Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies. |
Let’s get right to the best rep-house screenings around Los Angeles this week. |
‘Ordinary People’ |
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Mary Tyler Moore and Timothy Hutton in the movie “Ordinary People.” (Academy Museum) |
The Academy Museum will screen a new 35mm print of 1980’s “Ordinary People” on Sunday. The feature directing debut of Robert Redford, the film won four Oscars, including best picture and director. An intense drama about a family torn apart by grief, the film’s austere restraint makes it a haunting experience with powerful performances, in particular from Mary Tyler Moore, who turns her sunny star persona inside out. |
In his original review, Charles Champlin lauded Redford for making the film, noting, “As an intimate and demanding family drama (demanding on the creator and on the audience), it was both a brave choice and a wise one. … It was also an admirable choice, using the power and prerequisites of Redford’s stardom to bring into being the kind of film that might well have had hard going under other auspices.” |
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‘The Seduction of Mimi’ |
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Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato in the movie “The Seduction of Mimi.” (Kino Lorber) |
A new 4K restoration of Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmüller’s 1972 “The Seduction of Mimi,” a raucous satire that intertwines sex and politics, will have a limited run at the American Cinematheque’s Los Feliz Theatre on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday. In an antic portrait of male frustration and thwarted ambition, Giancarlo Giannini stars as Mimi, a laborer who loses everything when he refuses to vote for the Mafia’s candidate in a local election. Having worked hard to rebuild his life, he finds himself again afoul of the powers that be. |
Just a few years later, Wertmüller would become the first woman nominated for the Oscar for directing, for her movie “Seven Beauties.” In a 1975 interview with The Times, she said, “My purpose in making films is not primarily political. I wish to agitate, not convert. … My aim is to tell stories with joy, to make people laugh, to make them cry, to make movies which show a regard for what it means to be a human being and what it means to be a member of society.” |
‘Starship Troopers’ |
Tonight there will be a 35mm screening of Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 “Starship Troopers” at Brain Dead Studios. Part of an astonishing run of films from Verhoeven that included “Basic Instinct” and “Showgirls,” “Starship Troopers” is a blistering satire of militarism that was misread by many at the time as being an endorsement of fascism for its gleeful depictions of violent warfare. (All the more reason to give it another look today — it’s grappling with themes that are still painfully relevant.) |
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In his original review, Kenneth Turan declared the movie “an improbable and delirious combination of ‘Weird Science,’ ‘Betty and Veronica’ and ‘Sgt. Rock and His Howling Commandos,’” while adding, “Put together by Paul Verhoeven, a director for whom excess is never enough, ‘Troopers’ does not fit any reasonable definition of a quality motion picture. But it certainly is a jaw-dropping experience, so rigorously one-dimensional and free from even the pretense of intelligence it’s hard not to be astonished and even mesmerized by what is on the screen.” |
‘The Battle of Algiers’ |
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A scene from the 1966 movie “The Battle of Algiers.” (Criterion Collection) |
On Saturday night, the American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre will have a 60th anniversary screening of Gillo Pontecorvo’s “The Battle of Algiers” in 35mm. Shot in a documentary style, the film chronicles — in vivid, up-close terms — the struggle for Algerian independence from the colonial French in the 1950s. (In Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” Leonardo’s DiCaprio’s burned-out former radical activist settles in for an evening at home by turning on “Battle of Algiers.”) |
Writing about the film in 1968, Kevin Thomas said, “More than anything else, this remarkable movie drives home the truth that the more people are repressed, the more unquenchable their thirst for freedom becomes. Consequently, at this time ‘The Battle of Algiers’ offers both an inspiration and a warning to American audiences — an assurance for the victims of injustice that through unity they indeed shall overcome; a reminder that the response to massive retaliation for rioters can be all-out guerrilla warfare on their part, resulting in needless agony for one and all.” |
TCM Classic Film Festival and Paul Williams tribute |
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Peter Finch in the 1976 movie “Network.” (TCM) |
The TCM Classic Film Festival will launch next Thursday, with the opening night gala of a world premiere restoration of 1967’s “Barefoot in the Park.” Jane Fonda is scheduled to attend to pay tribute to her co-star Robert Redford. The two would go on to appear in a total of four films together. |
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An air of uncertainty hangs over the fate of both the TCM Channel and the festival as a whole, puzzle pieces in the impending merger between Paramount and Warner Bros., so this year in particular it feels vital to appreciate this truly special event, which has been pivotal in expanding our definitions of what a classic film is. Enjoy it while you can. |
Other highlights include the world premiere restoration of 1932’s “Letty Lynton” starring Joan Crawford — a movie that, due to legal complications, has been largely unseen for more than 90 years. There will also be a nitrate screening of 1947’s “The Farmer’s Daughter,” for which Loretta Young won an Oscar. |
A world premiere restoration for the 30th anniversary of Alexander Payne’s feature debut “Citizen Ruth” starring Laura Dern will include appearances by both the filmmaker and actor. Both “All the President’s Men” and “Network” will have world premiere restorations to celebrate their 50th anniversaries, while a screening of 1976’s “The Bad News Bears” will spotlight many of the actors who played the young ball club. |
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Kermit the Frog sings in 1979’s “The Muppet Movie.” (Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images) |
Receiving a special tribute at the festival, actor and songwriter Paul Williams will appear for an in-depth conversation about his storied career, which includes appearing in such films as “Phantom of the Paradise” and “Smokey and the Bandit” and writing songs for “A Star Is Born,” for which he won an Academy Award. The festival will screen two titles to which Williams contributed songs, 1979’s “The Muppet Movie” and 1987’s “Ishtar.” |
Williams, 85, got on a video call this week from his home in Huntington Beach to talk about these pivotal projects. In particular, he recalled writing “The Rainbow Connection” with Kenneth Ascher for “The Muppet Movie” and how this now-revered song came to be. |
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Paul Williams at Nashville’s 61st ASCAP Country Music Awards in 2025 (Tibrina Hobson / Getty Images) |
“We asked Jim [Henson], ‘Where do we see Kermit?’” Williams remembered. “And he says, ‘Kermit’s sitting in a swamp on a lily pad.’ And I said, ‘What’s he doing?’’ He said, ‘Playing the banjo.’ And that kind of sets a tone. A banjo can be frivolous and racy and crazy, but it can also be kind of melancholy played in a certain way.” |
Williams received a much different brief when writing songs for Elaine May’s “Ishtar,” which starred Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty as two aspiring songwriters who become inadvertently embroiled in the CIA’s intervention in a small country in the Middle East. Aside from the song “Dangerous Business,” Williams contributed a whole slew of preposterous numbers with titles such as “That a Lawnmower Can Do All That” and “Wardrobe of Love.” |
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Dustin Hoffman, left, and Warren Beatty in the movie “Ishtar.” (TCM) |
“It was the most interesting challenge I’ve ever had as a songwriter to write believably bad songs,” said Williams. “I looked at it like an actor.” |
Singing the first few lines to “Dangerous Business,” Wiliams added, “‘Telling the truth can be dangerous business/ honest and popular don’t go hand in hand.’ Boy, I’d put my name on that. That sounds great. ‘If you admit that you can play the accordion, no one will hire you in a rock and roll band.’ OK, guys, you just went off the rails a little bit.” |
Speaking of “Ishtar’s” director Elaine May, Williams said, “Elaine does not guide you. Elaine gives you a little freedom that is totally frustrating. She’d do that with the actors and the takes. Dustin and Warren would be like, ‘What are you looking for?’ And I would be crawling over to the couch and go, ‘Elaine, what are you looking for?’ And she would say, ‘I’ll know when I hear it.’” |
New this week |
‘Blue Heron’ |
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Eylul Guven in the movie “Blue Heron.” (Janus Films) |
The most exciting new release in L.A. this week is Canadian filmmaker Sophy Romvari’s debut “Blue Heron,” which has emerged as one of the critical faves of the year so far. Rooted in Romvari’s own experience, with an emotionally complex and bifurcated structure that is handled with delicate care, the film tells the story of a family grappling with a troubled teenage boy. It’s all told through the eyes of his younger sister, both as memory and in the present. |
Another worthwhile Canadian film in theaters now is Chandler Levack’s “Mile End Kicks,” which stars Barbie Ferreira (also in “Faces of Death”) as an aspiring music journalist in early 2010s Montreal. Something of a female-focused parallel to “Almost Famous” or “High Fidelity,” the film really captures the sense of being part of a scene as it is popping off and trying to find a space for oneself amid the hubbub. |
And finally... |
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Shelves of videocassettes await at Video Hero VHS in Chatsworth. (Brian Feinzimer / For The Times) |
Carlos Aguilar took a really fun and informative look at the VHS revival as told through the eyes of his roommate Conor Holt, who has a collection of about 1,100 tapes. Filmmakers Jane Schoenbrun, whose “I Saw the TV Glow” evokes the VHS era, Alex Ross Perry, a dedicated collector who made the documentary “Videoheaven,” and David Cronenberg, whose “A History of Violence” was the last mass-produced title on videocassette, also contribute their thoughts. |
As someone who cherishes his tape of the Run-D.M.C. film “Tougher Than Leather,” I found this story pretty much written for me. As Cronenberg says in the piece, “My father was a stamp collector so I certainly understand the idea of collecting a rare object. Humans are strange. What can I say?” |
