Though often overlooked in comparison with fellow onetime music video auteurs such as David Fincher and Spike Jonze, Tarsem Singh (who cut his teeth on such classic videos as En Vogue’s “Hold On” and R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion”) made the jump to the big screen with some of the most visually arresting thrillers of the 21st century. This weekend, The Brattle Theatre celebrates the 25th anniversary of Tarsem’s cult classic “The Cell” (2000) with a new 4K restoration, running Friday through Sunday. Jennifer Lopez plays child psychologist Catherine Deane, who has developed a means of communicating with comatose patients by entering their subconscious via virtual reality – only to be enlisted to probe the mind of a serial killer (a bewigged Vincent D’Onofrio) to help rescue his latest victim. The setup, of course, is pure “Silence of the Lambs,” but the real star is the stunning visuals of Tarsem’s dreamscapes, which combine the sadomasochistic fantasia of the “Hellraiser” films with the boundless invention of Alejandro Jodorowsky and Sergei Parajanov. The film is paired with Tarsem’s long-unavailable follow-up “The Fall” (2008), which nearly matches its predecessor in eye-popping bravado.
This Saturday marks the beginning of the Harvard Undergraduate Cinematheque, a fascinating series from the Harvard Film Archive. Over the course of the spring, the HFA presents a series of matinee double features curated by Harvard undergrads. The first program pairs two beloved, albeit very different, art house romances: Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002) and Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “Ali: Fear Eats the Soul” (1974). The films are, on their face, very different – Anderson’s film is a cockeyed, candy-colored tragicomedy starring an against-type Adam Sandler, while Fassbinder’s is a muted, minimalist melodrama about the romance between an older German cleaning lady and a handsome young Egyptian immigrant – but share a disarming tenderness, aching intimacy and a genuine affection for their characters. “Punch-Drunk Love” screens on a 35 mm print from the HFA’s own storied collection, while the print of “Ali” comes straight from the source at Janus Films. Valentine’s Day might be over, but with a double feature this romantic I’m sure your sweetheart won’t mind.
While the HFA is naturally best known for its archival screenings, it is a hotbed of up-and-coming talents. This is true in more ways than one for Saturday’s screening of “Eephus” (2024), the offbeat new baseball picture from director Carson Lund, that is a bit of a homecoming: While studying at Emerson College, Lund began with ushering and writing program notes for the HFA itself (if you attended a Q&A at the venue in the 2010s, you may have seen him supplying the guest with their microphone). This time, Lund is the one behind the microphone, sitting for a discussion after the film with Harvard professor Tom Conley and HFA director Haden Guest. It’s a reminder that every time you attend a repertory screening, the person to your left or right may be receiving the inspiration to make a feature of their own.
With the flurry of increasingly alarming initiatives emanating from a Washington hell-bent on silencing already marginalized voices, it is more important than ever to seek out stories from other cultures. On Monday, in association with the Hutchins Center for African & African-American Research, The Brattle presents a free screening of Haitian filmmaker Raynald Leconte’s documentary “Amazing Grace: YorubaWorlds” (2025), about the vibrant diaspora of the Yoruba culture of Nigeria and Benin, followed by a discussion between the filmmakers and authors Wole Soyinka and Henry Louis Gates Jr. (You can register for the event here.) Then, on Tuesday, The Brattle continues its “100 Years of Queer German Cinema” series with Rosa von Praunheim’s phenomenally titled “It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives” (1971), as radical a work of filmmaking as has the form has ever seen. Both films are a reminder that, no matter what certain powers-that-be would have you believe, these voices can never be banished.
The tributes continue for the dearly departed David Lynch as two of the legendary director’s most famous films screen at The Brattle. “Blue Velvet” (1986), from Monday through Wednesday, is arguably the film in which Lynch found his voice, exploring for the first time the seedy underbelly lurking beneath the kitschy veneer of suburban America. It also marks his first time working with several key collaborators – actors Isabella Rossellini and Laura Dern, composer Angelo Badalamenti, singer Julee Cruise – as well as indelible performances from Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper and Dean Stockwell. Wednesday’s screening is a double feature with “Mulholland Drive” (2001), which also screens on its own next Thursday. The path “Mulholland Drive” took to the big screen is an unlikely one: Lynch conceived it as his return to network TV following his lauded “Twin Peaks,” then, when it was rejected by ABC, reworked the pilot into a stand-alone feature. It may never be known what “Mulholland Drive” would have looked like as a TV series, but as a movie it is perhaps Lynch’s masterpiece, a head-spinning meditation on fame, heartbreak and the evils that lurk behind diners. There will undoubtedly be countless additional tribute screenings to come, but if you’re new to Lynch, either of these films would make a perfect jumping-on point.
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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