Opportunities for the Week of 2/19-2/26

Posted by Austin Cinephile

Time for the weekly roundup of Weird Wednesday, Terror Tuesday, special events and outstanding new releases that you will not want to miss this week. Only the best selections here, aiming to ensure you see at least one great film every day.

Friday 2/19-Thursday, 2/26
Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, Village and Wide, SHUTTER ISLAND
We saw this film at Butt-Numb-a-Thon in December, and it blew us away. Scorsese’s new film is part Shining, part The Pawn Broker, and all awesome. Leonardo DiCaprio plays an FBI agent investigating some weird stuff happening on a mental institution/island. The case, however, is not as it appears, and the layers of psychological and terrifying twists and turns will leave you breathless. Also, Ben Kingsley wears the hell out of a lot of bow ties. Featuring Michelle Williams in a supporting-actress Oscar worth performance, and the immortal Max von Sydow as a psychiatrist.

Friday 2/19-Thursday, 2/26
Regal Arbor and the Dobie, AN EDUCATION
An Education is coming back to Austin, just in time for your nostalgia to be sinking in over this fine little film. Do you remember when Carey Mulligan comes back into her house, waiting for Peter Skaarsgard to return from his car? I am kinda excited to see it again. It ages very well.

Friday 2/19-Thursday, 2/26
The Dobie, THE HURT LOCKER
Stephen loved The Hurt Locker this summer, but unfortunately the rest of us missed out on a chance to see this multi-Academy Award nominated film. Now, thankfully, the worst art theatre in town is bringing the film back for a Oscar-buzz run. Will we miss it again?

Sunday and Monday, 2/21-2/22
7:00pm, Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, Everything is Terrible
Everything is Terrible is a live show of video oddities from around the country. Yes, it sounds like a lot of other traveling shows, such as the Found Footage Festival that we were lucky to see a few months ago. It may be quite similar, although probably with a more modern slant. Either way, those events are always fun, and this is probably going to be fun too.

Monday, 2/22
9:45pm and 10:00pm, Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, Music Monday: SOUL POWER
Remember that awesome trailer for that documentary about the boxing fight that didn’t happen but that soul concert with James Brown that did happen? It was playing last summer in the Arbor. Remember how that scene was just not enough to drag your bones all the way up to that theatre to swipe your Crown Club card and pay ten bucks? Well, now it’s playing downtown, for two dollars. You probably still won’t go.

Tuesday, 2/23
7:00pm, Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, AFS Essential Cinema: IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES
The Austin film society is starting their series on Oshima Nagisa with his best known work, the hyper-sexual In the Realm of the Senses. It is a controversial and provocative film that has been simultaneously banned and applauded the world over. Promises to be a real treat. PICK OF THE WEEK.

Tuesday, 2/23
7:00pm, Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, Hey Homo!: MA VIE EN ROSE
A sweet film about a seven year old boy who has a gender epiphany and discovers that he is actually a little girl. Supposedly very good. You know you love Hey Homo!

Tuesday, 2/23
9:45pm, Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, TT: HILLS HAVE EYES
Wes Craven’s 1977 masterpiece of deformed-people cinema is coming to town. You may have seen the stylish remake from the early 2000s, but you probably haven’t seen this genuinely creepy film about a bunch of inbred freaks. Wes Craven’s first film, the marvelous Last House on the Left was made in 1972. It took him five years to make (read: get the funding for) this, his next film. While it may not be as good, it can’t be that far downhill.

Wednesday, 2/24
7:00pm, Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, Action Pack: SAVED BY THE BELL Party!
“I’m so excited. I’m soo excited. I’m so scared.” Stephen claimed to have never seen an episode of this landmark television show which you think is part of the 1980s but is actually part of the 1990s. He’s also very tempted because the trailer has someone flipping out on caffeine pills. Sure to be a lousy time, but it also might not be that bad.

Wednesday, 2/24
9:45pm, Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, Lars & Zack present Tommy Swenson’s VIVA VHS!
Another clip show presentation at the Drafthouse. That’s two this week. This time, it is odditites that are exclusively on VHS. The premise of the show, put together by Tommy Swenson of the legendary Scarecrow Video, is that there are weird things on VHS that will never be available anywhere else. This is a celebration of that weird stuff.

Wednesday, 2/24
11:59pm, Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, WW: DELINQUENT SCHOOLGIRLS
The title sounds great, although I am betting it is an intentionally misleading title. The Alamo makes it sound pretty good too: It’s a movie about three violently insane criminals who escape from an asylum and take refuge in what turns out to be a reform school for girls. The three psychos, a failed nightclub impressionist, a muscular baseball player and a comically mincing homosexual, are funny in a “so unfunny it’s funny” way and the actresses playing the students vary from somewhat competent to obvious cue-card readers. It’s one of those movies that makes audiences ask afterwards, “was that a real movie?”