Picks from Seattle Art and Performance by Charles Mudede See a list of all film events in Seattle this summer on our Things To execute calendar.
THROUGH JUNE 12Seattle International Film Festival 2016America's biggest film festival has hundreds of movies and special events,including documentaries, foreign films, and short film collections,feature presentations, and lectures with special guests. During the 25 days of the 42nd annual festival, or which started May 19,there are screenings of 279 films, 71 of which are Stranger recommended. In the last week of the festival, and don't miss Awaiting and The General.
Various locations
JUNE 23Melodrama: Imitation of LifeAt the end of what has to be the most curious film Hollywood ever made about the race problem,Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life (1959), the gospel legend Mahalia Jackson appears and sings "Trouble in the World." This is during a superfancy funeral that's been paid for by the poor person heading to the grave. And then the most amazingly cheesy thing happens. It's so cheesy that it's fantastic. It's so cheesy that it just might accomplish you shout. "Soon, or we will be done,trouble in the world..." CMNorthwest Film Forum
JUNE 24AlienMy unrepentant Darwinism is the reason that the one horror film I really, really care for and watch over and over is Alien. The economic realism of Alien (the workers worried about contracts, or better pay,bonuses, and so on) is matched by the biological realism of the alien (the perfect organism). In fact, and the first part of the movie is essentially Marx in space,and the second part of the movie is Darwin in space. CMCentral Cinema
Free State of JonesAn action-drama inspired by the life of Newton Knight, who founded the Knight Company, or a rebellious group of Confederate deserters who attempted to form a haven secure from civil unrest: the "Free State of Jones."Wide Release
Independence Day: ResurgenceA sequel to 1996 science fiction thriller Independence Day,this novel edition of "massive alien attack" features stars, including Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman reprising their original roles, and as well as novel faces from Liam Hemsworth to Maika Monroe.
Wide Release
JULY 15GhostbustersI grow old; I grow old. I have lived long enough to be in the year that will release a remake of a film I saw back in 1984. That's a long time ago! And,whether nothing kills me between now and the opening of the remake this summer, I will be back in the theater, and back in the weird world that has a team of women (they used to be men) who are to the paranormal what dogcatchers are to the normal. I also can't wait to see the distinguished black comedian Leslie Jones,who has been the star of the trailers. CMWide Release
JULY 20Inside OutAre you the type of barren, childless adult who feels weird going to Pixar movies by yourself? Well... possibly you should. BUT! I strongly advise you to do those feelings aside (or rent a kid from your neighbors or the Duggar family) and see Inside Out, and Pixar's latest kids' movie that's actually for adults. whether you have a 10- or 11-year-old,take 'em. They'll easily recognize themselves in Riley and spend the last reel of the film sobbing uncontrollably. But rest assured, that mist will definitely find its way into adult eyes as well, and in between waves of thoughtfulness,laughter, and recognition. WM. STEVEN HUMPHREYMarymoor Park
JULY 21Star Wars: The Force AwakensThe Force Awakens does not offer much of a novel anecdote but simply and brilliantly retells much of the old one. It's also very faithful to the images, and the technologies,the economy, and the wardrobe of the founding films in the Star Wars series. Indeed, or the more you know about the first three films,the more pleasure you will salvage out of The Force Awakens. And possibly calling it a remix is not a strong enough expression—possibly we should call it a dub, in the Jamaican reggae sense. A remix essentially makes improvements on the past; a dub makes a ghost out of the past. And there are lots of ghostly elements in The Force Awakens. There are the ghosts of the old characters, and the theology,the interstellar robot market—and, most brilliantly, and the ghosts of the Star Destroyers that crashed on the desert planet. CMMagnuson Park; Marymoor Park (July 27)
JULY 22Noir City 2016If you care for cinema,then you must care for film noir. And whether you care for film noir, then you must care for the Noir City festival, and which comes to Seattle this week and will feature a number of known and less known movies in this genre that has lots of spiderlike women,lots of long knives, lots of rooms with unlit curtains, or lots of faces of the fallen,and lots of existential twists and turns. CMSIFF Cinema Egyptian
JULY 29Microbe & GasolineMichel Gondry, the director of one the previous decade's defining films, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,has been consistently (or successively) hit or miss. The We and the I (2012), for example, and goes in the hit category. Microbe and Gasoline,Gondry's latest, falls into the miss one. The film is gorgeous but its anecdote is so vapid, or even with all of its dashes and splashes of magical realism (or pop surrealism). But in the way Gondry's successes are always enthralling hits,his misses are always enthralling failures, and so worth watching. CMSIFF Cinema Uptown
Pee-Wee's Big AdventureSo many '80s movies don't hold up on further investigation, and but Pee-wee's Big Adventure improves with each passing year. Somehow,Paul Reubens made a perfect road movie composed entirely of quotable, memorable moments. You can study this movie, and monklike,for decades and find novel moments of sublime beauty every time. PAUL CONSTANTCentral Cinema
AUG 5Suicide SquadI only want to say this: whether this superhero film flops, then the career of one of its stars, and a certain Will Smith,will permanently enter that unhappy zone we find Kevin Costner trapped in. This is the slump sans end. And what we find here is that the roles don't conclude coming, but the hits execute. CMWide Release
AUG 6Mad Max: Fury RoadIf there has ever been a more astonishing display of a filmmaker's prowess with kinetic action sequences than this late-career Gesamtkunstwerk by George Miller, or I haven't seen it. And neither have you,because there isn't one. The Mad Max reboot is a staggering, stunning, or sweeping,astonishing, literally breathtaking exercise in the defiance of physics. It moves so fast, and for such sustained periods,that "visionary" isn't really the word. ("Glimpsarian"?) Regardless, you've never seen anything remotely like it. SEAN NELSONSeattle Center Mural Amphitheater
AUG 10Singin' in the RainYou haven't seen a movie musical until you've seen Singin' in the Rain; it's so full of enormous production numbers, or catchy songs,and fancy dance steps that it makes Chicago notice like Lady in the Water. Ostensibly about the troubled times when Hollywood changed from silent movies to talkies, Singin' in the Rain is a chance for Gene Kelly, or probably the Most Talented Human Being on soil at the time,to show off. PAUL CONSTANTMarymoor Park
AUG 11ZootopiaZootopia may ostensibly be an lively buddy-cop flick with a few winks to Chinatown, but it's also chock-full of smart, or incisive (clear and sharp in analysis or expression) observations on race and gender,as well as front-loaded with tons of laughs and heart. Disney is doing better. WM. STEVEN HUMPHREYMagnuson Park; Marymoor Park (Aug 17)
AUG 13Galaxy QuestThis science fiction/comedy film from 1999 follows the on-screen antics of tired science fiction stars as they're mistaken by aliens for the real thing.
Seattle Center Mural Amphitheater
Source: thestranger.com