-thing in a family-friendly animated movie for kids. Also involving dinosaurs…
I probably will never watch PAW PATROL: THE DINO MOVIE (Paramount), because a.) I have no kids, b.) I’ve never watched the show or any of the previous movies, and c.) I just don’t fucking care. I know nothing about the property other than its dogs as police officers and fire fighters, and nope, not doing it. I don’t even feel like writing much about its box office prospects, because what’s there to say? Parents with young kids who want to get them out of the house and hot weather and into one last air-conditioned multiplex before school starts, this will feel like the only option.
Oddly, all three theatrical releases of this series, which originated in Canada and ran for 12 seasons on Nick Jr., were released post-COVID, although there have been five or six home video releases as well. The G-rated PAW Patrol: The Movie was released on this same weekend in 2021 (with COVID still a thing) and opened with $13.1 million and grossed $40.1 million domestic and $150 million worldwide. Two years later, it was followed by PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, which opened much better with $22.8 million on its way to $65.3 million domestic and $201.7 million globally.
It’s only been three years since that movie, so there are probably still a lot of small children who might want to see this and maybe more have watched the shows on Nick Jr. since then. Most of the family films in theaters, including Toy Story 5, have now been playing for well over a month, so having a new one could definitely help even as we’re getting to the weaker portion of the summer. Oh, and in case I forgot to mention it, this Paw Patrol has dinos, right there in the title, and kids do love dinosaurs. That can help this movie end up in a similar place as the last one with just over $20 million.
Going to jump forward (or down) a bit to talk about Andrew Patterson’s THE RIVALS OF AMZIAH KING, starring Matthew McConaughey, which will be released wide by Black Bear Pictures, and I’m mainly pushing it up a bit further in this column that I may have otherwise because it’s such a great movie that deserves attention. McConaughey plays the title character, an Oklahoma beekeeper with a honey business, who regularly jams with other regional musicians playing bluegrass music. As the resident expert on bees and honey, he’s regularly called upon to help with issues like stolen honey and swarming bees. After being reunited with his former foster daughter Kateri (Angelina LookingGlass), she’s brought into his life, helping with the bees and honey, until someone steals all of Amziah’s hives, and Kateri takes it upon herself to help find out who stole them.
I don’t have a lot to say about this movie’s box office prospects, because after sitting on the shelf since premiering at the SXSW Film Festival in March 2025, it will finally get released by Black Bear in roughly 500 theaters, not exactly wide enough to make much of an impact. Hopefully, it will be opening in regional areas like the Midwest and South where a movie involving bluegrass will probably do better than the big cities where indie crime-dramas would do well, and I’m hoping it at least makes a million this weekend, though I’m dubious of it even getting into the top 10. The sad fact is that it’s a great movie with a really bad title, since few people will know who “Amziah King” is, even if they’ll know McConaughey.
Instead, I’m just going to cut right to my review, because this really is a movie that might surprise some people who might not even consider watching it just based on the premise or title. We meet McConaughey’s Amziah King as he’s jamming at an old-school drive-in diner with his friends with bluegrass being the music they play. Their jam session is interrupted when police officers come to Amziah, because they found an abandoned truck filled with barrels of honey, presumably stolen, and they need his help to figure out to whom the honey belongs. Soon afterwards, Amziah’s former foster child Kateri shows up, and he brings her into the business to help with the honey crafting business, but as the title implies, King has enemies, and one night, all of his hives are stolen. Obviously, I want to be a little careful with spoilers, because the film goes off in unexpected directions, especially when Kateri becomes the focus of the movie, as she takes it upon herself with finding Amziah’s honey and the perpetrators, the rivals if you’d like.
The movie begins as a joyous celebration of music and camaraderie and Southern culture, and then, it takes on almost an episodic structure, as we watch Amziah King go through his day-to-day, while bringing young Kateri into his world. Amziah is surrounded by unique and eccentric characters, played by the likes of Jake Horowitz from Patterson’s previous film, The Vast of Night, as a funny degenerate named Remmick; the great Rob Morgan as Amziah’s musicplaying legal counsel; Tony Revolori (who has a really shocking story arc); Scott Shepherd with an impossible to understand drawl; and a completely unrecognizable Owen Teague (he’s in the blonde wig) playing all sorts of instruments. Although I’m not by any means a bluegrass fan, the scenes of Amziah and his friends just sitting around playing music are quite joyous, even more as Kateri joins them.
At first, the film has a few short episodes, interspersed with those musical scenes, but it eventually gets to the main plot, which involves Kateri, with some help from Remmick, and another reprobate played by Cole Sprouse, trying to find and get Amziah’s hives back before the honey business goes under.
I don’t really remember loving The Vast of Night but with his second feature, Andrew Patterson has elevated himself quite definitively as a filmmaker who can delve into truly original territory in unique ways, while still offering elements of genre, such as the intriguing heist film that the film becomes at one point. It transforms from that into being a revenge thriller, but still doing so in such a way that’s unlike anything else one might have seen.
McConaughey delivers all the charm he always has, but newcomer Angelina LookingGlass is who really impressed me with her very first film role, because she just has a way of keeping the viewer rapt to the screen, even as she’s put into scenes where she holds her own against so many great acting veterans. That’s especially the case when Kurt Russell shows up in the film’s final act, as the corporate honcho who has gone out of his way to cause troubles for Amziah King and his business.
In some ways, the structure and also the title makes Rivals feel like it may have been based on a beloved bestselling novel, so watching it and realizing that Patterson crafted it entirely for the film medium just makes it more impressive as an achievement. Patterson has really raised his game for this second feature, one that’s so original and different from any other movie you’re likely to see this year. Between the toe-tapping music used so brilliantly in its storytelling and watching a brand-new actor take her place amongst the ranks by delivering such a memorable performance, The Rivals of Amziah King is probably one of the most pleasant surprises this year.
Rating: 8.5/10
You can also watch my interview with Andrew Patterson below:
Now, let’s get back to some other wide releases, including two that I think will be vying for the same teen girl audience. Just a few weeks after Hadestown: The Musical had a serious impact at the box office, faring even better than the Hamilton theatrical release – granted, that had been screening on Disney+ for years by the time it was released–Focus Features is releasing SIX: THE MUSICAL LIVE into roughly 1,250 theaters but probably more.
Oddly, the latest musical theatrical release might have some heavy competition from KATSEYE: WILD HEARTS, a doc-slash-concert-movie from one of the fastest growing KPop group of the past few years in terms of popularity. That opens on Wednesday and presumably runs for just five days.
What’s odd about both of these releases is that they seem to be fairly limited where theaters only have one screening per day (going by my local theater), which will make it harder for either of them to make a mark, though I think both can make somewhere close to $3 million. Even without having a theater count for the Katseye movie, I think it will come out on top, even if opening on Wednesday might cut into its weekend business as the burgeoning Katseye fans, known as Eyekons, rush out to see the movie early.
Some interesting historical counterprogramming comes in the form of Angel Studios’ latest, THE BRINK OF WAR, written and directed by Michael Russell Gunn, which retells the story about President Ronald Reagan (played by Jeff Daniels) meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev (Jared Harris) in Reykjavik, Iceland in October 1986 to work out an agreement to disarm both country’s nuclear arms. The always amazing J.K. Simmons plays Secretary of State George Schulz with Hope Davis playing Nancy Reagan.
Opening in 2,000 theaters, this probably has the most potential of getting into the top 10 with $2 to $3 million or more, though Angel Studios has been a little sporadic recently with its 4th of July release, Young Washington, doing well with $46.9 million grossed so far, but other movies not doing so well. I mean, it generally has been faring better than others like Sony Classics and Focus Features, the latter who released Pressure into 1,829 theaters in late May for a decent $5.8 million opening, though that was a stronger WWII-era film, whereas The Brink of War is about the Cold War and specifically talks between the US and Russia, which seems extremely timely to what is going on in the world today.
I’m not sure I have a ton to say about The Brink of War as a movie, because I have practically forgotten most of it since seeing it a few weeks back. It’s mostly Jeff Bridges and Jared Harris as Reagan and Gorbachev in a room hashing out how to divest the world of nuclear weapons, which ultimately ended with the end of the Soviet Union as the Berlin Wall was torn down. Younger people i.e. those under 40 might not know anything about this story, and even though I was alive and generally knew what was happening, Gunn wrote a strong screenplay that’s on par with a theatrical play to allow the actors to tell this story in a (presumably) fictionalized way.
I do like Jeff Daniels as an actor, but I wondered if possibly he was miscast, because he looks nothing like Reagan and seems to almost be doing an impersonation whereas Harris goes full-out with a bald cap wig and makeup to make him look eerily like the Russian premiere. Some of the problems do dissipate slightly as the story continues, because it’s entertaining to watch these two men squabble over the minutiae of making a suitable deal. It’s hard not to watch it and not think of all the incompetence of our current administration in dealing with similar world affairs.
JK Simmons has a smaller but very important role as Secretary of State George Schultz, and as you near the end of the movie, it’s obvious that this story is mostly being told from his perspective, although the movie does lose a bit when he’s not on screen taking part in the talks.
The Brink of War has a very specific target audience, mostly older men, maybe even older than me (if that’s even possible), that frequently watch the History Channel. Unfortunately, once you’ve watched this particular story play out and you know what’s going to happen, there isn’t much rewatch value. Because of that, the film feels fairly unmemorable, making it hard to fully recommend to anyone but the most avid of world history buffs.
Rating: 6.5/10
Neon is releasing Dylan Meyers’ debut feature, the stoner comedy THE WRONG GIRLS into a mere 510 theaters, which doesn’t bode well for having confidence in it doing well. It stars Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat as Frankie and Molly, two stoner best friends and roommates who are always trying to find ways of making money in order to pay the rent. A case of mistaken identity puts a locked briefcase into Frankie’s hands, which turns out to contain experimental drugs which they take, giving them psychic abilities. But the drug company wants to get their hands on the drugs and the ladies, as it can help them answer some of the questions they have about the effects of the drugs. Others want to get their hands on those drugs as well, including a mysterious agent played by Lakeith Stanfield.
I’m not really familiar with first-time filmmaker Dylan Meyers, but clearly Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s production company Point Grey Pictures must have liked the script to come on board to produce, along with Stewart. Maybe the fact Neon was giving this a small release during a busy weekend was telling that this was not going to be a massive release, and frankly, I’d be shocked if it makes more than a million this weekend.
As much as I enjoyed the pairing of Stewart and Shawkat, this movie gave me scary flashbacks to the awful American Ultra, another comedy involving drugs that Stewart starred in maybe ten years ago, plus it also borrowed liberally from other comedies like Pineapple Express and one of my favorite Coen Brothers movies, The Big Lebowski.
I used to be the biggest Lakeith Stanfield stan, but between this and I Love Boosters, I literally have no idea what he’s doing with his career in the roles he’s taking, plus there are also similarly bad roles for the likes of Tony Hale, Kate McKinnon, and even Geena Davis. At least Rogen and Kumail Nanjiani seem to be having fun voicing the ladies’ cats, who they suddenly can understand, and those parts as constantly kvetching cats are easily the best part of the movie.
What kind of got me more interested in the movie is that I recently became a fan of guitarist/songwriter Ty Segall, a massively prolific musician who plays in a variety of styles. Seeing his name as composer gave me some hope that at least the music might be good. But it’s not the most inspired score, and I imagine that’s in large part because it’s a director’s medium, and he had to give Meyers (not a very good director) whatever he wanted.
The Wrong Girls is an absolutely terrible movie, barely funny, even for a throwaway stoner comedy, just going for the most obvious gags with so many “influences” but not delivering anything particularly original or memorable for the general public. I literally forgot most of it as soon as it was over; I just remembered that I hated it.
Rating: 4.5/10
There are also a TON of rereleases this weekend, a crazy amount, in fact, and possibly more than any I’ve seen in recent memory, although only a few of these will be released nationwide. The two best bets are GKIDS 10th anniversary rerelease of Makoto Shinkai’s brilliant anime YOUR NAME., one of my favorite animes from recent memory, and another favorite of mine, WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER, which will be getting a nationwide theatrical rerelease this weekend after finding so much popularity streaming on Netflix. I actually think Your Name. could do a lot of business this weekend, because it’s grown very popular in the ten years since its release, and this is a rare theatrical release for the movie. I can easily see it sneaking into the top 10 over some of the other new releases above.
Other rereleases this weekend, probably more limited, include Greg Araki’s 2004 film Mysterious Skin, starring Joseph Gordon Levitt and Brady Corbet, which is getting a rerelease by Strand Releasing, following the release of Araki’s biggest commercial success to date, I Want Your Sex. Also, Well GO USA is rereleasing the Korean zombie action movie, Train to Busan, on its tenth anniversary, ahead of the release of Colony, the new movie from director Yeon Sang-Ho. Both of those seem to be going the arthouse route, but maybe that’s just in New York. (Scroll down to this week’s Repertory Roundup for more of that sort of thing.)
And if that’s not enough movie for you, there’s a good chance that A24 might expand the Anthony Bourdain movie, Tony, into more theaters, while MUBI could do the same with Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. Both movies did quite well platforming in New York and L.A., and with a few hundred more theaters, they could make a play for the Top 10, although they each would have to make a minimum of $1.5 million to do so. I’ve said this so many times, but it’s almost always about the theater count. (Tony is expanding into just 37 theaters, so probably not enough to get into the top 10 despite its strong limited showing.)
BOX OFFICE PREDICTIONS for 08/14/2026
Box Office Data Provided by The-Numbers.com
Well, this is going to be an interesting weekend, since we have so many new movies that it’s almost inevitable that the entire Top 10 will be shaken up with many of the long-running movies getting bumped out of the Top 10 earlier than usual. The PAW Patrol movie very well could oust some of the family films that have barely been holding onto business, and there’s a lot of unknown factors, like the theater counts for many of the new movies. It doesn’t really matter, since Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be #1 for a third weekend with relative ease. The Odyssey will have a tougher time maintaining second place, and the interesting race to watch will likely be whether David Robert Mitchell’s The End of Oak Street will be able to capitalize on the positive early reactions and reviews to stay ahead of the “sure thing” that is PAW Patrol.
1. Spider-Man: Brand New Day (Sony) - $67 million -54%
2. The End of Oak Street (Warner Bros) - $26.5 million N/A
3. PAW Patrol - The Dino Movie (Paramount) - $20.7 million N/A
4. The Odyssey (Universal) - $18 million -43%
5. Katseye: Wild Hearts - $3.5 million N/A
6. The Brink of War (Angel Studios) - $2.9 million N/A
7. Six: The Musical Live! (Focus Features) - $2.6 million N/A
8. Toy Story 5 (Disney/Pixar) - $2.5 million -40%
9. One Night Only (Universal) - $2.4 million -56%
10. Your Name. 20th Anniversary Re-release (GKIDS) - $1.6 million N/A
– The Rivals of Amziah King (Black Bear) - $920K N/A
– The Wrong Girls (Neon) - $750k N/A
This week’s official “Chosen One” is probably going to be Amziah King, but a close second would be Adam Meeks’ UNION COUNTY (Oscilloscope), which I watched virtually at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and again more recently. It opens at the IFC Center on Friday, and it stars Will Poulter as Cody Parsons, a young homeless man in regional Ohio who has had difficulties with an opioid addiction that has him put into a county-mandated drug court program where he has to show his recovery progress each week. His foster brother Jack (Noah Centineo) is also in the program, although he’s also an increasingly bad influence and a detriment to Cody’s progress.
I was hoping to talk with Meeks and particularly Will Poulter, since I’ve been following his career since seeing Son of Rambow at Sundance all those years ago, but it wasn’t to be, which is a shame, because it’s such a good movie and I have so many questions about it. (Poulter is a producer on the film and clearly put a lot of himself into getting it made.)
What makes Union County such a riveting experience is that there’s so much authenticity, where it feels like Poulter and Centineo are interacting with real people, be they former opioid addicts or people who actually run the Adult Recovery program that plays such a large part in the story. Much of Cody’s problems come from his proximity to Jack, as they seem to spur on each other’s drug use, which finally comes to a head with an incident that convinces the court to separate them.
This may very well be the performance of Poulter’s career, and frankly, I’d put it up there against ANY other male lead performance this year being heralded as “Oscar frontrunners,” including Matt Damon and Ryan Gosling in their respective blockbusters. This is the second time in recent memory where I’ve been so impressed with Poulter, the previous time being his performance in the Alex Garland film, Warfare, where I didn’t even realize that was him playing a soldier. (I’ll pretend that I didn’t see I Love Boosters, cause I hated his character in that movie.)
Union County is a tough and honest look at drug addiction and how hard it is to get out of said addiction once you’ve become inured to a certain lifestyle. In that sense, Meeks has created a drama on par with Sing Sing by giving Will Poulter a chance to show he’s grown exceedingly confident as an actor to take on such difficult material.
Rating: 8/10
NIMRODS (Inaugural Entertainment/Legion M) is a coming-of-age comedy produced and conceived by rockers Green Day, who I’ve always quite liked — I even saw Billy Joe Armstrong on Broadway performing in the musical American Idiot. It’s written and directed by Lee Kirk (Ordinary World), following three friends, played by Mason Thames, Kylr Coffman, and Ryan Foust, who travel across country to Los Angeles, thinking their band is opening for Green Day on New Year’s Eve. Apparently based on the band’s own early-day exploits touring in a van, the movie also stars McKenna Grace, because why not? She appears in every other movie. It also stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey (yes, from “The Office,”), Fred Armisen, Bobby Lee, and Sean Gunn. I have no idea how wide this movie is being released this weekend, but I assume a few hundred theaters?
In fact, I knew exactly zilch about Nimrods before this week, not even realizing that it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival almost a year ago. I’ve seen enough band-related movies in my lifetime that I know they can go very poorly and even be quite bad. When I was younger, the movie Rock ‘n’ Roll High School with the Ramones was a personal favorite, and I also liked Detroit Rock City, the latter which involves a very similar premise of a Kiss cover band hoping to see their idols in concert. I definitely had my concerns with Green Day being so involved with every aspect of making the film, because there’s always a danger of a movie like this being a mere vanity project that solely appeals to the fans.
The movie follows three Kansas City teenagers who play in a band called Analog Dogs - Mayson Thames’ Tommy, Kylr Hoffman as Fred, and Ryan Foust as the nerdy Chad, who probably should not be playing drums in a punk band – who have an encounter with the real Green Day at a local record store. Tommy’s older brother Keith (Ignacio Diaz-Silverio) is mad at Tommy, so he and his pal Wayne (Keen Ruffalo) play a practical joke and convince the Analog Dogs that Green Day want them to open for them at their New Year’s Eve show in Los Angeles, so the three young guys do whatever they can to get there, including stealing Keith’s car, basically a taxi. As is common with most road comedies like this, things go horribly wrong every step of the way, even if it’s pretty obvious that there’s a very good chance they’ll still reach their destination.
Along the way, they run into various characters like Sean Gunn as a drunken mechanic, Fred Armisen as a creepy hotel manager, and Bobby Lee as a stubborn security guard who makes a big deal about keeping our heroes out of the Green Day show once they get there. On one of the stops, Tommy meets a pretty rocker chick, played by McKenna Grace, who wrote and performs her own song. I didn’t know while watching this that Grace and Thaymes were an actual couple, but you can kind of tell, because they’re so cute together and this is much better than when they were together in last year’s Regretting You. After this, I’d be much more open to seeing them do more projects together, too.
Otherwise, Nimrods does generally go where it’s expected, ending in L.A. with Green Day playing a few songs in concert, with the three protagonists being incorporated into their act, but there’s also some unexpectedly touching moments, like the one between Tommy and Keith where they come to terms with the fact they both lost their father. Granted, it’s a far better movie if you like Green Day’s music (which I do), and their direct involvement guarantees that most of the band’s biggest hits will appear in the soundtrack. It’s also so well-written (based on a story devised with the band) and directed by Lee Kirk. Having never seen Ordinary World, his previous movie with Billy Joe Armstrong, I wasn’t sure if he could pull something like this off while keeping the band happy. He does.
Nimrods is a surprisingly effective coming-of-age road comedy that offers so many great moments and three great young actors who help make the thing work better than it might have otherwise. So yeah, much better than that awful Foo Fighters horror movie from a few years back.
Rating: 7.5/10
Opening at New York’s Film Forum on Friday is Rob Moss’s THE BEND IN THE RIVER, Exec. Produced by Joel Coen and Frances McDormand. I wasn’t at all familiar with Moss’s earlier films, the short Riverdogs from 1982 and The Same River Twice from 2003, but apparently Moss has been filming the close relationship between five friends: Barry, Danny, Cathy, Jeff and Jim since 1978, as they worked as guides on the Colorado River and lived in a nude commune. I’m sure some people have seen the earlier films and are interested in this conclusion, but yeah, I have zero interest in a nude 7-Up doc series, thank you very much.
Streaming on Shudder this Friday is Brock Bodell’s high-concept thriller HELLCAT, starring Dakota Gorman as Lena, who wakes up in a moving camper with a wound, told by the driver that she needs to get to a doctor within an hour or else… presumably she’ll die? Unfortunately, my crazy week has made it hard to get to this one, but it’s on Shudder, presumably forever.
Other movies out this weekend include…
AMERICAN DOCTOR (Watermelon Pictures)
MEMORY OF PRINCESS MUMBI (Monument Releasing)
DON’T SAY GOOD LUCK (Netflix)
FEED (Saban Films)
AN EYE FOR AN EYE (Jolt.Film)
THE REPERTORY ROUNDUP
Note: Due to the amount of other movies and reviews I’ve written this week, this will be a more stripped-down section than usual, and that might be the case for the month unless some divine miracle happens.
On Tuesday, August 18, Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre is getting its annual theatrical rerelease in theaters across the nation.
As mentioned in my separate feature on “Scary Movies XIV,” which has just begun at FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER, running through August 20, that includes a bunch of repertory genre films including a 35mm screening of Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei’s Cam, which plays tonight (Thursday), as well as a new 4k of Larry Fessenden’s Wendigo next Monday, and a new 4k of Brian Damude’s 1975 Canadian revenge thriller Sudden Fury, which will screen on Saturday night.
Down at the METROGRAPH, the July/August series continue with the new series “Going Up The Country” screening John Boorman’s Deliverance (1972) and Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout a few times this weekend.
Disney’s The Jungle Book (1967) will also screen in 35mm on Sunday morning as part of the Metrograph’s ongoing hand-drawn Disney animation series that has been going on for most of the year. I’ll be there, but it will play one more time on the following Sunday morning as well.
“In Her Shadow” will show Brian De Palma’s Obsession (1976) on Friday and Saturday night, as well as Alejandro Amenábar’s excellent horror film The Others (2001), starring Nicole Kidman, on Saturday night, as well as repeat screenings of The Milk of Sorrow on Sunday, Hitchcock’s Vertigo on Tuesday, and then it continues next week.
“Like the Wind: Lensed by Christopher Doyle” will screen Wong Karwai’s Chungking Express (1994) through the weekend, as well as more screenings of Happy Together, Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park (on Sunday), and Fruit Chan’s Dumplings (on Monday).
“This Night Has Opened My Eyes” continues to show La Haine on Thursday afternoon and next Wednesday, as well as another screening of Walter Hill’s The Warriors on Friday, as well as Gaspar Noé’s Irreversible late night on Friday and Saturday night (also starring Vincent Cassel from La Haine). Antonioni’s 1962 film La Notte will screen on Friday and Sunday, and next week, there’ll be lots of repeat screenings, including Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, Michael Mann’s Collateral, and Na Hong-jin’s The Chaser, all of which I recommend.
The excellent retrospective “Gary Oldman: The Protean Man” will show Oliver Stone’s JFK again on Thursday night (tonight) and then again next Wednesday, plus Oldman’s directorial debut, Nil by Mouth (1997) will screen and Friday and Saturday evenings. Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight and Ridley Scott’s Hannibal (2001), two fantastic sequels, will screen on Saturday.
“Otar Iosseliani: Fables of Modern Life” will just screen There Once Was a Singing Blackbird (1969) on Sunday, while “When Carolco Was King” will show repeats of Jacob’s Ladder and First Blood on Monday and Tuesday nights. “Dressed by Yves St. Laurent” will show Tony Scott’s The Hunger (1983) on Friday and Sunday as well as Resnais’ Stavisky next Tuesday, while “Jean-Louis Ughetto: The Sound of Things” also continues through the weekend.
FILM FORUM is beginning a run of a 4k restoration of John Schlesinger’s 1963 British new wave film Billy Liar, which looked interesting from the trailer but I just couldn’t get to the press screening. Stanley Kwan’s Center Stage (1991), starring Maggie Cheung, will continue on for another week but all the other repertory films: Dread Beat an Blood (1979), Visconti’s White Nights (1957), and Ross McElwee’s doc Sherman’s March all end their runs today (Thursday, August 13). Next Tuesday’s “NYC In Transit” offering is the classic NYC transit thriller, The Taking of Pelham ONE TWO THREE from 1974.
Michael Mann’s Manhunter: The Final Cut continues to play at IFC CENTER, and they’ll also be playing the anniversary rereleases of Greg Araki’s Mysterious Skin and the Korean zombie film Train to Busan, as mentioned above, starting Friday. This weekend’s Friday and Saturday “midnight movies” are Addams Family Values, Battle Royale, The Panic in Needle Park, and Ghost in the Shell.
The only repertory going on at ROXY CINEMA this weekend is Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book on Saturday, and Darren Aronofsky’s classic The Fountain on Sunday, both of those from 2006. On Monday night, they’re showing Jason Statham’s Crank as part of the same “2006 Movies” series, and then Adam Sandler’s Click on Tuesday night. I actually did interviews for three of those and the fourth is just a bad movie.
Over in Brooklyn, the NITEHAWK CINEMA’s “The Class of ‘96” will screen Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth one more time in PROSPECT PARK on Thursday night (tonight!), then will screen Wes Anderson’s debut Bottle Rocket on Saturday and Sunday at brunchtime. (Wow, that movie only came out thirty years ago?) Tuesday night’s offering is the Tony Scott thriller, The Fan, with De Niro and Snipes. Monday night’s “Ridiculous, Sublime” is Phillip Noyce’s 1989 Ozploitation film Blind Fury (not to be confused with Sudden Fury mentioned above) and then, next Wednesday night’s “Adventures in Black Cinema” is the 1997 film Gang-Related.
Over at WILLIAMSBURG, the weekend’s “Class of ‘96” film is the Mike Nichols’-directed The Birdcage on Saturday and Sunday morning, then on Tuesday, it will show Spike Lee’s Girl 6. Tonight (Thursday), the 1981 film Death Valley screens as part of “The Deuce” in Williamsburg, and then, Monday night’s “Skin Deep” X-rated movie offering is Robert Findlay’s 1977 movie, A Woman’s Torment.
“See It Big: 70mm” series at MUSEUM OF MOVING IMAGE will screen The Untouchables (also part of the ongoing “De Palma: Summer of Suspense”) on Friday night, Lawrence of Arabia on Saturday afternoon, and the old standby, 2001: A Space Odyssey on Sunday.
QUAD CINEMA’s “John Huston: Hollywood Maverick” next Tuesday through Thursday is 1972’s Fat City, starring Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges, and Candy Clark.
Other repertory theaters all around town and in the ‘burbs…
BAM (BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC)
Next week, there are a lot more movies with the strongest ones probably being INDIDIOUS: INTO THE FURTHER from Sony and Jason Statham’s latest action movie, MUTINY.
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