The Brattle Theatre’s tribute to late B-movie megaproducer Roger Corman continues with another full week of nuggets from an expansive career, ranging from guilty pleasures to legitimate masterpieces. Corman’s New World Pictures was legendary in the world of 1970s exploitation cinema, both for delivering on its lurid promises of sex and violence and for allowing young filmmakers to smuggle in nuance and personality in spite of themselves. Stephanie Rothman’s self-explanatory “The Student Nurses” (1970) and Jonathan Demme’s women-in-prison epic “Caged Heat” (1974), which screen in a double feature on Friday, are surprisingly soulful character studies even as they shock and titillate the audience (for more of Demme’s, uh, reputable work, stick around afterward for a 40th anniversary screening of his 1984 Talking Heads concert film “Stop Making Sense”). Lesser known is Corman’s role in importing some of the 1970s’ true landmarks of world cinema, including Federico Fellini’s “Amarcord” (1973, screening on 35 mm Saturday) and Ingmar Bergman’s “Autumn Sonata” (1978, on Sunday). Somewhere between these poles are the pair of Corman-produced punk classics that screen Sunday: “Rock ’n’ Roll High School” (1979), starring the Ramones at the peak of their powers, and Penelope Spheeris’ “Suburbia” (1984), which presents a decidedly more sober look at the subculture. As with last week’s offerings, this overview merely scratches the surface of this outstanding series; for the full list, consult The Brattle’s website.
The Harvard Film Archive’s “Psychedelic Cinema” series arguably reaches its apotheosis Saturday with works by two undisputed masters of the form. First are a pair of 16 mm short films by the notorious underground filmmaker and practicing occultist Kenneth Anger: “Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome” (filmed between 1954 and 1966) is a phantasmagoria starring author Anaïs Nin, while “Lucifer Rising” (1972-1980) features such notables as Marianne Faithfull and Jimmy Page, as well as a soundtrack by former Love guitarist and convicted Manson Family murderer Bobby Beausoleil. If you’ve still got your wits about you after that double whammy, you can stick around for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s legendary mystical pseudo-western “El Topo” (1970), the film widely considered the original midnight movie (albeit presented at the far more reasonable hour of 8:30 p.m). By the end of the evening, it is more or less a guarantee that the doors of your perception will be blown clean off their hinges.
I’ve written in this space before about my love of so-called “regional filmmaking” – movies shot on a shoestring by groups of friends in their natural habitat – and on Saturday The Brattle presents a true rarity. If you’ve never heard of “Captain Dymo vs. The Cowmaster,” don’t feel too bad; shot in and around Boston and Uxbridge circa 1977, the film remained unfinished until director Robert Gifford exhumed the footage this year, transferring it to 2k digital and finally compiling it into a screenable cut. The resulting film, which makes its world premiere Saturday, looks to be a lovingly silly silent parody of classic 1940s movie serials, complete with a hand-sewn superhero costume and a giant papier-mâché cow mask. Saturday’s screening is literally nearly 50 years in the making, and not to be missed by anyone interested in homemade or obscure cinema.
The Somerville Theatre’s “A Bit of Hitch” series hits a high note next week as it premieres a new 70 mm print of “North by Northwest” (1959) from Monday through Wednesday. While it would be impossible to designate a single one of Alfred Hitchcock’s thrillers as his most influential, a case could certainly be made for this one. A never-better Cary Grant plays Roger Thornhill, a hapless advertising executive who is mistaken for a secret agent and dragged into a web of international intrigue. The extravagant action of “North,” including its iconic set pieces in an Indiana cornfield and on the face of Mount Rushmore, are a clear and direct influence on the James Bond series (which would kick off three years later with “Dr. No”), and its quippy sense of humor can be felt in the current generation of Hollywood superhero blockbusters. Still, none have matched the masterful touch Hitch brought to the material, and these screenings might just be the best-looking you’ll see it on screen.
Halloween may be coming up, but Election Day could be scarier. As part of its ongoing salute to the films of 1999, the Kendall Square Cinema screens Alexander Payne’s satirical classic “Election” (1999) on Tuesday. In a career-making performance, Reese Witherspoon plays Tracy Flick, an upwardly mobile high school junior whose campaign for class president runs up against the insecurities of history teacher Mr. McCallister (Matthew Broderick). Based on the novel of the same name by Tom Perrotta, “Election” was conceived as a satire of the political climate of the 1990s, but it has sadly only become more relevant in the ensuing quarter-century; it is impossible to watch Flick’s thwarted ambitions without thinking of the doomed presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, and her inappropriate relationship with a teacher takes on new dimensions in the wake of #MeToo (a fact on which Perrotta himself mused in a 2022 sequel novel, “Tracy Flick Can’t Win”). Forget “Longlegs” – in 2024, the real horror can be found squarely in politics.
Oscar Goff is a writer and film critic based in Somerville. He is film editor and senior critic for the Boston Hassle and his work has appeared in the monthly Boston Compass newspaper and publications such as WBUR’s The ARTery and iHeartNoise. He is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, and the Online Film Critics Society.
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