30 years of ‘Clueless,’ plus the week’s best movies in L.A.
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Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
We are pleased to exclusively announce that the Egyptian Theatre will host the U.S. premiere of the new 4K restoration of Charlie Chaplin’s “The Gold Rush” on June 26, the 100th anniversary of the film’s premiere at that same venue in 1925.
The restoration premiered as part of the Cannes Classics section at the recent Cannes Film Festival. On June 26, the restoration will screen in more than 70 countries, with the Egyptian being the exclusive engagement in the U.S. Film historian Jeffrey Vance, author of the 2003 book “Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema,” will introduce the screening. Reproductions of the original film program will be available for 25 cents, the same price that it cost in 1925.
“The Gold Rush” features Chaplin in his iconic Little Tramp character, searching for his fortune prospecting for gold, and features some of his most famous moments on-screen. The restoration, carried out by Cineteca di Bologna and L’Immagine Ritrovata, draws from materials sourced from archives all around the world, including the BFI Archive, George Eastman Museum and the Museum of Modern Art.
Tickets are now available at egyptiantheatre.com.
‘Clueless’ turns 30 at the Academy
On Saturday the Academy Museum will present a 30th anniversary screening of “Clueless” in 35mm, with director Amy Heckerling, actors Alicia Silverstone, Elisa Donovan and Breckin Meyer, costume designer Mona May and casting director Marcia Ross all scheduled to attend for a Q&A.
Written by Heckerling, the film is a loose adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Emma” relocated to affluent 1990s Beverly Hills. Cher Horowitz (Silverstone), a popular and fashionable teenager, sets about playing matchmaker for a new classmate, Tai (Brittany Murphy), enlisting her best friend Dionne (Stacey Dash) to help. Paul Rudd, in his feature debut, plays Cher’s stepbrother.
In his original review, Kenneth Turan called the film “a wickedly funny teen-age farce from writer-director Amy Heckerling that, like its heroine, turns out to have more to it than anyone could anticipate. … Put together with verve and style, ‘Clueless’ is a sweet-natured satire of L.A.’s over-pampered youth that gets more fun out of high school than most people had attending it.”
In the summer of 2020, Justin Chang interviewed Heckerling, who spoke about writing Cher’s voice-over narration and getting into the mind of the character by saying, “Once you get into her head, then it just goes. It’s not the voice of God. It’s the voice of that person. And you get into it, and it’s not necessarily what the writer needs — it’s what the writer wants you to think that person is thinking. And that’s a lot of fun to do. It’s like, as a writer, you’re also playing a character.”
The “Clueless” screening opens a series on teen movies that will run through July 10. Other titles include “Bring It On,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Adventures in Babysitting,” and “Saved!” all in 35mm, along with “Napoleon Dynamite,” “Dope,” “Love, Simon” and “10 Things I Hate About You.”
‘The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love’
Also on Saturday will be another 35mm 30th anniversary screening, with the UCLA Film & Television Archive showing writer-director Maria Maggenti’s “The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love.” A charming example of ’90s indie filmmaking, the movie follows the burgeoning relationship between Evie (Nicole Parker) and Randy (Laurel Hollomon), two girls from opposite sides of the tracks who shouldn’t particularly even be friends, let alone romantically drawn to each other.
In his original review of the film, Peter Rainer wrote, “The experience of first love is a movie perennial but rarely is it believably rendered. The best thing going for ‘The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love’ — an amateurish, sweet, little piddle of a movie — is that it captures a bit of the freshness, and the awkwardness, of the moment. … They seem like real people, and so their budding romance strikes a few remembered chords.”
In a June 1995 profile of Maggenti by Chris Riemenschneider, the filmmaker talked about her inspirations in making the film.
“I didn’t make a niche-market film,” Maggenti said. “It wasn’t about ‘Let’s make a lesbian film, and a bunch of lesbians will go see it.’ I wanted to make a film that people would enjoy, a film about an authentic human experience, and it happens to be with someone of the same sex.”
Points of interest
‘Death Becomes Her’ in 35mm
On Sunday the Academy Museum will host a 35mm screening of Robert Zemeckis’ 1992 “Death Becomes Her,” starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, Isabella Rossellini and Bruce Willis. Made with still-dazzling special effects work that should look spectacular in the Academy’s David Geffen Theater, the film is about two women who go to great lengths to maintain their youthful appearance, including competing for the romantic affections of a top plastic surgeon.
In his original review of the film, Kenneth Turan wrote, “‘Death’ gets progressively darker and darker, forgetting all about humor in its attempts to push the more mordant limits of its story. The three principals are game enough about all this, soldiering on until the end, but their characters, not having much to do that they haven’t done before, tend to sound the same single notes they have since Frame One.
“There is something regrettable in all this, because by industry standards this picture does take a few risks, and few enough pictures in today’s Hollywood take any at all. But even though ‘Death Becomes Her’ has no fear of being out on the edge, brazenness alone is no guarantee of success.”
The film is screening as part of a “Summer of Camp” series, that will also include “Valley of the Dolls,” “Sleepaway Camp,” “Flash Gordon,” “The Birdcage,” “Lifeforce,” “Serial Mom,” “Disco Godfather,” “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar,” “Showgirls” and “Drop Dead Gorgeous” all in 35mm prints, plus “Batman & Robin,” “But I’m a Cheerleader” and more. There will also be triple features of the “Austin Powers” movies and titles starring Joan Crawford and Elizabeth Taylor.
Shock-A-Go-Go Film Festival
The Shock-A-Go-Go Film Festival will settle into the Lumiere Cinema at the Music Hall on Saturday and Sunday. The highlight of this year’s program will be the Saturday screenings of 1978’s “Piranha” and 1981’s “The Howling,” with director Joe Dante and star Belinda Balaski present for both. Dante is a masterful storyteller and unflinching in his recollections. Any opportunity to hear him talk is worth taking.
Among the finest examples of the Roger Corman school of filmmaking (rooted in low-budget genre filmmaking but reaching unexpected heights), both “Piranha” and “The Howling” were written by John Sayles, who would go on to a notable career as a filmmaker in his own right.
Also on Saturday will be will be a screening of “Hellbound: Hellraiser II” with writer Peter Atkins and director Tony Randel present, as well as “Return of the Living Dead 3” with director Brian Yuzna in person. Yuzna’s 1989 cult classic “Society” will also show.
‘Personal Best’ and ‘Star 80’
The New Beverly is featuring a double-bill of movies starring Mariel Hemingway on Monday and Tuesday: Robert Towne’s 1982 “Personal Best” and Bob Fosse’s “Star 80” from 1983.
“Personal Best” was the directorial debut for the Oscar-winning “Chinatown” screenwriter Robert Towne, who died in July of last year. The film stars Hemingway as a rising track star who falls in love with an older athlete, played by real-life Olympic track and field athlete Patrice Donnelly. Both are training for the 1980 Olympics. The film was noteworthy at the time for its frank depiction of a lesbian relationship, as well as its focus on the athletes at work.
A January 1982 profile of Towne by Dale Pollack found him in a suite at the Westwood Marquis Hotel (now the W) “filled with typewriters, phones, vodka bottles and stacks of yellowing newspapers.”
In a sign of the moment (and mindset) in which he was making it, Towne took some objection to classifying “Personal Best” as a gay-themed film, saying, “I don’t think in any way this is a lesbian or homosexual movie. What I’m interested in is how you deal with a society that encourages competition, and still care about other people. These two women are in love with each other. In order to place emphasis on who they’re making love to, you have to show it. But there are only two minutes of sex in the film; there are two hours of competition.”
I know I’ve talked about Bob Fosse and “Star 80” around these parts a number of times before, but for me it always rates a mention. Thinking of the film specifically in relation to “Personal Best” is worthwhile, as both films meditate on the use and meaning of women’s bodies.
Few films are as unsparing and dispiriting in their depiction of the star machinery of Hollywood as “Star 80.” Hemingway plays Dorothy Stratten, the Playboy Playmate turned actor who was brutally murdered by her ex-husband and manager, played with psychotic commitment by Eric Roberts.
In her original review of the film, Sheila Benson called it “creepy” and added, “Worst of all, there is a feeling of complicity that is not far from voyeurism that you get as part of ‘Star 80’s’ audience, sitting through the increasingly morbid tightening of the story.”
In other news
Two local theaters are finding unique ways to support their communities this summer. Vidiots is launching Movie Den, a program of tween and teen-centric matinees focused on engaging a new generation of film lovers. Underwritten by Mubi and Golden Globe Foundation, screenings will take place in the venue’s microcinema. Tickets are $2 and popcorn is free. Titles in the program include “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “Princess Mononoke,” “Rear Window,” “La Bamba,” “Hairspray,” “The Half of It,” “Hot Rod” and more.
In a statement, Maggie Mackay, executive director of Vidiots Foundation, said, “As a mom to teens and a member of a community that has been through so much this year, it was important to me and our team that we try to make what we know will be a hard summer for so many a little easier, by expanding programming with an intention to get us out of the house, off devices and reconnected.”
The Gardena Cinema, the last family-run independent single-screen indoor movie theater in South Los Angeles, will have free screenings this weekend as part of Pluto TV’s Free Movie Weekend at indie movie theaters across the country. Oscar-winning filmmaker Sean Baker — who did a Times interview from the Gardena last year and appeared there again just last weekend — has partnered with Pluto TV to support their program.
Screening for free at the Gardena this weekend will be “Grease,” “Saturday Night Fever” and 1984’s “Ghostbusters.”
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