Starring: Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones, Tim Robbins, Paul Guilfoyle
In this film based on the comic book character, Howard the Duck is suddenly beamed from Duckworld, a planet of intelligent ducks with arms and legs, to Earth, where he lands in Cleveland. There he saves rocker Beverly (Lea Thompson) from thugs and forms a friendship with her. She introduces him to Phil (Tim Robbins), who works at a lab with scientist Dr. Jenning (Jeffrey Jones). When the doctor attempts to return Howard to his world, Jenning instead transfers an evil spirit into his own body.
Starring: Trina Parks, Edna Richardson, Bettye Sweet, Shirley Washington, Roger E. Mosely, Norman Bartold, Otis Day, and Dick Miller
With musical guests: The Dramatics and Curtis Price
The Deuce is Stax-in’ it high this year and ridin’ inta Spring with the April-foolish phantasmagoric fantasia: DARKTOWN STRUTTERS!! Aka: GET UP AND BOOGIE! And boogie you will when Syreena (Diamonds Are Forever’s Trina Parks at her most winningly, comically winsome) and her Strutters girl-gang of deliriously decked-out 3-wheeled motorcycle mamas maraud their way through a whacked-out Watts in search of Syreena’s kidnapped abortion-clinic commandeering mom: Cinderella!??! “Watts that?” you say?? Yes!! The Deuce is taking you back to 3 years after the warm humanistic hoe-down-y realism of WATTSTAX for a furiously freaked-out funked-up flipside!! A Looney Tunes come to life, rife with mind-bending, jaw-dropping unbelievability! Garish! Gonzo!! Gloriously gauche!! Jam-packed with weirdos and “WTF?!?”!! Kung-fu and cycle-ridin’ KKK-ers… and an evil Colonel Sanders-y rib-restaurant magnate who’s up to some shady cloning experiments whilst throwin’ a bone to his mansion basement/dungeon/laboratory dwelling musical “guests”!!
Directed by since-the-30s B-pic journeyman William Witney – with much of his Roy Rogers, Dick Tracy, Crimson Ghost serial-y sensibilities still intact – and written by Miami Blues helmer George Armitage, in – as legend has it – 3 days, as one script-length, unbroken, run-on sentence!! A fever-dream stream of conscienceless unconsciousness that only the jazzed-up junk-lovin’ jokers of Times Square’s Harris Theatre could cream their jeans for… The Deuce suggests you bring an extra pair – unless you’re comfortable with that!!
Starring: Tamara Dobson, Shelley Winters, Bernie Casey, Brenda Sykes, Antonio Fargas
I.B. Technicolor 35mm print
Federal agent Jones (Tamara Dobson) tries to rescue her framed boyfriend (Bernie Casey) from a drug-queen pervert known as Mommy (Shelley Winters).
Starring: Charleen McClure, Moses Ingram, Reginald Helms Jr., Zainab Jah, Sheila Atim, Chris Chalk
To make an additional $10 donation to The Future of Film is Female, select the “Event + Donation” ticket on the checkout screen.
A lyrical, decades-spanning exploration across a woman’s life in Mississippi, the feature debut from award-winning poet, photographer and filmmaker Raven Jackson is a haunting and richly layered portrait, a beautiful ode to the generations of people and places that shape us.
Starring: Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Paul Frankeur, Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Cassel
The ambassador of the Latin American republic of Miranda (Fernando Rey), M. Thevenot (Paul Frankeur), his wife Simone (Delphine Seyrig) and her sister Florence (Bulle Ogier) arrive for a dinner party at the house of Alice Sénéchal (Stéphane Audran) and her husband Henri (Jean-Pierre Cassel), only to learn that they were mistaken about the date. In director Luis Buñuel’s surreal fantasy, the six bourgeois friends repeatedly gather for a dinner that never quite arrives.
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Pernilla August, Frank Oz
Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) is a young apprentice Jedi knight under the tutelage of Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) ; Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), who will later father Luke Skywalker and become known as Darth Vader, is just a 9-year-old boy. When the Trade Federation cuts off all routes to the planet Naboo, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are assigned to settle the matter.
Starring: Cyndi Lauper, Jeff Goldblum, Peter Falk, Michael Lerner, Julian Sands, Van Dyke Parks
Feel the Love of The Deuce wafting in the air this February with the fabulously daffy Valentine-y laffy-taffy confection of confounding cockamamie: VIBES!!
Sylvia Pickle (Lauper) and Nick Deezy (Goldblum) are head-butting NYC ESP-ers embroiled in an Ecuadorian mis-adventure with mythic ramifications!! Hired by everyone’s fave con-man Colombo – née Peter Falk – for a false lost-son search, they find themselves up against gangsters, evil doctors, and maybe even E.T.s (!!) in a race to uncover the storied “Lost City of Gold”… and love dost bloom amongst the gold!! Does Deezy get in a Pickle?? You better believe it!!
Surprisingly, Cyndi Lauper’s single starring role – “surprisingly” in light of how genuinely genius the Queens kewpie proves herself to be in this funkily freaky pasta-fazool of a film… It’s a jaw-dropping disaster that it didn’t lead to more parts for the pixie!! At least the girls at Cine 42 got to have some fun while their nerd-o boyfriends waited with bated breath for the co-feature Midnight Run to begin…
Starring: Fran Drescher, Timothy Dalton, Ian McNeice, Patrick Malahide, Lisa Jakub, Michael Lerner
Over twenty five years before she would heroically lead the charge for the SAG strike, Fran Drescher starred as Joy Miller, a beautician who accidentally lands a gig in a made-up Eastern European country as a teacher for the dictator’s children. There her New Yorker brassiness clashes with the gruff leader Boris Pochenko (Timothy Dalton), who finds her meddling with the hardworking citizens (she urges them to unionize!) and her indulgence of his kids to be disruptive to his authoritarian agenda.
Coiffed and colorfully dressed not unlike her famed TV persona Fran Fine in The Nanny, Drescher is effectively hilarious, making The Beautician and the Beast a delightfully irreverent 90s version of The Sound of Music. This movie is way better than it has any right to be, and ages rather well!
Starring: Jack Black, Viola Davis, Awkwafina, Dustin Hoffman, James Hong, Bryan Cranston
After three death-defying adventures defeating world-class villains with his unmatched courage and mad martial arts skills, Po, the Dragon Warrior (Jack Black), is called upon by destiny to… give it a rest already. More specifically, he’s tapped to become the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace. That poses a couple of obvious problems. First, Po knows as much about spiritual leadership as he does about the paleo diet, and second, he needs to quickly find and train a new Dragon Warrior before he can assume his new lofty position. Even worse, there’s been a recent sighting of a wicked, powerful sorceress, Chameleon (Viola Davis), a tiny lizard who can shapeshift into any creature, large or small. And Chameleon has her greedy, beady little eyes on Po’s Staff of Wisdom, which would give her the power to re-summon all the master villains whom Po has vanquished to the spirit realm. So, Po’s going to need some help. He finds it (kinda?) in the form of crafty, quick-witted thief Zhen (Awkwafina), a corsac fox who really gets under Po’s fur but whose skills will prove invaluable. In their quest to protect the Valley of Peace from Chameleon’s reptilian claws, this comedic odd-couple duo will have to work together. In the process, Po will discover that heroes can be found in the most unexpected places.
Starring: Rosalind Russell, Hayley Mills, June Harding, Binnie Barnes, Mary Wickes, Gypsy Rose Lee
Shedding her good-girl persona in her first non-Disney role, Hayley Mills stars as Mary Clancy, a cigarette smoking prankster goofing her way through Catholic school. She meets her match in the Mother Superior (an anti-Auntie Mame Rosalind Russell), who is not one to suffer fools, meting out reasonable punishment with a sly grin.
The last film directed by Ida Lupino, The Trouble with Angels is a rare film portraying an almost exclusively female world in which friendship is tantamount, and mischievous girls are not seen as needing their spirits broken.
