This Week’s Movies in L.A., 7/28/07

Aberration Films

(This is a weekly one-stop resource for movies screening in L.A., with Rotten Tomatoes/Metacritic averages, showtimes and more. Almost all of these movies are also either currently screening outside of L.A., or are going to be in the near future.)

Despite arriving in the shadow of several other recent punk documentaries, Susan Dynner’s Punk’s Not Dead opens this week to fairly widespread praise. The movie is said to trace the genre’s three decades of history, with rare performance clips and interviews along the way, before ultimately settling on the topic of commercialization in the form of Good Charlotte, Hot Topic, et alia (and hopefully answering the inevitable question to such an angle: “um… and?”).

Speaking of punk docs, I’m particularly looking forward to Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten, which got great buzz at Sundance and is due out in November, last I heard. I’ll readily admit I don’t know the first thing about punk, but any idiot can tell you London Calling = pop masterpiece.

The Clash – “Clampdown”: mp3

Also opening to glowing reviews are The Simpsons Movie and The Real Dirt on Farmer John, which by most accounts is easily among the best documentaries so far this year.

HIGHEST RATED FILMS SCREENING (7/27-8/2)

Note: RT and MC scores frequently change. Click on the movie titles for showtimes.

Avg. – RT – MC
96.0 – 96 – 96 – Ratatouille
92.5 – 97 – 88 – Once
92.0 – 95 – 89 – The Lives of Others
88.5 – 91 – 85 – Knocked Up
87.0 – 93 – 81 – Hairspray
84.5 – 88 – 81 – The Simpsons Movie
84.0 – 90 – 78 – Rescue Dawn
83.5 – 89 – 78 – The Real Dirt on Farmer John
83.0 – 92 – 74 – Sicko
81.5 – 89 – 74 – Waitress
79.5 – 82 – 77 – Grindhouse
78.0 – 75 – 81 – Lady Chatterley
78.0 – 82 – 74 – I Have Never Forgotten You

This week’s openings, music-related films, and special screening picks after the jump. [Continue reading…]

OPENING

Avg – RT – MC
xx.x – 92 – xx – Punk’s Not Dead — LAT ‘in-your-face’ – LAW ‘comes up short’ – CB ‘funny’
84.5 – 88 – 81 – The Simpsons Movie — LAT ‘safer’ – LAW ‘Go’ – CB ‘hilarious’
83.5 – 89 – 78 – The Real Dirt on Farmer John — LAT ‘inspirational’ – LAW ‘Pick’
xx.x – 80 – xx – Girl 27 — LAT ‘narcissism’ – LAW ‘Go’ – CB ‘valuable’
71.5 – 79 – 64 – Moliere — LAT ‘pushy’ – LAW ‘Go’ – CB ‘trifle’
60.0 – 55 – 65 – Arctic Tale — LAT ‘schmaltzy’ – LAW ‘Go’
xx.x – 50 – xx – Macbeth — LAT ‘over-stylized’ – LAW ‘wrong’ – CB ‘crackles’
46.0 – 42 – 50 – No Reservations — LAT ‘one-dimensional’ – LAW ‘Go’ – CB ‘unsteady’
42.5 – 44 – 41 – One to Another — LAT ‘unsettling’ – LAW ‘Go’ – CB ‘titillating’
xx.x – 18 – xx – Who’s Your Caddy? — LAW ‘terrible’
17.0 – 08 – 26 – I Know Who Killed Me — LAW ‘Go’
(LAT = L.A. Times; LAW = L.A. Weekly; CB = L.A. CityBeat)

LAST WEEK’S OPENINGS, STILL SCREENING

Avg – RT – MC
87.0 – 93 – 81 – Hairspray — LAT ‘buoyant’ – LAW ‘flat’ – CB ‘joyous’
68.0 – 71 – 65 – Sunshine — LAT ‘tense’ – LAW ‘conventional’ – CB ‘straightforward’
xx.x – 50 – xx – David and Layla — LAT ‘broad’ – LAW ‘cartoonish’ – CB ‘appealing’
38.5 – 26 – 51 – Goya’s Ghosts — LAT ‘rambling’ – LAW ‘Go’
25.5 – 14 – 37 – I Now Pronounce You Chuck… — LAT ‘pathetic’ – LAW ‘beguiling’ – CB ‘heavy-handed’

SPECIAL SCREENINGS:

After shutting down for a few days due to the unexpected death of owner Sherman Torgan, The New Beverly Cinema, L.A.’s last full-time revival house, has re-opened – although it remains to be seen for how long. (The Weekly and CityBeat both followed up with respectful pieces on Torgan; his passing was also picked up by Reuters). The New Bev screens a double feature of The Goonies and Back to the Future July 29-31, and two of Ingmar Bergman’s early classics in The Virgin Spring and Wild Strawberries Aug 1-2 (I prefer Persona, which would make for one whopper of a what-the-hell-is-going-on-with-these-two-women double bill with Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. Have they done that before?).

The other big film happening this week – well, other than a Nuart midnight screening of Wet Hot American Summer, basically Dave’s favorite movie ever – is the L.A. premiere of Jacque Rivette’s 1967 13-hour, 8-episode film-buff-holy-grail, Out 1. French New Wave filmmaker Rivette is best known and most widely hailed for 1974’s Celine and Julie Go Boating, which I’m dying to see but isn’t available on DVD and out of print on VHS. Out 1 screens over two days, with dinner breaks, Saturday-Sunday, July 28-29, at the UCLA Film & TV Archive’s Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer.

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