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:
Wes Anderson Week at the Alamo Drafthouse
Wes Anderson put Dallas on the cinematic map with Bottle Rocket, a cheeky short film about would-be criminals trying to augment their portfolio. It was later remade at feature length, launching a career of narrative quirk, meticulous visual styling, and chronic sense of irony. In anticipation of his next, The Grand Budapest Hotel, which opens this Friday, March 7, revisit your favorite Anderson films at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004)
Runtime: 119 min.
Monday, March 3, at 7:40 pm
Bill Murray is Jacques Cousteau-ish in a tale that’s Moby-Dick-ish.
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Runtime: 109 min.
Tuesday, March 4, at 7:40 pm
Three genius Tenenbaums are hilariously crippled by their dysfunctional family.
Rushmore (1998)
Runtime: 93 min.
Wednesday, March 5, at 7:45 pm
A precocious prep schooler and a tired industrialist try to mack on an elementary-school teacher.
Bottle Rocket (1996)
Runtime: 92 min.
Thursday, March 6, at 7 pm
The Wilson brothers jabber, make plans, shoot guns, and jabber some more.
***
The Graduate (1967)
Drama, Comedy
Dir.: Mike Nichols
Runtime: 105 min.
Landmark Magnolia Theatre
Tuesday, March 4, at 7:30 and 10 pm
In this classic coming-of-age story, Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) is a newly-minted college grad without a plan. Things get complicated when he has an affair with Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), the desperate housewife of his dad’s law firm partner. It’s all overlaid with a bomb Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack.
Rear Window (1954)
Suspense Thriller
Dir.: Alfred Hitchcock
Runtime: 112 min.
Cinemark theaters
Wednesday, March 5, at 2 and 7 pm
Among Hitchcock’s best is this finely crafted suspense thriller involving a wheelchair-ridden photographer/voyeur Jeff Jefferies (James Stewart), who spends his days observing, through his rear window, the goings-on in apartments across the courtyard. When Jefferies suspects a murder, it falls to him to unravel the mystery.
Poor Us (2012)
Documentary
Dir.: Ben Lewis
Runtime: 58 min.
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
Thursday, March 6, at 7 pm
This animated documentary explores poverty throughout human history, considering definitions of poverty, our attitudes toward it, and solutions that have been proposed over time. Be good and watch it.
Ship of Theseus (2013)
Drama
Dir.: Anand Gandhi
Runtime: 143 min.
Angelika Film Center & Cafe – Plano
Thursday, March 6, at 7 pm
The visually stunning, independent Indian film Ship of Theseus made waves (get it?) on the film-festival circuit in 2013. It investigates questions of identity, justice, and mortality through the stories of a blind photographer, a dying monk, and a stockbroker suddenly embroiled in the black-market organ trade. Director Anand Gandhi will be in attendance to answer your ineluctable questions.
Goldfinger (1964)
Spy Thriller
Dir.: Guy Hamilton
Runtime: 110 min.
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
Friday, March 7, at 7:10 pm
In the third 007 film, Sean Connery is James Bond, and James Bond is on the trail of nefarious gold magnate Auric Goldfinger, who’s trying to get his 24K hands on gold bullion at Fort Knox. His accomplice is the best-named Bond girl of all-time: Pussy Galore.
