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Anime After Dark: Secret Screening

We’ve gone cryptic for this month’s edition of Anime After Dark for a secret screening of a rarely screened anime classic, a blighted dream of a film, lit large at Nitehawk Williamsburg for one nite only. We’re mum on the title, but here are some clues to help guide your path: 

  1. The filmmaker originally developed this story as a Lupin III film until Toho pulled the plug. “It makes no sense,” they said, and correctly, it’s worth noting.

  2. The first and only collaboration between two anime icons at the start of their careers. 

  3. Produced by the same animation studio as Patlabor, Ranma ½, Ruroni Kenshin.

  4. “Ruins; I like ruins; I like museums; I like fish; I like birds; I like water… and I like girls.” – ANIMERICA Interview with [REDACTED]

  5. Audiences and critics hated it – and the director didn’t make another feature for four years. It all worked out for him in the end, and this movie rules, people from the past are dumb.

Longlegs

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Maika Monroe, Alicia Witt, Erin Boyes, Dakota Daulby, Blair Underwood

FBI Agent Lee Harker is assigned to an unsolved serial killer case that takes an unexpected turn, revealing evidence of the occult. Harker discovers a personal connection to the killer and must stop him before he strikes again.

Band of Outsiders

Starring: Anna Karin, Sami Frey, Claude Brasseur

Cinephile slackers Franz (Sami Frey) and Arthur (Claude Brasseur) spend their days mimicking the antiheroes of Hollywood noirs and Westerns while pursuing the lovely Odile (Anna Karina). The misfit trio upends convention at every turn, be it through choreographed dances in cafés or frolicsome romps through the Louvre. Eventually, their romantic view of outlaws pushes them to plan their own heist, but their inexperience may send them out in a blaze of glory — which could be just what they want.

The Rescuers Down Under

Starring: Bob Newhart, Eva Gabor, John Candy, Tristan Rogers, Adam Ryen, George C. Scott

Cody (Adam Ryen), a boy living in the Australian outback, frees a rare golden eagle from a trap. When an evil poacher (George C. Scott) kidnaps Cody to catch the eagle, a group of local animals contacts the Rescue Aid Society in New York City, who assign their top mice, Bernard (Bob Newhart) and Bianca (Eva Gabor), to the case. To save Cody and the eagle, the agents fly to Australia on a clumsy albatross (John Candy) and enlist the help of an adventurous kangaroo rat (Tristan Rogers).

Little Murders

Starring: Elliott Gould, Marcia Rodd, Vincent Gardenia, Elizabeth Wilson

For this month’s Ridiculous <> Sublime we embark on slightly different territory, trading in our inclination towards the gleefully bombastic for a bleak and absurd worldview that only the most twisted minds of the 1970s could provide.

Based on a stage play allegedly seen by eleven people opening night, Little Murders was adapted for the screen by its creator Jules Feiffer with Elliott Gould as Alfred Chamberlain, an apathetic photographer who refuses to put up a fight. When Patsy Newquist (Marcia Rodd) comes to his rescue, her unwavering optimism compels her to try to “fix” him, and his fascination with her fortitude keeps him engaged enough to follow. Wills are tested amidst pervy phonecalls and sniper bullets, with a New York City hellscape reaching cartoonish heights. Directed by Alan Arkin, who also makes an appearance as a spiraling police detective, Little Murders is a collection of wild performances of some of the darkest humor that will roil your guts.

The Flintstones

Starring: John Goodman, Elizabeth Perkins, Rick Moranis, Rosie O’Donnell, Kyle MacLachlan, Halle Berry

Big-hearted, dim-witted factory worker Fred Flintstone (John Goodman) lends money to his friend Barney Rubble (Rick Moranis) so that he can adopt a baby. As thanks, Barney swaps his IQ test for Fred’s during an executive search program. After getting promoted, however, Fred becomes embroiled in the dastardly scheming of his boss Cliff Vandercave (Kyle MacLachlan), who enlists his secretary, Sharon Stone (Halle Berry), to seduce Fred, angering Fred’s wife, Wilma (Elizabeth Perkins).

Hit Man

Starring: Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, Austin Amelio, Retta, Sanjay Rao, Molly Bernard

Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater’s sunlit neo-noir stars Glen Powell as strait-laced professor Gary Johnson, who moonlights as a fake hit man for the New Orleans Police Department. Preternaturally gifted at inhabiting different guises and personalities to catch hapless people hoping to bump off their enemies, Gary descends into morally dubious territory when he finds himself attracted to one of those potential criminals, a beautiful young woman named Madison (Adria Arjona). As Madison falls for one of Gary’s hit man personas — the mysteriously sexy Ron — their steamy affair sets off a chain reaction of play acting, deception, and escalating stakes. Co-written by Linklater and Powell and inspired by an unbelievable true story, Hit Man is a cleverly existential comedy about identity.

Deadpool & Wolverine

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams

Wolverine is recovering from his injuries when he crosses paths with the loudmouth, Deadpool. They team up to defeat a common enemy.

Twisters

Starring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Maura Tierney, Harry Hadden-Paton, Sasha Lane, Kiernan Shipka

Daisy Edgar-Jones stars as Kate Cooper, a former storm chaser haunted by a devastating encounter with a tornado during her college years who now studies storm patterns on screens safely in New York City. She is lured back to the open plains by her friend, Javi (Anthony Ramos) to test a groundbreaking new tracking system. There, she crosses paths with Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), the charming and reckless social-media superstar who thrives on posting his storm-chasing adventures with his raucous crew, the more dangerous the better. As storm season intensifies, terrifying phenomena never seen before are unleashed, and Kate, Tyler and their competing teams find themselves squarely in the paths of multiple storm systems converging over central Oklahoma in the fight of their lives.

Fly Me to the Moon

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Ray Romano, Woody Harrelson

Fly Me to the Moon is a sharp, stylish comedy-drama set against the high-stakes backdrop of NASA’s historic Apollo 11 moon landing. Brought in to fix NASA’s public image, sparks fly in all directions as marketing maven Kelly Jones (Johansson) wreaks havoc on launch director Cole Davis’s (Tatum) already difficult task. When the White House deems the mission too important to fail, Jones is directed to stage a fake moon landing as back-up and the countdown truly begins….