“The Dark Knight Rises” debuts more new character posters
Has the Sacha Baron Cohen shtick jumped the shark?
Tim Grierson on Will Smith, the Last Movie Star
Exclusive download: Corporal, featuring Michael Shannon, presents “Glory”
Summer Preview: Repertory Calendar for the Coasts
A look at the programs at the Film Forum, Alamo Drafthouse, New Beverly and more.
Look for all roads to lead to the Alamo Ritz on May 6th when the only thing that’s seemingly more popular than Twitter these days, the cult sensation “The Room” comes to Austin with enigmatic writer/director/star Tommy Wiseau in tow. The Ritz will also host two full days with “Repo Man” director Alex Cox, who will be screening his spoof of John Ford’s classic, “Searchers 2.0,” and one of his favorite spaghetti westerns, 1966’s “Arizona Colt” on May 17th and a screening of “Repo Man” on May 18th. Richard Linklater will also be stopping by the Alamo Lamar on June 1st to discuss his doc on University of Texas baseball coach Augie Garrido, “Inning By Inning.”…At the Ritz, there will be a little bit for everyone with special screenings of “Can’t Hardly Wait” (May 19), Brian DePalma’s “Scarface” (May 24, 25 & 27), “Myra Breckenridge” (May 26), “Total Recall” (June 14, 15 & 17), “Beaches” (June 16), a Father’s Day screening of “The Royal Tenenbaums” (June 21), William Castle’s Joan Crawford thriller “Strait-Jacket” (June 23)…The Alamo Ritz will also have a fun evening for every day of the week, continuing their Music Mondays series with screenings of “Hot & Nasty: Roguish Rock of the 20th Century,” a mix of music videos put together by Drafthouse programmers Lars and Zack of some of the most flamboyant bands out there (May 11), the doc “Heavy Load” (May 25), the rarely screened “Tom Waits Big Time” (June 1 & 8), Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” with a live score from the Golden Hornet Project (June 7), “Dub Lab Crew Live!.”, an evening of shorts, documentaries and music videos from the likes of Animal Collective, Tim & Eric, Miranda July and M. Ward (June 15), the 2009 concert film “Sonic Youth: Sleeping Nights Awake” (June 22), and the beer-soaked 1979 concert film “Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Celebration” (June 29).
For just a buck, the Ritz invites audiences to their weird and wonderful Terror Tuesdays, with late night showings of 1981’s “Evilspeak” (May 5, with star Clint Howard in person), “Creature Features” host John Stanley’s 1978’s “Nightmare in Blood” (May 12), Donald Cammell’s 1977 chiller “Demon Seed” (May 19), 1980’s “Alligator” (May 26), 1986’s “Class of Nuke ‘Em High” (June 2), 1982’s gruesome “Pieces” (June 9), the Ernest Borgnine starrer “The Devil’s Rain” (June 16), the Linda Blair vigilante thriller “Savage Streets” (June 23), and Stephen King’s directorial debut “Maximum Overdrive” (June 30). The craziness continues on Weird Wednesdays at the Ritz where there will be screenings of Michael Ritchie’s “Prime Cut” (May 6), the Roger Corman-produced “The Student Nurses” (May 13), Pam Grier’s breakthrough “Coffy” (May 20), the 1973 John Savage thriller “The Killing Kind” (May 27), the 1977 PG-rated fantasy “Supervan” (June 3), the extremely low-budget kung fu blaxploitation flick “The Dynamite Brothers” (June 10), the nightmare inducing kiddie flick “Lost in the Desert” (June 17) and the 1976 sex farce “School Days” (June 24)…While snickering is usually discouraged on the other nights, there will be plenty of chatter during the sing-alongs and quote-alongs at the Ritz, with talking-friendly versions of “Three Amigos” (May 5), “Airplane!” (May 14 & 21), “Caddyshack” (May 21 & 28), ”Happy Gilmore” (June 4 & 11), and “Super Troopers” (June 18 & 25). Drafthouse programmers have also put together their best for the ‘90s One-Hit Wonders Sing-Along (May 7, 14, 21 & 28) and Ladies of the ‘80s Sing-Along (June 4, 11, 18 & 25). Likewise, the “Mystery Science Theater 3000”-esque Master Pancake Theater will attempt their worst for screenings of “Rocky IV” in May and “The Sixth Sense” in June…And not to be left out of the mix, the Alamo Village will host Kung Fu Cinema screenings of Tsui Hark’s “Once Upon a Time in China 3” (May 22) and the Yuen Wo Ping-choreographed “Bloody Fists” (June 18), and of course, a screening of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” on June 19th.
The Drafthouses will also prove to be a Mother’s Day destination on May 10th when the food takes center stage for champagne brunches accompanied by “Mamma Mia!” at the Alamo Village and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” at the Alamo Lamar…The Drafthouse is also the place for the Austin Film Society’s Immigration in Global Cinema series, featuring Gregory Nava’s “Mi Familia” (May 5), So-Yong Kim’s “In Between Days” (May 12), and Argentinean director Hugo Grosso’s “On Each Side” (May 19), followed by the series Steppes, Mountains, and Cities: Films of Asia, Old and New with Sergei Dvortsevoy’s “Tulpan” (June 2), Mani Ratnam’s 2002 drama “A Peck on the Cheek” (June 9), Ning Hao’s “Mongolian Ping Pong” (June 16), Hiroshi Shimizu’s 1941 drama “Ornamental Hairpin” (June 23), and Khyentse Norbu’s “Travellers and Magicians” (June 30). The AFS Documentary Tour continues with a showcase of local University of Texas film student docs on May 13 and the Australian mystery “Forbidden Lie$” on June 10th.
