“My mother’s away for Christmas. She’s spending it at the plastic surgeon’s.” So speaks Jonathan Pryce in Terry Gilliam’s caustic sci-fi classic “Brazil” (1985), which screens at The Brattle Theatre in a new 4K restoration starting Thursday. Pryce plays hapless everyman Sam Lowry, a fantasy-prone office drone in a not-too-distant future in which bureaucracy rules supreme, who learns that the girl of his dreams may be actually be a flesh-and-blood anarchist. “Brazil” is a triumph of ’80s production design, and arguably the greatest realization of Gilliam’s trademark blend of satire and fabulism. Its vision of the future is something like Orwell by way of Monty Python, its dystopia defined by class gulfs, shoddy workmanship and callous administrative apathy (sound familiar?). It would perhaps be too bleak to bear if it weren’t so screamingly (if blackly) funny, thanks to Gilliam’s Python pedigree as well as the late playwright Tom Stoppard, who co-wrote the screenplay. It is, in short, a perfect way to spend the liminal stretch between Christmas and the new year, particularly in this strangest and most dystopian of all years.
If you’re looking for something a little lighter, The Brattle also has a 4K restoration of Stanley Donen’s daffy caper “Charade” (1963), screening in 4K from Thursday through Tuesday. The great Audrey Hepburn, clad in a dazzling array of outfits by Givenchy, plays an American in Paris whose soon-to-be-ex-husband is discovered dead, thrown from a train in his pajamas. She learns that her husband was mixed up in a vast, stolen fortune, and finds herself torn between a shadowy CIA agent (Walter Matthau) and an even more shadowy stranger (Cary Grant). “Charade” is something like a Hitchcock film with the dial pushed even further toward delicious camp, relishing in the banter between its two impossibly glamorous leads. But it’s also a crackerjack action thriller in its own right, with Hepburn proving herself an unlikely (but wildly likable) action heroine. It’s a classic slice of widescreen Hollywood escapism, which is something we all likely need right now.
Speaking of banter, it wouldn’t be New Year’s Eve at The Brattle without a visit from Nick and Nora Charles. The duo – William Powell as an urbane, hard-drinking detective, Myrna Loy as his irascible socialite wife – were two of the great creations of the classic Hollywood era, their unpredictable comic mysteries (often set around New Year’s) setting the template for everyone from Frank Columbo to Benoit Blanc. This year, The Brattle welcomes them in a double feature of their first two adventures, “The Thin Man” (1934) and “After the Thin Man” (1936). If you’ve never seen them before, you’re certain to be drawn into their wildly twisty mysteries, which retain their power to keep audiences guessing nearly a century later (“After” includes a bonus supporting turn from a prefame Jimmy Stewart, returning to The Brattle’s screen just two weeks after his annual showing in “It’s a Wonderful Life”). And if you have seen them, you know that it’s always a pleasure to spend time with these two wonderful characters – and who doesn’t love ringing in the new year with old friends?
Of course, New Year’s Eve is also a time to party. In the evening, The Brattle turns its screen over to one of the greatest of cinematic parties, Jonathan Demme’s iconic Talking Heads showcase “Stop Making Sense” (1984). While “Stop Making Sense” was not the first great concert film, it is perhaps the one in which the concert itself is most uniquely tailored to the medium; Demme films David Byrne and his bandmates as if they were characters in a narrative film, highlighting moments and interactions between performers as if they were discreet scenes. It should go without saying that the film also sounds great, capturing the band (and such key supporting players as P-Funk keyboardist Bernie Worrell) at the undisputed height of its powers. It’s the sort of film that is best enjoyed large and very, very loud, and ideally shared with a room full of fellow blissed-out revelers. Let others have their ball drops and their New Year’s Rockin’ Eves; at The Brattle, you can enter 2026 with the power of cinema and rock ’n’ roll.
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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