Greetings from the midst of a very eventful cinema season,
Today and tomorrow at the Cinema see last-chance screenings for a number of films: Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza make their final curtain calls, our Passport: Todo Sobre Almodóvar series continues with Volver on 35mm this evening, and the Show Me Series enters its second season with Pahokee tomorrow night, co-presented with Boone County Community Against Violence. Consider clearing your calendar, canceling your appointments, and taking up residence in the hallowed halls of our cinematheque.
Friday sees the openings of two bold international titles: Pedro Almodóvar’s newest, Parallel Mothers—Friday’s 6pm show features a special introduction from Dr. Michael Ugarte, the Professor Emeritus of Spanish at the University of Missouri—and Radu Jude’s incendiary Romanian satire, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn .
Romania’s official entry to the 94th Academy Awards and the winner of the Golden Bear at the 2021 Berlin International Film Festival, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn opens with a bang… literally. A high school teacher’s private sex tape (featured unsimulated in the film) is uploaded to the internet, leading to a near-military tribunal demanding her resignation. Told over three distinct chapters and stylistic modes, Jude blends daring experimentation, nonfiction, performance, and didactic essay to craft a searing and hilarious portrait of our present and our history. Graphic and consistently shocking, this film is not for everyone, but it’s certainly unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
Be brave,
Ted
