Thursdays 2
Neon Noir: Fluorescent Visions of Vice and Violence
Programmed by Alexander Fee
Descending into the incandescent underworld of crime and vice, this series predominantly focuses on neo-noirs of the late 1970s and 1980s. Gritty, vibrant, and violent, these films bring noir into an increasingly modern world. From the city sprawl of Los Angeles to rural Texas, this series uncovers murder, conspiracy, and betrayal in the fluorescent glow of everyday life. Featuring classics such as Blow Out, Heat, and Repo Man.
3/30/2017 @ 9:30 PM
Hardcore
(Paul Schrader, 1979) · George C. Scott delivers a powerful performance as Jake Van Dorn, a conservative businessman who searches for his teenage daughter after she disappears while on a trip to California. Van Dorn finds himself exploring the gritty, subterranean realm of LA pornography in order to find her. Sharing similar themes to Schrader-penned Taxi Driver, Hardcore delivers an unrelenting, bleak vision of urban decay.
runtime: 109m format: DCP
4/6/2017 @ 9:15 PM
Blood Simple
(Joel and Ethan Coen, 1984) · In the Coen Brothers' debut film, greed, lust, and violence coalesce in the haunting pastoral backdrop of a rural Texas town. Suspecting his wife Abby (Francis McDormand) of cheating on him, Texas bar owner Marty hires a sleazy detective, Visser, to kill her and her boyfriend. Unencumbered by morality, Visser diverges from his contract and hatches an elaborate and idiotic robbery plot, but he gets more than he bargains for...
runtime: 99m format: DCP
4/13/2017 @ 9:30 PM
The Long Good Friday
(John Mackenzie, 1980) · This definitive British gangster classic stars Bob Hoskins (Who Framed Roger Rabbit) in his breakout role as Harold Shand, a ruthless London crime lord, aiming to legitimize his business. On the day that his investors arrive, Harold's best friend is murdered, rousing suspicions of betrayal. "I'll have his carcass dripping blood by midnight,” snarls Harold as he embarks on a desperate search for the traitor in his midst before his empire starts to crumble and fall.
runtime: 114m format: 35mm
4/20/2017 @ 9:30 PM
Repo Man
(Alex Cox, 1984) · Otto (Emilio Estevez), a young and frustrated punk, quits his job and begins to work as a repo man under the guidance of the experienced Bud (wonderfully portrayed by Harry Dean Stanton). Director Alex Cox transforms Los Angeles into a swirling cesspool of government conspiracies, aliens, and consumer culture as Otto and Bud attempt to repossess a heavily sought-after '64 Chevy Malibu for a large reward. Repo Man stands out as a cult classic of eighties punk culture.
runtime: 95m format: 35mm
4/27/2017 @ 9:45 PM
Mystery Screening
(, ) · Doc's night of mysteries continues, and we're serving up a crime-horror cocktail, of the neon persuasion. Susan Sontag once declared that we go to the movies to be kidnapped, an apt metaphor for the dark machinations at play in our late fare. So stick around after the siege, or come fresh. We'll be waiting. It's Thursday night and Doc's open late, with all the arresting celluloid chills you'll need to make it to the weekend.
runtime: ???m format: 35mm
5/4/2017 @ 9:15 PM
Heat
(Michael Mann, 1995) · Considered by many to be Michael Mann's masterpiece, this sweeping crime epic follows a crew of professional thieves led by Neil McCauley (Robert DeNiro), that has been pulling off heists across LA. Detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) becomes increasingly obsessed in pursuing them and, after a botched robbery, gets his chance. Thrilling and suspenseful, Heat is a passionate character study of two men on opposite sides of the law.
runtime: 170m format: 35mm
5/11/2017 @ 9:15 PM
The Driver
(Walter Hill, 1978) · Featuring adrenaline-charged car chases, The Driver stars Ryan O'Neal as a getaway driver who remains calm and collected, rarely uttering a word, as he burns rubber through the blue afterglow of the nocturnal Los Angeles cityscape. With help from the Player (Isabelle Adjani), the Driver always seems to evade the law, much to the frustration of an arrogant detective (Bruce Dern). Determined to finally ensnare the elusive Driver, the Detective sets up one final trap.
runtime: 91m format: Bluray
5/18/2017 @ 9:15 PM
Drive
(Nicolas Winding Refn, 2011) · An atmospheric neo-noir that recalls the works of Michael Mann and Jean-Pierre Melville, Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive is a modern classic. Accompanied by a relentlessly cool '80s-inspired synth soundtrack and featuring Ryan Gosling as the nameless driver with a scorpion jacket, this retro thriller evokes a mysteriously timeless ambience. A stunt driver by day and a getaway driver by night, the driver's world descends into chaos after a heist goes awry.
runtime: 100m format: 35mm
5/25/2017 @ 9:45 PM
Remember My Name
(Alan Rudolph, 1978) · "Produced by Robert Altman, Remember My Name evokes, as director Alan Rudolph once claimed, "the classic woman's melodramas of the Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford era". After serving a 12-year jail sentence, Emily (Geraldine Chaplin) returns to her previous lover, Neil (Anthony Perkins), now happily married, and begins to wreak havoc in her pursuit to reclaim Neil as her own.
runtime: 94m format: 35mm
6/1/2017 @ 9:30 PM
Blow Out
(Brian De Palma, 1981) · Brian De Palma's masterpiece stars John Travolta as Jack, a B-movie soundman, who witnesses a politician's fatal car crash while recording sound. Jack begins to uncover a conspiracy as he reconstructs the accident with his tapes. With vibrant hues of red and blue (thanks to DP Vilmos Zsigmond) and a breathlessly emotive score by Pino Donaggio , Blow Out, enters "the place where genre is transcended and what we're moved by is an artist's vision."(Pauline Kael)
runtime: 107m format: DCP
