film calendar - music box theatre · 8 music box theatre august-october 2017 features and special...

AUGUST 11 - OCTOBER 12, 2017

FILM CALENDAR

Chicago’s Year-Round Film Festival

3733 N. Southport Avenue, Chicago www.musicboxtheatre.com 773.871.6607

LA CONFIDENTIAL 20th Anniversary Opening Night of NOIR CITY: CHICAGO, August 25

JIMMY STEWART WEEKEND MATINEES

AUG 19-OCT 15

WALKERWITH DIRECTOR ALEX COX Q&AFRIDAY, SEPT 8

THE MIDWIFE STARRING

CATHERINE DENUEVEOPENS SEPT 15

SIGNATURE MOVEOPENS SEPT 28

MUSIC BOX OF HORRORS

SATURDAY, OCT 7

3

6

FEATURE FILMSDUNKIRK ON 70MMMENASHEBABY DRIVER ON 35MM COLUMBUSTHE MIDWIFERESERVOIR DOGSMANOLORE-ANIMATORSIGNATURE MOVELUCKY

COMMENTARY

SERIESCLASSIC MATINEESSILENT CINEMACHICAGO FILM SOCIETYIS IT STILL FUNNY?DECONSTRUCTING THE BEATLESFROM STAGE TO SCREENMIDNIGHTS

SPECIAL EVENTSEXTRAORDINARY: STAN LEENOIR CITYWALKER WITH ALEX COXLABYRINTH QUOTE-ALONG48 HOUR FILM FESTIVALMAY IT LAST: A PORTRAIT OF THE AVETT BROS. DAVID GILMOUR LIVE AT POMPEIIWHO IS ARTHUR CHU?REELING FILM FESTIVALFOUND FOOTAGE FESTIVALMUSIC BOX OF HORRORS MARATHONSHORTCUT FILM FESTIVALCINEPOCALYPSE

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Brian Andreotti, Director of Programming

Ryan Oestreich, General Manager

Buck LePard, Senior Operations Manager

Stephanie Berlin, Public Relations Manager

Claire Alden, Group Sales and Membership Manager

Julian Antos, Technical Director and Assistant Programmer

VOLUME 35 ISSUE 145Copyright 2017 Southport Music Box Corp.

MusicBoxTheatre.com

Published by Newcity Custom PublishingNewcitynetwork.com

For information, email [email protected] or call 312.243.8786

Cover Image from the film LA CONFIDENTIAL, coming to Music Box Theatre August 25.

See page 7 for more information.

Music Box Theatre 3733 North Southport musicboxtheatre.com773-871-6604 showtimes 773-871-6607 office

WelcomeTO THE MUSIC BOX THEATRE!

THROUGH AUGUST 23OPENS AUGUST 11OPENS SEPTEMBER 1 OPENS SEPTEMBER 8OPENS SEPTEMBER 15OPENS SEPTEMBER 15OPENS SEPTEMBER 22OPENS SEPTEMBER 22OPENS SEPTEMBER 28OPENS OCTOBER 6

AUGUST 22AUGUST 25-31SEPTEMBER 8SEPTEMBER 9SEPTEMBER 10-14SEPTEMBER 12SEPTEMBER 13SEPTEMBER 16SEPTEMBER 21OCTOBER 6OCTOBER 7OCTOBER 8NOVEMBER 2-9

150 films from 50 countries.

Meet the directors! See the stars!

Passes now on sale.

53rd ChicagoInternationalFilm Festival

chicagofilmfestival.com

Save the Date:October 12-26, 2017

©

Pablo Larraín, Jackie, Neruda Damien Chazelle, La La Land

Naomie Harris, Barry Jenkins, André Holland, Moonlight

Features and Special Events 5

3539 N. SOUTHPORT AVE. CHICAGO, IL 60657 773.871.2020www.customeyes2020.com

exclusively available at Custom Eyes

bartonperreira.com

EMAIL [email protected]

DUNKIRK

FEATUREFILM

DIRECTED BY: Christopher NolanSTARRING: Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Cillian Murphy, Kenneth Branagh107 mins, 70mm

From filmmaker Christopher Nolan (INTERSTELLAR, INCEPTION, THE DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY) comes the epic action thriller DUNKIRK!

DUNKIRK opens as hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops are surrounded by enemy forces. Trapped on the beach with their backs to the sea they face an impossible situation as the enemy closes in.

PLAYING THROUGH AUGUST 23

IN70MM!

FEATURES AND SPECIAL EVENTS

“A tight, gripping, deeply involving and

unforgettable film that ranks among the best war movies of the decade.”

– Chicago Sun-Times

“Hands down,

the best motion

picture of the year”

– Entertainment Weekly

6 Music Box Theatre August-October 2017 Features and Special Events 7

MENASHE

OPENS AUGUST 11

DIRECTED BY: Joshua Z. WeinsteinSTARRING: Menashe Lustig, Yoel Falkowitz82 mins, DCP, In Yiddish with English subtitles

Set within the New York Hasidic community in Borough Park, Brooklyn, MENASHE follows a kind but hapless grocery store clerk trying to maintain custody of his son Rieven after his wife, Lea, passes away. Since they live in a tradition-bound culture that requires a mother present in every home, Rieven is supposed to be adopted by the boy’s strict, married uncle, but Menashe’s Rabbi decides to grant him one week to spend with Rieven prior to Lea’s memorial. Their time together creates an emotional moment of father/son bonding as well as offers Menashe a final chance to prove to his skeptical community that he can be a capable parent.

FEATUREFILM

“A gentle human comedy” –The New York Times

“Genius. A new way of looking at humanity”

–The Huffington Post


EXTRAORDINARY: STAN LEETuesday August 22 at 8pm

In the vein of “This Is Your Life,” EXTRAORDINARY: STAN LEE will be a nostalgic look back at Stan’s life and influence on fans around the world. The Tribute will play out through themed segments based on points in Stan’s life and career that were momentous on himself, others and the industry as a whole. Chris Hardwick will host, and other special guests include: Tom Bergeron, Channing Tatum, Lou Ferrigno, James Gunn, Todd McFarlane, Stephen Moyer, Anna Paquin, Michael Rooker, Andy Signore and Screen Junkies/Honest Trailers, Aisha Tyler, NASA Astronaut Kjell Lindgren.

Streamed live from The Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, CA

AUGUST 22 SPECIALEVENT

NOIR CITY CHICAGO

SPECIALEVENT

NOIR CITY CHICAGO returns to the Music Box Theatre, with an epically suspenseful series of criminal capers! Presented by the FILM NOIR FOUNDATION, “The Big Knockover” celebrates the history of the heist film from black-and-white Hollywood classics to contemporary masterpieces.

This year’s focus on hold-ups, heists, and schemes gone awry provides the perfect opportunity to venture beyond the 1940s and ‘50s to show how noir has expanded and transformed over the decades. Opening Night of NOIR CITY CHICAGO will celebrate the 20th anniversary of L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (1997), with author James Ellroy in person!

One of the most potent and stylish cop thrillers ever produced in Hollywood. James Ellroy’s epic novel is streamlined into a rough-and-tumble police procedural in which four cops—brilliantly played by Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey and James Cromwell—compete and cooperate to solve the “Nite Owl Massacre”—which only exposes deeper and deadlier levels of corruption in their ranks. Featuring an Oscar-winning support from Kim Basinger, and masterfully directed by the late Curtis Hanson.

Other highlights include:

AUGUST 25 - 31, 2017

For the Full Lineup, Showtimes & Advance Tickets, visit MusicBoxTheatre.com

NOIR CITY CHICAGO is sponsored in part by TCM’s NOIR ALLEY.

THE ASPHALT JUNGLE(John Huston, 1950, 112 mins, 35mm)The gold standard of the genre heist film. Wily Doc Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe, Oscar®-nominated) gets sprung from the joint and immediately plans a jewelry store job with a can’t-miss crew of professionals. But there’s no perfect crime—and no perfect criminals, because each man carries the seeds of his own destruction. Featuring a sly, sexy turn that put Marilyn Monroe on the map.

BLUE COLLAR(Paul Schrader, 1978, 114 mins, 35mm)One of the most politically savvy films of the 1970s. Three Detroit autoworkers—Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto—decide to rip off the safe inside their own union office. When the robbery doesn’t go as planned, solidarity is only the first casualty. What starts as a buddy-comedy veers into the heart of American darkness. Pryor gives his finest dramatic performance in this seething, angry film that’s as relevant as ever.

HIGH SIERRA(Raoul Walsh, 1941, 100 mins, 35mm)Humphrey Bogart is memorable in his first romantic antihero role as outlaw Roy “Mad Dog” Earle, plotting one last heist for unexpectedly sentimental reasons. Ida Lupino is the hard-as-nails dame who loves him; Joan Leslie is the young girl who could redeem him. Walsh directs this archetypal set-up with his patented cinematic brio, bristling with dynamic action. Remade multiple times, but this is the timeless classic.


BABY DRIVER

OPENS SEPTEMBER 1 FEATUREFILM

Limited

Engagement

In 35mm!

“One of the most entertaining thrill rides of this year, this

decade, this century.” –Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times

DIRECTED BY: Edgar WrightSTARRING: Ansel Elgort, Lily James, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm112 mins, 35mm

From Edgar Wright (SHAUN OF THE DEAD, HOT FUZZ) comes the best reviewed blockbuster of 2017, the action-packed, music-infused BABY DRIVER, presented in 35mm!

A talented, young getaway driver (Ansel Elgort) relies on the beat of his personal soundtrack to be the best in the game. When he meets the girl of his dreams (Lily James), Baby sees a chance to ditch his criminal life and make a clean getaway. But after being coerced into working for a crime boss (Kevin Spacey), he must face the music when a doomed heist threatens his life, love and freedom.


WALKER: 30TH ANNIVERSARY PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH DEPAUL UNIVERSITY’S SCHOOL OF CINEMATIC ARTS

Friday, September 8 at 7:15pm

A neo-Western biopic about William Walker, an American mercenary who made himself president of Nicaragua in 1856. Walker is almost unknown today, but at the time he was wildly popular, and U.S. newspapers wrote about him more than they did about the sitting U.S. presidents during that period.

Alex Cox was born outside Liverpool, in 1954. Studied at Oxford, Bristol, and UCLA. Director and writer of various films, including REPO MAN, STRAIGHT TO HELL, and TOMBSTONE RASHOMON. Honorary citizen of Tucson, AZ.

SEPTEMBER 8 SPECIALEVENT

Director Alex Cox in person!

In 35mm!

COLUMBUS

FEATUREFILM

DIRECTED BY: KogonadaSTARRING: John Cho, Haley Lu Richardson, Parker Posey100 mins, DCP

When a renowned architecture scholar falls suddenly ill during a speaking tour, his son Jin finds himself stranded in Columbus, Indiana—a small Midwestern city celebrated for its many significant modernist buildings. Jin strikes up a friendship with Casey, a young architecture enthusiast who works at the local library. As their intimacy develops, Jin and Casey explore both the town and their conflicted emotions: Jin’s estranged relationship with his father, and Casey’s reluctance to leave Columbus and her mother.

With its naturalistic rhythms and empathy for the complexities of families, debut director Kogonada’s COLUMBUS unfolds as a gently drifting, deeply absorbing conversation, and a showcase for its director’s striking eye for the way physical space can affect emotions.

Opening

Weekend—

Director in

person!

OPENS SEPTEMBER 8

“REMARKABLE. Cho has never been better and Richardson

is a revelation” –RogerEbert.com

“VISIONARY. Few films glow as brightly with the gemlike fire

of precocious genius.” –The New Yorker

Saturday, September 9 at 2pm & 7pm

LABYRINTH captivated a generation with its story of a girl (a very teenage Jennifer Connelly) who sets out to save her baby brother from the clutches of the beguiling Jareth the Goblin King (a deliciously glam David Bowie), its infectious music, and tons of Henson’s fabulous creations. Now, Alamo Drafthouse and Birth.Movies.Death. present the LABYRINTH QUOTE-ALONG, an unforgettable interactive celebration that’ll have you singing, quoting, and dance (magic) dancing all night long. With animated subtitles on screen for all best lines of dialog and every song lyric, so the whole theater can belt along with Bowie.

Plus, your ticket includes a prop bag packed with magic goodies to bring the action vividly to life. Oh, costumes are very much encouraged. Channel your inner Sarah or Hoggle, and of course there can never be too many Jareths.

SEPTEMBER 9

Prop Bags!

Costumes

Encouraged!LABYRINTH QUOTE-ALONG

SPECIALEVENT


SEPTEMBER 10-14 SPECIALEVENT

FEATURES AND SPECIAL EVENTSFEATURES AND SPECIAL EVENTS

MAY IT LAST: A PORTRAIT OF THE AVETT BROTHERSTuesday, September 12 at 7pm & 9:30pm

104 mins, DCP

Filmed with extraordinary access over more than two years, MAY IT LAST: A PORTRAIT OF THE AVETT BROTHERS is a deeply intimate and revealing look at the Grammy Award-nominated North Carolina band fronted by Seth and Scott Avett. Directors Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio chart the Avett Brothers’ decade-and-a-half rise, while chronicling their 2016 collaboration with famed producer Rick Rubin on the critically-acclaimed album “True Sadness,” released on American Recordings/Republic Records. Using the recording process as a backdrop, the film depicts a lifelong creative partnership put to the test as band members undergo marriage, divorce, parenthood, illness, and the challenges of the music business. More than just a concert documentary, MAY IT LAST is a meditation on family, love, and the passage of time.

One Night Only!

SEPTEMBER 12 SPECIALEVENT

DAVID GILMOUR LIVE AT POMPEII

SPECIALEVENT

One Night

Only!

SEPTEMBER 13

Wednesday, September 13 at 7pm 125 mins, DCP

45 years after Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour filmed LIVE AT POMPEII in the legendary Roman Amphitheatre there, he returned for two spectacular shows, part of his year-long tour in support of his No.1 album “Rattle That Lock.” The performances were the first-ever rock concerts for an audience in the stone Roman amphitheatre, and, for two nights only, the 2,600 strong crowd stood exactly where gladiators would have fought in the first century AD.

DAVID GILMOUR LIVE AT POMPEII is a all-encompassing visual spectacle, but paramount above all is the astonishing music from an all-star band. The show includes songs from throughout David’s career, including many Pink Floyd classics.

“Extraordinary” –Rolling Stone

“Momentous” –The Guardian


DIRECTED BY: Martin ProvostSTARRING: Catherine Deneuve, Catherine Frot, Olivier Gourmet117 mins, DCP, In French with English subtitles

Two of French cinema’s biggest stars shine in this bittersweet drama about the unlikely friendship that develops between Claire (Catherine Frot), a talented but tightly wound midwife, and Béatrice (Catherine Deneuve), the estranged, free-spirited mistress of Claire’s late father. Though polar opposites in almost every way, the two come to rely on each other as they cope with the unusual circumstance that brought them together in this sharp character study from the César-award-winning director Martin Provost (SÉRAPHINE).


THE MIDWIFE“Catherine Deneuve is in one of

her best roles of her career.” –IndieWire

“A stellar cast with terrific performances…a crowd-pleaser!”

–The Hollywood Reporter


DIRECTED BY: Quentin TarantinoSTARRING: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi1992, 99 mins, 35mm

Six criminals, perfect strangers to one another, are hired by a crime boss to carry out a diamond robbery. Assigned false names and told to focus on the job, they are confident that the job is going to be a success. But when the police show up at the right place and the right time, panic spreads amongst the group and their simple heist explodes into a bloody ambush. When the remaining members of the crew assemble at the arranged rendezvous point, they begin to suspect that one of them is an undercover cop. But which one?


RESERVOIR DOGS: 25TH ANNIVERSARY New

35mm Print!

Saturday, September 16 at 2pm

Arthur Chu hacked JEOPARDY! and won big. Now he’s using his newfound celebrity to battle dark forces on the internet as a blogger and cultural pundit. Raw, unfiltered and poignant, we follow Arthur as he realizes he can only create positive change in the world if he first heals his own wounds by reconciling with his estranged family.

SEPTEMBER 16

WHO IS ARTHUR CHU? Director Q&A!

SPECIALEVENT


DIRECTED BY: Michael Roberts89 mins, DCP

An in-depth portrait of the man who is regarded as a genius by some of the most revered figures in fashion; A behind-the-scenes peek into his world; And a must see for any person who has ever looked longingly at a pair of his shoes—famously known on a first name basis as “Manolos.”

The film features a “who’s who” list of some of the most notable figures in the fashion and entertainment worlds including Anna Wintour, Andre Leon Talley, Paloma Picasso, Candace Bushnell, Charlotte Olympia, Iman, Jamie Prieto, Rihanna, Naomi Campbell, David Bailey, Isaac Mizrahi, Joan Burnstein, Mary Beard, Colin McDowell, Penelope Tree, Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, Rupert Everett, Karlie Kloss and, of course, Manolo Blahnik himself.

OPENS SEPTEMBER 22

MANOLO: THE BOY WHO MADE SHOES FOR LIZARDS

FEATUREFILM


RE-ANIMATOR

OPENS SEPTEMBER 22

DIRECTED BY: Stuart GordonSTARRING: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton1985, 105 mins, DCP

Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is a new Miskatonic University student who also moonlights as a mad scientist, intent on perfecting a serum that “re-animates” corpses. Soon, everyone wants a piece of the action, including an evil professor and his army of slime-covered deadites.

Director Stuart Gordon and producer Brian Yuzna’s joint debut, this epochal and awe-inspiring amalgam of FRANKENSTEIN and REVENGE OF THE NERDS is a hyperactive dose of gruesome insanity beloved by horror audiences all over the world. With berserker theatrics and career-defining roles from horror icons Combs and Barbara Crampton, RE-ANIMATOR is a masterpiece of its genre.

FEATUREFILM

New 4K Restoration!


SIGNATURE MOVE

Special Preview September 28 with Shabana Azmi in attendance

“One of the 50 Most Anticipated American Films of 2017”

–Filmmaker Magazine

DIRECTED BY: Jennifer ReederSTARRING: Fawzia Mirza, Shabana Azmi, Sari Sanchez, Charin Alvarez, Audrey Francis80 mins, DCP

The debut feature from Newcity’s Chicago Film Project and Full Spectrum Features, set in Chicago with a Chicago-based cast and crew.

In this hilarious and heartfelt look at modern families and the complexities of love in its many forms, Zaynab (Fawzia Mirza) is a thirty-something Pakistani, Muslim, lesbian lawyer living in Chicago who begins a new romance with Alma (Sari Sanchez), a confident Mexican-American woman. Zaynab’s recently widowed mother Parveen (Shabana Azmi) has moved in and spends her days watching Pakistani TV dramas while searching for a potential husband for her only daughter. Alma’s mother, Rosa (Charin Alvarez), is a former professional Luchadora which Zaynab finds fascinating as she has recently taken up lucha-style wrestling training with a former pro wrestler, Jayde. Zaynab tries to keep both her love life and her wrestling a secret from her Muslim mother, who knows more than she lets on.

OPENING NIGHT

Cast and Crew in Attendance

LUCKY

OPENS OCTOBER 6

DIRECTED BY: John Carroll LynchSTARRING: Harry Dean Stanton, David Lynch, Ron Livingston88 mins, DCP

LUCKY follows the spiritual journey of a 90-year-old atheist and the quirky characters that inhabit his off the map desert town. Having out-lived and out-smoked all of his contemporaries, the fiercely independent Lucky finds himself at the precipice of life, thrust into a journey of self-exploration, leading toward that which is so often unattainable: enlightenment.

Acclaimed character actor John Carroll Lynch’s directorial debut, LUCKY, is at once a love letter to the life and career of Harry Dean Stanton as well as a meditation on mortality, loneliness, spirituality and human connection.

FEATUREFILM

“[A] rare portrait of mortality that’s both fun and full of life.”

–Indiewire

“An unassumingly wonderful little film about nothing in

particular and everything that’s important.”

–Variety

READ STEVE PROKOPY’S COMMENTARY ON PAGE 18


Friday, October 6 at 7pm & 9:30pm

Joe Pickett (THE ONION) and Nick Prueher (LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN) are back with an all-new edition of the Found Footage Festival, featuring newly unearthed VHS gems found at thrift stores across the country.

Highlights include:

– A collection of satanic panic videos from the ‘80s, including “The Law Enforcement Guide to Satanic Cults”

– Outtakes and on-air bloopers from twenty years of North Dakota local news

– A star-studded Desert Storm parade sponsored by Taco Bell

– Highlights from David Letterman’s Video Collection, inherited by the Found Footage Festival when Dave retired

OCTOBER 6 SPECIALEVENT

FOUND FOOTAGE FESTIVAL: VOLUME 8


24 Hour Horror Movie MarathonSaturday, October 7 at Noon

Join us for this year’s incarnation of the MUSIC BOX OF HORRORS as we swiftly descend into madness through the exploits of zombified police run-ins and adolescent lycanthropy, dizzying dives into the wicked seductions of the occult, uber-degradation of the otherwise-sane mind-scape, nunsploitation in a water-locked covenant, and oh-so much more.

This year, the Music Box of Horrors is delighted to bring you John Carpenter’s underseen brain-melter IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1994), featuring a POSSESSION-worthy turn from Sam Neill; an ultra-rare screening, from the only surviving print (16mm!), of Rusty Cundieff’s funeral-director omnibus TALES FROM THE HOOD (1995); and a crash-landing in the tundra of Finland for a pitch-black, comedic take on the Santa Claus mythology with RARE EXPORTS: A CHRISTMAS TALE (2010).

More information on films, guests, vendors and tickets can be found at musicboxtheatre.com

OCTOBER 7

MUSIC BOX OF HORRORS

SPECIALEVENT

SPECIALEVENT

NOVEMBER 2-9

November 2-9

Since 2014, Bruce Campbell’s Horror Film Festival, the Midwest’s largest cinematic horror gathering, has terrorized audiences with an annual slate of premiere films, guests, and bloodcurdling entertainment. In just three short years, the festival played host to the likes of: John Carpenter, Fede Alvarez, Eli Roth, Christopher Lloyd, Fred Dekker, Tom Holland, Barbara Crampton, William Sadler, Stephen Lang, comedian Doug Benson, and many more talented filmmakers from around the globe.

Josh Goldbloom (BCHFF) & Ryan Oestreich (Music Box Theatre) present CINEPOCALYPSE, a full week of ass-kicking genre movies, launching November 2-9, 2017. Within the confines of the historic theater, fans of BCHFF & Music Box’s programming can expect an unrivaled Chicago offering of bloody international terror, world & regional premieres, repertory cinema, special guests, parties, and more.

SPECIALEVENT

Prepare yourself, Chicago!

18 Music Box Theatre August-October 2017 Commentary 19

Character actor John Carroll Lynch (FARGO, ZODIAC, GRAN TORINO) sits down with Steve Prokopy to talk about Lynch’s directorial debut LUCKY.

This film is not only about an older man, but it also feels like a film made by a seasoned filmmaker. It feels like a film you build up to rather than debut with.

[Laughs] I guess when you do your first movie at 53, you really should dive in and get started.

Why was this the story that you wanted to be your first as a director?

Yeah, things happen, so you go with what the flow is going with, but this movie to me became important because it’s a story about a person who lives on the edge of the town of mortality. I mean that literally. He’s on the outskirts of the town we all live in. Like anybody, he’s going to hear the tremors first and then the rest of us have to maybe deal with it too. I have a lot of personal stuff tied to this, like my dad is 86—four years behind Harry Dean, at least one president behind Harry, although it was FDR, so it really doesn’t matter.

I’ll say it in the clearest way I can. No one would watch a soccer game without a time limit. It would be a terrible game. The thing that makes it real, the thing that makes it exciting, is the clock, and the thing that makes soccer exciting for those who love it is also penalty time, when you don’t quite know when the game’s going to end. That’s what interested me about this movie, and about this story. Lucky is a man who, by all rights, has thought about mortality before. Certainly he did in WWII, and he did when he was 13, but he’s in penalty time, so thoughts are different, and he’s certain he doesn’t have any backup. He’s certain he doesn’t have any god to lean on, and how do I come to terms with my mortality with no proof anything happens later? That’s what really attracted me about the script.

Was it written for him?

It was tailor made. Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja, the writers, they did a beautiful job of encapsulating Harry’s being, Harry’s life. Not only in terms of the work he does, because they wrote a script that fits his sensibilities and what he brings to a movie perfectly, but they just used so much of what they knew about his life in the movie. It’s not biographical, but it’s in essence a fictionalization of his life in a five-day period.

They used things from his life including some of his old friends. David Lynch is amazing here, and it’s not some throwaway comic cameo; it’s like a legit character that you really grow to

COMMENTARY

TALES FROM THE OUTSKIRTSJohn Carroll Lynch Discusses LUCKY By Steve “Capone” Prokopy

care about. Were those people who made themselves available whenever you needed?

Without a doubt, everybody showed up for Harry Dean. And that was not just the people you saw on the screen. That was from the DP, Tim Suhrstedt, who I’ve worked with before as an actor. I knew him, I liked him, I love his work. Ira Steven Behr, one of the producers, knows him, and

that’s how he got the script, but he showed up for Harry Dean, and that was true for every single person, honestly all the way down to one of the set dressers came from Richmond, Virginia, to work on this movie because he loves Harry Dean. It was all about him.

Is Harry Dean a guy you can direct easily?

Oh, he’s direct-able. He just doesn’t like to be directed. I don’t blame him. He’s 90-years-old. He knows what he’s doing. But also, what was beautiful about this movie is he distrusts the word “acting.” He doesn’t really believe he’s

acting anymore. He is. He’s forgotten more about acting than most of us ever knew. But you really have to earn it, and rightly so. He’s a master, and you don’t go in there without having a reason, and there were several times in the course of the thing that I had to go in there and go “I’ve really got to make sure he understands this is where we are, this is where we are headed.” Sometimes he was right, sometimes he was wrong, and we worked it out.

The scene with him and Tom Skerritt is one of my favorites. I hope people appreciate that ALIEN reunion.

They haven’t worked together since then.

In addition to just capturing his essence in this character, there are bigger things going on. This character has this daily routine that he does, which you show us at the beginning, and then he starts to break routine and that’s when life creeps in. We all have our routines, but it’s when we stray from the routine that things suddenly get interesting.

Yeah, and he strays from routine, because he’s forced to. There’s a moment that he has a fall. I don’t know about you, but every time I see an adult fall, it’s terrifying. And he has a fall in the movie, and the fall’s effect is not physical, but it shakes him and it makes him look at his routine. One of the things I loved about the script is, it’s not a thing that happens when he says, “I’ve got to go find my long-lost daughter, now.” Or, “I’ve got to jump from a plane or rob a bank.” There are good movies on all those subjects. It’s about how he goes back to his life with a different perspective, which is what I think most of us do.

As much as he is a man on the outskirts, he also has this little family of people he sees every day who look after him.

But he’s not aware of that.

Right, he’s cultivated this family just by being around them every day.

Yes, that’s right. In essence, somebody plants a garden—and the cactus is a big image in the movie—and there’s a cactus that’s been growing there, and there are a bunch of other things that grow in the shade and they’re all around each other and they co-exist, and they actually support each other, but they may not necessarily know it.

Steve Prokopy is the Chicago Editor for Ain’t It Cool News (www.aintitcool.com), where he has contributed film reviews and filmmaker & actor interviews under the name “Capone” since 1998. He is also chief film critic for the Chicago-based arts outlet Third Coast Review (www.ThirdCoastReview.com).

LUCKY OPENS ON OCTOBER 6. SEE PAGE 15 FOR DETAILS.

20 Music Box Theatre August-October 2017 Matinees 21

CLASSIC MATINEES

JIMMY THROUGH THE YEARSThe Music Box celebrates the rich and varied career of one of our favorite

Hollywood stars, Jimmy Stewart!

AN AMERICAN TAIL: FIEVEL GOES WEST (Phil Nibbelink & Simon Wells, 1991, 75 mins, 35mm)

This sequel to the 1986 animated classic finds the titular mouse and his family traveling west to escape the threat of cats. With the help of some old friends and new (including Jimmy Stewart as Wylie in his last ever film role), the Mousekewitz’s hope to find peace and prosperity. Featuring the voice talents of John Cleese, Dom DeLuise, and Amy Irving.

MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (Frank Capra, 1939, 129 mins, 35mm)

The idealistic and naive Jefferson Smith (Jimmy Stewart) is appointed Senator of an unnamed western state by its governor. With aspirations to set up a scout camp for his hometown Boy Rangers, Jefferson soon faces staunch opposition and must learn to stand up to the daunting political corruption all around him.

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (George Cukor, 1940, 112 mins, 35mm)

One of the greatest love triangles ever depicted on film and featuring three of Classic Hollywood’s biggest names (Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart), THE PHILADELPHIA STORY finds a wealthy socialite (Hepburn)’s wedding plans complicated thanks to the concurrent appearances of her ex-husband (Grant) and a tabloid reporter (Stewart).

REAR WINDOW (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954, 112 mins, 35mm)

A beautiful exploration of mise-en-scène, REAR WINDOW stars Jimmy Stewart as wheelchair bound photographer L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies. He starts using his telephoto lens to spy on his neighbors until one night he believes he witnesses a murder and is determined to solve the mystery with the help of his friends and trusty camera.

HARVEY (Henry Koster, 1950, 104 mins, 35mm)

Voted AFI’s #7 Fantasy Film of all time. Elwood P. Dodd (Jimmy Stewart) is a jovial yet eccentric man whose best friend just so happens to be a 6’ 3½” tall imaginary rabbit named Harvey. Whimsy, folly, and unexpected love follow as Elwood proves wiser than his family ever thought.

THE MORTAL STORM (Frank Borzage, 1940, 100 mins, 35mm)

James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan attempt to flee Germany as the Nazi takeover begins to tear their lives apart. A stunning melodrama from Frank Borzage and one of the most devastating war pictures ever made, THE MORTAL STORM is one of only a handful of unambiguously anti-Nazi movies made before the United States entry into WWII.

THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (John Ford, 1962, 123 mins, 35mm)

Senator Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) returns to the town of Shinbone for the funeral of Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) and recounts the decades-old shooting of outlaw Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) to two local reporters. John Ford’s only feature in the ’60s shot in black and white, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE is a film of shadows and light, and more or less the last word on the classic American Western without being a caricature of it.

September 16

September 23 & 24

September 30 & October 1

October 14 & 15

August 19 & 20

August 26 & 27

SATURDAYS & SUNDAYS AT 11:30am

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September 2 & 3

22 Music Box Theatre August-October 2017

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SILENT CINEMAClassic silent films the way they were meant to be seen! Featuring a live musical score on the famous Music Box organ by Dennis Scott, Music Box House Organist.

WHAT PRICE GLORY(Raoul Walsh, 1926, 116 mins, 35mm) Saturday, September 9 at 11:30am

Released a year after the very successful THE BIG PARADE, WHAT PRICE GLORY is Walsh’s first high-caliber war film and it’s camouflaged beneath the same antiwar sentiment as the former. Unusually gritty battle scenes wallow in the muck of trenches even Kubrick would

be proud of. But the real terrain to be taken is that of masculine rivalry. In roles they would reprise three times, Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe begin as suitors to the very suitable Dolores Del Rio, until the dreary realities of war arrive. Adapted from a notably bawdy play, lip-readers had a field day as McLaglen and Lowe dropped some profane bombshells. (description: Pacific Film Archive)

Preserved by The Museum of Modern Art with support from the Celeste Bartos Fund for Film Preservation

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA(Rupert Julian, 1925, 93 mins, 35mm) Wednesday, October 11 at 7:30pm

Based on the 1910 novel of the same name, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA is the role Lon Chaney was born to play, with a face made so grotesque and emaciated that audiences who saw the film as children on its original release remembered the film in terror for decades.

“It creates beneath the opera one of the most grotesque places in the cinema, and Chaney’s performance transforms an absurd character into a haunting one.”

—Roger Ebert

Music Box MemberBecoming a member at the Music Box is a great way to support the quality programming at the independently owned and operated historic movie theatre, lounge and garden. This includes our holiday classics, talk backs, film festivals, visits from directors, producers, and actors, as well as our regular midnight, matinee,

and feature presentations.

register online at musicboxtheatre.com or visit our box office!

• Discounted tickets

• Members-only screenings

• Advanced purchase for special screenings

• Restaurant discounts

• Deals on Music Box Films DVD’s

• Bottomless popcorn

• Discounted house wines

j o i n t o d ay

24 Music Box Theatre August-October 2017 25

SÉRIE NOIREMonday, September 4 at 7pm (Alain Corneau, 1979, 111 min, 35mm)In French with English subtitles

What do you get when French avant-garde novelist Georges Perec adapts a work of red-blooded American crime literature like Jim Thompson’s A Hell of a Woman? From one angle Alain Corneau’s SÉRIE NOIRE, named for an infamous series of French paperback pulps, is simply an exemplary neo-noir, but that’s almost too timid—with its archetypally spare characters cruising through a brutalist concrete landscape, this movie is proudly post-noir, post-punk, post-everything. Patrick Dewære stars as hapless door-to-door salesman Frank Poupart, just the type of schmuck to be drawn into a murder plot by an old widow’s mute niece (Marie Trintignant). “Without a second thought,” writes Pacific Film Archive curator emeritus Steve Seid, “you buy his worn-out, deranged lowlife toying with oblivion.”

IMPORTED 35MM PRINT FROM INSTITUT FRANÇAIS

SMITHEREENSMonday, October 9 at 7pm (Susan Seidelman, 1982, 89 min, 35mm)

Susan Seidelman’s feature film debut SMITHEREENS is the meaner, younger sister of her cult classic DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN. Released 3 years prior and funded in part by the money her grandmother left her for her “future wedding,” it was shot without permits on the streets of Koch-era New York City (sorry Grandma) and went on to become the first American independent feature selected to compete at Cannes. Susan Berman stars as Wren, a New Jersey runaway who heads to NYC seeking fame in the punk scene, and whose limited talents include pasting Xeroxed self portraits of herself around town, and pinballing back and forth between sweet (but decidedly NOT punk) Brad Rinn, and sexy (real life punk icon) Richard Hell. With a soundtrack soaked in the Feelies, ESG, and the Voidoids and screening in a newly struck 35mm print, this is the New Wave cult film your horrible teenage self should have shoplifted from the video store.

CONTINUING SERIES

THE CHICAGO FILM SOCIETY PRESENTSThe Chicago Film Society hosts monthly presentations featuring classic films, underseen rarities, cult movies, short subjects, trailer reels and more, all on glorious celluloid. For more information, visit www.chicagofilmsociety.org.

IS IT STILL FUNNY?Chicago film/entertainment writer Mark Caro puts supposedly timeless comedies to the test and dares ask the question “Is It Still Funny?”

AFTER HOURS (Martin Scorsese, 1985, 97 mins, 35mm)Tuesday, October 17 at 7:30pm

Griffin Dunne’s word processor (quaint!) visits Rosanna Arquette’s Henry Miller-loving mystery woman in Soho and experiences the longest, most nightmarish night of his life in this Martin Scorsese black comedy. The movie is unlike anything else on this master filmmaker’s resume: a brisk (a mere 97 minutes), dark New York story that tapped into ‘80s yuppie/ro-mance paranoia a year before Jonathan Demme’s SOMETHING WILD explored

thematically similar ground. And how about that supporting cast: Verna Bloom, Linda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, Catherine O’Hara, John Heard and Cheech & Chong. AFTER HOURS fared better with critics than at the box office but now is regarded as a cult classic and is ready for its “Is It Still Funny?” close-up—in glorious 35MM.

RICHARD PRYOR: LIVE IN CONCERT (Jeff Margolis, 1979, 78 mins, 35mm)Tuesday, September 26 at 7:30pm

In revisiting the towering stand-up comedy talent of the 20th century, do you look to his most successful Hollywood efforts, such as SILVER STREAK or STIR CRAZY, or do you go with the unfiltered Richard Pryor at the peak of his powers in LIVE IN CONCERT? We opted for the latter (at least this time). Showcasing his astounding verbal and physical skills, Pryor takes on sex, drugs, heart attacks

and deer hunting in what Pauline Kael deemed “probably the greatest of all recorded-performance films.” Rolling Stone ranked it No. 1 among its 25 Best Stand-Up Specials and Movies, and it prompted Chris Rock to write: “This is what every comic is striving for, and we all fall very short.” This is a rare opportunity to catch this pioneering comedy concert film on the big screen.

26 Music Box Theatre June-August 2017

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THE BEATLESComposer/producer/Beatles expert Scott Freiman takes fans young and

old into the studio with The Beatles, looking at the enduring and influential albums produced by The Fab Four.

27

SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS

CLUB BANDSaturday, September 9

at 4:30pm95 mins, DCP

The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is one of the most influential albums of our time. Rolling Stone described it as “the most important rock & roll album ever made, an unsurpassed adventure in concept, sound, songwriting, cover art and studio technology by the greatest rock & roll group of all time.”

Mr. Freiman looks at Sgt. Pepper from multiple angles, conducting an educational journey into the creative process of The Beatles’ performances and recording sessions. You are guaranteed to leave amazed at The Beatles’ innovation in the studio and have a newfound appreciation for the talents of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr.

REVOLVERTuesday, October 10

at 7:00pm95 mins, DCP

In many music polls, Revolver is rated the top album of all time. The 1966 album launched a period of studio experimentation for The Beatles that coincided with their decision to stop performing live. With memorable songs, such as “Eleanor Rigby,” “Yellow Submarine,” and “Tomorrow Never Knows,” The Beatles pushed popular music to a place it had never been before.

Mr. Freiman explores the groundbreaking production techniques that went into creating this landmark piece of music history. In addition to many of the tracks from Revolver, Mr. Freiman will also explore the creation of two other songs recorded during the same time period, “Paperback Writer” and “Rain.”

CONTINUING SERIES


ANGELS IN AMERICAA GAY FANTASIA ON NATIONAL THEMES

PRESENTED BY NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE

Directed by: Marianne Elliott

PART ONE: MILLENNIUM APPROACHESSunday, September 10 at Noon

PART TWO: PERESTROIKASunday, September 17 at Noon

America in the mid-1980s. In the midst of the AIDS crisis and a conservative Reagan administration, New Yorkers grapple with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell.

Oscar-nominee Andrew Garfield (SILENCE, HACKSAW RIDGE) plays Prior Walter along with a cast including Denise Gough (PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS), Nathan Lane (THE PRODUCERS), James McArdle (STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS) and Russell Tovey (THE PASS).

This new staging of Tony Kushner’s multi-award-winning two-part play is directed by Olivier and Tony award-winning director Marianne Elliott (THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME and WAR HORSE). PART ONE: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES was first performed at the National Theatre in 1992 and was followed by PART TWO: PERESTROIKA the following year.

“««««« A start-to-finish sensation. The performances and the plays absolutely fly.”–The Daily Telegraph

“««««« An exhilarating long day’s journey into flight. Andrew Garfield is spectacular.”–Sunday Times

“««««« A true theatrical epic.”–Evening Standard

The Music Box proudly presents the greatest filmed theatrical productions from around the world!

FROM STAGE TO SCREEN

CONTINUING SERIES

29

BUY YOUR COPY TODAY AT THE MUSIC BOX THEATRE

musicboxfi lms.com@musicboxfi lms

A searing performance from Cynthia Nixon”– Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent

“ “An absolute drop-dead masterwork”– Richard Brody, New Yorker


CONTINUING SERIES

THE LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREETPresented by The Front Row(Roger Watkins, 1977, 78 mins, DCP)Nicholas Ray protege and desperate amphetamine addict Roger Watkins’ debut feature as a director is perhaps the most polarizing film produced during the ‘70s heyday of American exploitation cinema. Mirroring the film’s production, Watkins plays a pornographer recently released from prison out to shoot a low-rent snuff

epic with his acne-scarred, Manson family inspired gang of miscreants. Sold to an organized crime syndicate years after its production and shorn of its original title (THE CUCKOO CLOCKS OF HELL), THE LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET has, despite the decimation of original prints and countless substandard video transfers, developed a reputation of being something special, an underground horror film as scummy as it is artful.

AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY(Jay Roach, 1997, 89 mins, 35mm)Before it reached total pop culture saturation, there was the film that started it all. Made on a thrifty budget of $16.5 million, what initially seemed destined to be a minor cult hit quickly became a worldwide phenomenon. And with good reason: It’s hysterical. Mike Myers gives two instantly iconic performances:

Austin Powers, the grooviest spy of the swinging ‘60s who is forced to reckon with the politics and cynicism of the ‘90s, and Dr. Evil, his folically-challenged power-hungry nemesis. Taking influence from not only James Bond, but Harry Palmer, The Beatles, Blake Edwards, and BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (Which may have contributed to it receiving “Two Thumbs Up” by Siskel & Ebert!), AUSTIN POWERS is an effective time capsule of two bygone eras, the late ‘60s and the late ‘90s. And keep an eye out for a delightfully underplayed cameo from Carrie Fisher!

CANDYMANPresented by The Front Row(Bernard Rose, 1992, 99 mins, 35mm)The only Clive Barker adaptation to feature a score by Philip Glass, CANDYMAN’s remarkable craft, as well as its odd mixture of baroque horror and academic camp, set it apart from the vast majority of American horror in the early ‘90s. While researching the connection between a series of murders around the

Cabrini-Green housing project and a local myth involving the vengeful spirit of a brutally murdered African-American painter (played with terrifying and tragic grandeur by an impossibly sexy Tony Todd), Chicago graduate student Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) inadvertently awakens the spirit of Todd’s Candyman and sets off a cycle of stomach-churning and beautifully art-directed violence. 25 years on, CANDYMAN remains one of the great horror films of its era, as well as an essential time capsule of Chicago in the late 20th century.

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (Jim Sharman, 1975, 100 mins, 35mm)

AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY (Jay Roach, 1997, 89 mins, 35mm)

HEATHERS (Michael Lehman, 1988, 103 mins, DCP)

CANDYMAN (Bernard Rose, 1992, 99 mins, 35mm)Presented by The Front Row

MIDNIGHTSTHE FIFTH ELEMENT (Luc Besson, 1997, 126 mins, DCP)

DEMOLITION MAN (Marco Brambilla, 1993, 115 mins, DCP)

THE LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET (Roger Watkins, 1977, 78 mins, DCP)Presented by The Front Row

THE ROOM (Tommy Wiseau, 2003, 99 mins, 35mm)

August 11 & 12

August 18 & 19

August 25 & 26

August 25 & September 22

August 26 & September 23

September 8 & 9

September 15 & 16

September 29 & 30

FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS AT MIDNIGHT

20th

Anniversary!

FROM THE LAND OF THE MOON

AUGUST 18 - 24

SEPTEMBER 8 - 14

164 N State • siskelfilmcenter.org

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Icelandic Noir by Baltasar Kormákur

THE OATH

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DAVE MADE A MAZESEPTEMBER 20TH

THE SCENT OF RAIN & LIGHTNING

SEPTEMBER 21ST

SPIRIT GAMES: PRIDE OF A NATION

NOVEMBER 29TH

BEST OF SLAMDANCE SHORTS

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WITHOUTAUGUST 23RD & 24TH

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Chicago, we’re bringing you the best in independent film with the Slamdance Cinema Club. Each month, this film series will showcase

new independent films from the 2017 Slamdance Film Festival at ArcLight Cinemas.

film calendar - music box theatre · 8 music box theatre august-october 2017 features and special...

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