December 7
Close to Vermeer
Documentary | Art & Culture
(Dir. Suzanne Raes, 2023)
Suzanne Raes’s film follows curators, conservators, collectors, and experts in their joint mission to shine a new light on the elusive Dutch Master. This fascinating documentary reveals everything from the quiet diplomacy required to get the Vermeers to the Netherlands and the new technical knowledge gained by scanning the paintings layer by layer, to the shocking news that one work may not be by Vermeer after all. In the process, we discover how Vermeer was able to depict reality so differently from his contemporaries.
Songs My Brothers Taught Me
Documentary | Art & Culture
(Dir. Chloe Zhao, 2015)
Johnny, a restless Lakota teen, and his little sister Jashaun live with their mother on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. While Johnny looks for ways to escape by moving to LA, Jashaun holds onto her faith in the community and the simple pleasures she finds there.
December 14
Final Cut
Horror | Comedy
(Dir. Michel Hazanavicius, 2023)
This wacky horror comedy, a remake of Japanese cult hit 'One Cut of the Dead', follows a director making a single-take, low-budget zombie flick in which the cast and crew, one by one, actually turn into zombies. Directed by Oscar winner Michel Hazanavicius ('The Artist') and serving up blood-soaked high farce par excellence, this film revels in its affectionate embrace of goofy genre fun.
Millennium Mambo
Drama | Romance
(Dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 2001)
Hou Hsiao-hsien's stylish and seductive submersion into Taipei nightlife stars Shu Qi as an aimless bar hostess drifting away from her blowhard boyfriend and towards Jack Kao’s suave, sensitive gangster. Structured as a flashback from the then-future of 2011, it’s a transfixing trance-out of a movie, techno-scored and neon-lit with an undercurrent of turn-of-the-millennium ennui.
December 21
Bacurau
Action | Drama
(Dirs. Kleber Mendonça Filho, Juliano Dornelles, 2019)
Bacurau, a small village in Brazil, mourns the loss of its matriarch, Carmelita, who lived to be 94. Days later, its inhabitants notice that their village has literally vanished from most maps and a UFO-shaped drone starts flying overhead.
Tokyo Pop
Music | Comedy
(Dir. Fran Rubel Kuzui, 1988)
Aspiring rocker Wendy (Carrie Hamilton) hops on a plane to Tokyo with dreams of making it big. She forms a romantic and musical connection with Hiro (Diamond Yukai), whose band is looking for a lead singer and their big break. This underseen '80s indie gem by Fran Rubel Kuzui ('Buffy the Vampire Slayer') offers a breezy tour through bubble era Tokyo with knowing nods its vibrant pop culture.
December 28
Please, Not Now!
Romance | Comedy
(Dir. Roger Vadim, 1961)
Brigitte Bardot stars in this madcap romantic comedy, seen through the fetishizing lens of Roger Vadim. Sophie (Bardot), a flighty young model, learns that her boyfriend is planning to leave her for another woman. She resolves to either win him back or assassinate her rival. A handsome doctor assists her with the former plan so that she won't have to resort to the latter.
Two Small Bodies
Thriller | Romance
(Dir. Beth B, 1993)
After the disappearance of her two children, a nightclub hostess (Suzy Amis) is confronted in her home by an aggressive police lieutenant (Fred Ward) who subjects her to a series of ruthless interrogations. Directed by Beth B and based on the play by Neal Bell, 'Two Small Bodies' manages to be both a psychological thriller and a provocative dissection of the politics of sex and power.