Thinking about America for the Fourth, 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.
Our colleagues at De Los ran a thoughtful and provocative interview this week with Patricia Riggen, director of “Under the Same Moon,’ which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Andrea Flores spoke to Riggen about the film’s legacy and how it might be different trying to make the film today.
“Under the Same Moon” traces the journey of 9-year-old Carlitos (Adrián Alonso) as he heads from Mexico to Los Angeles to find his mother Rosario (Kate del Castillo), an undocumented worker. He is aided along the way by another migrant, Enrique (Eugenio Derbez). Also featuring America Ferrera in a small role and an appearance by the band Los Tigres del Norte, the movie is currently available for rent on multiple digital platforms.
At the time, the film broke box-office records for a Spanish-language film in the U.S., audiences resonating with its heartfelt emotions and focus on the bond between and mother and son.
“If I made ‘Under the Same Moon’ right now, I would not make it like that,” said Riggen. “It would be dark as hell.”
Riggen added, “I wanted to make a movie that the Latino audience connected with and immigrants could watch. But the tone would be different. I would do a deep dive into the problem. I stayed away from making the movie political and concentrated more on the love story with the mother-son relationship. ... Now I feel like it’s time to have more of a political angle. Half the country still believes that immigrants are criminals, but being able to feed your loved one is a human right.”
Riggen said she and “Same Moon” screenwriter Ligiah Villalobos have been working to adapt the story into a series.
“I find Hollywood, my industry, to be a little bit responsible for the hostility that Latinos and immigrants find as a community in the U.S.,” Riggen said. “Our representation of Latinos has rarely been positive. We have to turn things around and represent the community in a positive light, not just the negative way that is prompting hostility by half of the country.”
Fireworks and more for the Fourth
Maybe it’s just me, but this year the Fourth of July is feeling extra emotional: fraught and complicated as America as a concept, an ideal and a current practical reality that feels so imperiled and fractured. It’s difficult not to be in a mode of reflection rather than celebration. Local theaters are coming through with an array of films to help you meditate on the state of the nation, get away from all that or maybe a bit of both.
The New Beverly Cinema will be screening “Dazed and Confused,” Richard Linklater’s 1993 ode to hanging out as a pathway to figuring yourself out, on Friday afternoon. “The Return of the Living Dead,” Dan O’Bannon’s horror-comedy, set over the Independence Day holiday, will play in the evening on Friday and Saturday.
Steven Spielberg’s 1981 “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” still a rousing action-adventure delight, will be at Vidiots on Friday. Tim Burton’s 1985 “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” will play Friday and Saturday. Vidiots will also be showing John Carpenter’s painfully prescient 1988 sci-fi-action classic “They Live” on Saturday in 35mm.
The American Cinematheque will screen Robert Altman’s “Nashville,” which, with all its contradictions, might sum up America about as well as any movie can. It plays at the Egyptian on Friday. I recently spoke to one of the film’s stars, Ronee Blakley, about the film’s enduring impact. “It was just a bunch of talent put together by a bunch of great people,” she said.
The Cinematheque will also screen the original Cannes cut of Richard Kelly’s 2006 “Southland Tales” at the Los Feliz 3. With a ridiculously huge cast including Dwayne Johnson and Sarah Michelle Gellar, a convoluted conspiracy plot and a musical number with Justin Timberlake, the film captures something about 21st century America that few others manage. I spoke to Kelly about the film in 2019, ahead of when the Cannes cut played for the first time in the city.
“It was this really incredibly ambitious, sprawling film,” Kelly said. “I was writing graphic novel prequels and it was just too much. We really didn’t have the technology or the resources to finish it. It was that the ambition was just overflowing. I didn’t have the discipline at the time to reign myself in. So we knew we were going into a situation where we had to just put our best foot forward. I think it was my lawyer who said at the time that getting into the competition at Cannes was the best thing and the worst thing that ever happened to ‘Southland Tales.’”
On Saturday at the Hollywood Bowl will be a 50th anniversary screening of Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” with a live performance of John Williams’ score by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by David Newman.
The Frida Cinema will be showing Brian De Palma’s “Blow-Out,” which contains an astonishing sequence set against a fireworks display, along with a whole week of other Fourth of July-themed movies, including “Nashville” and “Dazed and Confused.”
70mm festival returns
The American Cinematheque is launching the latest edition of its 70mm festival this week and it is (again) such a warm confirmation of why this is such a special moment for moviegoing in Los Angeles. The intersection of a specific print of a certain title at an exact time and theater leads to experiences that simply cannot be repeated.
This year there are a handful of new titles and prints to the selection. Among those being promoted as playing the series for the first time are Mel Brooks’ “Spaceballs,” David Lynch’s “Dune,” Milos Forman’s “Amadeus,” Joel Schumacher’s “Flatliners,” John McTiernan’s “Die Hard,” and Ivan Reitman’s “Ghostbusters”
Also among the films playing will be Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia,” Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” and “Vertigo,” John Ford’s “The Searchers,” Sam Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch,” Jacques Tati’s “Playtime,” Paul Verhoeven’s “Total Recall,” James Cameron’s “Aliens,” Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise’s “West Side Story,” Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X,” Tony Scott’s “Top Gun” and Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts.”
Filmmaker Willard Huyck will be present for a screening of his “Howard the Duck.” Director Margaret Honda will be there for 70mm screenings of the experimental films “Spectrum Reverse Spectrum” and “Equinox.”
More recent titles have also been programmed: Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights” and “The Master,” Jordan Peele’s “Nope,” Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma,” Christopher Nolan’s “Inception,” Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon” and Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist.”
Points of interest
‘In the Mood for Love’ 25th anniversary
To commemorate the film’s 25th anniversary, Wong Kar-wai’s “In the Mood for Love” is back in theaters along with the rarely seen short film, “In the Mood for Love 2001” that reunites the film’s stars, Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung.
In the 2022 Sight & Sound poll of the greatest films of all time, “In the Mood for Love” was the highest-ranking film released during the 21st century. The story of two people in 1962 Hong Kong, each married to others yet feeling an intense connection, unsure of how to act on their emerging bond, the film is an overwhelming emotional experience in which every slight nuance or touch takes on cascading impact.
In his original review, Kenneth Turan wrote, “A swooningly cinematic exploration of romantic longing, both restrained and sensual, luxuriating in color, texture and sound, this film raises its fascination with enveloping atmosphere and suppressed emotion to a ravishing, almost hypnotic level.”
‘Sinners’ on streaming
Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” starts streaming today on Max. Whether you are just catching up to the movie or checking it out again, it’s nice to have it so easily accessible. (And a 4K disc will be available next week.)
The story of twin brothers Smoke and Stack, both played by Michael B. Jordan, as they return to their hometown in 1930s Mississippi to open a juke joint nightclub only to be beset by roving vampires, “Sinners” is an astonishing horror film and a thoughtful treatise on legacy. And makes for a fine Fourth of July movie as well.
In her review of the film, Amy Nicholson wrote, “What a blood rush to exit Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners’ aware that you’ve seen not merely a great movie but an eternal movie, one that will transcend today’s box office and tomorrow’s awards to live on as a forever favorite. If the cinema had a dozen more ambitious populists like Coogler, it would be in tip-top health. The young filmmaker who started his career with the 2013 Sundance indie ‘Fruitvale Station’ had to make three franchise hits — one ‘Rocky’ and two ‘Black Panthers’ — before getting the green-light to direct his own original spectacle. It was worth the wait. Let the next Coogler get there faster.”
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