FILM CAPSULES CP
(Fellini’s 1963 classic about a struggling film director who slips into memories and fantasies), Aug. 21-25 and Aug. 27. Blue Velvet (David Lynch’s 1986 thriller in which things aren’t right in a seemingly nice small town), Aug. 21-24 and Aug. 26-27. Donnie Darko: Director’s Cut (a troubled teen is plagued by visions of a giant rabbit in this 2001 thriller), Aug. 21-23 and Aug. 25-27. Pi (a mathematician searches for a number in Darren Aronofksy’s 1998 thriller), Aug. 21-27. Call or see website for times and complete listings. 4115 Butler St., Lawrenceville. 412-904-3225 or www.rowhousecinema.com. $5-9
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NEW THIS WEEK AMERICAN ULTRA. Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg star in Nima Nourizadeh’s comedy about an undercover agent (in disguise as a stoner) who gets marked for extermination. Starts Fri., Aug. 21 GUEROS. After causing trouble in his small town, young teen Tomas is sent to stay with his older brother, Sombra, in Mexico City. But Sombra is in a bit of a freefall: His college is on strike, he’s suffering panic attacks and slacking at home with his buddy. Then Tomas reintroduces him, via audio cassette, to an obscure folk singer beloved by their late father (“they say he made Bob Dylan cry”), and the three lads set out to find the lost performer. Gueros, directed by Alonso Ruiz Palacios, is beautifully shot, in rich black and white in a classic 4:3 aspect ratio, and features some clever sound editing. It is essentially a mini road movie, confined to the admittedly sprawling Mexico City. It shifts in tone from moody and slightly surreal to darkly comic and satirical. It’s an existential wandering more than a narrative-driven film, and for those inclined to ride along, it’s a fine trip. In Spanish, with subtitles. 7 and 9:30 p.m. Sat., Aug. 22; 7:30 p.m. Tue., Aug. 25; and 7:30 p.m. Wed. Aug. 26. Hollywood (Al Hoff)
THE BOY. A 9-year-old boy, left more or less neglected at a motel, develops a fascination with death. Craig William Macneill directs this new horror thriller. 9:15 p.m. Wed., Aug. 19, and 7 p.m. Thu., Aug. 20. Hollywood
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HITMAN: AGENT 47. A genetically engineered assassin seeks to uncover the nefarious secrets of the corporation that created him. Rupert Friend and Zachary Quinto star in Aleksander Bach’s thriller, based on the Hitman video game. Starts Fri., Aug. 21 THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. The 1960s spy franchise gets a reboot from Guy Ritchie. In it, a Soviet agent (Armie Hammer), a CIA agent (Henry Cavill) and an East German mechanic (Alicia Vikander) team up to prevent a mysterious group from getting a nuclear device. It’s an amusing, well-produced piffle, a chance to parade beautiful people in kicky clothes through European locales while sprinkling a standard spy-quest story with one-liners, double entendres and a spot of cinematic flair. (The often manic Ritchie keeps his cool here, deploying only split screens
Cop Car The Boy (2015) - 8/19 @ 9:15pm, 8/20 @ 7:00pm An intimate portrait of a 9-year-old sociopath’s growing (2015) - 8/19 @ 7:00pm, 8/20 @ 9:30pm New thriller starring Kevin Bacon. ___________________________________________________
fascination with death. ___________________________________________________
Silencio “She’s Bad” Album Release Show - 8/21 @ 8:30pm ___________________________________________________ Horror Fan Flea Market
- 8/22 @ 10:00am Non-professional vendors selling collectibles, DVDs, posters, etc. Free admission! ___________________________________________________
Gueros
(2015) - 8/22 @ 7:00pm @ 9:30pm, 8/25 @ 7:30pm, 8/26 @ 7:30pm - Winner of 5 Mexican Ariel “Academy Awards” including Best Picture and Best Director! ___________________________________________________
Sons of the Desert (1933) - 8/23 @ 2:00pm One of Laurel and Hardy’s greatest films. ___________________________________________________ Beginnings, The Webseries: Season One 8/23 @ 7:00pm - The entire season, back-to-back episodes, for the full experience. ___________________________________________________
Rocky Horror Picture Show
- 8/22 @ Midnight With live shadowcast by the JCCP!
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MY GIRL. Howard Zieff directs this 1991 dramedy about two kids (Anna Chlumsky, Macauley Culkin) who are best friends, even through tricky times. 7:30 p.m. Wed., Aug. 19. AMC Waterfront. $5
Phoenix and the odd on-screen gimmick.) It’s an origin story about U.N.C.L.E., and the oddly mismatched international cast — an American plays a Russian, a Brit plays an American and a Swede plays a German — seems to be feeling their way into the roles. (The film’s ending screams, “Franchise me!” so perhaps they’ll have another chance.) But truly, the stand-out is the slinky, purring, swan-like villainess, played by Elizabeth Debicki: She’s an agent of doom by way of La Dolce Vita. (AH) NO ESCAPE. An American family living overseas finds itself caught up in a coup. Pierce Brosnan, Lake Bell and Owen Wilson star in John Erick Dowdle’s thriller. Starts Wed., Aug. 26 PHOENIX. In this quiet drama from Christian Petzold (Barbara), a concentration-camp survivor named Nelly (Nina Hoss) searches postwar Berlin for her husband, Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld). But Nelly has a new face from reconstructive surgery, and she has been cautioned that Johnny might have betrayed her. Still, she finds Johnny, who doesn’t recognize her, but sees a resemblance to his late wife, and suggests he make her over as “Nelly,” in order to gain an inheritance. Nelly agrees, and the transformation and deception proceeds. The simple drama builds slowly, as the film mixes history with gothic romance. (It sells its preposterous plot chiefly through the fine work of the lead actors.) And, of course, its central story also functions as a larger allegory for post-war Germany, as the nation processes guilt and trauma; the revelations of betrayals; how to bury a past to make a future; and issues of identity. “Phoenix” is the name of the nightclub where Nelly finds Johnny, but this is also about one woman’s rebirth: both the literal re-creation of her pre-war self, and emerging from the damage of the war. In German, with subtitles. Starts Fri., Aug. 21. Manor (AH)
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nation untouched by the ravages of a homefront; he is the naïve American who makes a living marketing simplistic hero-versus-villain fiction, and who cannot grasp the many shades of gray morality that living in post-war Europe demands. Screens in a restored version, struck from the original negative. Starts Fri., Aug. 21. Regent Square (AH)
REPERTORY CINEMA IN THE PARK. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Wed., Aug. 19 (Schenley) and Sat., Aug. 22 (Riverside). The Princess and the Frog, Thu., Aug. 20 (Brookline); Fri., Aug. 21 (Arsenal); and Sat., Aug. 22 (Grandview). McFarland, USA, Sun., Aug. 23 (Schenley); Tue., Aug. 25 (West End/Elliott Overlook); and Thu., Aug. 27 (Brookline). Guardians of the Galaxy, Wed., Aug. 26 (Schenley). Films begin at dusk. 412-2552493 or www.citiparks.net. Free
THE THIRD MAN. In Carol Reed’s beautifully shot 1949 adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel, American pulp novelist Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) visits post-World War II Vienna at the request of his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles). But Lime’s just been killed in a mysterious accident, prompting Martins to poke about in the underbelly of the city still struggling after the war and rife with corruption, where he soon discovers that some horrors didn’t end with the ceasefire. As the writer of Western pulps, Martins becomes Greene’s stand-in for that faraway
PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 08.19/08.26.2015
IMITATION OF LIFE. It’s a double dose of heartache between mother and daughter in Douglas Sirk’s glossy 1959 remake of the 1934 sudser. Lana Turner stars as a single-mom struggling actress, who entrusts her daughter to an African-American housekeeper (Juanita Moore), who has a daughter of her own. Eventual success tears Turner from her daughter (Sandra Dee), while Moore’s daughter (Susan Kohner) rejects her mother by passing for white. 8 p.m. Sun., Aug. 23. Regent Square (AH)
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THE WARRIORS. Walter Hill’s 1979 gangsploitation flick was set in the urban cesspool that was New York City, a dark Gotham ruled by take-no-prisoners youth gangs. When a summit of gangs goes bad, one group, The Warriors, must fight its way from the Bronx to a final showdown at Coney Island. Come out and play. Screens as part of the Rooftop Shindig Summer Film Series, presented by the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. Doors at 6 p.m.; music at 7 p.m.; film at dusk. Wed., Aug. 26. Top of Theatre Square Garage, Seventh Street and Penn Avenue, Downtown. Free and bring-your-own-chair. SPACEBALLS. In Mel Brooks’ 1987 spoof of Star Wars, Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and Barf the Mawg (a furry John Candy) set their intergalactic RV to hyperspeed in order to save the Druish Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) and her robot, Dot Matrix (voice of Joan Rivers), from the evil clutches of Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis). Brooks is on board as both President Skroob and Yogurt, a wizard wise in the ways of the Schwartz. May the puns be with you. 7:30 p.m. Wed., Aug. 26. AMC Waterfront. $5
SINISTER 2. A woman and her two children move into a house that is probably haunted. James Ransome and Shannyn Sossamon star in Ciarán Foy’s horror thriller. Starts Fri., Aug. 21
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THE APPALOOSA. After his horse is stolen by bandits, a man tries to get it back. Sidney J. Furie directs this 1966 Western starring Marlon Brando. The film continues the monthly Spaghetti Western Dinner Series — patrons get a spaghetti Western and spaghetti. Dinner at 7 p.m.; screening at 7:30 p.m. Thu., Aug. 20. Parkway, McKees Rocks. $9. Reservations required at 412-766-1668.
Gueros ROW HOUSE CINEMA. Summer Fun series. Ghostbusters (1984 comedy about ridding the world of troublesome ectoplasm), Aug. 19-20. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Indiana Jones searches for his lost dad, among other things, in this 1989 adventure), Aug. 19-20. The Fifth Element (1997 Bruce Willis sci-fi thriller in which a cab driver tries to save the galaxy), Aug. 19-20. Animal House (John Belushi heads an ensemble cast in this 1978 comedy about a 1960s college frat), Aug. 20. Surrealism series. 8½
THE POWER OF ONE VOICE. Rachel Carson is probably the 20th century’s most well-known environmentalist. But as this new, 51-minute documentary exploring her legacy argues, the radicalism of her insight in books like Silent Spring remains widely unappreciated. In interviews with everyone from Roger Christie, Carson’s adopted son, to her biographer, Linda Lear, locally based filmmaker Mark Dixon portrays a biologist determined to make a case for nature to a post-war society convinced of better living through chemistry, even when that chemistry gave us DDT. The screening continues a monthly series of films about labor and social justice presented by the Battle of Homestead Foundation. 7:30 p.m. Thu., Aug. 27. Pump House, 880 E. Waterfront Drive, Munhall. Free. www.battleofhomestead foundation.org (BO)