Monday, August 24 at 7pm
Blackhat
Michael Mann (U.S. 2015) 133 min. DCP. With Chris Hemsworth, Viola Davis, Wei Tang, Leehom Wang.
“Blackhat isn’t a failed action movie – it’s a big-budget avant-garde film” ran the headline of a Chicago Reader review last January. Don’t let either part of that statement (neither is true) keep you from your chance to catch Michael Mann (Manhunter 1986) transforming brick and mortar cities into circuitry, and glossy magazines into body armor, in this 21st century meditation on presence vs. remote access.
Monday, September 7 at 7pm
Magnificent Obsession
Douglas Sirk (U.S. 1954) 108 min. 35MM. With Rock Hudson, Jane Wyman.
A propulsive remake of John M. Stahl’s 1935 drama of the same name, Magnificent Obsession presents a singularly orchestral, modern-day twist on the Greek myth of self-sacrificing wife Alcestis. Excessive yet precise in its turns of plot, this rousingly scored screen adaptation of Lloyd C. Douglas’ 1929 novel tells the story of reckless playboy and former medical student Bob Merrick (Rock Hudson in his third film by Sirk), who, after a speedboat accident, becomes inadvertently responsible for the death of Dr. Phillips, leaving his grieving wife Helen (Wyman) a widow with little financial cushion. After Helen loses her eyesight, Sirk’s reformed samaritan hero falls for her, tracing a salvation arc while in disguise as “Robby.” In an array of tragic incidents, Sirk’s first truly Technicolor melodrama veers between scripture and soap opera, scanning the ironic limits of star-crossed romance to incredulous but ultimately satisfying ends. – TIFF notes
Monday, September 14 at 7pm
Phantom Thread
Paul Thomas Anderson (U.S. 2015) 133 min. DCP. With Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps, Lesley Manville.
“Less grandiose than the writer-director’s last three features, as well as more precision-controlled, this is a melodrama of love, desire and gamesmanship among three control freaks played out in a veritable hot-house in which the winner will be determined by who wilts last… More unconventional and downright weird on a moment-to-moment basis than it is in overall design and intent, it’s a singular work played out mostly in small rooms that harks back to psychological melodramas of the 1940s/50s but hits stylistic notes entirely its own.” – Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter