Fridays
You Can't Handle the Youth: '80s Classics of John Hughes and Rob Reiner
Programmed by Daniel Frankel
2014-10-03 @ 7:00 PM 9:15 PM 11:15 PM
Sunday 1:00 PM
The Princess Bride
(Rob Reiner, 1987) · When a young boy falls ill, his grandfather reads him a story that tells of love, a beautiful princess named Buttercup (Robin Wright), a Spanish master fencer, and the man with six fingers on one hand that murdered his father (Christopher Guest). Deftly juggling touching moments of emotion with absurdist comedy, The Princess Bride manages to capture a child-like sense of fantastic whimsy while remaining staunchly adult in its humor and themes.
runtime: 98 min format: 35mm
2014-10-10 @ 7:00 PM 9:00 PM 11:00 PM
Sunday 1:00 PM
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
(John Hughes, 1986) · "The key to faking out the parents is the clammy hands. It's a good non-specific symptom; I'm a big believer in it. A lot of people will tell you that a good phony fever is a dead lock, but, uh... you get a nervous mother, you could wind up in a doctor's office. That's worse than school. You fake a stomach cramp, and when you're bent over, moaning and wailing, you lick your palms. It's a little childish and stupid, but then, so is high school."
runtime: 103 min format: 35mm
2014-10-17 @ 7:00 PM 9:00 PM
Sunday 1:00 PM
Stand By Me
(Rob Reiner, 1986) · Over the course of a late-summer weekend in the 1950s, four boys—Gordie, Chris, Teddy, and Vern—venture to find a corpse rumored to be in their neck of the woods. Reiner captures the stunningly sensitive and raw maturation process of these boys as they encounter new senses of friendship, responsibility, and mortality. Starring Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and a pudgy Jerry O'Connell in their best work despite being under 18.
runtime: 89 min format: 35mm
2014-10-24 @ 7:00 PM 9:00 PM 11:00 PM
Sunday 1:00 PM
The Breakfast Club
(John Hughes, 1985) · "Dear Mr. Vernon, We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete and a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club"
runtime: 97 min format: 35mm
2014-10-31 @ 7:00 PM 9:15 PM
Sunday 1:00 PM
Misery
(Rob Reiner, 1990) · Kathy Bates' sweetly sinister Annie Wilkes takes in famed novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) after he breaks both legs and injures his shoulder in a calamitous car accident. Annie is Paul's number one fan and almost literally chains him to his typewriter in captivity so that he will write her into his narrative. Reiner's second Stephen King adapation is the perfect fusion of humor and horror, playing with fears of isolation, obsession, and hobbled ankles.
runtime: 107 min format: 35mm
2014-11-07 @ 7:00 PM 9:00 PM
Sunday 1:00 PM
Sixteen Candles
(John Hughes, 1984) · Featuring a number of touching performances from several young actors that went on to have long, fruitful careers in Hollywood (Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall are particuarly strong in two of the lead roles here), Sixteen Candles manages to capture what's so scary about turning sixteen while never devolving into condescension. While it hits all the typical plot points of other teenage flicks, they're presented here with a refreshing sincerity.
runtime: 93 min format: 35mm
2014-11-14 @ 7:00 PM 9:00 PM 11:00 PM
Sunday 1:00 PM
When Harry Met Sally...
(Rob Reiner, 1989) · Can men and woman ever be friends with each other? Apparently not, according to Reiner and scribe Nora Ephron. Meg Ryan broke into stardom here, pairing with Billy Crystal for a film which helped transform romantic comedies into their modern form. (Another M.R.—Molly Ringwald—almost got the role.) The most celebrated scenes include Ryan's fake orgasm in a Manhattan deli and the opening sequence at a Chicago college which a few people may have heard of.
runtime: 96 min format: 35mm
2014-11-21 @ 7:00 PM 9:15 PM
Sunday 1:00 PM
Pretty in Pink
(Howard Deutch, 1986) · Molly Ringwald is Andie, the cool girl from the wrong side of the tracks who has to choose between the BMW-driving Blane ("That's a major appliance, that's not a name!") and the dorky "Duckie" (played by Jon Cryer in indelible fashion). Popularity and class complicate this iteration of screenwriter Hughes' love triangle, but Pretty in Pink is not your conventional Cinderella story. Ringwald is compelling, but it is Cryer who steals our hearts.
runtime: 96 min format: 35mm
2014-12-05 @ 7:00 PM 9:15 PM 11:15 PM
Sunday 1:00 PM
Home Alone
(Chris Columbus, 1990) · As the McAllister clan rushes to O'Hare to make their holiday flight to Paris, they forget one thing: their son Kevin! Free of family nuisances, Kevin's adolescent fantasy of being home alone is fully realized...until he encounters the Wet Bandits. Suddenly his fantasy becomes a conflict, as Kevin must inventively fend off these burglars on his own. Saccharine, smart, and slapstick all at once, Home Alone is the quintessential Chicago Christmas movie.
runtime: 103 min format: DCP
