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Seven decades of 'Rebel Without a Cause,' and more of the best movies in L.A.
Also this week: A 10th anniversary screening of 'Selma,' Richard Linklater's 'Waking Life,' the Australian 'Muriel's Wedding' in 35mm and remembering David Lynch.
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Hello! Iâm Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
Due to the ongoing Los Angeles wildfires, the announcement of this yearâs Academy Awards nominations has already been pushed back twice. Now the announcement is set for Jan. 23. This set off a series of rumors that the awards ceremony itself â scheduled for March 2 â was somehow in danger of being canceled.
In a statement to The Timesâ Mary McNamara, academy CEO Bill Kramer insisted that the show will go on as planned.
âThis yearâs ceremony will include special moments acknowledging those who fought so bravely against the wildfires,â the statement said. âWe feel that we must go forward to support our film community and to use our global platform to bring attention to these critical moments in our history.
âThe spirit of Los Angeles and our film community has always been one of resilience, and the Oscars represent not just a celebration of film, but the industryâs strength and unity in the face of adversity.â
McNamara noted how even the frivolity of something like the Oscars will take on a new sense of gravitas at such a fragile moment for the city.
âThough postponed and rescheduled several times in its 94-year history, the Oscars have never been canceled. Not during war or plague, not after assassination or the 9/11 attacks,â McNamara wrote. âTo do so now would send a message diametrically opposed to the historic resiliency of both the city and the industry it represents. We must always celebrate the work that unites and defines us, makes us laugh, cry, think and aspire. Especially in the midst of tragedy.â
Sal Mineo, left, James Dean and Natalie Wood in âRebel Without a Cause,â which will be screened Saturday afternoon at the Egyptian Theatre.
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
Rescheduled from last weekend, a 70th anniversary screening of âRebel Without a Causeâ in 35mm will now happen on Saturday afternoon at the Egyptian Theatre. Directed by Nicholas Ray from a screenplay by Stewart Stern and Irving Shulman, the film stars James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo along with appearances by Dennis Hopper and Jim Backus. Released less than a month after Deanâs September 1955 death at age 24 in a car crash, the film solidified the actor as an eternal Hollywood icon.
âRebel Without a Causeâ combines emotional intensity and psychological acuity, especially in the character of Deanâs Jim Stark, a troubled teenager who has moved with his family to Los Angeles, where his parents hope he can get a fresh start. He soon falls in with Plato (Mineo) and Judy (Wood), and the three outcasts bond quickly. They soon find themselves caught between a teenage gang and the police, with life-altering consequences for all of them.
Thought the film didnât invent the notion of the teenager, it took their problems seriously in a way few previously had. In his review from November 1955, Philip K. Scheuer lauded the filmâs âmood that is hard to shake off afterward.â He added, âThe picture is one of intermittent violence, senseless yet instinctive and sometimes sickening to witness, but at the same time revealing of a kind of sad innocence, a yearning toward âbelongingâ that in one passage takes on an almost poetic quality.â
Andrew Holland, left, and David Oyelowo in âSelma,â which will be shown Saturday at the Academy Museum.
(Atsushi Nishijima / TNS)
On Saturday, the Academy Museum will host a 10th anniversary screening of âSelmaâ with filmmaker Ava DuVernay and actors David Oyelowo, Omar Dorsey, Stephan James, Niecy Nash-Betts, Wendell Pierce, Lorraine Toussaint and Andre Holland â plus actor and producer Oprah Winfrey â for a Q&A moderated by Elvis Mitchell. The film was nominated for best picture and won an Oscar for original song.
Oyelowo stars as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in powerhouse performance as the film tells the story of Kingâs work for voting rights that culminated in the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery.
In a review from the time the film was released, Kenneth Turan wrote, â âSelmaâ is a necessary film, even an essential one, with more than its share of memorable performances and vivid, compelling sequences. ⌠If there is a temptation to canonize âSelmaâ and brush aside its less successful elements, thatâs not surprising given how good much of it is and the heroic nature of the story, not to mention the decades itâs taken for this history to reach the screen.â
In an interview at the time, DuVernay described her approach to Kingâs life: âI didnât want to approach Dr. King as a cradle-to-grave story; thatâs a big life. My guide was the truth and facts of what happened each day and how each great, difficult choice led to the next great, difficult choice.â
John Lewis, one of the leaders of the actual Selma march, wrote an op-ed for The Times in 2015 in which the then-Democratic representative of Georgia declared, â âSelmaâ does more than bring history to life, it enlightens our understanding of our lives today. It proves the efficacy of nonviolent action and civic engagement, especially when government seems unresponsive. With poignant grace, it demonstrates that Occupy, inconvenient protests and die-ins that disturb our daily routine reflect a legacy of resistance that led many to struggle and die for justice, not centuries ago, but in our lifetimes. It reminds us that the day could be approaching when that price will be required again.â
âWaking Lifeâ in 35mm
The 2001 film âWaking Life,â which features animation overlaid on live-action footage, will show at the Academy Museum on Monday.
(Jennifer Drummond / Fox Searchlight Pictures)
As part of a series on depictions of dreams in the movies, the Academy Museum will show Richard Linklaterâs 2001 film âWaking Lifeâ in 35mm on Monday. Created with an innovative technique of animation overlaid on live-action footage, the film follows an unnamed protagonist (Wiley Wiggins, who also starred in Linklaterâs âDazed and Confusedâ) as he wanders from one conversation or encounter to another: a hazy free-association of philosophical ideas. Among those he encounters on his journey are Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy playing their characters from the âBeforeâ films, filmmaker Steven Soderbergh and many others.
In an interview when the film was coming out, Linklater lightly bemoaned the fact that even though it was being released by the studio subsidiary then known as Fox Searchlight, such a willfully weird movie was still going to have to battle it out at the box office.
âIt kills me that âWaking Life,â which to me is very otherworldly and timeless, is going to be out there in the world duking it out with whatever else opens that weekend,â Linklater said. âItâs nice to have people with a little bit of muscle, just a little bit, who can put an ad campaign together and get a film out there.â
âMurielâs Weddingâ in 35mm
Daniel Lapaine and Toni Collette as a married couple in âMurielâs Weddingâ (1994), which will screen Wednesday at Vidiots.
(Miramax Films)
On Wednesday, Vidiots will play P.J. Hoganâs 1994 film âMurielâs Weddingâ in 35mm from a print on loan from the Library of Congress. The film helped launch both Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths to broader stardom, and even played a role in the cultural revival of ABBA.
Collette plays Muriel, who escapes from her hopeless life via her devoted fandom to the Swedish supergroup. She moves from her small Australian town of Porpoise Spit to the city of Sydney, where she gets a job at a video store, a new roommate (Griffiths) and a new lease on life.
Reviewing the film at the time, Kenneth Turan wrote, âWickedly mocking but empathetic, able to laugh at its characters while paying attention to their sorrows, this subversive comedy about self-esteem resists the notion that films have to timidly remain within tidy genre rules.â
Comparing the film to other then-recent Australian exports such as âStrictly Ballroomâ and âThe Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,â Turan noted of âMuriel,â âMade with energy, raucous good humor and noticeable wit, its ability to recognize the poignancy in its situations makes it special even in that uninhibited group.â
David Lynch dies at 78
Director David Lynch, photographed in Los Angeles in 2012.
(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
On Thursday came the shocking news that David Lynch, director of âEraserhead,â âThe Elephant Man,â âBlue Velvet,â âWild at Heart,â âInland Emipireâ and more, had died at age 78.
In a 1986 interview for âBlue Velvet,â Lynch described the film in a way that might also explain larger portions of his work, saying, âThis film is a trip into darkness and back out again. There are things lurking in the world and within us that we have to deal with. You can evade them for a while, for a long time maybe, but if you face them and name them, they start losing their power. Once you name the enemy, you can deal with it a lot better.â
In her appreciation of Lynchâs work, Times film critic Amy Nicholson wrote, âOnce I was old enough to have some sense of what it means to become a parent, itâs where I learned to see Lynch not as a genius, nor a prankster or a guru, but as a human being. âEraserheadâ allowed him to express the shameful fears about parenthood that he couldnât say aloud. When Sherilyn Fenn told him on the set of âTwin Peaksâ that she wanted to have a kid, he said, âGo take a look at âEraserheadâ first.â
Kyle MacLachlan in the 1986 movie âBlue Velvet.â
(De Laurentis Entertainment)
Glenn Whipp wrote about his own experiences in interviewing Lynch, noting, âWhenever I spoke with him, he was unfailingly polite, the embodiment of a Boy Scout upbringing that heâd sometimes embrace, maybe to mess with people, maybe not.â
I created a roundup of reactions to his death, including heartfelt tributes from collaborators Kyle MacLachlan and Naomi Watts, as well as relative acolytes including Harmony Korine, Jane Schoenbrun and Richard Kelly.
MacLachlan made his debut in Lynchâs âDuneâ and also appeared in âBlue Velvetâ and âTwin Peaks.â As MacLachlan put it, âHe clearly saw something in me that even I didnât recognize. I owe my entire career, and life really, to his vision. What I saw in him was an enigmatic and intuitive man with a creative ocean bursting forth inside of him. He was in touch with something the rest of us wish we could get to.â
In a Lynchian coincidence, the American Cinmeatheque already had a screening of Lynchâs final feature film, 2006âs âInland Empireâ starring Laura Dern, scheduled for the Egyptian this Saturday. Then on Jan. 25, the theater will show 1990âs âWild at Heartâ starring Dern and Nicolas Cage, which won the Palme dâOr at Cannes. Expect many more Lynch screenings in the days and weeks ahead.
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