Ryan Gosling and the director of Drive, Nicolas Winding Refn, are back together and at Nitehawk with this visionary Bangkok-set thriller.
As an American expatriate living in Bangkok, Thailand, Julian (Gosling) is a drug kingpin who runs a boxing club, which is actually a front for a massive drug smuggling operation. He becomes tasked with avenging his brother’s death, but a mysterious, unhinged policeman is following his every move. Only God Forgives is an intense drama about Thai boxing, drug cartels, revenge and justice (and prostitution) in the criminal underworld of Bangkok.
OPENING JULY 5TH. Residents of a coastal town learn, with deathly consequences, the secret shared by the two mysterious women (mother and daughter vampire duo) who have sought shelter at a local resort.
Byzantium is a 2013 British-Irish fantasy thriller film directed by Neil Jordan in which two mysterious women seek refuge in a run-down coastal resort. Clara meets lonely Noel, who provides shelter in his deserted guesthouse, Byzantium. Schoolgirl Eleanor befriends Frank and tells him their lethal secret. They were born 200 years ago and survive on human blood. As knowledge of their secret spreads, their past catches up on them with deathly consequence.
Nitehawk and Noisey present Shane Meadows’ instant British classic, This is England. Bucket from The Toasters will be skyping in after the film!
This is England isn’t just a portrait of a young man or a group of young people coming of age in 1980s Britain, it’s a portrait of England under the thumb of Margaret Shadow.
Shane Meadows’ award winning This is England is the story of the UK in 1983 told through twelve-year old Shaun and his newfound skinhead family. The politics of the time seethe throughout this personal narrative that touches upon bullying, racism, and skinhead culture as a result of Thatcherism. Weaving throughout the film is an incredible soundtrack that truly cements the heights of creativity and the social lows of the period. Capturing the diversity of sounds coming out at the time – from The Upsetters to The Specials and to a Soft Cell – is a mix of ska and pop songs. This is England premiered at the London Film Festival in 2006 and went on to win accolades and awards, including Best British Film at the 2008 BAFTAs.
Starring: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson
As always Italian director Lucio Fulci brings stellar kills and a killer score with the ‘sequel’ to Romero’s Dawn of the Dawn (Italian title is Zombi) in which remote island horrors reach the island of Manhattan in the form of a zombie. Basic story, a daughter goes searching for her father who’s gone missing after trying to cure the recent epidemic of the dead walking on tropical Matul Island. Little does she and her newfound sailing friends know that there’s no hope on that island or that it’s already reached the shores of New York. Whether it’s a wooden stick through the eye, a zombie attacking a shark, or watching Mia Farrow’s sister deal with the zombie apocalypse, Zombie ticks all the living dead boxes and then some.
THE JERK was a poor black sharecropper’s son who never dreamed he was adopted.
Comedy is the art of making people laugh without making them puke. – Steve Martin
Naive bordering on idiocy, Navin’s charm and perseverance take him far away from his poor Mississippi farmhouse and into the glitz of Hollywood. Not only does he discover his “special purpose” bumbling through the country but he gets the dog and the girl and, quite by accident, creates an invention that makes him a millionaire. But as we all know, money doesn’t buy you anything but grief and poor loveable Navin finds out the hard way. Plus, this is Steve Martin at his best – doofy, funny, a little bit dirty and totally adorable.
In Sleeper (a futuristic science fiction comedy), Woody Allen plays a health food store owner and jazz musician who, after being involuntarily cryogenically frozen, is woken up 200 years later in 2173.
As one would expect in Sleeper, Miles Monroe (Woody Allen) is a nerd who brings all of his 20th century neurosis and insightful quips into the ridiculousness of the totalitarian state in which he now finds himself living. Monroe comedicly bumbles through his new role on being the representative of what was made obsolete…the past! And so he fights the oppressive government while falling in love with the woman he hates, poet Luna Schlosser (Diane Keaton). The film is full of mockery of science fiction classics, full of physical comedy, and the banter between Allen and Keaton is on point. If ever there were a futuristic loser/hero, it’s Sleeper!
Part of Nitehawk’s WE CAN BE HEROES August brunch series.
Giallo hits the American streets of New York with our second Lucio Fulci film of the month, New York Ripper.
If it talks like a duck in this early 1980s Fulci horror fest, then it’s your New York Ripper. But burnt out detective Lieutenant Fred Williams is hot on the trail of the man brutally killing random ladies in New York City (and we’re talking some serious knifely aggression towards women here). There’s lots of razor blades, gore, and sexual acts with random strangers (S&M anyone?) going on here but through all that is the element of media fame and psychoanalysis. Part of the honorable group of “Nasties” banned in the UK for decades, New York Ripper is Italian-made American horror at its unfinest.
Part of Nitehawk’s August I Heart New York Horror midnite series.
Starring: Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, Richard Roundtree
Few filmmakers in the ’80s captured that decade’s uniquely grimy New York City vibes quite like William Lustig, and a prime example of that is the sleazy, gruesome, fun-as-hell cult classic Maniac Cop. Written by fellow NYC horror legend Larry Cohen, it’s one part living dead subversion, more parts slasher and action, and altogether delightful.
And, along with other beloved films 1980’s Maniac and his work restoring classic genre cinema via his retro home video label Blue Underground, it’s why Brooklyn Horror is honoring Lustig with its first-ever Leviathan Award, the festival’s new award dedicated to horror’s most impactful trailblazers. Join us for a special Maniac Cop 35th anniversary screening complete with a Q&A with Lustig and an award celebration. —Matt Barone
Director Peter Glantz will be in attendance both days, featuring a Q&A with Noisey editor Ben Shapiro!
Nitehawk and Noisey present August’s MUSIC DRIVEN film Lightning Bolt: The Power of Salad.
In the summer of 2001, filmmakers Peter Glantz and Nick Noe followed the noise rock band Lightning Bolt from New York to California to make the tour documentary, Lightning Bolt: The Power of Salad (and Milkshakes) capturing nineteen of their jaw-dropping shows. Loud and aggressive, the duo formed in Providence, Rhode Island in 1994 by Brian Gibson and Brian Chippendale and quickly became known for their guerilla-style live performances (like not actually playing on stage). This documentary features cameos from indie rock celebrities, Pink and Brown, along with interviews featuring the friends and family of Gibson and Chippendale.
A young woman seeks violent revenge after four men brutally violate her and leave her for dead in our August Nitehawk Nasty, I Spit on Your Grave.
Also known as “Day of the Woman”, the infamous I Spit on Your Grave is a very violent representation of sexual abuse and revenge. Jennifer Hills is an aspiring writer who rents a country home to focus on her work but her life drastically alters when she is repeatedly gang raped, beat up, and left for dead by four local men. Whereas in many films of the era, that’s where the story would end, Meir Zarchi’s movie takes us much further into the realm of revenge attacks that are equally as brutal and cruel. The line blurs as to whether justice is being enacted or more mindless violence is being perpetuated. Graphic and disturbing, I Spit on Your Grave is not just a “nasty” film to watch but a must see part of the horror cinema cannon.
Part of the Nitehawk Nasties signature series.
