Used to be that in October if you wanted to see a scary movie or two you had to hunt down a theater showing midnight screenings of the same old set of horror standards and pick your poison. Lucky for us in MN (or for those living in a place close to an Alamo Drafthouse Cinema) because with the arrival of the Alamo Drafthouse Twin Cities in July 2018 there has been a wealth of themed programming each month and they’ve really gone above and beyond for October.
With horror classics interspersed with schlock comedies and uncovered gems, there’s something for every kind of horror fan in the family. Here are a few upcoming titles to consider:
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein: Cereal Party – Saturday, October 12 – If you’ve never seen this, boy oh boy, are you missing out! At one point I had written this off as too old to be appealing to my taste but then I saw it and it’s funny and scary with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello uproarious as they come face to face with some great Universal Monsters. The monsters have never been better and this one works every single time! Plus – at this screening you get all you can eat cereal!
Cabin in the Woods: Beer Dinner – Saturday, October 12 – A fun movie gets a fun screening! With your ticket (slightly expensive, I should add), comes a meal and drinks tailored specially for the film. The food at the Alamo is often better than average and for these special screenings they definitely kick it up a notch. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is right on the money – plus, the movie is so good it might be an impressively special date night option.
A Nightmare on Elm Street: Movie Party – Wednesday, October 16 – Sadly, I’m not able to attend this but I would certainly be there if I could. Movie Parties at the Alamo are a blast. Not only are they more lax on their “no talking” rule (you still can’t text, thank you very much!) but they provide you with props to interact more with the movie and your fellow audience members. If you have the right audience that has come ready to play, it can truly enhance the experience. I have it on good authority one of the props given out at this party is a Freddy glove…so get your ticket pronto! If you don’t want your glove after, I want it!!
The Witches: Flashback Brunch – Sunday, October 27 – Ugh! Another one I can’t make and this one really hurts my heart. The Witches is one of my all-time favorite films and to miss seeing this one in theaters will haunt me for some time. Like, truly haunt me. At this Flashback Brunch, guests can order off of a special brunch menu (not included in the price of the ticket) and I would recommend getting the mimosas – with two selections of fresh squeezed juice and a bottle of champagne provided, it’s well worth the cost. Plus…the movie is divine.
Check out the full list below: Looking over this list there are at least 6 other titles I would go and see (I was just there last night to see the excellent documentary Wolfman’s Got Nards and The Monster Squad). One of these years I’ll be brave enough to tackle the 8 hours of Dismember the Alamo…but tickets go so fast! I’m looking forward to seeing what November and December brings!
Synopsis: Astronaut Lucy Cola returns to Earth after a transcendent experience during a mission to space, and begins to lose touch with reality in a world that now seems too small.
Stars: Natalie Portman, Jon Hamm, Dan Stevens, Zazie Beetz, Coleman Domingo, Tig Notaro, Jeffrey Donovan, Ellen Burstyn
Director: Noah Hawley
Rated: R
Running Length: 124 minutes
TMMM Score: (4/10)
Review: It seems that in Hollywood they have a much easier time giving men kudos for taking on challenging work and, more specifically, challenging characters. I can’t tell you how many movies I’ve seen based on buzz touting the leading man doing something extraordinary by going the extra mile for a role or disappearing deep within a character. Hold on to your knickers if that same actor appears as someone unlikable or unrelatable because that’s where the awards chatter begins. Even in 2019, there are several actors being mentioned for major awards that are doing good work but…work that’s awards worthy? I’m not so sure.
Natalie Portman has always been an interesting actress to me. Feeling wise beyond her years from a young age, she managed to bypass the teenage comedies that stunted many of her peers and graduated to adult fare and populist entertainment early in her career. Nabbing an Oscar-nomination at 23 for Closer before winning one at 29 for Black Swan, Portman never settled into one genre or budget-range, preferring to choose projects based on the scripts and directors instead. She didn’t get quite enough praise for the divisive Annihilation in 2018 and, well, the less said about the annoying Vox Lux, the better. I was hoping Lucy in the Sky would be a return to the kind of Portman performance I had enjoyed in the past, one that was a little more grounded and connected.
The biggest problem I found in this story loosely (very loosely, it turns out) inspired by the true-life story of a NASA astronaut that traveled thousands of miles and assaulted the mistress of her married lover and former co-worker was that it strayed so far from the truth. I can understand changing some of the details to protect the innocent but screenwriters Brian C. Brown, Elliott DiGuiseppi, and Noah Hawley (who also directed) have made so many bone-headed changes that what remains is only a sanitized shadow of what really happened. Also, one important (and, ok, sensationalized) detail has been completely excised. So the story has been reduced to just another spurned lover tale we’ve seen done countless times before.
Astronaut Lucy Cola has returned to Earth after a journey to space that has left her, as it has many, a changed person. As she shares with her fellow astronauts, things just don’t look the same on the ground once you’ve seen the entire globe from space. Living in Texas with her husband and a niece left with them by her irresponsible brother, Lucy sets her sights on returning to space on the next mission in order to feel that same high she felt before. During her highly competitive and intensive training, she finds a connection with Mark, another astronaut readying for his own mission and the two begin an affair that will cause Lucy to spin-out of the orbit she has set herself in. Now, as she feels her stability going out of balance and feeling pressure from Erin, a younger recruit, just as eager as she once was, Lucy’s actions get more erratic until she makes series of decisions that will forever change the course of her life.
Always a problem inherent in movies with cheating spouses is that the cheaters face an uphill battle from the audience when they finally have the face the music. Are we supposed to feel sorry for these characters for getting caught up in a mess of their own making? Do we excuse Lucy (Portman) walking out on her husband (Dan Stevens, Apostle) because he’s too…nice? What about Erin (Zazie Beetz, Joker), Lucy’s competition at work vying for a spot in the next space shuttle mission and for the attention of Mark (Jon Hamm, Million Dollar Arm)? How much does she factor into what ultimately happens between Lucy and Mark? Ultimately, aren’t all of these people (save for maybe the jilted husband) kind of awful in their own way? Hawley also awkwardly places Lucy’s niece on the frontlines for much of this action, alternately as an observer and as a participant and that feels like an inconsiderate adjustment to this story. Involving a pre-teen in this adult sphere of responsibility isn’t appropriate, no matter how out of touch Lucy begins to get.
Hawley has assembled a hard-working cast that feels like they were possibly signed up for a different kind of movie. Though it starts with some promise, it eventually comes apart at the seams and not rapidly…it’s a slow slog to the finish line. Along the way there are some quite good scenes with Portman convincingly speaking about how much harder it is for women to get ahead in her line of work and conveying the desperation for perfection and achievement. I also enjoyed what little we see of Ellen Burstyn (Interstellar), though Hawley seems to only want to use her for a few foul-mouthed punchlines. The more manic the film gets in its latter half, the weirder Portman’s Texan twang gets and I have to wonder if it wasn’t almost intentional. It’s as if she’s learned to tone down her drawl to compose herself but when she starts to unravel she reverts back to a Yosemite Sam pattern of speech.
Now, I wouldn’t go so far to say Lucy in the Sky represents the kind of performance that should get Portman the same kind of accolades she received for Jackie or her Oscar-winning turn in Black Swan but it is representative of the kind of askew work she seems inherently drawn toward. Despite a brief foray in recent years into Marvel blockbuster territory with Thor and Thor: The Dark World, Portman has squarely appeared in harder sell pics that take some time to warm up to. Portman can’t seem to help herself in taking on women with rough exteriors that are cool to the touch but have a fire burning inside waiting to be released. That she’s found a way to make each one distinct in the way they go about freeing themselves from turmoil is a testament to her creative approach. It doesn’t quite work to her advantage ultimately in Lucy in the Sky but I can’t imagine anyone else attempting it with such force.
Synopsis: This heartfelt documentary explores the power of cult film told through the lens of the 1987 classic The Monster Squad and the impact it has on fans, cast and crew, and the industry.
Director: André Gower
Rated: NR
Running Length: 91 minutes
TMMM Score: (9/10)
Review: After horror, if there’s one genre that I just can’t get enough of it has got to be documentary features. There’s something about that reality of interviewing real people or hearing a true life tale recounted that produces a similar charge within that I get from watching a movie meant to send chills up my spine. So a documentary about a favorite horror film from my youth? I’m SO there. Most often, these documentaries are relegated to a bonus feature on whatever special edition DVD/BluRay has been produced from a long-lost classic finally making its debut in a restored print. That’s cool and all, but on the rare occasion a behind the scenes insight into a film’s genesis and staying power is created for distribution in cinemas…well now, that’s an event to be celebrated.
In the past several years, documentaries on beloved horror/cult classics have upped their ante with lengthy explorations on the Friday the 13th (Crystal Lake Memories) and Nightmare on Elm Street (Never Sleep Again) series prime examples of those that have exhaustively covered the work. What makes a documentary like Wolfman’s Got Nards so unique is that in 91 minutes it manages to amply cover the highlights of the making of 1987’s The Monster Squad while also exploring it’s unexpected resurgence as a cult classic taught in college curriculum and as a touchstone for numerous genre aficionados from the heartland to Hollywood.
By all accounts, when it debuted two weeks after The Lost Boys in August of 1987, The Monster Squad was a total bomb. Mis-marketed and poorly reviewed, it likely should have been held back a bit longer and built on the success of screenwriter Shane Black’s (Iron Man 3) current project Lethal Weapon, which had been released the previous March. Fading from theaters and the minds of most people shortly thereafter, a core group of hardcore fans held the movie close to their hearts for years. I vividly remember renting the movie numerous times from my local video store; after all, I was the target audience for a PG-13 rated film surrounding pre-teens doing battle against a horde of monsters out to rule the world.
It wasn’t until 2006 when a longtime fan partnered with the Alamo Dratfhouse in Austin, TX to hold an anniversary screening that the film started getting the long lost love it richly deserved. Surprising the cast and director Fred Dekker more than anyone, it kicked off a whirlwind of press and promotion that resulted in the movie making its much heralded debut on DVD and numerous screenings over the last decade. It also inspired star André Gower to team up with Henry Darrow McComas to produce this documentary about the film, how it’s reputation changed over time, and what that shift meant to those involved.
This is one of the best documentaries made about a movie I’ve seen in quite some time. Obviously, with Gower involved there’s going to be some sort of level of reverence to the piece, but even if the original film has flaws that’s not what we’re sitting down and watching this for. It’s also not a straight making-of documentary either. At my screening, Gower and McComas were present to introduce the film and they mentioned it wasn’t a behind-the-scenes or where-are-they-now film and they’re right. While it covers the elements of making the movie (which I was grateful for) and includes tidbits not found on the DVD making of doc, it’s more interested in committing to film interviews with fans and supporters who have championed the movie over time and can pinpoint exactly what about the experience of the film is so important to them.
I was surprised at how unexpectedly emotional it was on top of everything else. One of the most loved characters in the movie is Horace (aka Fat Kid) and the actor who played him, Brent Chalem, sadly died at 22. Many fans, including myself, only found this out when the collectors edition DVD came out and it’s been a sensitive subject ever since. This documentary interviews three family friends who give us a bit more information on Brent as the person while several of the film stars get choked up thinking about what he would have thought about all this newfound popularity of his character. Sitting in the theater watching this sequence, I found myself shedding a tear or two – definitely didn’t think that was going to happen. While it would have been nice for the doc to acknowledge the several key cast members that are also no longer with us (including the brilliant Mary Ellen Trainor, who played Gower’s mom), I do get why Brent/Horace got his own special shout-out.
Handsomely produced with little padding to extend its running time to 91 minutes, this is a blueprint for how to produce a movie doc that’s not just about how the script came together and why the director cast the actors. The interviews with the technicians that worked on the film are fascinating and the amount of fan interviews featuring people from all walks of life was astounding. These types of serious-minded reflections can only happen decades on and I’m glad Gower and company were moved to take the approach they did with this look back on a popular title that continues to gain new fans. I even stayed after and re-watched The Monster Squad for the first time in a theater and was reminded what a fun watch it was…so is this documentary.
Check out my original review of The Monster Squad right here:
