CineFile is our weekly digest of the best in Dallas’ under-the-radar cinematic fare—from indie movies, to documentaries, to foreign films, to re-screenings of the (cult) classics. Here’s what you could be watching:
Lost in Thailand (2012)
Comedy
Dir.: Xu Zheng
Runtime: 105 min.
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
Monday, February 10, at 7 pm
China’s all-time highest-grossing film is this wacky, The Hangover-esque comedy about two competing employees who land up in Thailand in search of their boss in order to secure a patent. Along the way, they run into a tourist (equally mad), who more or less reminds them to stop and smell the roses. It’s funnier than it sounds.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Romance, Sci-Fi
Dir.: Michel Gondry
Runtime: 108 min.
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
Tuesday, February 11, at 7:40 pm
Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and director Michel Gondry deliver an inventive romance for the intellectual set. Lacuna, Inc. specializes in erasing the memories you’d rather do without, and Jim Carrey’s Joel signs up for a session after a bad breakup with Kate Winslet’s Clementine.
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Drama, War
Dir.: David Lean
Runtime: 161 min.
Angelika Film Center & Cafe – Dallas
Thursday, February 13, at 7 pm
British POWs during the Second World War are forced by the Imperial Japanese Army to construct a railway bridge over the Khwae Yai River in then-western Burma. The British soldiers, however, are determined to claim a victory against their captors by sabotaging the project.
Anita (2013)
Documentary
Dir.: Freida Lee Mock
Runtime: 95 min.
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
Thursday, February 13, at 7 pm
Anita Hill took center stage at then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas’ 1991 Senate confirmation hearings, when she alleged that her former boss had sexually harassed her. The controversy ignited a national debate over race and sex, and Hill quickly became a polarizing figure. This documentary goes behind the sensationalism and media caricatures to tell the story of Anita Hill, the woman; and to examine her impact on the social-justice and workplace-rights movements.
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Romance
Dir.: Rob Reiner
Runtime: 96 min.
Palace Theatre
Friday, February 14, at 7:30 pm
Harry and Sally cross paths again and again in this unconventional, critically-lauded romance, written by the late Nora Ephron. Meg Ryan serves up cinema’s greatest fake orgasm, if you’re into that sort of thing. (You are.)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Romance, Fantasy
Dir.: Tim Burton
Runtime: 105 min.
Angelika Film Center & Cafe – Dallas
Friday, February 14, at 11:30 pm
Johnny Depp is the anti-Frankenstein’s Monster, living in an Avon saleswoman’s suburban home, and falling in love with her teenage daughter (played by Winona Ryder). Here’s to the film that launched a thousand scissor fantasies.
