While we know you’re probably anxiously waiting for Mel Gibson’s Pope: The Movie or for your Mr. Skin’s Skinclylopedia to arrive, you might want to check out some great new and revived movies this weekend:
Though not as fun as spoonerisms (“chipping the flannel”), they're words or phrases which read the same in both directions (like “nun”). Even just pronouncing it is mildly amusing. Pa-lin-dromes.
Todd Solondz'’s latest film follows a young Jersey teen who after the death of her cousin Dawn (aka, Weiner Dog, the morbidly unhappy protagonist from Welcome to the Dollhouse) wants nothing more than to have babies. Determined, she gets pregnant, but mom dissaproves and complications ensue. Read Gothamist's Solondz interview.
Welcome to the Dollhouse - A Solondz cult favorite, this uncomfortably amusing & disturbingly hilarious black comedy chronicles the socially awkward Dawn Weiner as she suffers cruel teasing from her junior high peers, crushes on a hunky older guitarist, and is ignored by a family that dotes on her nauseatingly “perfect” little sister (“Dawn, you are not leaving this table until you tell your sister that you love her!”). If you want to be part of the cool "special people" club, Gothamist strongly suggests heading to Landmark Sunshine Cinema, Fri. Apr 22 & Sat Apr 23 @ MIDNIGHT.
Chronicle of a Summer - The French “Cinema verite” stems from this 1961 self-styled classic in which legendary filmmaker Jean Rouch asks random strangers in the streets of Paris to answer "are you happy?" Sun. @ 4pm, $10, Sun. @ 4:00 PM, American Museum of the Moving Image, 35 Ave. (36 St.) Astoria.
