TULLY (2018) / MONSTER (2003)
dir. Jason Reitman / Patty Jenkins
November 1, 8:00 PM
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Aero Theatre (MAP)
Charlize Theron will take part in a conversation between two films that bookend the accomplished arc of her career. For some actors, winning an Oscar signifies the culmination of years of work; in Theron’s case, her Best Actress honor for the Patty Jenkins film Monster, which Theron also produced, marked the beginning of a professional phase in which she took more authorial control. All that aside, Theron’s performance in Monster really is that good, and the film is too rarely seen on the big screen. This year’s Tully is a great complement to Jenkins’ film, in part because there’s reason to wonder if co-star Mackenzie Davis will soon follow in Theron’s footsteps.
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PARADOX (2017) / ASH (2017)
dir. Wilson Yip / Li Xiaofeng
November 2, 7:30 PM
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Billy Wilder Theater (MAP)
Director Wilson Yip reunites with action choreographer Sammo Hung for Paradox, a spiritual sequel to their 2005 action masterclass SPL: Sha Po Lang. The story sounds over the top — a detective’s protective personality goes into violent overdrive when his daughter is targeted by an organ harvesting ring — but Louis Koo’s emotionally intense lead performance has drawn raves at festivals and earned him the Best Actor award at this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards. As with SPL, the focus is on imaginative fight scenes, with a guest appearance from Tony Jaa. Ash, Li Xiaofeng’s sophomore feature, balances this double-bill with a morally complex, existential neo-noir. Part of the 4th China Onscreen Biennial.
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A BREAD FACTORY, PARTS ONE and TWO (2018)
dir. Patrick Wang
Open Through November 8
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Laemmle Monica Film Center (MAP)
A small community’s web of artistic, activist, and commercial ties comes to life in this sprawling Robert Altman-esque drama. For decades, partners Dorothea (Tyne Daly) and Greta (Elisabeth Henry) have run a community arts and event space — home to everything from art films to local theatre to PTA meetings — in a former bread factory in upstate New York. When a Chinese couple with celebrity clout opens a more modern (read: commercial) space, they start competing for funding dollars, threatening to erode the Bread Factory’s stability. That plot is just the setup for the interactions of dozens of characters whose lives reveal all the ways Dorothea and Greta’s endeavor can be invaluable to an entire town. The bulk of the plot plays out in the first part, subtitled For the Sake of Gold, while the second, Walk With Me a While, adds musical numbers and other concepts that push the concept of a community arts space out into the experience of daily life. The two films can be watched individually but, as the titles imply, are truly meant as a pair.
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AND MORE
1985 (2018)
dir. Yen Tan
Open Through November 1 - Laemmle Glendale (MAP)
We highlighted Yen Tan’s new film when it played as part of Outfest this summer. The black and white drama is now in limited release, so you just have to bounce over to Glendale to see the story of a closeted young man who returns home to Texas for Christmas in ’85.
THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933)
dir. James Whale
6:30 and 9:55 PM, October 30 - Laemmle Royal, NoHo 7, and Pasadena Playhouse 7
One of the greatest Universal Monster movies is distressingly relevant today, as it follows an overconfident scientist who tips into murderous madness after discovering a way to become invisible — and, he thinks, to indulge every selfish whim free of consequence. Plays as a double feature with a DCP of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
THE EVIL DEAD (1981)
dir. Sam Raimi
October 31, 9:45 PM - Vista Theatre (MAP)
Sam Raimi’s debut feature is a go-for-broke horror wallop, and an introduction to his creative partnership with Bruce Campbell. Thanks to the nasty tree attack scene (which Raimi later said he regretted) it is harder-edged exploitation than most of Raimi and Bruce Campbell’s comedy-tinged efforts. The gorier and funnier remake/sequel, Evil Dead II, plays Neuehouse Hollywood as a Rooftop Cinema event one night earlier, on October 30.
UNLOVABLE (2018)
dir. Suzi Yoonessi
Opens November 1 - Arena Cinelounge (MAP)
The character Joy is addicted to love and sex. And while Unlovable approaches her desperation and failures — often complicated by drinking — with frank openness, it also remains buoyant as Joy finds friendship with a sponsor (Melissa Leo) and her sponsor’s brother (John Hawkes). Star Charlene deGuzman, who scripted with Sarah Adina Smith and Mark Duplass, injects some of her own 12-step program experience into Joy’s story.
Infinity Film Festival
November 1-4 - Laemmle Music Hall, RealD Theater, WGA Theater
This festival features a new 4K restoration of the 1953 War of the Worlds, and some uncommon choices such as Woody Harrelson’s directorial debut Lost in London, done as a live broadcast in 2017, and Mourning Son, musician Dave Navarro’s documentary about his mother’s murder. There’s also a screening of the simply wonderful Apollo space program documentary For All Mankind, presented by Filmstruck (RIP). The fest offers $20 day passes rather than single-film tickets.
THE SIN OF NORA MORAN (1933)
dir. Phil Goldstone
November 3, 7:00 PM - Raleigh Studios (MAP)
UCLA’s Down and Dirty in Gower Gulch series, celebrating cheap pre-code “Poverty Row” B-pictures, continues with this slightly camp melodrama about a woman on death row, described as a maze “of flashbacks, flash-forwards, and flashbacks-within-flashbacks so complex that the entire narrative structure quickly ceases to make sense.”
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