This term's Film Society series -- with the theme of Dynamic Duos -- features two of last year's Oscar nominees for best picture, two of this year's most praised and hardest to find independent films, two sleeper hits about dancing and, God help us, two Leonardo DiCaprio films.
The series promises to showcase some of the greatest on-screen duos in film history, from Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall to Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt.
The series kicks off tonight with "True Romance," Quentin Tarantino's most conventionally written and underrated screenplay. Directed by Tony Scott ("Top Gun"), "True Romance" is as funny and violent as any of Tarantino's work, following newlyweds on a cross-country journey to sell some stolen cocaine.
Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette play the quirky newlyweds -- he's an Elvis fanatic, she's an ex-prostitute -- who steal a load of drugs from her jive-talking pimp, played to hilarious and frightening effect by Gary Oldman.
It's the supporting characters that make the film such a heady blast. There's Christopher Walken as the tanned and nasty mob boss, Dennis Hopper as Slater's dad, Brad Pitt as a stoner and Val Kilmer as Elvis. The film even manages to get a good performance out of Bronson Pinchot ("Perfect Strangers").
Friday night brings "Face/Off" to the screen, the best action movie of last year for which Nicholas Cage and John Travolta won best on-screen duo at the MTV Movie Awards -- if that counts for anything.
The film stars Cage as a terrorist and Travolta as the man obsessed with catching him. The two switch faces and lives to undo each other, and the actors mimic each other to comic and dramatic perfection.
"The Man in the Iron Mask," showing Sunday night, features Leonardo DiCaprio partnered with himself. Playing both an evil king and his imprisoned twin brother, DiCaprio takes most of the screen time from the story's swashbuckling heroes -- the Three Musketeers, played by John Malkovich, Gerard Depardieu and Jeremy Irons.
Two of this decade's break-out indie hits share the dance floor on July 1, "Strictly Ballroom" from Australia and "Shall We Dance?" from Japan. Both dig deeper than "Dirty Dancing" pelvic thrusts and portray dancing as a human release for their characters.
Dreamworks' first comedy, "Mouse Hunt," died out quickly in theaters this past Christmas, but DFS gives this humorous if mundane film another run on July 5.
"The Thin Man" and "The Big Sleep" defined what film noir is in the 1930s and 1940s, and films are still trying to imitate them. "The Thin Man" is the first in a long series of films featuring a sophisticated married couple who also happen to be sleuths.
"The Big Sleep," directed by Howard Hawks from the Raymond Chandler novel, is so complex Chandler himself has admitted to not fully understanding it. The film pairs up Bogart and Bacall for the first time.
For those who have yet to see "As Good As It Gets," a very funny, very well-acted but formulaic movie, you'll have your chance on July 12. Nominated for best picture, the film won Oscars for it's two leads, the wonderful Helen Hunt and Jack Nicholson.
"The Remains of the Day" has two dynamic duos, one in front of the camera and one behind. Producer Ismail Merchant and James Ivory have worked together for years ("A Room With a View," "Howards End"), and this is one of their most praised and restrained (read: dull) films. It stars the king and queen of stodgy English dramas, Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.
Few saw "Primary Colors" during its early spring release, but the film deserves a look as it hits Spaulding on July 26. Directed by Mike Nichols and based on the book by Joe "Anonymous" Klein, the film is best known for its thinly disguised dramatization of the Clinton's ideological and immoral struggles.
While not as scathing as it could have and should have been, the film makes some pointed statements about our political world. John Travolta plays southern governor Jack Stanton basically as Bill Clinton, and he's got the raspy voice and the love of fried foods and forbidden women down pat.
But the genius of the film is in how Stanton's far-reaching, ideological gaze is in one scene wholly admirable, but in the next darkly disturbing, as he tramples over innocents to achieve it.
"Love and Death on Long Island" is a very small comedy from late last year which was hard to find but got some excellent reviews. It stars John Hurt as a an English novelist who becomes obsessed with a teen idol played by a real teen idol, Jason Priestly ("Beverly Hills, 90210"). It can be seen July 29.
"Kurt and Courtney," a documentary from Nick Broomfield, who exposed Heidi Fleiss in his last work, has been threatened with legal action from Courtney Love. The film follows Love's relationship with Kurt Cobain, and has gotten a lot of press from the film's suggestion that Love conspired to have him killed.
But recent reviews have made it clear that the film is more about the two's loving but explosive relationship. Barring any legal action from Love -- it was pulled from Sundance because of it -- "Kurt and Courtney" will be playing August 5.
Finally, for those who refused to see "Titanic" because they didn't want to be surrounded by crying junior high school girls, now is your chance to check out last year's best picture winner on August 23.
