The Brattle Theatre’s annual “Reunion Week” series concludes Thursday with a pair of beloved, if decidedly loopy, documentary features. Celebrating its 50th anniversary is the cult classic “Grey Gardens” (1975), the cinéma vérité landmark from Boston natives Albert and David Maysles, along with co-directors Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer. In “Grey Gardens,” the Maysles’ fly-on-the-wall camera follows mother and daughter “Big Edie” and “Little Edie” Beale, distant cousins of Jackie Onassis who have ensconced themselves on the decaying grounds of the titular estate with their legion of cats (and the occasional raccoon). The film is one of the few documentaries to screen regularly for packed houses of wild-eyed midnight moviegoers, thanks largely to the endlessly quotable dialog (“Staunch! S-T-A-U-N-C-H!”) and Little Edie’s eccentric, flamboyant outfits. “Grey Gardens” is paired with Agnès Varda’s “The Gleaners and I” (2000), in which the late French New Wave legend seeks out modern day “gleaners” – fringe dwellers who thrive on mainstream society’s castoffs. One senses that Agnès and the Beales would have had quite a bit to talk about, had their paths crossed.
The Somerville Theatre, in association with The Goods dispensary, continues its monthly “Green Screen” series of stoner-friendly cinema Sunday with Satoshi Kon’s cyberpunk anime masterpiece “Paprika” (2006). In a lightly dystopian future, Dr. Atsuko Chiba has developed a device that allows her, in the form of her pixielike alter ego Paprika, to enter the dreams of her patients – only to find this technology is also being used by a maniac to drive his victims insane. If you feel the premise sounds familiar, you’re not alone; many have accused Christopher Nolan of cribbing the plot for his sci-fi blockbuster “Inception” (2010). But as satisfying as that film is, it’s hard to imagine Nolan ever matching Kon’s gift for surreal, darkly whimsical spectacle. Consider, for example, the endless parade of dancing dolls, frogs and household appliances that represents the villain’s influence, or the scene in which the hard-boiled detective momentarily morphs into Akira Kurosawa to explain to the audience the 180-degree rule. “Paprika” is a singular work from one of anime’s most revered visionaries, and one of the most inventive and bonkers science fiction films of the 21st century.
The past several months have seen an unprecedented retrospective of the legendary documentarian Frederick Wiseman, with theaters across Greater Boston screening 4K restorations of nearly all of the director’s films. It is fitting, then, that the series comes to a close at The Brattle on Sunday with Wiseman’s sprawling tribute to Boston itself. In “City Hall” (2020), Wiseman turns his eye toward the infrastructure that makes Beantown run, following then-mayor Marty Walsh through a series of meetings and public events and silently observing civil servants at work. At more than four and a half hours, “City Hall” is an investment even by Wiseman’s standards (mercifully, The Brattle has programmed it as a noon matinee), yet it’s a surprisingly brisk and engaging watch; it underscores both the contradictions and the eccentricities that make Boston unique, and Wiseman captures some fascinating moments of everyday life. Wiseman is one of the greatest filmmakers to come out of Cambridge, so it seems fitting he would direct one of the best Boston movies ever made.
On Friday, the American Repertory Theater opens its production of Jim Barne and Kit Buchan’s “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York City),” a charming and funny two-actor spin on the traditional rom-com meet-cute. To celebrate, the A.R.T. has teamed up with The Brattle for weekly screenings of one of the play’s primary inspirations: Richard Linklater’s beloved “Before” trilogy, which casts Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as a pair of star-crossed lovers at various points in their lives. The series begins Monday at The Brattle, naturally enough, with “Before Sunrise” (1994), the first entry in the series. Here, Hawke and Delpy are a pair of college students – he American, she from Paris – who spontaneously decide to spend a day together in Vienna during a 24-hour layover. It is as pure and dizzying a portrait of falling in love as has ever been projected on screen, as the pair walk the streets and get to know each other through endless conversation, despite knowing they will almost certainly never meet again. Of course, if you pop into The Brattle over the next two Mondays, you will learn that that might not be strictly true.
The Somerville’s bluntly titled “F**k the Nazis” repertory series continues Tuesday with one of the meanest, Nazi-stompin’est cult classics in recent memory. Set in the wilds of Finland in 1944, “Sisu” (2022) opens on a lone, grizzled prospector (Jorma Tommila) at last striking the mother lode. As he carries his gold into town, however, he is beset by a squadron of Nazis who want to take the gold for themselves as an insurance policy in case they lose the war. What the soldiers don’t realize is that their quarry is in fact a legendary lone soldier and “one-man death squad,” and perhaps the single most formidable adversary they could have provoked. What follows is something between a Scandinavian “John Wick” and a live-action “Spy vs. Spy” cartoon, as our silent antihero outfoxes and bloodily dismembers the hapless Aryans at every turn. Is it high art? Perhaps not, but it is a fiendishly entertaining bit of intentional neo-grindhouse sleaze, and delivers on the promise of the series’ title in spades.
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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