With all due respect to the KPop Demon Hunters, Korean cinema boasts far more villainous characters than demonic boy bands. The Harvard Film Archive takes a look at five very different South Korean takes in Crime Scenes As History. The series kicks off Friday with Hah Myung Joon’s “Life Line (Tae)” (1986), a dreamy period piece in which a pair of young smugglers serve as an allegory for restrictions the dictator Chun Doo-hwan imposed upon the Korean film industry. It’s followed on Saturday by Lee Doo-yong’s “The Last Witness (Choihui jeungin)” (1980), a detective story which revels in both thematic and literal darkness. The final three entries in the series will pick up again in April.
The Somerville Theatre has become a launching ground for under-the-radar indie films, and this weekend it welcomes not one but two local premieres. Screening Friday and Sunday is Jan Komasa’s “Heel” (2025), a perverse thriller about a seemingly upstanding couple (Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough) who kidnap and chain up a young hooligan (Anson Boon) in a bizarre attempt to reform him. Also on Sunday is “Eastern Western” (2025), a lyrical epic about a European immigrant braving the American frontier with his two-year-old son. The directors of “Eastern Western,” the sister act of Biliana & Marina Grozdanova, will be on hand for a post-film Q&A, along with cinematographer/editor Cameron Wheeless.
Cinephiles will likely never agree on the greatest Stanley Kubrick film, but a top vote-getter might be “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968). It screens Monday as part of the HFA’s Complete Kubrick retrospective. One of the most influential science fiction films of all time, “2001” pushed the boundaries of what could be accomplished within the genre, marrying heavy existential questions with still-dazzling special effects and a subtle but undeniable sense of humor. Looking back, it’s striking how specifically Kubrick predicted technologies, from video screens embedded in the backs of airline seats to the handheld tablets on which the astronauts watch their daily news over breakfast — to say nothing of HAL 9000, the amoral artificial intelligence that overrides and endangers its human users while speaking in soothing, overly polite tones. Consider this Kubrick’s reminder from beyond the grave to avoid ChatGPT like the plague.
On Tuesday, the Brattle Theatre gets made up, featuring genre classics recognized by the Oscars for their groundbreaking makeup effects. John Chambers’ standard-setting work on “Planet of the Apes” (1968) received a special award from the Academy before Best Makeup was even a category. “Apes” is paired with “An American Werewolf in London” (1981), which took home the very first official Best Makeup Oscar for Rick Baker’s jaw-dropping transformation effects. The films are presented in honor of the unexpected nomination this year for Emilie Blichfeldt’s body-horror fairy tale “The Ugly Stepsister” (2025). That movies screens Friday through Monday in a special premiere run at the Brattle.
Then on Wednesday the Brattle kicks off a new series in honor of Katharine Hepburn, whose four Academy Awards are the most of any performer. In Kate the Great: Oscar’s Favorite Actress, we’ll see outstanding performances from Hepburn’s unparalleled career, spanning from the golden age of Hollywood to her final award in the 1980s. The series begins Thursday with two of the timeless romantic comedies Hepburn made with director George Cukor. “The Philadelphia Story” (1940) features Hepburn as eccentric socialite Tracy Lord, who is caught in a love quadrangle with her uptight fiancé (John Howard), her wily ex-husband (Cary Grant), and a tabloid photographer (Jimmy Stewart, in the role which won him his only Oscar). “Holiday” (1938), meanwhile, once again pairs Hepburn with Grant in a touching story of love triumphing over wealth and social standing. Neither film earned Hepburn Oscar gold, and yet provide as clear an example as any why she remains a Hollywood legend.
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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