February is our shortest month, but the nonstop water from the sky may make you feel a bit trapped. Our neighborhood movie palace (since 1922) the Castro Theatre has the answer with a couple of dozen twin-spin film programs, many with subtle thematic hooks.
One More Time with Feeling (2016) Filmmaker Andrew Dominik looks at underground musician Nick Cave and the mojo behind his latest album with the Bad Seeds, Skeleton Tree.
Wings of Desire (1987) Nick Cave is in this cult classic from Wim Wenders, who creates a Berlin just before the Wall fell where we can believe in angels. With Bruno Ganz and Peter Falk as himself. In German, French and English. (both 2/9)
Sing-along West Side Story (1961) Yes, the great Bernstein-Robbins-Sondheim riff on Romeo & Juliet is now a Castro audience sing-along. Directed by Robert Wise, with Natalie Wood, Richard Reymer, Russ Tamblyn and Rita Moreno. Winner of 10 Oscars. (2/10-12)
It Happened One Night (1934) This five-Oscar, Frank Capra-directed screwball road comedy still packs a wallop with laughs and insights into media-driven obsessions. Clark Gable skipped the T-shirt, while Claudette Colbert was one of the sound era's best poor-little-rich-girls. Best-known for "the Wall of Jericho" motel-room blanket and many variations on opposites-attract vibes.
Sullivan's Travels (1941) Preston Sturges' spicy spoof of the film business stars Joel McCrea, fed up with the B.S. associated with his job as director of Hollywood fluff, and Veronica Lake as wannabe ingenue. Thought-provoking screwball classic. (both 2/14)
Brokeback Mountain (2005) Heath Ledger gives an Oscar-worthy take on a man who already seems in mourning for a loss he will be late to grasp. Ennis Del Mar is a man of very few words, his face hidden by his hat, until a beat-up GMC pickup sputters into view. The driver, Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), kicks his junker and turns to the camera. Every pretty actor who ever rode across Tombstone Country flashes by our eyes as we observe Jack observing Ennis through his truck's side mirror. Director Ang Lee's deft pacing allows accretions of affection to mount between Jack and Ennis, turning them into soulmates.
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) Anglo-Pakistani writer Hanif Kureishi and director Stephen Frears joined forces for the most taboo-defying social comedy of the Thatcher era. Co-starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Gordon Warnecke, this laugh-fest about a laundromat jump-started careers and created homo buzz. (both 2/15)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) This innovative musical introduced the world to a fresh-faced Catherine Deneuve. Jacques Demy invented the stylish frisson that retains its fizz a half-century later.
The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) Demy's follow-up adds the talents of Gene Kelly to the formula. (both 2/16)
Romeo & Juliet (1996) Baz Luhrmann's pop take on the Bard's tragic star-crossed couple (pre-Titanic Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes) is vital, refreshing and true to the text.
Moulin Rouge! (2001) Baz is back, with Aussie-born Nicole Kidman and British star Ewan McGregor as cursed-by-fate lovers in Paris, circa 1900. (both 2/17)
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) Blake Edwards' treatment of this Truman Capote novella was a career-defining high for star Audrey Hepburn as East Side Manhattan party-girl sprite Holly Golightly. Strains of Henry Mancini's "Moon River" enhance the pleasures of George Axelrod�s witty script, the epitome of early-60s romantic screen banter. With George Peppard, Patricia Neal, and Mickey Rooney in a racially insensitive cameo, the film's singular misstep.
Charade (1963) The start of Cary Grant's big-screen swan song features a bubbly Audrey Hepburn, the music of Mancini and a first-class supporting cast: Walter Matthau, James Coburn and George Kennedy. (both 2/18)
Tammy and the Bachelor (1957) Debbie Reynolds left this definition of what the pursuit of love and happiness meant in the Eisenhower years. The object of her affection is Leslie Nielsen. Tammy's take on the title tune was #1 on the radio, and the film's widescreen format is an enchanting time machine.
Singin' in the Rain (1952) Debbie is joined by Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor in the happiest bout of singing and dancing ever seen on the big screen. Co-directed by Stanley Donen, musical stylings by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. (both 2/19)
Jackie (2016) seduces you into imagining what it must have been like for first lady Jacqueline Kennedy when three bullets shattered her regal world forever. An elaborate series of flashbacks reconstructs the moment when "the 60s" truly began. (2/21)
The Hustler (1961) Paul Newman is astonishing at the start of his great decade (the 60s) as a talented but callow pool-hall player who meets his match from an ensemble featuring George C. Scott and Jackie Gleason, in his best big-screen role as pool champ Minnesota Fats. Robert Rossen's direction is enhanced by Oscar-winning cinematographer Eugene Schufftan.
California Split (1974) Robert Altman's gambling-addicted buddies (George Segal, Elliot Gould) charm their way into our hearts in a screen trip, with music edited out of home-video versions. (both 2/22)
Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) Pretty-boy Eric Stoltz waffles between possible girlfriends: the popular girl (Lea Thompson) and the tomboy Mary Stuart Masterson. John Hughes-written, Howard Deutsch-directed effort validates Hughes' claim to be 80s-teen Preston Sturges.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) The flip side of 80s happy teens in this Wes Craven horror masterpiece. (both 2/25)
Citizen Kane (1941) This towering work from then-25-year-old prodigy Orson Welles is a dramatic symphony of populist themes. Welles (with screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, cinematographer Gregg Toland and composer Bernard Herrmann) exposes a newspaper-baron plutocrat (based on William Randolph Hearst) pretending to be the people's tribune. Exposes the sins of corporate media when tied to an oversized ego. Welles' career took a hit from Hearst critics from then on.
The Power and the Glory (1933) Spencer Tracy makes his mark as a railroad tycoon whose rise and fall is brilliantly scripted by Preston Sturges, directed by William K. Howard and lensed by James Wong Howe. (both 2/26)
Hidden Figures (2016) This Oscar contender (Best Picture, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay) does justice to the long-obscured fact that three African American women played a crucial role in John Glenn's ride into space. (2/28)