Charlton Heston in the 1956 movie “The Ten Commandments,” playing in VistaVision at the Academy Museum on Aug. 22.
(Paramount Pictures)
The 10 movies you need to see in L.A. this month
- Share via
A Joan Crawford melodrama that few people alive have seen, an early Christopher Nolan stunner and the behind-the-wheel inspiration for Ryan Gosling’s “Drive.” August is a good month to live in Los Angeles and go to the movies. The repertory scene continues to offer up an avalanche of riches, with local programmers outdoing themselves.
These screenings feature special guests, archival prints and other surprises. Consider our guide a handy catch-all of the best repertory screenings of the month, reserved for older films playing in unique circumstances.
Whatever your plans may be, change them for the following 10 events.
Planning your weekend?
Stay up to date on the best things to do, see and eat in L.A.
Showing Movie Movies
'Letty Lynton' (Aero, Aug. 5)
Romance Tickets
-
- Share via
-
(Warner Bros.)
One of the most-talked-about events at this spring’s TCM Classic Film Festival was a screening of Clarence Brown’s long-vaulted 1932 gem. Unavailable to be shown publicly for some 90 years because of legal complications with the story rights, the movie is a tart slice of pre-Code melodrama starring an emotion-swept Joan Crawford as an heiress caught between her former lover and the man she wants to start a new life with. Besides this screening at the Aero (and another at the Frida in September), the new 4K restoration is also now available on Blu-ray, meaning the film has gone from being essentially unwatchable to sitting on your shelf in a matter of months.
“Letty Lynton” is playing Aug. 5 at the Aero Theatre. Tickets here.
“Letty Lynton” is playing Aug. 5 at the Aero Theatre. Tickets here.
Show more Show less
‘The Prestige’ (Academy Museum, Aug. 10)
Thriller Tickets
-
- Share via
-
(Touchstone / Warner Bros.)
A chestnut from Christopher Nolan’s pre-billion-grossing phase, this 2006 thriller represents the peak of the filmmaker’s circular plotting and Michael Caine monologuing. The story concerns dueling magicians in the 1890s, but don’t let that put you off. Spooky intensity is summoned by Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson and one highly symbolic caged bird, while the movie as a whole quietly scrapes the far edge of metaphysical dread. Even if it throws you once or twice, you can luxuriate in the performance of David Bowie as mysterious inventor Nikola Tesla: one stranger from another land playing another.
“The Prestige” is playing Aug. 10 at the Academy Museum. Tickets here.
“The Prestige” is playing Aug. 10 at the Academy Museum. Tickets here.
Show more Show less
'My Dinner With Andre' (New Beverly, Aug. 12, 13)
Drama Tickets
-
- Share via
-
(New Yorker Films)
If there ever was any question as to whether a movie can be just two people talking, Louis Malle’s 1981 New York City essential is here to answer with a definitive yes. Actor-playwrights Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, longtime friends playing abstracted variations of themselves, reunite for a long dinner at a nice restaurant that involves an airing out of big ideas and small grievances, meandering stories and direct recriminations. With a deceptive simplicity, the movie becomes the epitome of a certain style of urbane wit and anxious discontent. It plays on a double bill with another Shawn-Gregory-Malle collaboration, 1994’s “Vanya on 42nd Street.”
“My Dinner With Andre” is playing Aug. 12 and 13 at the New Beverly Cinema. Tickets here.
“My Dinner With Andre” is playing Aug. 12 and 13 at the New Beverly Cinema. Tickets here.
Show more Show less
Thoughts on our guides? Let’s hear it!
We’re gathering feedback on how our guides can better serve you and help you find the next great restaurant, hike or activity in Los Angeles.
‘Unfaithful’ (Academy Museum, Aug. 14)
Drama Tickets
-
- Share via
-
(20th Century Fox)
Director Adrian Lyne somehow went from making the 1980 Jodie Foster teens-in-trouble movie “Foxes” to a robust career in high-gloss erotic thrillers: “Fatal Attraction,” “Indecent Proposal” and this one, which, without a doubt, contains the best performance he ever directed. Turning trash into treasure, Diane Lane dives so deeply into the interiority of a wealthy married woman conducting a fling, her reveries brought her serious acclaim, major critics awards and an Oscar nomination (which she shouldn’t have lost to Nicole Kidman’s fake nose in “The Hours”). At this screening, Lyne will have a conversation with podcaster Karina Longworth, at which he’ll discuss his one-of-a-kind Hollywood journey.
“Unfaithful” is playing Aug. 14 at the Academy Museum. Tickets here.
“Unfaithful” is playing Aug. 14 at the Academy Museum. Tickets here.
Show more Show less
‘Scarlet Street’ (Vidiots, Aug. 15)
Noir Tickets
-
- Share via
-
(Universal Pictures)
Something difficult but true needs to be entertained: Fritz Lang, for all his success in Germany making movies like “Metropolis” and “M,” became a much more exciting filmmaker in Hollywood. He certainly never did anything as bold as “Fury” or “The Big Heat” back home and when he hit his stride producing dirty little noirs — several of them, like “Scarlet Street,” starring his killer informal troupe of Edward G. Robinson, Dan Duryea and the sultry Joan Bennett — Lang was every bit as good as Billy Wilder. Be warned, once you start on Fritz’s L.A. period, there’s no turning back.
“Scarlet Street” is playing Aug. 15 at Vidiots. Tickets here.
“Scarlet Street” is playing Aug. 15 at Vidiots. Tickets here.
Show more Show less
'The Off Hours' (Vidiots, Aug. 16)
Drama Tickets
-
- Share via
-
(Visit Films)
American independent filmmaking once had a strong streak of regionalism about it, turning movies into intimate, you-are-there snapshots of their specific time and place. That’s the case with Megan Griffiths’ 2011 drama, which captures the damp, late-night loneliness of the Pacific Northwest. With a captivating lead performance by Amy Seimetz, the film looks at the tribulations of a truck stop waitress working the late shift. It will get a 15th anniversary screening at Vidiots with Griffiths, Seimetz and cast members Scoot McNairy and Ross Partridge there for a Q&A moderated by Mark Duplass. It is particularly meaningful to see such a modest, undersung movie get the full-blown anniversary treatment.
“The Off Hours” is playing Aug. 16 at Vidiots. Tickets here.
“The Off Hours” is playing Aug. 16 at Vidiots. Tickets here.
Show more Show less
‘Dangerous Liaisons’ (Vidiots, Aug. 21)
Drama Tickets
-
- Share via
-
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
It’s never a bad time to return to Glenn Close’s vicious, magisterial turn in Stephen Frears’ 1988 period drama, better known for inspiring “Cruel Intentions.” But go back to the original, which is somehow fresher and younger. Consider it homework for a comeback that’s just about to unspool: John Malkovich, sure to dominate awards discussion this fall for “Wild Horse Nine,” should have won everything for his performance as Valmont, a character who is, by turns, vengeful, toying and, at the last possible second, openhearted. “It’s beyond my control,” he repeats, and you believe him.
“Dangerous Liaisons” is playing Aug. 21 at Vidiots. Tickets here.
“Dangerous Liaisons” is playing Aug. 21 at Vidiots. Tickets here.
Show more Show less
‘Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol’ (Aero, Aug. 22)
Action Tickets
-
- Share via
-
(Paramount Pictures)
To celebrate the film’s 15th anniversary, director Brad Bird will take part in a virtual Q&A with the hosts of the “Mission: Impossible”-focused podcast “Light the Fuse.” The fourth film in the franchise, “Ghost Protocol” helped reset the template for the globe-hopping adventures of Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, adding an undercurrent of self-aware comedy. This time out, Cruise climbs the side of the world’s tallest building and tries to outrun a sandstorm. (And his hair in this one is particularly good, too.) The 35mm screening is part of the American Cinematheque’s “Friend of the Fest” series, in which podcasters (including our own Amy Nicholson) select some of their favorite movies. This year’s lineup is particularly exciting.
“Mission Impossible — Ghost Protocol” is playing Aug. 22 at the Aero Theatre. Tickets here.
“Mission Impossible — Ghost Protocol” is playing Aug. 22 at the Aero Theatre. Tickets here.
Show more Show less
‘The Ten Commandments’ (Academy Museum, Aug. 22)
Biblical Tickets
-
- Share via
-
(American Cinematheque)
For anyone yearning for more old-school epic-scaled filming after seeing “The Odyssey,” the Academy Museum has plenty in store for you. As part of a series spotlighting the VistaVision process — the Imax of its day that has become au currant again thanks to contemporary filmmakers such as Paul Thomas Anderson — there will be a screening of Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 biblical saga featuring Charlton Heston as Moses and the still-dazzling spectacle of the parting of the Red Sea. Other films screening in genuine VistaVision include “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” and “White Christmas,” which works just as well in August.
“The Ten Commandments” is playing Aug. 22 in VistaVision at the Academy Museum. Tickets here.
“The Ten Commandments” is playing Aug. 22 in VistaVision at the Academy Museum. Tickets here.
Show more Show less
‘The Driver’ (Vista, Aug. 28, 29)
Action-Thriller Tickets
-
- Share via
-
(StudioCanal Films LTD)
Another legendary movie that has gone from inaccessible to easier to see, Walter Hill’s 1978 nighttime drama reduces the crime thriller to its spare, existential essence. With Ryan O’Neal as an icy getaway driver, Isabelle Adjani as his enigmatic accomplice and Bruce Dern as a skeevy cop, the film has a relentlessly ratcheting tension and plenty of exciting spins around obscure corners of Los Angeles. The movie was an acknowledged influence on the nocturnal meanderings of “Drive” and the experience of cruising home after one of these two midnight 35mm screenings at the Vista will be astonishing.
“The Driver” is playing Aug. 28 and 29 at the Vista Theater. Tickets here.
“The Driver” is playing Aug. 28 and 29 at the Vista Theater. Tickets here.
Show more Show less
No matching entries.
Please reset filters to see all entries.
No matching entries.
Please reset filters to see all entries.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Most Read in Movies
Top