To-do: Week starting Thursday 25th August: BEGINNERS, HORRIBLE BOSSES, DEVIL’S ANGELS, APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX, LORD OF THE FLIES, NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, Shinoda retrospective
Week starting Thursday 25th August
Old films:
DEVIL’S ANGELS is a Roger Corman-produced exploitation film starring John Cassavetes as the leader of a biker gang who get in trouble with the law after an incident with a beauty pageant contestant. At ACMI, August 26.
APOCALYPSE NOW: REDUX is Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 film about the madness of the Vietnam War. This version includes 49 minutes of scenes cut from the original film. At the Astor, August 25.
LORD OF THE FLIES, a 1963 adaptation of the William Golding novel about a group of British schoolboys stranded on an island by themselves screens with THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, the extraordinary and lyrical 1955 thriller from Charles Laughton about two children running from a evangelical serial killer through the American South. At the Astor, August 28.
Special seasons:
The Melbourne Cinematheque presents SAMURAIS, ASSASSINS, REBELS AND DOUBLE SUICIDES: MASAHIRO SHINODA IN THE 1960S, a retrospective of one of the key figures of the Japanese New Wave. This final week’s films are KILLERS ON PARADE (1961) an irreverent satire on the Japanese obsession with violence and lust for Western culture; and DOUBLE SUICIDE (1969) about a self-destructive romantic relationship between a paper merchant and a geisha. At ACMI on Wednesday nights, August 17-31.
New films opening this week:
MY SON, MY SON, WHAT HAVE YE DONE? is a typically crazy drama from Werner Herzog about a man who returns to San Diego from a trip to Peru and the homicide that follows. Executive produced by David Lynch and starring Michael Shannon, Willem Dafoe, Grace Zabriskie(!) and Chloe Sevigny. Only showing at Nova.
BEGINNERS is a Delightful comedy from Mike Mills (Thumbsucker) starring a Delightful Ewan McGregor whose father, played by a Delightful Christopher Plummer, comes out of the closet as gay in his declining years. The result is probably life-affirming and very Delightful.
PRIEST is a probably terrible film about some priest-warriors from the future killing vampires. Cam Gigandet of The O.C. and Twilight has a role in this film which would be a nice surprise for anyone who chose to see this film.
HORRIBLE BOSSES is about three middle class white men who conspire to kill each other’s bosses. The bosses’ main crimes seem to involve being annoying.
THE GUARD is a “hilarious” odd couple comedy about a black FBI agent (Don Cheadle) who travels to Ireland to take on international drug smugglers, teaming up with a lovably racist cop (Brendan Gleeson).
"Devil's Angels" at ACMI
