No Film Week: Dec. 16-22

Studio Ghibli Fest starts this week at IFC Center and doesn’t stop till January 16. Which means it’s time to grab some popcorn and enjoy the wonders of youth, extremely pleasant characters, and also everybody- EVERYBODY- is flying. And we appreciate that flying. And we laugh at all our second grade teachers who told us “Hayao Miyazaki, you’ll never be able to fly, no matter how hard you flap your arms”. Here’s what else is happening:

Series:

• Anthology Film Archives’s We Tell: Fifty Years of Participatory Community Media

• Anthology Film Archives’s The Cinema of Gender Transgression: Trans Film

• Anthology Film Archives’s Trinh T. Minh-Ha Retrospective

• Film Forum’s Scorsese Non-Fiction

• IFC Center’s The Films of Studio Ghibli

• Lincoln Center’s Varda: A Retrospective

• Metrograph’s Noah Baumbach Residency

• MoMA’s Public Imaginations: A Survey of Documentary Form

• MoMA’s The Wonders: Alice and Alba Rohrwacher Retrospective

• Museum of Moving Image’s Curator’s Choice 2019

• Quad Cinema’s A Face in the Crowd: Remembering Lee Remick

Monday, Dec. 16:

• Down and Out in America + Q&A with Director and Documentarian- 6pm- Lee Grant’s documentary about life on the edge in Reagan-era America. With Lee Grant! Film Forum

• The Daytrippers + Q&A with Director and Star- 6:45pm- Greg Mottola and Liev Schreiber guide us through the world of The Daytrippers, a wacky world full of Parker Poseys and Liev Schreibers. IFC Center

• Casino in 35mm- 7pm- Martin Scorsese sincerely expects you to believe that anyone would try to leave Robert De Niro for James Woods. Museum of Moving Image

• Film Noir Mondays- 9pm- I would trust them with a surprise film noir movie, it’s kinda their thing. Film Noir Cinema

• Krampus- 9:30pm- Adam Scott and Toni Collette battle their family, teddy bears, gingerbread men, and Satan’s Santa in what I consider an exercise in pure cinema. Nitehawk Prospect Park

Tuesday, Dec. 17:

• The Tree in 35mm- 4pm, 7:30pm- Charlotte Gainsbourg tries to hold the family together in rural Australia after her husband dies. But he also might have come back as a tree. Typical. FIAF

• Charlie Says + Q&A with Director and Writer- 7pm- American Psycho director Mary Harron’s new film about the women in the Manson family. With Dr. Who as Charles Manson! MoMA

• Home for the Holidays + Q&A with Critic- 7pm- Holly Hunter came all the way to Baltimore for this shit. Quad Cinema

• White Christmas- 7:30pm- I double checked to make sure that this wasn’t the Bing Crosby Christmas movie where he does blackface. That was Holiday Inn, so we’re good. Nitehawk Prospect Park

• The 12 Slays of Christmas- 9pm- Christmas horror anthology from the film titling school of Gingerdead Man. Film Noir Cinema

Wednesday, Dec. 18:

• Orpheus + Q&A with Critic- 7pm- Jean Cocteau’s dreamy, beautiful retelling of the Orpheus myth. But French-ier. Quad Cinema

• Forgotten Color: Revisiting Early Color Films- 7:30pm- Early experiments in color film, some of which had each frame hand-painted. Which looks beautiful. MoMA

• Auntie Mame presented by Hedda Lettuce- 7:30pm- Auntie Mame saves her nephew from boarding school, conventional thinking in this classic. City Cinemas

Thursday, Dec. 19:

• The Willmar 8 + Q&A with Director and Journalist- 6pm- Lee Grant’s documentary on the longest bank strike in U.S. history- eight women in Willmar, Minnesota protesting gender discrimination. Film Forum

• The Rock in 35mm- 7pm- Nicolas Cage plays Stanley Goodspeed, which is on the Mount Rushmore of Nicolas Cage character names right next to Memphis Raines, Caster Troy, and Sailor Ripley. Roxy Cinema

• Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies: Dead Eyes of London: The German “Krimi” Film- 7pm- Exactly! Film Noir Cinema

• The Limey + Q&A with Director and Stars- 7:30pm- Terence Stamp’s name is Wilson and he would like you to tell him that he’s coming. Lincoln Center

• Leaving Las Vegas in 35mm- 9:30pm- Nicolas Cage moves to Las Vegas to drink himself to death. In the movie. In real life, I think he moved to New Orleans. Roxy Cinema

Friday, Dec. 20:

• Silent Movie Day- 10am- A collection of silent movies from the MoMA archives, free and all day. MoMA

• Laurel and Hardy in 16mm- 6:45pm- Stan Laurel’s comedy schtick of being constantly dazed beta-male has actually held up pretty well. He’s like a proto-Steve Zahn. Anthology Film Archives

• Phantom Thread in 35mm- 7pm- Paul Thomas Anderson’s Marriage Story also counts as a Christmas movie! Metrograph

• The Europeans + Q&A with Director- 7:15pm- Merchant Ivory’s first crack at sumptuous Henry James adaptations. With James Ivory in person! He will be classier, more sincere, and better than us. Quad Cinema

• One Child Nation + Q&A with Director- 7:30pm- Documentary about the dark side of China’s one child policy. And the dark side is pretty goddamn dark. MoMA

• Born in Flames in 35mm- 8pm- Lizzie Borden’s punk femanist manifesto. Fuck yeah. Metrograph

• The New World in 35mm- 8:15pm- Terrence Malick gazes longingly on nature, Colin Farrell in this one. Metrograph

• Elves- 12am- Shot entirely video, a mall Santa has to defeat a Nazi/Elf conspiracy. It was in front of us the whole time. Spectacle Theater

Saturday, Dec. 21:

• Love Actually- 10:45am- There’s a lot of fucked up relationships in this holiday classic. I do not approve! Nitehawk Williamsburg

• Scrooged in 35mm- 1pm- Is Bobcat Goldthwait happy to see you or is that a shotgun in his pocket? Roxy Cinema

• Bush Mama in 16mm- 4pm- One of the pinnacles of the L.A. Rebellion film movement, Haile Gerima deconstructs a story of struggling single mother in 70s Watts and includes real footage of the film crew being hassled by police while filming. Metrograph

• The New World in 35mm- 4:15pm- Q’orianka Kilcher should be a goddamn star. Metrograph

• The Rock in 35mm- 7:30pm- Carla was the prom queen. Roxy Cinema

• Leaving Las Vegas in 35mm- 10pm- Nicolas Cage’s most convincing romance. Roxy Cinema

Sunday, Dec. 22:

• The Muppet Christmas Carol- 11am- Even the vegetables don’t like Ebenezer Scrooge. Nitehawk Williamsburg

• Scrooged in 35mm- 1pm- I was a schmuck, and now I’m not a schmuck! Roxy Cinema

• Fist Church- 3pm- Kung Fu movies every other Sunday, courtesy of Fist Church! Spectacle Theater

• E.T. + Q&A with Noah Baumbach- 5pm- Spielberg gets his revenge on those tightwads over there at M&Ms. Metrograph

• Born in Flames in 35mm- 8pm- Feminist gonzo classic that was ahead of its time on just about every issue. Metrograph

What Else is Playing:

• 63 Up

• Atlantics

• Cape Fear

• Carol

• Cunningham

• Dark Waters

• Die Hard

• The Disappearance of My Mother

• Elf

• Eyes Wide Shut

• A Hidden Life

• Honey Boy

• In Fabric

• It’s a Wonderful Life

• Kind Hearts and Coronets

• The Kingmaker

• Knives and Skin

• Little Joe

• Marriage Story

• Midnight Family

• Pain and Glory

• Parasite

• Synonyms

• The Two Popes

• The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

• Waves

What to Plan on:

Starting in January, Nitehawk is following Syndicated’s lead and using Hustlers as an excuse to look back on America’s leading lady, Jennifer Lopez. There’s some non-rom-coms in here too- Tarsem Singh’s The Cell, the extremely 2000s sci-fi film about Jennifer Lopez entering the mind of a serial killer, and Out of Sight, where George Clooney and her have incredible chemistry.

Also in January, Lincoln Center is hosting the 29th New York Jewish Film Festival. Featuring documentaries, features, a bunch of Q&As, and a centerpiece focus on Marceline Loridan-Ivens, a French-Jewish journalist and director, who joined the French Resistance during WWII and survived two different concentration camps.