Warning: Images are not from the movies we’re showing. Trust us, you can’t imagine what we’re showing!
It’s the Hong Kong Chainsaw Massacre! This Sunday on Fire, Subway Cinema and Nitehawk deliver a fast and grotty roughie written on the fly and shot on the cheap, where old school kung fu fights break out every ten minutes to deliver a two-fisted kung fu foodie horror flick with a multiple personality disorder and a case of the screaming mimis made by one of Hong Kong’s most famous directors at the very start of his career.
We’re not going to reveal the title of this gore-gore masterpiece until it appears onscreen, but this movie could comfortably fill out the bottom slot of a 42nd Street grindhouse double bill. Filmed in delirious carnage-vision, and presented on 35mm, the aesthetic model for this movie is the Coney Island sideshow: crude, tacky, in bad taste, and more fun than a barrel of (carnivorous) monkeys.
Starring: Marilia Pêra, Richard Ulacia, Rodney Harvey, Angel David, Geraldine Smith, Linda Kerridge, John Leguizamo
Print courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Cool your heels this August at The Deuce with a holy-grail of hilarity: Paul Morrissey’s riotous and rarely screened send-up of drug-war movie mores – MIXED BLOOD!!
Opposing drug “families” fight for dope-dealing supremacy in the bombed-out, trash-strewn, junkie-filled streets of 80s “Alphabet City” – where fiery Brazilian drug-tsarista Rita La Punta forbids her hunky monosyllabic mass of flesh son, Thiago, from venturing anywhere above 14th Street!! Trash-talking and race-baiting… where the heat on the street is double-dealing beat-cops… and then there’s the Menudo store shoot-out!
Sure – it played downtown in “the village” – at the Waverly (now, the “IFC Center”) – where one would expect to find such wacky fare… but we, being “The Deuce”, are more excited to be dropping in on its 1-week run at the “Make Them Die Slowly” Liberty Theatre with all the whacked-out, cranked up kook-a-palooza Deuce denizens drooling in befuddled bemusement at Morrisey’s mischievous trickster’s take on a topic all-too familiar!!
Starring: Leslie Mann, John Cena, Ike Barinholtz, Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan
The Future of Film is Female presents a special screening of BLOCKERS featuring a Q&A with director Kay Cannon! To make an additional $10 donation to The Future of Film is Female, select the “Event + Donation” ticket on the checkout screen.
The directorial debut by Kay Cannon (writer Pitch Perfect, director Cinderella), Blockers is a film that will make you laugh until you cry and cry at parenthood until you laugh. When three parents (played by John Cena, Leslie Mann and Ike Barinholtz) stumble upon their daughters’ pact to lose their virginity at prom, they launch a covert one-night operation to stop the teens from sealing the deal. Hailed as the “perfect comedy for the current era” by Vanity Fair, Blockers is a gender-swapped spin on the classic teen sex comedy, filled with outrageous antics from the parents as their daughters take control of their epic prom night. A certified FOFIF favorite!
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Isabella Rossellini, Rosie Perez, Tom Hulce, John Turturro, Benicio del Toro
When Max Klein (Jeff Bridges) survives a plane crash that kills many others, his last-minute epiphanies bring him a sense of invulnerability, leading to radical behavior. Instead of contacting his wife (Isabella Rossellini) after the crash, he sets off on a trip to see his old girlfriend, eats foods he was allergic to previously, and is strangely unafraid to fly again. Can a psychologist (John Turturro) and a fellow guilt-ridden survivor (Rosie Perez) help bring him down to earth?
Starring: Rosie Perez, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Patti LuPone, Karen Duffy, Diego Serrano, Wendell Pierce
Grace (Rosie Perez) is a motivated career woman, married to the co-host (Diego Serrano) of a show she produces on television. When she finds out that she’s pregnant, she is surprised, apprehensive and immediately shoved into the spotlight when her boss, Joan, (Patti LuPone) uses Grace’s pregnancy to draw in viewers. Grace must struggle to be the ideal wife and mother, all the while maintaining her sanity at work with the help of her assistant, Madeline (Marianne Jean-Baptiste).
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Mark Harmon, Harold Gould, Chad Michael Murray, Stephen Tobolowsky
Single mother Tess Coleman (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her teenage daughter Anna (Lindsay Lohan) couldn’t be more different, and it is driving them both insane. After receiving cryptic fortunes at a Chinese restaurant, the two wake up the next day to discover that they have somehow switched bodies. Unable to switch back, they are forced to masquerade as one another until a solution can be found. In the process, they develop a new sense of respect and understanding for one another.
Starring: Brian Bedford, Peter Ustinov, Phil Harris, Roger Miller, Pat Buttram
An amiable rooster called Alan-a-Dale (Roger Miller) tells stories and sings songs of the heroic Robin Hood (Brian Bedford) and his trusty sidekick, Little John (Phil Harris), in this animated animal-themed adaptation of the legendary story. When evil Prince John (Peter Ustinov) deputizes the Sheriff of Nottingham (Pat Buttram) to collect unreasonable taxes from the animals of Sherwood Forest, Robin, Little John and the other merry men wage a lighthearted battle against their evil foes.
Starring: Anna Biller, Jared Sanford, Bridget Brno, Chad England
Nearly 10 years before her instantly iconic The Love Witch, director Anna Biller crafted her first feature Viva, a colorful sex comedy set in the 70s for which she is not only credited as writer, director, producer, editor, production designer and costume designer, but also plays the lead.
Citing the main influences as early Playboy photo spreads and Luis Buñuel’s Belle de Jour, Biller created the suburban world of Barbi, a housewife who has her world turned upside down after her husband abandons her. She dives into the sexual revolution, and indulges in all it has to offer, testing her own boundaries. With her signature meticulousness, Biller fills the frame with colorful decor and wild costumes (she even painted some of the canvases on display), effectively making Viva seem like a rediscovered lost film.
Includes a raffle of early copies of Anna Biller’s new book, “Bluebeard’s Castle.”
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox
In the wake of her grandmother’s funeral, hotel manager Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) is waiting to fly back home when she meets charming Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy) at check-in. She thinks it luck that they’re seated together on the plane, but soon learns otherwise. Jackson hopes to assassinate the head of Homeland Security, but to do so, he needs Lisa to reassign the official’s room number at her hotel. As insurance, Jackson has kidnapped Lisa’s father (Brian Cox).
Starring: Robert Townsend, Anne-Marie Johnson, Starletta DuPois, Helen Martin, Craigus R Johnson
Aspiring actor and hot-dog stand employee Bobby Taylor (Robert Townsend) catches the ire of his grandmother (Helen Martin) for auditioning for a role in the regrettably titled exploitation film “Jivetime Jimmy’s Revenge.” When Tinseltown Studios casts Taylor in the title role, he has a series of conflicted dreams satirizing African-American stereotypes in Hollywood, and must reconcile his career goals with his desire to remain a positive role model for his little brother (Craigus R Johnson).
