Hell on Wheels: Hot Rods and Fast Times Friday, June 26, 2009

Get your motor running and head out on that highway to the Los Angeles Film Festival's "Hell on Wheels: Hot Rods and Fast Times," a weekend of reckless roadstering by bratty adolescents with a crankshaft complex. The race commences with 1978's Hi-Riders, about a gang of gambling dragsters (preceded by cautionary tale Joy Ride: An Auto Theft), kicks into high gear with 1967's Hot Rods to Hell, about teenage hoodlums terrorizing a strait-laced family (preceded by driver's-ed nightmare Last Date), and spins out with 1956's Hot Rod Girl, about rebellious street-racers versus a city-sponsored racetrack (preceded by toddlers-behind-the-wheel curiosity Tomorrow's Drivers). The plot lines of these B-movies may be running on empty, but the classic cars and vintage L.A. street views captured on film should be a gas. Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood; Fri., June 26, 10 p.m. (Hi-Riders), & Sat., June 27, 4:30 p.m. (Hot Rods to Hell); $12. Hot Rod Girl screens free at the festival promenade on Broxton Avenue, Sat., June 27, 8:30 p.m. Tickets at www.lafilmfest.com. (Originally published in L.A. Weekly, June 26, 2009.)

posted by Derek Thomas @ 2:12 AM, ,

Robot Trifecta Wednesday, June 24, 2009

If you're naive enough not to fear robots (and I strongly encourage you to develop a robot phobia), come on down to the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center's courtyard for an outdoor screening of three classics of Japanese animation, all starring goody-goody robots — obviously pro-robot propaganda. Astro Boy debuted on Japanese TV in 1963 as Tetsuwan Atomu, or "Mighty Atom," the adventures of an android boy who fights crime, injustice, and renegade robots. While acclaimed as the genesis of the anime genre, the show is clearly an attempt to frighten humans with robots' awesome atomic powers. Gigantor continued the intimidation by making the robot "hero" exceptionally large, and controlled via remote by a 12-year-old boy (marketing ploy by the universal-remote industry?). Voltron made waves in the '80s as a Transformers-like mashup of two unrelated Japanese cartoons, Beast King GoLion and Kikou Kantai Dairugger XV, and the result is so alarming the JACCC has DJs in place to obscure the truth with robotic beats. Danger, Will Robinson! JACCC Plaza, 244 S. San Pedro St., Little Tokyo; Fri., June 26, 7:30 p.m.; free. www.jaccc.org. (Originally published in L.A. Weekly, June 26, 2009.)

posted by Derek Thomas @ 2:54 PM, ,

A Salute to Hal Ashby Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Writer-director Cameron Crowe and Variety editor Peter Bart host "A Salute to Hal Ashby," honoring the "New Hollywood" director of, most famously, Harold and Maude (1971), the cult hit with Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort in a most extreme, yet extremely endearing, May-December romance. Ashby's directorial career, launched after winning a 1967 Oscar for editing In the Heat of the Night, began with 1970's The Landlord and kicked into high gear with Harold and Maude, Shampoo, The Last Detail, Coming Home and Being There, but eventually got hobbled by less well-received works from his later years when he was often considered too unstable by studio bosses to complete his own projects. (The director's cut of one of these films, Ashby's 1982 Vegas caper Lookin' to Get Out, screens next week at the Hammer's Billy Wilder Theater, with Jon Voight and Curtis Hanson in person, courtesy the UCLA Film & Television Archive.) Screening tonight is a new print of Harold and Maude from the Academy's Film Archive, with mad props given by Judd Apatow, Diablo Cody, Bud Cort, Jon Voight and other Ashby colleagues and fans. The tribute continues through the end of June at the Linwood Dunn Theater with screenings of The Landlord and Shampoo (June 26), The Last Detail and Coming Home (June 27) and Being There (June 28). Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's Samuel Goldwyn Theater, 8949 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills; Thurs., June 25, 7:30 p.m.; $5. (310) 247-3600. (Originally published in L.A. Weekly, June 19, 2009.)

posted by Derek Thomas @ 5:43 AM, ,

Everything Is Terrible Monday, June 15, 2009

Everything is terrible all right, and the proof is in the unintentionally awful videos posted on Everything Is Terrible (www.everythingisterrible.com), an online aggregator of vintage VHS gone awry. The site's rediscovered gems from the '70s, '80s and '90s include oddball commercials, ill-conceived instructional videos and new wave PSAs, plus its own "3-Minute Movies," condensing forgettable films like Freejack and Band of the Hand into attention-span-pleasing works of art. Tonight, the evil geniuses behind Everything Is Terrible premiere Everything Is Terrible: The Movie, a DVD compilation of their greatest mockings. Following the DVD party, Fred Olen Ray screens his 1994 B-movie opus Dinosaur Island, which may seem prime fodder for the Everything Is Terrible crowd except that, unlike hip-hop fire-safety videos, it's chock-full of topless cavewomen. Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater, 611 N Fairfax Ave., L.A.; Sat., June 20, 10:30 p.m.; $10. (323) 655-2510. (Originally published in L.A. Weekly, June 19, 2009.)

posted by Derek Thomas @ 12:26 AM, ,

Mitch Hedberg Tribute Night Tuesday, June 9, 2009

"I like rice. Rice is great when you're hungry and you want 2,000 of something." That's Mitch Hedberg, and that's the kind of joke that secured his status as a master of comedy simultaneously insightful and completely absurd. Hedberg's gone now, taken too soon by cruel gods who obviously didn't get the joke, but Cinefamily celebrates his memory with "Mitch Hedberg Tribute Night," an evening of video clips of rare live performances and TV appearances, his unreleased MTV pilot, The Mitch Hedberg Project, and remembrances by friends and fellow comedians. The night's highlight: Los Enchiladas, the 1999 feature film Hedberg wrote and directed, about slackers at a Mexican restaurant abandoned by management and left to their own devices. Speaking of food: "Every McDonald's commercial ends the same way: 'Prices and participation may vary.' I want to open a McDonald's and not participate in anything. Cheeseburgers? Nope! We got spaghetti … and blankets." Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater, 611 N Fairfax Ave., L.A.; Sun., June 14, 8 p.m.; $14. (323) 655-2510. (Originally published in L.A. Weekly, June 12, 2009.)

posted by Derek Thomas @ 2:44 AM, ,

A Tribute to Marilyn Chambers Monday, June 8, 2009

Though adult-film icon Marilyn Chambers is no longer with us (she died in April at age 56), her legend lives on as the embodiment (and what a body!) of a seminal moment in the history of pornography (yes, I said seminal): She starred in Behind the Green Door, the Mitchell Brothers' landmark 1972 XXX film that set the ball(s?) rolling for porn's evolution into mainstream entertainment. The pervs behind the Grindhouse Film Festival screen an X-rated tribute to Chambers and her many talents (including but not limited to frenzied fellatio and manic masturbation), including the psychedelic hardcore of Behind the Green Door, 1973's Resurrection of Eve, and an assortment of trailers and clips. Settle into your seat, unbutton your raincoat, and take it all in, slowly, then faster, and with lotion if you like. Special guests include veteran porn director Fred J. Lincoln and adult-entertainment advocate William Margold. New Beverly Cinema, 7165 Beverly Blvd., L.A.; Sat., June 13, midnight; $7. (323) 938-4038. (Originally published in L.A. Weekly, June 12, 2009.)

posted by Derek Thomas @ 2:05 AM, ,

Comedy Death-Ray @ Cinefamily Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Comedians from Upright Citizens Brigade's Comedy Death-Ray (the popular alt-comedy fiesta headlined by the likes of Mr. Show's Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, Best Week Ever's Doug Benson and Paul F. Tompkins, and Comedians of Comedy's Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Zach Galifianakis and Maria Bamford) screen the films that influenced them the most all this month at the Silent Movie Theater, thanks to those innocent kids at Cinefamily who surely had no idea what they were getting themselves into. What does Sarah Silverman's selection of Carl Reiner's 1970 cult classic Where's Poppa? (June 5) reveal about her? Nothing more than what we already knew: she's a sick chick. The plot pits George Segal against his eccentric mom (Ruth Gordon) by virtue of a commitment made to his dead dad not to put her in a "home," despite her penchant for driving him crazy. Bob Odenkirk's choice, Albert Brooks' Real Life (June 12), a prescient 1979 reality-TV parody about a narcissistic filmmaker who can't help interfering with the family he's documenting, surely speaks to Odenkirk's own fear of narcissism, or perhaps his fear of Ben Stiller. Why Patton Oswalt picked schlock thriller God Told Me To (1976, Larry Cohen) I'll never know (at least until the screening June 19), but it probably has something to do with Andy Kaufman's role as a police officer (!) who mows down a crowd. Tim and Eric (of Adult Swim's Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!) wrap things up June 26 with True Stories, David Byrne's 1986 pseudo documentary/vanity project about an offbeat Texas town. Why Tim and Eric chose this one is obvious: the good movies had already been taken. Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater, 611 N. Fairfax Ave., L.A.; Fridays, 8 p.m., June 5-26; $14. (323) 655-2510. (Originally published in L.A. Weekly, June 5, 2009.)

posted by Derek Thomas @ 4:00 AM, ,

La Didone Monday, June 1, 2009

In an effort to make opera more exciting than it already is (wouldn't take much), experimental performance ensemble the Wooster Group has mashed up Francesco Cavalli's 1641 opera Didone with Mario Bava's 1965 sci-fi zombie flick Planet of the Vampires (Terrore Nello Spazio). The result is a bipolar, leather-uniformed musical opus in which the fat lady not only sings, she eats brains. The plot concerns twin shipwrecks: the crash of Trojan war hero Aeneas at Carthage and unlucky space pilots stranded on a planet of the undead. Though La Didone still comes complete with Italian Baroque singing, the mixing in of wooden B-movie dialogue should provide sufficient relief. La Didone marks the debut of a four-year annual partnership between the Wooster Group and REDCAT, and while they've already announced next year's adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Vieux Carré I'm holding out hope for Plan 9 From Götterdämmerung. REDCAT, 631 W. Second St., L.A.; opens June 11; Tues.-Sat., 8:30 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; thru June 21. (No perfs June 15 & 18.) (213) 237-2800. (Originally published on LAWeekly.com, June 5, 2009.)

posted by Derek Thomas @ 2:41 AM, ,