The second half of May at the Castro Theatre offers a birthday party for Harvey Milk (5/22, his 85th), an evening of Drag Queen Comedy (5/23), the 2015 edition of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival (5/28-6/1), and an eclectic collection of recent releases.
Point Break (1991) Bay Area-raised (San Carlos, 1951) action-film "Queen" Katherine Bigelow created the first surfer chase-flick that manages to be gloriously airborne while still catching the wave. Among Bigelow's near-genius strokes is the casting of her "separated-at-birth twin brother" Keanu Reeves (Beirut-born, Toronto-raised from English mom and Chinese-Hawaiian dad), who is dead-on hip as the world's first surfer big-screen cop. Point Break zaps back and forth between hyperviolent melodrama �" the late Patrick Swayze steals his subplot as a rogue surfer who lives off robbing banks dressed up as ex-prez Ronald Reagan �" and hypnotic aerial ballet. A sequence where Bigelow has Keanu jump from a plane and dance across the sky before his chute opens is one of modern cinema's great out-of-body moments. The whole experience is a little like discovering that SF Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum was doubling as a "vampire poet" in-between haircuts and starting mound gigs. (5/21)
Road House (1989) Patrick Swayze cuts a sexy figure as a Missouri bar bouncer in Rowdy Herrington's poorly reviewed (some say "sexist") boys-night-out romp. (5/21)
The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) Rob Epstein's Oscar-winning bio-doc about San Francisco's first out city supervisor can still pack a wallop for newcomers to the Milk legend. The New York-born/Castro camera-store politician jumpstarted an electoral movement whose impact is still evolving. During his tragically short (1973-78) stint as an LGBT "pied piper" leader, Milk, never far removed from his secular Jewish roots, demonstrated how charismatic leaders emerge from grass roots activism. (5/22; consult the Harvey Milk Club website for full schedule: milkclub.org.)
The Drag Queens of Comedy Miss Coco Peru is among the cross-dressing luminaries in this two-performance standup show. (5/23) Info: DQOC.com
A Clockwork Orange (1971) Stanley Kubrick's incendiary treatment of an Anthony Burgess dystopian novel was for many years banned in the UK. A young Malcolm McDowell's greatest screen triumph (supported by a Wendy/Walter Carlos electronic score) demonstrates how scary and difficult it is to guard against a modern nihilistic movement. This film delivers a remarkable showcase for arguments pro and con "brain-washing" that are all the more pertinent in our present siege state regarding radical Islamic terrorism. (5/24)
Immortal Beloved (1994) Bernard Rose uses Gary Oldman to illustrate themes in Beethoven's life (based on a mysterious letter found after his death) that both fascinate and raise hackles among keepers of the flame. (5/24)
Full Metal Jacket (1987) Kubrick's two-punch effort to illustrate how the dehumanization of a Marine Corps recruit (Matthew Modine) at Paris Island reflects on his survival during the 1968 Tet Offensive against US forces in Vietnam. (5/25)
Birdy (1984) British director Alan Parker follows two Vietnam-era battle-scarred American vet, played by Nicolas Cage and Matthew Modine, as they try to reassemble their brains and psyches in a US military hospital. Peter Gabriel's music takes this one to another level. (5/25)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) Lewis Milestone directed this devastating pacifist anthem starring a baby-faced Lew Ayres (1908-96), who captures the innocence and tenacious idealism of the young WWI German soldier from Erich Maria Remarque's novel. The recently restored silent version of the film opens this year's SF Silent Film Festival, accompanied by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. (5/28)
Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) Fred Niblo's 141-minute silent epic showcases the incendiary, sexually-charged star power of Ramon Novarro as the Jewish prince Judah Ben-Hur, who has a fateful encounter with Jesus. Screened with a Carl Davis-scored soundtrack, plus film historian Kevin Brownlow chats onstage with Serge Bromberg. (6/1)
Days of Heaven (1978) Terrence Malick cemented his reputation as a visual genius in this Nestor Almendros-lensed agrarian drama set during a harvest around the turn of the 20th century. Its beauty almost overwhelms a story featuring the then-youthful cast of Richard Gere, Brooke Adams and Sam Shepard. (6/3)
Out of the Blue (1980) Director Dennis Hopper's drama love-child of Easy Rider finds the daughter (Linda Manz) of ex-biker Hopper and a drug addict mom (Sharon Farrell) unable to cope with her free-love parents' values and volatile lifestyles. Raymond Burr fills out the supporting cast. (6/3)
Rosemary's Baby (1968) Roman Polanski's film finds a shockingly young Mia Farrow, in a role that prompted divorce papers from pissed-off hubby Frank Sinatra, moving into an old gothic Manhattan apartment house with a dangerously ambitious actor husband (fiendishly callous John Cassavetes). Polanski raises this one to the top of the horror/thriller genre by allowing the viewer to sort out how much faith to place in the film's pact-with-the-devil climax (based on Ira Levin's bestselling novel). A saucy comic turn won Ruth Gordon a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, which she turned into a series of comic oldster roles. (6/4)
The Stepford Wives (1975) Another American suburban black comedy classic is Bryan Forbes' treatment of William Goldman's script based on an Ira Levin novel. Katherine Ross and Paula Prentiss play newcomers unable to grasp the secret bliss exhibited by their Stepford, Conn. neighbors. (6/4)
Walt Disney's Dumbo (1941) One of the gems from the Disney vault, this 64-minute animated feature can still frighten young viewers as it dramatizes the plight of a young elephant who loses his mom but is rescued by a brave, mentoring mouse. (6/5-6)