Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, and Anthony Michael Hall will reunite for twenty-fifth anniversary screening of THE BREAKFAST CLUB
Film Society of Lincoln Center
September 19, Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
September 20, Paris Theatre, 4 West 58th St., sold out
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com
Last August, writer, director, and producer John Hughes died at the age of fifty-nine, leaving behind a cinematic legacy that came to encapsulate the 1980s. The Film Society of Lincoln Center is paying tribute to the Michigan native by screening five of his finest today, starting with HOME ALONE (Chris Columbus, 1990) and continuing with SIXTEEN CANDLES (1984), PRETTY IN PINK (Howard Deutch, 1985), FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF (1986), and PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES (1987). Molly Ringwald will participate in a Q&A following the 5:00 screening of PRETTY IN PINK, while Jason Reitman will introduce the 7:30 showing of the seminal FERRIS BUELLER. But the biggest deal takes place on Monday night, September 20, when Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, and Ringwald will reunite for a panel discussion, hosted by Kevin Smith, following a special twenty-fifth anniversary screening of Hughes’s best, THE BREAKFAST CLUB, taking place at the Paris Theatre. The 1985 classic forever defined and redefined the teen movie and teens themselves, blasting conformity, stereotyping, and educational bureaucracy.
After celebrating the Jewish New Year, the JCC in Manhattan is holding its annual open house, a free day to get to know the very busy Upper West Side institution. The myriad activities include a Kidzapalooza concert, a children’s sports expo, a postnatal Pilates boot camp, a video contest, skin cancer screenings, and workouts, demonstrations, and lessons in yoga, meditation, self-defense, Gypsy dance, indoor cycling, life coaching, Hebrew, low-flying trapeze, sand art, time management, cooking, dating, salsa, and much more, with special classes for kids, new mothers, and seniors, along with prizes and membership discounts. The afternoon ends with a screening of the eye-opening film THE LOTTERY.
One of the greatest documentaries ever made about New York will be shown in a stunning 35mm restoration at Film Forum September 17-23. ON THE BOWERY offers a new look at an underground classic that caused quite a stir upon its release in 1956, winning prizes at the Venice Film Festival while earning criticism at home for daring to portray the grim reality of America’s dark underbelly. After spending six months living with the poor, destitute alcoholics on Skid Row as research, idealistic young filmmaker Lionel Rogosin spent the next four months making ON THE BOWERY, a remarkable examination of the forgotten men of New York, ne’er-do-wells who can’t find jobs, sleep on the street, and will do just about anything for another drink. Rogosin centers the film around the true story of Ray Salyer, a journeyman railroad drifter stopping off in New York City seeking temporary employment. Salyer is quickly befriended by Gorman Hendricks, who not only shows Salyer the ropes but also manages to slyly take advantage of him. Although the film follows a general structure scripted by Mark Sufrin, much of it is improvised and shot on the sly, in glorious black and white by Richard Bagley. The sections in which Bagley turns his camera on the streets, showing the decrepit neighborhood under the El, set to Charles Mills’s subtle, jazzy score and marvelously edited by Carl Lerner, are pure poetry, yet another reason why ON THE BOWERY is an American treasure. The film is screening with THE PERFECT TEAM, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of ON THE BOWERY directed by Rogosin’s son, Michael, which includes a terrific 1999 interview with Lionel in which he talks about his attempt to get James Agee on board, his firing of Helen Levitt as editor, the relationships he developed with the cast and crew, and his intense desire to get at the truth.
Ben Affleck, who displayed great skill as a director in his debut feature, 2007’s GONE BABY GONE, has done it again with his follow-up, the romantic thriller THE TOWN. Affleck, who also cowrote the script, stars as Doug MacRay, the leader of a small group of bank robbers in tough Charlestown, Massachusetts, the bank robbery capital of America. As the film opens, the thieves are just hitting a bank and are forced to take a hostage, manager Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall). After later letting her go unharmed, they soon realize that she lives in their neighborhood and might be able to recognize one of them, so Doug starts hanging around her, pretending to be interested in her so he can tap her for information. Meanwhile, Boston cop Dino (Titus Welliver) and FBI Special Agent Frawley (Jon Hamm) are getting closer to the gang, who continue to pull off daring heists regardless of the heat on them. Although there are a handful of plot holes you could drive an armored truck through, THE TOWN ends up being a compelling action film and love story, with car chases, massive shootouts, and a tender relationship as Doug begins to fall for Claire, and vice versa, even though the truth threatens to blow everything apart. Also threatening to blow everything apart is Doug’s right-hand man, Jem (Jeremy Renner, channeling James Cagney in WHITE HEAT), who likes hurting and killing way too much. Affleck, who as a director allows his actors a large amount of freedom, has gotten fine performances across the board; the cast also includes Pete Postlethwaite as an underworld florist, Chris Cooper as Doug’s long-incarcerated father, Blake Lively as a drug-dealing tramp, and Boston rapper Slaine, who contributed songs to the soundtrack as well. The film, based on the Chuck Hogan novel PRINCE OF THIEVES, also benefits from Affleck’s genuine affection for the place where he grew up, shooting on location and setting the finale in a world-famous landmark.