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Fluid Karma tour, 25 years of Lebowski, and TÁR talk
The BSR April 2023 repertory movie roundup
Stephen Silver
The region has another jam-packed month of repertory screenings in April, including a visit from a cult filmmaker, a quarter-century celebration of The Dude, a retrospective of a Japanese star, and more classics from the Sight & Sound 500 list.
The highlights
Southland Tales
Saturday, April 1, 7pm
Donnie Darko
Sunday, April 2, 6pm
Philadelphia Film Center, 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
Shortly after the turn of the millennium, Richard Kelly directed a pair of cult films with varying takes on the apocalypse: 2001’s Donnie Darko and 2007’s Southland Tales. Now, Kelly is bringing both films to Center City as part of the Fluid Karma tour where he will appear for Q&A sessions. He’ll be joined by singer Rebekah Del Rio for a special performance. Del Rio was last seen at the Film Center last April where she reenacted her famous “Club Silencio” performance at a showing of David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive.
Donnie Darko starred a young Jake Gyllenhaal as a teenager with visions who is trying to ward off the apocalypse in 1980s suburbia. Kelly’s follow-up Southland Tales was an ambitious and frequently bonkers take on the Bush era, with political and Hollywood figures converging on a night in LA that just might mark the end of the world. Southland Tales is the only movie that asks, “And what did we do when we discovered a rift in the fourth dimension? We launched monkeys into it!"
Donnie Darko will be presented in 4K, while Southland Tales will be in its nearly three-hour “Cannes Cut.” In the Q&A, perhaps Kelly will answer some questions about why, exactly, Justin Timberlake was lip-synching along to the Killers.
Drunken Angel and Toshiro Mifune retrospective
Friday, April 7, 7pm
Lightbox Film Center, 401 South Broad Street, Philadelphia
Throughout April, Lightbox is running a seven-film retrospective of the Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune, including several of his films with Akira Kurosawa. Presented in association with the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia, and with all 35mm prints, the retrospective begins with a presentation of the 1948 Drunken Angel and continues with Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Stray Dog, Sword of Doom, The Bad Sleep Well, and Samurai Rebellion.
TÁR film studies online discussion
Monday, April 10, 7pm
Streaming on YouTube
Todd Field’s TÁR was one of the most frequently argued-about films of 2022, and despite not winning any Oscars, it continues to set off arguments to this day. So Bryn Mawr Film Institute (BMFI) will be holding an online discussion of the film, featuring BMFI's own deputy director Andrew J. Douglas, PhD, and director of programs and education Jacob Mazer. If they haven’t seen it before, it will be up to viewers to watch the film before joining the discussion on BMFI’s YouTube channel. The film is streaming on Peacock as well as all major VOD rental platforms.
The Big Lebowski's 25th anniversary
Sunday, April 16 and Thursday, April 20
Various locations
You got any promising, uh, leads? The Coen brothers’ cult comedy from 1998 actually marked its 25th anniversary in early March, but Fathom Events’s special presentation of the film takes place this month at theaters everywhere on two specific dates. The story of a 1960s holdover ambling through a mystery in early-1990s Los Angeles features the likes of Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, John Turturro, and Steve Lebowski. You won’t mind that the story is ludicrous.
La Jetée and The Gleaners & I
Sunday, April 23, 6:15pm and 6:45pm
Philadelphia Film Center, 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Film Society has released the latest dates for its yearlong countdown of the Sight & Sound 500 list, and the very international April run includes everything from Rossellini’s Journey to Italy to Antonioni’s L’Avventura to Lang’s Metropolis to Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes. On April 23, there’s a double feature of numbers 68 and 70 on the list with Chris Marker’s 1963 La Jetée and Agnes Varda’s 2003 The Gleaners and I. The 27-minute La Jetée, incidentally, inspired the Philly-shot film Twelve Monkeys, which will get a local showing in May.
Other notable screenings in April
The Lady Eve
Saturday, April 1
Philadelphia Film Center
Synecdoche, New York
Sunday, April 2
Philadelphia Film Center
It Happened One Night
Tuesday, April 4
Philadelphia Film Center
The Thin Man
Tuesday, April 4
Ritz Five
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Tuesday, April 4
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
Videodrome
Thursday, April 6
Philadelphia Film Center
Steel Magnolias
Friday, April 7
Colonial Theatre
His Girl Friday
Saturday, April 8
Wednesday, April 26
Philadelphia Film Center
Harold & Maude
Monday, April 10
Saturday, April 15
Wednesday, April 19
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Sunday, April 16
Colonial Theatre
The Third Man
Monday, April 17
Sunday, April 23
Thursday, April 27
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
Dazed & Confused
Thursday, April 20
Philadelphia Film Center
Big Night
Friday, April 21
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Friday, April 21
Ritz Five
Saturday, April 29
Colonial Theater
An American Werewolf in London
Friday, April 21
Hiway Theater
RRR
Friday, April 21
Philadelphia Film Center
Saturday, April 22
Friday, April 28
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
Woman of the Year
Tuesday, April 25
Ritz Five
Wild at Heart
Friday, April 28
Ambler Theater
8 1/2
Saturday, April 29
Ambler Theater
Foxy Brown
Saturday, April 29
Ambler Theater
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