Weekend Movie Guide: Beat The Heat From Your Theater Seat
By Steven Pate in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 18, 2013 9:00PM
Still from Fruitvale Station
Even though we are here to help you get the most out of your Pitchfork Music Festival experience this weekend, we know it's not everybody's bag. Maybe it's the crowds, the heat, the prices, the lineups. Did we mention the heat?
It's okay, if Union Park is the opposite of where you want to be this weekend, we have your back there too. You're going to want to be where the pitchforkers aren't--somewhere cool, air conditioned, dark, and quiet: you're going to want to be in a movie theater.
Here is a weekend's worth of great movie options to take you completely out of the festival/after party orbit.
Friday
This Is Martin Bonner: You won't even need to slather on the sunscreen to duck into Reno, NV by way of Facets Cinematheque in Lincoln Park on Saturday. Chad Hartigan's sophomore feature is a quiet, meditative character study of a fifty-something man relocating to "the biggest little city" to start a new life and making a connection with a stranger. Hartigan may have pitched the film as "the opposite of Björk," it's a serene mood piece focused on an emotional connection, and some thoughtful grown-up entertainment (from a director who knows his way around the contemporary music scene, by the way).
Alternate: Samsara at the Siskel Film center.
This Is Martin Bonner opens at Facets Cinematheque, 1517 W. Fullerton Ave., on Friday, July 19, at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m..
Saturday
The Lusty Men: You don't get much more old school than a black and white film from the fifties about a washed-up rodeo star (projected in 16mm, even), but you would be wrong to think that Nicholas Ray's stone cold classic isn't rock and roll. Cool Guy Hall of Fame first-ballot inductee Robert Mitchum brings the world-weariness to this existential action movie that predates more celebrated "revisionist" westerns by decades. The dialog crackles, the performances could not be better, and the story will take hold of you in ways you didn't anticipate. They don't make them like this any more. It's also a great time to head to Doc Films, as "Actively Avoiding Pitchfork" may be the only situation where Hyde Park seems like an ideally situated locale.
Alternate: Destroy all Monsters (FREE!) at Delilah's.
he Lusty Men plays at Doc Films on Saturday, July 20, at 7 pm and 9:15 pm.
Sunday
Fruitvale Station: If it is the hedonistic escapism of the festival experience that turns you off, then Ryan Coogler's debut feature should look even better to you a week after its release. This dramitization of the shooting of an young, unarmed black man (in this case by an Oakland police officer, as he was handcuffed) has been vacuuming up plaudits since earning top awards at Sundance. Michael B. Jordan (a.k.a. Wallace from The Wire) stars in the most relevant film in wide release right now.
Fruitvale Station has multiple showings at River East 21, 322 E. Illinois St, and at Landmark's Century Theatre, 2828 N. Clark St.
Alternate: I'm So Excited! at Landmark's Century Theatre.