May 9-15, 2025

Hello, friends! 

This week, Sinners carries on in its triumphant run with us, continuing to electrify audiences and bringing people back for a second and even third time. We've also got a whole buffet of terrific new films joining our slate: 

First, We Were Dangerous – produced by Taika Waititi and directed by Māori filmmaker Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu in her feature film debut – opens with us today. A period film set in 1954 New Zealand, We Were Dangerous follows the story of so-called "delinquent and incorrigible" girls who've been institutionalized and sent to a remote island, where they are ruled over by a hyper-religious matron, intent on "saving" the girls through hard work, spartan living conditions, strict religious teaching, and even experimental treatments. 

Based on true circumstances, the film is a story of how colonization and patriarchy were specifically brought to bear on the lives of girls and young women in the 1950's who didn't fit the white/straight/Christian mold dictated to them, and it's a story that has chilling echoes into our world today. But while the story's setting is bleak and the implications potent, Whiu as a filmmaker (much like Taikia Waititi in his film Hunt for the Wilderpeople), deftly finds a serio-comic tonal balance: narrative lightness and humor, along with boldness in the face of oppression from our young heroines, carry the day. And the film ultimately beautifully and movingly affirms female friendship and solidarity. 

I should note, too, the three young leads of the film -- whose story we primarily follow -- are also terrific: Erana James, Nathalie Morris, and Manaia Hall. Their on-screen charisma, their simultaneously buoyant and emotionally grounded approach to their characters, and their chemistry together as a group make them an absolute joy to watch, and I'll certainly be looking forward to any other projects they are in, particularly newcomer Manaia Hall.

Second, with The President's Wife, we have an absolute treat of a film starring the fabulous, the inimitable Catherine Deneuve, who has been mesmerizing audiences ever since the 1960's in films like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Repulsion, and The Young Girls of Rochefort.  

Written and directed by Lea Domenach (her feature film debut), The President's Wife is based on true events, and it follows the story of Bernadette Chirac (Deneuve), the wife of Jacques Chirac, who served as president of France from 1995-2007.  If, like me, your education on French politics is a bit shaky past the French Revolution, fear not!  You don't have to know much at all about French politics in the 1990's and 2000's to thoroughly enjoy The President's Wife, which is a completely delightful romp. 

As the film tells it, Bernadette Chirac was sidelined and thoroughly ignored by her husband after helping him rise through the political ranks to the presidency, callous treatment she accepts passively for a while until she reaches a breaking point and decides she's done being a doormat and, actually, oughta have her own spotlight, too. Once she throws off her restraint, her knack for witty quips and speaking her mind quickly endear her to the French press -- and ultimately, to a besotted French public. When her husband's re-election draws near and his ratings are in the tank due to his poor political instincts and personal scandals, it becomes clear, hilariously and ironically, that Bernadette's own popularity might be the only thing that can save her husband's career.  

Deneuve, icon that she is, is every bit as marvelous

and charming and funny and wry as her character demands, and the film--while it has some sobering undertones about the ways in which women are often treated in a male-dominated culture--is just a lot of fun, lightly triumphant without taking itself too seriously. 

Third, as a special treat for horror fans and fans of horror-comedy, especially, we've also got Clown in a Cornfield, which will be with us for limited showings this weekend, Fri/Sat/Sun only and next weekend on Fri/Sat/Sun.  I have extremely fond memories of watching Tucker and Dale vs. Evil at the Pickford's Limelight way back in 2010 (and laughing so hard I was crying), and so I could not resist booking Clown in a Cornfield, this newest film from the same writer-director, Eli Craig.

Clown isn't quite in the same "horror-parody" genre that Tucker is, but it's a vibrant horror-comedy in the same satirical vein, and it has the same interest in riffing on the horror genre and giving it some generational updates. In this case, Craig plays with horror tropes and expectations and includes lovingly mischievous nods to other horror films (e.g. the opening scene is a very fun parallel to the opening scene of Jaws), but he's also offering some commentary on generational paranoia, particularly the paranoia and antipathy an older generation might irrationally and self-righteously have for a younger generation.  There's also a healthy dose of satire directed at any who might claim the supremacy of "tradition" and "small town values," and I was pleasantly reminded of films like Edgar Wright's satirical action-comedy Hot Fuzz. 

Clown in a Cornfield – in case the title didn't give it away already – is not particularly deep nor is it meant to be; it's quite simply, good comedy-horror fun that also offers some light, smart commentary on our political moment. Bravo to Eli Craig

We've also got an array of special events this week, including some encore showings of the Doctober 2024 hit Rainier: A Beer Odyssey, which you can catch on Saturday (2:45 pm), Monday (2:30 pm), or Wednesday (8:00 pm). 

 We've also got another documentary with limited showtimes this week, I Know Catherine, The Log Lady a new film about Catherine Coulson, one of David Lynch's closest and dearest friends and someone whom Twin Peaks devotees will know as "The Log Lady." It's a must-see for all Twin Peaks fans as well as for fans of David Lynch and of the kind of poignant humanism we see throughout his career. 

While telling a more expansive story about Coulson's life and of how she first met Lynch, I Know Catherine primarily follows the period in which it was announced that Twin Peaks would return after 25 years for a third season. At the time of production, Coulson had been diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer and that circumstance threw production into question: how could Twin Peaks continue without The Log Lady, but how could someone so ill participate in an intense and demanding TV production?  

Ultimately, as those who've seen Twin Peaks: The Return know, The Log Lady was present for this final collaboration with David Lynch, and her presence, as ill as she was, makes it an all the more profoundly moving and extraordinary project.  As Coleman Spilde writes for Salon,"In the end, the Log Lady's heartbreaking final scenes — pivotal to the enormity of Twin Peaks: The Return and the entire, decades-spanning story Lynch and Frost created — were filmed by a team of close friends, with Lynch feeding Coulson lines over Skype. To give any further details would deprive you of the chance to see this beautiful finale yourself and learn about it from the people in that room. As they speak about their experience, it's easy to slip into the shared mindset of Coulson and Lynch, who didn't fear death itself, but feared not being able to use their time here to its fullest. Happily, the story of how Coulson filmed her final scenes in Twin Peaks provides fans with new layers of resonance to grasp onto, even in the decade since her death."

Join us for this poignant film on Sunday (3:15 pm), Tuesday (7:45 pm), or Thursday (3:00 pm).

This month's Third Eye series – late night cult classics, curated by Pickford staff and volunteers – is the completely bonkers and completely fabulous Xanadu, curated by volunteer Laura H.  

Laura writes, "Xanadu was not well-received upon its release in 1980, but my sister and I didn't care because we LOVED IT. We bought the soundtrack, listened to it incessantly and, as a result, can still sing nearly every word, more than 40 years later. But don't trust me. Here's what no less than the BBC had to say about it on its 20-year anniversary!   Xanadu, 'where the glimmers of originality and delight are the equivalent of lovely pearly white teeth in the face of a reanimated corpse'; 'a premium example of capitalism-as-demented-auteur';  'conceptual choices ... made for commercial reasons, but instead of leading to something cookie-cutter and audience-friendly, ...produced this flailing monster, provoking delight, pity, compassion and horror, all at once.'   And finally, '[Citizen] Kane's Xanadu is a costly nightmare with plenty of ambition and high-concept thinking, but an empty void where the soul and character should be – just like the infamous 1980 roller-disco musical fantasia that shares its name.'  The BBC's re-examination posits that Xanadu might be a misunderstood masterpiece. Your turn to judge come May 10th! Do NOT miss it."

Join us, then, on Saturday at 10 pm for this sensational "flailing monster" of a film!

 John Waters and Kathleen Turner fans unite!  This Sunday at the Pickford, Mother's Day, is bringing us something extra special with Serial Mom. We've had a couple of ABBA-tastic Mother's Days with Mamma Mia in 2023 and Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again in 2024, but we're taking a swing into something different this year for those that might like to take their moms to something a bit more gleefully subversive. 

Jonathan Rosenbaum noted in his Serial Mom essay, "Waters Still Runs Deep" for the Chicago Reader at the time that he felt Waters had lost a bit of an anchor for his films after the death of his muse, Divine, but then along came Serial Mom.  Rosenbaum writes,  "Enter Kathleen Turner as Beverly Sutphin, the serial mom–a cheerful, all-American homemaker who refuses to allow chewing gum or mention of "the brown word" (Waterese for "shit") in her squeaky-clean household, which brims with freshly baked cookies and carefully tendered meatloaf, but who gleefully kills other suburbanites for petty crimes like impugning her son's interest in gory movies, standing up her daughter, or failing to floss or drive with safety belts or rewind videos–and the mannerist cinema of John Waters becomes a distinct possibility again. The joy of [Waters's] best earlier work is, if not exactly regained, at least plausibly repostulated. Poetry begins to glimmer once more."

Poetry, indeed. Serial Mom will be a blast. Join us on Sunday at 1:00 pm! 

Finally, Pom Poko, the  third film in our month-long Takahata series, which is part of our larger Cinema East series, screens on Thursday, May 15 at 11 am and 7:45 pm. Following the story of "an enclave of tanuki (raccoon-like creatures from Japanese folklore) threatened by encroaching urban development who commence a campaign of trickery at construction sites, thanks to their power to change shape," Pom Poko lyrically circles around the ecological concerns that Studio Ghibli has become known for, while also offering a startling and rather brilliant mix of "poetic realism and comic cartoonishness" (NYT).   

Keep an eye out for the Sunday newsletter email from Cinema East curator, Jeff Purdue, offering a more thorough introduction to the wonderful Pom Poko, and we'll see you on Thursday for the film, when WWU Professor Emi Bushelle will also be offering an in-person introduction. 

See you at the movies, friends!

Melissa