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Holiday Preview: A Repertory Calendar
Who needs new films when there are so many fantastic classic ones screening in rep houses around the country?
Austin
If your aim is to blur out the holiday season by getting drunk — mostly on film, but with a little alcohol thrown in, you’ll want to head to the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz where the end of December is filled with fun events during their High for the Holidays celebration, which includes screenings of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s “Holy Mountain” (Dec. 23, 27, 29), “Beerfest,” complete with Beerlympics (Dec. 24-25), “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” with all-you-can-eat sliders (Dec. 26), and the doc “Last Cup: Road to the World Series of Beer Pong” (Dec. 28 & 30), not to mention the non-HFtH, but still seasonally apt screening of “Santa Vs. Satan” (Dec. 20). But if you’re out of town or just can’t make it, there’s still plenty of fun to be had for the duration of the winter with Quote-Alongs of “Heathers” (Nov. 5, 12), “Office Space” (Nov. 19), “Elf” (Dec. 3, 10, 17), and “Grandma’s Boy” (Dec. 24), the always entertaining MST3K take-off Master Pancake Theatre, who will apply their on-screen commentary to “E.T.” (Nov. 6, 13, 14, 20, 21) a special Patrick Swayze tribute screening of “Road House” (Dec. 2), and a Christmas Show comprised of holiday TV specials and other ephemera (Dec. 11, 12, 18, 19); the Girlie Night series, with screenings of “Troop Beverly Hills” (Nov. 17) and “Love Actually” (Dec. 8 & 15); the Big Screen Classics series, which will feature 1985′s unavailable-on-DVD teen drama “The Legend of Billie Jean” (Nov. 15 & 18) and “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” (Nov. 26, 27 & 28). And if you’re not too stuffed to the gills after Thanksgiving, the Drafthouse Ritz is serving up a “‘Lord of the Rings’ Trilogy Hobbit Feast” (Nov. 29), with enough food to cover all nine hours of Peter Jackson’s trip into Middle Earth. Animation fans will also want to take note of the Best of Animation Block Party (Nov. 11, 16) and Spike and Mike’s New Generation Animation (Dec. 7 & 9).
The Alamo Ritz will also continue their long-running late night series of classics and obscurities for nearly every weekday with Music Monday screenings of “All Tomorrow’s Parties” (Nov. 2), “Agile, Mobile, Hostile” (Nov. 9), “Times Square” (Nov. 16 & 23), “Electric Heart: Don Ellis” (Nov. 30), “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” (Dec. 7), Les Blank’s “Hot Pepper” and “Dry Wood” (Dec. 14), “Iron Maiden: Flight 666″ (Dec. 21), the Flaming Lips’ “Christmas on Mars” (Dec. 28); Terror Tuesday screenings of “Street Trash” (Nov. 3), “Southern Comfort” (Nov. 10), 1980′s “The Children” (Nov. 17), “Devil’s Express” (Nov. 24), “Tremors” (Dec. 1), “Road Games” (Dec. 8), “Q: The Winged Serpent” (Dec. 15), “Christmas Evil” (Dec. 22, with director Lewis Jackson in person), “New Year’s Evil” (Dec. 29); and Weird Wednesday screenings of “Fight for Your Life” (Nov. 4), “Convention Girls” (Nov. 11), “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia” (Nov. 18), “Dr. Death – Seeker of Souls” (Nov. 25), “The Mighty Peking Man” (Dec. 2), “Part Time Wife” (Dec. 9), “The Silent Partner” (Dec. 16), “The Magic Christmas Tree” (Dec. 23), and “Polk County Pot Plane” (Dec. 30).
While the Austin Film Society will continue to take over the Alamo Ritz for their Documentary Tour, screening Alan Berliner’s 1991 film about his grandfather, “Intimate Stranger” (Nov. 11, with Berliner in person) and Agnès Varda’s “The Beaches of Agnes” (Dec. 9), the Film Society will set up at the Alamo South Lamar for their Essential Cinema series, concluding their most recent retrospective of Independent Greek Cinema with “Correction” (Nov. 3) and “Still Looking for Morphine” (Nov. 10) before seguing into The Chilly Humorist of Finland: Aki Kaurismäki with screenings of the Finnish director’s “Lights in the Dusk” (Nov. 17), “The Man Without a Past” (Nov. 24), “Shadows in Paradise” (Dec. 1), “Ariel” (Dec. 8), and “The Match Factory Girl” (Dec. 15).
[Additional photos: “Little Shop of Horrors,” The Filmgroup, 1960; “Shoot the Piano Player,” Astor Pictures Corporation, 1960; “The Red Shoes,” Eagle-Lion Films, 1948; “Vincent,” Disney, 1982; “Coraline,” Focus Features, 2009; “Bicycle Thieves,” Produzioni De Sica, 1948; “The Point,” Murakami-Wolf Productions, 1971; “The Road,” Dimension Films, 2009; “Casablanca,” Warner Bros., 1942; “The Long Goodbye,” United Artists, 1973]
