July Screening Picks (LA)
some songs, some laughs
Welcome to Never Cursed’s Screening Picks! Every month I send subscribers the 10 best films screening in New York & Los Angeles. If you want to help make Substack a sustainable part of my writing life, consider upgrading to paid! In addition to free Screening Picks, Prix Fixes, and Essays, paid subscribers get access to my monthly reading & viewing diaries.
With respect to American Cinematheque, Angelenos do not need The Searchers in 70mm this month. Angelenos deserve a laugh and an escape in primo air conditioning. In that spirit, this month’s recs skew towards comedies and musicals with a couple exceptional drama/thrillers too good to pass up.
In other news, I’m coming to you live from Brooklin, ME! I’ve hit a total wall with watching TV and have resorted to actually using my Criterion Channel subscription (currently making my way through their Jacques Rozier series), but it’s so nice out that anytime I start watching a movie I pause it 10 mins in and go for a walk. There’s a chance I may not see a single movie in theaters this month while I’m up North, so you all have to go and see these and report back (please).
JULY SCREENINGS (LA)
New releases (& limited re-releases) to catch in theaters this month: This is Spinal Tap (rerelease), My Neighbor Totoro (rerelease), Familiar Touch, Sex, Videoheaven, Eddington, Oh, Hi!
7/8, 7:30PM - Turnstile: Never Enough @ Braindead Studios - Can’t wait to see this visual album from Turnstile. Especially stoked to see it played extra loud in a theater.
7/11, 7:15PM - My Own Private Idaho @ Braindead Studios - A perfect match of director (Gus Van Sant) & cast (River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves). Americana filtered through a haze of dreamscapes and longing. Heavier than most of the other recs this month, but too beautiful to resist. When I was in college, my friends and I signed up for a PS1 master class with GVS about My Own Private Idaho, which turned out to be largely taught by James Franco. Bum-mer. We spent the summer watching reruns of Never Mind The Buzzcocks instead.
7/14 & 7/16, 2PM - An American in Paris @ The Academy Museum - A movie to turn your brain off during & enjoy the vibe. Screening as part of The Academy Museum’s really cool “Designing to Music” series which programs around celebrating costumes, hair, and makeup design in musicals. According to The Academy Museum’s website, co-costume designer Irene “Sharaff designed the costumes and helped develop the narrative, choreography, and set design for the film’s 17-minute ballet finale.”
7/16, 7:30PM - Playtime (70mm !) @ The Egyptian - Some people claim their favorite comedy movies are by Charlie Chaplin, which I’m always skeptical of — did Modern Times really make you laugh harder than Step Brothers? That said, my favorite comedy movies are by Jacques Tati. I saw M. Hulot’s Holiday in theaters last month and was laughing so hard I spilled my soda all over my aisle. Simple pleasures.
7/17, 7:30PM - Monterey Pop @ Vidiots - It would be so fun to see this DA Pennebaker concert doc with a crowd. The only music festival I am tempted to attend this summer.
7/19, 6:45PM - Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story - Has become one of the movies I unwittingly quote the most. Tim Meadows sublime.
7/26, 2PM - Austin Powers Triple Feature @ The Academy Museum - This is what I’m talking about. This summer is not the time to rewatch the Three Colors trilogy or Turin Horse or whatever. It’s time to watch all three Austin Powers movies in one afternoon. I’d like to thank The Academy…
7/27, 4PM - The Eyes of Laura Mars @ Vidiots (presented by Karina Longworth) - From my 2024 essay about Eyes of Laura Mars: “Just as Antonioni’s Blow-Up lensed the amoral disaffection of swinging London a decade earlier, Kershner’s film reflected, magnified, and attempted to complicate anxieties about “Fear City” (as New York was referred to in leaflets distributed in the ‘70s by striking policemen to intimidate potential tourists). Watching it now, Eyes of Laura Mars feels like both an essential document of pre-digital, pre-Giuliani New York and an unreachable fantasy of a fashion industry untouched by AIDS, the magazine-torching 2008 recession, or the internet.”
7/28, 7:30PM - Sexy Beast (35mm) @ Vidiots) - I rewatched Sexy Beast recently and reaffirmed that (IMHO) this is a perfect movie. The best editing around a swimming pool in movie history.
7/31, 7:30PM - Lords of Dogtown (35mm) @ Vidiots (with Catherine Hardwicke!) - Rad soundtrack and score, just a cool vibe all around. A movie that made me want to move to California. At the time of writing this there are still tickets but I assume they will sell out fast!
xoH