Fenty's Snow Woes Go National
Morning Roundup: Mark of the Beast Edition
Federal Govt. Closed Wednesday
Closings for Thursday, Feb. 11
Reports: Woman Arrested for Throwing Snowballs
DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
This cult classic was light years ahead of its time, a huge commercial flop and reviled by many critics at the time of its release before eventually finding its audience. In the early 70s, apparently, deft gallows humor and overt quirkiness were not as readily accepted by audiences as they might be today. Which may explain why, as the years go by, this film just seems to be more and more well-loved: it feels more like a product of the 00s than the 70s.
The film stars Bud Cort as Harold, a death-obsessed 19-year-old with a penchant for staging his own suicide in creative ways in order to shock his conventionally-minded mother. It's cruel, but Hal Ashby's film, as is often the case in the director's work, exists just far enough outside any kind of familiar reality that it just comes across as funny, with a bit of added discomfort. Harold runs into the 79-year-old Maude (an unforgettable performance by Ruth Gordon) at a funeral, and the two strike up an unlikely friendship that, in an even more unlikely development, turns romantic. Sex between characters with a 60-year age gap seems impossible not to play for shock value, but Ashby doesn't really go there. That's just one of the many extraordinary things in a film that defies convention in every way imaginable, including its celebration of life even as it takes such a wry look at death.
View the trailer.
Friday and Saturday at midnight at E Street.
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For the third year, Yachad — a D.C. nonprofit focusing on community development and affordable housing — is sponsoring the Our City Film Festival, a festival dedicated to showing films about the District that go beyond the outward impression of D.C. as a strictly federal town. They've assembled four programs out of a dozen shorts and a couple of features (most, but not all, documentaries), all of which will screen on Sunday at the Goethe Institut. Subjects cover a lot of areas of the D.C. experience, among them: Anacostia pollution; farmers markets; go-go music; late night dining options; a men's checkers club; Silver Spring's B&O; rail station; a profile of Restaurant Nora founder, Nora Pouillon. Many of the filmmakers will be on hand for Q&A; sessions, and each programming block will also include ceremonies for films in that block that have been awarded prizes. Proceeds from the festival help support Yachad's mission of mobilizing skilled and unskilled volunteers to repair the homes and communities of low-income homeowners.
All day Sunday at the Goethe Institut, with the first program beginning at 11 a.m. $10 for each block of films, $35 for an All Day Pass. Ticket prices will be slightly higher at the door, but with sellout crowds in previous years, it's a good idea to buy in advance.
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