Friday, February 23, 2018

Screenings in the Bay (Friday to Sunday): Are We Not Cats, Deep Red, The Dead End



Does it feel like the weeks are getting shorter or is it just me? Well, either way, I'm happy that Friday is here and that we have some exciting things on the horizon!

This weekend the Overlook is getting its hands into all kinds of stuff... figuratively, of course. It starts after the 9pm screening of Are We Not Cats at the Roxie Theatre. This showtime will be followed by a Skype Q&A with writer/director Xander Robin, which will be hosted by the Overlook Hour's very own Clark Little. And believe me, after you watch this surreal, body horror romance story, you'll have your fair share of questions! You can also check out the bonus episode of the Overlook Hour Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, where the guys start the conversation with Xander.

Then on Sunday, Overlook reviewer and podcast co-host, Madeleine, returns to the Video Vortex stage to introduce Tammy and the T-Rex to a sold out theatre! So if you don't have tickets already you're probably sitting this one out.


And finally, on Sunday Noise Pop and the Alamo Drafthouse are co-presenting a night of horror soundtrack tribute at the Rickshaw Stop! Connect with other people who will be there at the event page and come celebrate the classics in a new way.


Opening This Week


Opens Friday 23rd (2hrs)
Adventure/ Drama/ Fantasy (IMDB)
Based on Jeff VanderMeer's best-selling Southern Reach Trilogy, Annihilation stars Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny and Oscar Isaac. It was written and directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina, 28 Days Later).





Curvature (2017)
Opens Friday 23rd (1hr 30min)
Mystery/ Sci-Fi/ Thriller (IMDB)
CURVATURE is a time travel sci-fi drama about an engineer who travels back in time to stop herself from committing a murder.




4K Restoration

Friday 23rd @ 9pm (1hr 46min)
Horror/ Mystery/ Thriller (IMDB)
The film that has become the master work in Italian horror maestro Dario Argento's canon, Deep Red holds up brilliantly despite the plethora of copycat slasher films it inspired in the years to follow. The film opens with a flashback murder shown from the perspective of a child while an eerie nursery rhyme plays. Cut to the present, pianist Marc Daly (David Hemmings) witnesses the murder of a psychic while chatting with his drunken pal, Carlo (Gabriele Lavia). While the police investigate, Marc joins forces with attractive reporter Gianna (Daria Nicolodi). Once Marc realizes that he is a target for the killer, he seeks help from Giordani (Glauco Mauri), a professor of the paranormal, who soon becomes one of the killer's victims. Marc's research leads him to an abandoned house where he discovers a secret room that hides a corpse. Before he can call the cops, he is knocked out and awakens to find the place in flames while Gianna holds him. Racing to the neighbors to call for help, Marc discovers an important clue that leads him to a nearby school where he finally finds the killer's identity. The madman attacks him, but the police arrive to save Marc. Though the case appears to be solved, Marc comes to the disturbing realization that one piece of the puzzle remains. ~ Patrick Legare, Rovi


Video Vortex

Sunday 25th @ 9pm (1h 22min)
Comedy/ Sci-Fi/ Fantasy (Rotten Tomatoes)
A bizarre entry even for an area of film that specializes in the offbeat, this is the story of an ideal teenage couple, a cheerleader and a jock, who are abruptly separated when a jealous rival slays the footballer. At the hospital, a crazed doctor transplants the young man's brain into that of a giant robotic dinosaur as part of his immortality-via-cobras experiment. Unfortunately, the newly transplanted boyfriend is most unhappy with his new form and with the way things have turned out in general, so he goes on a bloody rampage for revenge. When he finds the cheerleader, he is somehow able to convey his plight to her. She and a pal decide to help him by finding a new body in which to place his brain (his old one was beyond repair). While the low-budget Tammy and the T-Rex has been for some reason marketed as a family-oriented comedy, parents beware. There is a lot of blood, violence, crude sexual innuendo and a striptease scene.

Hosted by Madeleine Koestner (aka Trash!)
- Sold Out :( -




Midnight Madness

Saturday 24th @ 11:55pm (1hr 41 min)
Comedy/ Scifi/ Horror/ Musical (Rotten Tomatoes)
This low-budget freak show/cult classic/cultural institution concerns the misadventures of Brad Majors (Barry Bostwick) and Janet Weiss (Susan Sarandon) inside a strange mansion that they come across on a rainy night. After the wholesome pair profess their love through an opening song, their car breaks down in the woods, and they seek refuge in a towering castle nearby. Greeting them at the door is a ghoulish butler named Riff Raff (Richard O'Brien), who introduces them to a bacchanalian collection of partygoers dressed in outfits from some sort of interplanetary thrift shop. The host of this gathering is a transvestite clad in lingerie, Dr. Frank N. Furter (Tim Curry), a mad scientist who claims to be from another planet.





Opens Friday 23rd (1hr 18min)
Screening All Weekend
Comedy/ Horror/ Romance (IMDB)
Fired, dumped, evicted Eli leaps at the chance to escape the city on an errand upstate. Plagued by strange illness, his journey culminates in an affair with a woman who shares his habit of eating hair. Xander Robin's genre-defying feature debut flings the audience on a roller-coaster ride of emotions--lovingly balanced by two vulnerable actors, a pulsating soundtrack and gritty, colorful cinematography.

Skype interview with director Xander Robin hosted by Clark Little Saturday 24th after 9pm show!


Staff Picks

Sunday 25th @ 8:30pm (1hr 50min)
Drama (Rotten Tomatoes)
This British film examines the choices individuals must make when confronted with a romantic relationship which is rewarding but does not offer them everything they want. In this sympathetic and psychologically precise drama, Alexandra Greville (Glenda Jackson), "Alex" to her friends, has a younger man as her sometime lover, the young sculptor Bob Elkin (Murray Head). Elkin is completely open about the fact that he is also the lover of her acquaintance, Dr. Daniel Hirsch (Peter Finch). These relationships continue in some kind of equilibrium until Alex and Bob agree to house-sit the children of a couple known to the three of them. In their roles, neither Head nor Finch "swished," or otherwise catered to homosexual stereotypes, and theirs was considered to be a groundbreaking, sympathetic portrayal of this kind of relationship, not condescending in any way. One highlight of the film is a scene in which Dr. Hirsch attends the Bar Mitzvah of his nephew. This critically well-received movie was unexpectedly successful at the box office. The film's director and screenwriter, as well as Jackson and Finch, were nominated for Academy Awards.

Screening in 35mm




Mainland Noir

Sunday 25th @ 2pm (2hrs 21min)
Thriller/ Crime (Google)
A young woman visits her father to seek his blessing for her marriage to the drug overlord who kidnapped her 10 years earlier.



Sunday 25th @ 4:15pm (2hrs 19min)
Crime (IMDB)
Based on a novel by Xu Yigua, this nail-biting morality play focuses on three men haunted by shared guilt over their role in an unsolved crime.
When Deng’s new boss revives the cold case, they find they have more to worry about than their consciences. It’s an acute study of men under impossible pressure, with Dostoevskian undertones.



-Huntress

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