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Stanley Kubrick, Do the Right Thing on MLK Day, and the best 100 films ever?
The BSR January 2023 movie repertory roundup
Stephen Silver
It's a new year and it begins with a wide variety of repertory screenings this month, including an ambitious countdown of the greatest films of all time, a Stanley Kubrick retrospective, and two different Friday the 13th movies on, naturally, Friday the 13th.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Tuesday, January 3, 7pm
Ritz Five, 214 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
Sunday, January 8, 1:30pm
Colonial Theatre, 227 Bridge Street, Phoenixville
The Ritz Five is hosting a Retro Replay series this month featuring five films from the master Stanley Kubrick, all on Tuesday nights. It starts with the 1964 masterpiece Dr. Strangelove, a sharp satire about nuclear annihilation, being shown this time in 4K. The same film will also show less than a week later in Phoenixville.
Get Out
Wednesday, January 4, 7pm
Philadelphia Film Center, 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
Following December’s release of the latest Sight & Sound 100 poll—a poll of the top 100 films rated every decade—the Philadelphia Film Society has announced that it will be screening all 100 films, in descending order, throughout 2023. The series kicks off with Jordan Peele’s 2017 horror hit, which was number 100 on the list and one of the newer movies on it.
The General
Thursday, January 5, 7pm
Philadelphia Film Center, 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
The Sight & Sound series continues the following night with a film from 90 years earlier. It’s 1926’s The General, the silent film that starred Buster Keaton as an engineer. Keaton and Clyde Bruckman co-directed the movie.
The Fly
Saturday, January 7, 7pm
Friday, January 27, 7pm
Philadelphia Film Center, 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
The Film Center is also showing plenty of non-Sight & Sound stuff this month, including a pair of showings of David Cronenberg’s highly disturbing 1986 body horror film starring Jeff Goldblum.
Duck Soup
Sunday, January 8, 3pm
Saturday, January 14, 6pm
Philadelphia Film Center, 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
There are also two chances this month to see the Marx brothers’ famous 1933 musical comedy directed by Leo McCarey and featuring Groucho and company sent to the front of a war.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Tuesday, January 10, 7pm
Ritz Five, 214 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
The Kubrick series continues with the director’s 1968 sci-fi opus, which has had people arguing its meanings for almost 55 years. This time, it’s showing in a 4K restoration.
The F13th Fan Film Mixtape and Friday the 13th Part 2
Friday, January 13, 7:30pm
PhilaMOCA, 531 North 12th Street, Philadelphia
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
Friday, January 13, 9:45pm
Hiway Theater, 212 York Road, Jenkintown
On Friday the 13th itself, you’ll have plenty of chances to see entries from the long-running film series of that name. PhilaMOCA, along with Exhumed Films, is showing a double feature of the found footage fan film followed by 1981’s official sequel. The same night in Jenkintown is a sequel from later in the series 1986’s Jason Lives.
Encanto
Saturday, January 14 and Saturday, January 28, 11am
Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr
Encanto made quite a large cultural impact when it was released in 2021, but most people watched it on Disney+. If you or your kids have never seen the Oscar-winning Disney animated movie on the big screen, you’ll have two chances to talk about Bruno in Bryn Mawr.
MLK/FBI
Sunday, January 15, 3pm
Philadelphia Film Center, 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
The Film Society is marking Martin Luther King Day with director Sam Pollard’s documentary from 2020 about the FBI’s long surveillance campaign into Dr. King, leading up to his death. The documentary, which also had a mostly-streaming pandemic release, was based in part on recently classified documents.
Do the Right Thing
Sunday, January 15, 5:30pm
Philadelphia Film Center, 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
PFS’s MLK Day commemoration continues with one of the most acclaimed films ever made about American race relations, Spike Lee’s 1989 Do the Right Thing. The cast includes Lee, Rosie Perez, Danny Aiello, and Ossie Davis, as racial tensions simmer in a Brooklyn neighborhood.
A Clockwork Orange
Tuesday, January 17, 7pm
Ritz Five, 214 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
The Kubrick Essentials series continues with the director’s 1971 satire, starring Malcolm McDowell as the leader of a group of “droogs” who commit murder, violence, and mayhem until he gets subjected to government experiments. The film is being shown in 4K.
Out of Sight
Thursday, January 19, 7pm
Philadelphia Film Center, 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
Steven Soderbergh’s Elmore Leonard adaptation from 1998 with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez was something of a flop when it came out that summer, but it’s reputation has grown over time. As it turns 25 this year, the Film Center is presenting it along with Quizzo starting at 7pm, with the movie to follow at 7:30pm.
Once Upon a Time in the West
Friday, January 20, 6pm
Philadelphia Film Center, 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
The Sight & Sound series continues with Sergio Leone’s 1968 spaghetti Western, which is 96 on the list. The film stars Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, and Claudia Cardinale, and will be shown in 4K.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Friday, January 20, 10pm
Ritz Five, 214 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
The Ritz’s monthly showing of the 1976 cult classic starring Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Barry Bostwick is set for the 20th with Transylvanian Nipple Productions once again providing the “Shadowcast.”
Re-Animator
Friday, January 20 and Saturday, January 21
Ritz Five, 214 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
The January selection for Ritz Five’s Cine Insomnia series is Stuart Gordon’s 1985 horror/sci-fi film about a college student who figures out a way to revive dead bodies.
Babe
Saturday, January 21, 10:30am
Hiway Theater, 212 York Road, Jenkintown
Bring the kids to see director Chris Noonan and producer George Miller’s much-loved 1985 Australian film about a farmer (James Cromwell) who adopts a special pig.
On the Waterfront
Thursday, January 26, 7pm
Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr
One of the most highly regarded films of the 1950s, Elia Kazan’s film about corruption and murder on the New Jersey docks starred Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, and Eva Marie Saint. BMFI will also be hosting a Cinema Classics Seminar on February 1.
The Draughtsman's Contract
Friday, January 27, 7pm
Lightbox Film Center, 401 South Broad Street, Philadelphia
The Lightbox returns from the University of the Arts’s winter break with Peter Greenaway’s 1982 film, a murder mystery set in a country house. The Lightbox calls it “a luscious cinematic banquet for eye, ear, and mind.”
Breathless
Sunday, January 29, 1:30pm
Colonial Theatre, 227 Bridge Street, Phoenixville
Director Jean-Luc Godard passed away last year, and the Colonial will honor his legacy with a screening of the French new wave auteur’s most famous film from 1960. The film starred Jean-Paul Belmondo as a French criminal and Jean Seberg as his American girlfriend.
Yi Yi (A One and a Two)
Sunday, January 29, 1pm
Philadelphia Film Center, 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
The Sight & Sound countdown continues with Edward Yang’s 173-minute Taiwanese epic from 2000 about the lives of three generations of a family in Taipei.
Full Metal Jacket
Tuesday, January 31, 7pm
Ritz Five, 214 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
The Kubrick series wraps up with his penultimate film, a 1987 Vietnam War film that began with cinema’s most famous boot camp sequence. This will also be shown in a 4K digital remaster.
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