The Harvard Film Archive is not the only revered cinematic institution within the hallowed Crimson halls. Since 1957, Harvard’s Film Study Center has been an incubator for cutting-edge nonfiction filmmakers, producing some truly unforgettable works; recent productions of note include Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s “Leviathan” (2012) and Mati Diop’s Cannes Grand Prix winner “Atlantics” (2019). On Thursday, the HFA presents a program films by current FSC fellows, including Tiff Rekem’s “Trilogy (working title),” Kendra McLaughlin’s “What the Waves Won’t Break,” Svetlana Romanova’s “Hinkelten” and Darol Olu Kae’s “Keeping Time.” The filmmakers will attend a postfilm discussion with New York Film Festival artistic director Dennis Lim.
Speaking of nonfiction films, The Brattle Theatre once again welcomes the programmers of the country’s longest-running LGBTQ+ film festival this weekend for the annual Wicked Queer: Docs program, featuring nearly a dozen new features and shorts exploring various aspects of the queer experience. This year’s program includes several portraits of queer pioneers, including “A Deeper Love: The Story of Miss Peppermint” (2025, screening Friday), about the first openly trans woman to compete on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” “Brigitte’s Planet B” (2025, Saturday), about the groundbreaking transgender ecologist Brigitte Baptiste, and “Sally!” (2024, Sunday), about fiery lesbian activist Sally Gearhart. The remaining features shine a spotlight on particular communities: the Malaysian underground punk scene in “Queer as Punk” (2025, Saturday), the so-called “modern primitive” ’80s body modification scene in “A Body to Live In” (2025, Saturday), and the dawn of electronic dance music in Elegance Bratton’s “Move Ya Body: The Birth of House” (2025, Monday). Rounding out the series is Sunday’s Community, Connection and Visibility: Real Lives Shorts Program, a collection of inspiring true stories about those who find ways to thrive in the margins. Wicked Queer has been a megaphone for underrepresented filmmakers for more than 40 years, and today its mission feels perhaps more vital than ever.
Though the heyday of film noir was indisputably the 1940s and ’50s, its influence has been felt in countless films through the decades – some of which are decidedly odder than others. The Brattle’s Noirvember programming takes a delightful detour this weekend with a miniseries titled “Neo-Weirdo-Noir,” a collections of films that play the conventions of the genre to more idiosyncratic ends. Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” (1982), which screens Friday, sees Harrison Ford’s archetypal moody, film noir gumshoe transposed to the far-flung cyberpunk future of 2019, hunting down rogue “replicants” and striking up a relationship with a cyborg femme fatale. “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988), which screens in matinee Saturday and Sunday, essentially transposes the plot of “Chinatown” onto a world where cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse live alongside live-action humans. Sunday brings “Angel Heart” (1987), which starts out out like a typical detective story – until it becomes apparent that Robert De Niro’s mysterious “Louis Cyphre” may be the literal devil. Lastly, on Monday, Sam Raimi’s “Darkman” (1990) mixes the pulpy detective fiction of the ’40s with the even pulpier horror comics of the ’50s, casting Liam Neeson as a scientist who transforms himself into a monster to wreak revenge on the gangsters who ruined his life. Film noir has always been an idea more than a proper genre, and it’s always a joy to see it taken to new and unusual places.
For those more interested in traditional noir, The Brattle returns to its monthlong Noirvember celebration of the 1950s on Tuesday with two of the genre’s most revered entries. Alexander Mackendrick’s “Sweet Smell of Success” (1957) ranks among the most blackhearted portrayals of the entertainment industry ever committed to film. Burt Lancaster plays J.J. Hunsecker, a ruthless theater critic and gossip columnist (based loosely on the infamous Walter Winchell) who holds New York’s nightlife in the palm of his hand; Tony Curtis plays sleazy press agent Sidney Falco, who will stoop to anything to get his clients into Hunsecker’s good graces. “Sweet Smell” is paired with Stanley Kubrick’s “The Killing” (1956), an even bleaker telling of a $2 million racetrack heist that spirals into a web of double-crossing, murder and equine assassination. Both are among the most masterful examples of film noir – and might make you think twice as you sidle past the next dark alley.
On the new release front, this week sees a handful of exciting local premieres from today’s most vital auteurs. On Thursday, the Somerville Theatre hosts a one-night screening of “Dracula” (2025), the latest from Romanian enfant terrible Radu Jude (“Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World”). Rather than a stately retelling of Bram Stoker’s novel, Jude imagines a frustrated filmmaker running the Dracula story through a series of increasingly deranged generative AI prompts. Also on Thursday, The Brattle welcomes acclaimed filmmaker Ira Sachs for a special preview screening of his “Peter Hujar’s Day” (2025), starring Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall (if you can’t make Thursday screening, “Peter Hujar’s Day” kicks off a weeklong run at The Brattle on Nov. 21). Lastly, on Wednesday, filmmakers Alex Lamb and Max Well visit the Brattle with their new documentary “The Donn of Tiki” (2024), about bartender and entrepreneur Donn Beach, better known to tiki-culture aficionados as Don the Beachcomber.
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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