Hudson Valley Crucial Viewing: December 6- 19

Here we are in December! Hope you all are abiding the snow. Before we get into this week’s edition, a gentle reminder that we’re working on establishing a permanent home for repertory cinema in Kingston, and we need your help. You can make a tax-deductible donation here, or get in touch by replying to this email if you’d like to discuss further. The support we’ve received already from the community has been truly inspiring, and we’re looking forward to an even bigger 2025!

Now here’s Bel with…

Robert Zemeckis' CONTACT
Story Screen Cinema, Hudson – Saturday, December 7, 7:00pm

There’s so much to say about Contact it’s hard to know where to start. This is easily the highlight of director Robert Zemeckis’ career (I do not want to talk to anyone about the AI de-aging nightmare that I expect Home (2024) to be…). It’s also peak 90s big budget movie fare. We’re re-entering an era of the action flick as everyone’s Marvel fatigue continues to grow, but I don’t think we’ll ever really achieve what we got in the 90s. Contact maintains a perfect balance of contemporary political anxiety, Oscar-baiting drama, philosophical pandering, and an excellent cast. You could easily wax on about its metaphorical relationship to the American anxiety of “the alien”, the little green man from space alien or the more real, xenophobic 90s anxiety of the ethnic and racial other. You could talk about Zemeckis’ career-spanning obsession with “humanity” and this examination of it, one that feels distinctly less saccharine and politically muddled than his other works (I’m looking at you Forrest Gump). Ultimately though, as the lapsed Catholic that I am, I love this film particularly for its interest in faith and science as an inextricable dichotomy. I won’t go off on a theological tangent, but I think that there is so much to dig into here regarding our systems of belief, what belief looks like in a technologically advanced world, and what we do with those beliefs when they’re challenged, or when we are asked to believe in things that cannot be tangibly proven. I hadn’t seen this movie in a long, long time before this week and I’m glad to have had the excuse to revisit it. You might find something stimulating in there too. (1997, 153min)

Ari Aster's HEREDITARY
Orpheum, Saugerties – Wednesday, December 11, 8:00pm

Look, if you know me from outside of this newsletter, you know I am the last person to swallow the A24 pill. I think they’re a great distribution house who work with interesting directors and cool projects, and don’t get me wrong they have, like, an evil-genius level marketing team (have you looked at their online shop recently?) but be-all end-all, they are one of many great independent movie houses, and, you know what? Sometimes they put out flops. I’ll say it. Hereditary, however, is not one of those flops. This is the movie that put elevated horror on the radar (for better or for worse) and I ******* love it. I have seen this movie probably 5 or 6 times. I don’t think there’s a single movie from the last decade I can say that about. Probably not many from the last 20 years (2005’s Pride & Prejudice does take the cake on that though… don’t ask). In some ways, maybe this is a perfect holiday movie, if you really really want to work through some family trauma when you’re home. Or not, don’t take my advice. Either way, it’s a movie that I find endlessly worth rewatching. I really do think Toni Collette gives an Oscar-worthy performance here, and I think she was (rudely) snubbed. This movie achieves what so many horror films fail at. For all that it is high-minded, intimate, and rooted in more traditional dramatic tropes of film, when it’s ready to commit it commits. The ending is balls to the wall insane and it’s terrifying. Plus, there’s always little details to notice on rewatches, which is something Ari Aster excels at as a director. The dollhouse visual motif is true about his touch on the movie. He constructs horrifying little worlds that we get to peer into. You should probably give this one a second look. (2018, 127min)

Edmund Purdum's DON’T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS
Avalon Lounge, Catskill – Thursday, December 12, 7:00pm

Not all Christmas movies have to bring tidings of good cheer, you know? Don’t Open Til Christmas certainly doesn’t, but if you didn’t get enough of a giallo fix during the spooky season, here’s another opportunity. I’d not heard of this movie until Sleepover Trading Co. reached out to us to let us know they were screening it at Avalon and, after watching it this week, I’ve been utterly charmed. It’s got everything you want out of a schlocky holiday horror flick: sex, rock numbers, grimy London clubs, and some amazing low budget 80s gore. There’s three santa murders in the first 10 minutes! What more could you ask for! This is a great movie to pull up to with some friends, some snacks, (and some great soju cocktails from Avalon) for a fun and festive treat. Plus I’m always happy to shout-out programming done by fellow weirdos. If you’re not familiar with Sleepover Trading Co. give them a look. Plus, I always love to see some cool features from the oft forgotten English film lexicon. There’s a ton of great b-movie horror from this era and this one definitely shines for me. Beyond the camp, there’s some truly beautiful shots, some fantastic (and fun) editing, and don’t even get me started on the peep show sequences. Just go and talk to me about it later. (1984, 86min)

John Carpenter's BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA
Rosendale Theatre, Rosendale – Wednesday, December 18, 7:30pm

Look, there’s definitely some parts of Big Trouble in Little China that don’t hold up. The prominence of the Orientalism that was so common in the 80s is holding on strong in this John Carpenter flick, and I would be happy to get into a larger conversation about it. However, I am also a huge John Carpenter fan and this is a pretty key part of his filmography. Plus, it’s ridiculous and a total romp from start to finish. Kirk Russell’s scumbag, truck driving anti-hero feels so emblematic of cult-classic action heroes of the time. Plus, young Kim Cattrall! What more do I have to say? I love her, I love Sex and the City, and it’s a treat to be reminded that she had a long and varied career before she became Samantha Jones. She’s great in this. Famously, this is the movie that disillusioned Carpenter on Hollywood filmmaking and pushed him to go entirely independent. It also fulfilled his dream of making a martial arts movie. This is the marriage of every genre obsession from the 80s you can think of. Did you know they originally wanted it to be a western? I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing. In the end, if you want a nostalgic romp through an 80s genre action flick, this is probably one of your best choices. And what a treat that it’s freed from home movie hell for once.(1989, 100min)

Victor Fleming's THE WIZARD OF OZ
UPAC, Kingston – Thursday, December 19, 7:30pm

I’ve spent all week trying to decide what tact to take in telling you guys why you should go see The Wizard of Oz. For a while I thought it would be funny to couch it in the Wicked film hype. Those are easy loglines: “Go see the movie that started it all!” “Check out the original gravity defying 20th century effects!” etc. etc. But, to be honest, I’m not all that excited about Wicked and I actually am excited that the original is being shown in such a historic theater. There’s a lot to be said about The Wizard of Oz. There are the horror stories from the set, not limited to the extended and horrifying accounts of Judy Garland’s abuse, or the use of asbestos for many of the iconic effects. This was MGM’s most expensive production at the time, and failed to turn a profit during its initial release. It’s also, arguably, one of the most influential big five studio system films of all time, not in the least for its revolutionary use of Technicolor film stock. This is a complicated addition to the death of the author argument, I think. The horrors now associated with the film, things that were revealed after the fact, cast the film with a deathly and frightening pallor. At the same time, cinema today would not be the same without it. And, it is a frankly astonishing film. The makeup is unbelievable, the story book saturation is gorgeous. The set design and effects are outrageous. It’s a true visual spectacle that speaks to the reason cinema is a lasting art form, because it offers the opportunity to create things in ways that no other medium can. I’ll bring it back to Wicked. The movie certainly looks good, but there’s something sort of off about the color grading, about the CGI. Everything is so perfect that it’s uncanny, eerie to look at. Here, there is uncanniness, but it’s intentional. The things that are constructed are meant to be that way. We have to suspend our disbelief at the seams in craftsmanship and, I think at least, it’s a lot easier to do when you know how the thing was made. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-technology, and I think there are flaws in practical effects too (have you ever watched behind the scenes footage from Ridley Scott’s recent Alien sequels?). But ultimately, the charm of a sound stage, of the costumes, of the makeup, of the eerie, ominous, but beautiful quality of the original do take the cake for me. I wonder if you’ve seen this movie since you were a little kid? Maybe you’re overdue to revisit it. (1939, 102min)