Fresh Loaf

The Plaza Theatre screens The Big Lebowski at 9:30 p.m. this evening as part of its monthly “Flicks & Giggles” series, which features a warm-up act of live comedy, followed by a big-screen laughfest. Directed by Oscar winners Joel and Ethan Coen, The Big Lebowski celebrates its 10th anniversary this year and has been enshrined as one of the most beloved cult comedies of the past 10 years.

The Big Lebowski works as a kind of gonzo combination of Raymond Chandler private eye story and Cheech-and-Chong pot comedy, and features famously profane dialogue. My favorite story about The Big Lebowski concerns Comedy Central’s attempt to clean up the film for broadcast. The language is not work safe, so I’ll put it after the jump, and the clip of the “Gutterballs” dream scene:

(more…)

Bookmark It

By accident, coincidence or the hand of occult forces beyond human understanding, the Plaza Theatre is presenting two films this week based on the works of pioneering American horror author H.P. Lovecraft. Tonight, Sep. 9, the monthly gorefest Splatter Cinema presents director Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator, a frequently hilarious adaptation of Lovecraft’s story, “Herbert West: Re-Animator.” Replete with dark comedy, grisly make-up effects and a soundtrack reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Re-Animator is also worth seeing just for the transcendently twitchy performance by Jeffrey Combs as Dr. Herbert West, an obnoxious young scientist who discovers the means to return the spark of life to the recently deceased. Here’s the trailer from 1985:

(more…)

Bookmark It

Any of the 2,500 or so people who head out to the Starlight Six Drive-In this weekend will feel like they’re attending a family reunion.

Drive-Invasion, the annual harmonic convergence of Atlanta’s lowbrow-culture scene, brings together punk-inspired rockabilly, garage and surf rock, hot-rod and custom-car contests, and a slew of old horror and science-fiction movies, shown from dusk practically till dawn.

It’s the signature event in a scene that over the past decade has flourished by celebrating fading cultural landmarks and old pop trends. With the help of a creative cadre of musicians, performance artists, promoters and tinkerers, ancient theaters such as the Starlight and the Plaza, and converted industrial spaces such as the Alcove Gallery, are taking the past and bringing it alive with a new, uniquely Atlantan energy. Lowbrow culture has taken root in Atlanta.

The word “lowbrow” has come to describe the embrace of a whole range of 20th-century pop-culture trends with a decidedly DIY spirit – from the hot-rod scene of the Roaring ’20s and the post-World War II tiki-bar craze to pop-surrealist, cartoon and comic-book art. The West Coast hipsters seem to celebrate all things lowbrow with a sense of irony that hints at trendiness.

But in Atlanta – where highways and power centers sometimes overshadow a more homegrown personality – a tightly knit group of creative spirits seems to have left irony behind in favor of an authentic lowbrow aesthetic with its own Southern accent.

Read the rest of this article here.

(Photo by David Lee Simmons)

Bookmark It

On Sat., Aug. 23, the Silver Scream Spook Show, the Plaza Theatre’s monthly presentation of vintage horror film and burlesque entertainment, presents Curse of the Demon, a supernatural classic from 1957. Alternately known as Night of the Demon, the film features one of horror films’ most famous monster mug shots. Ironically, Curse’s now-iconic demon was almost not part of the final cut, but a late addition at the studio’s insistence that appears only at the beginning and ending of the film. Here’s a short clip:

Curse’s occult story features a scholarly skeptic (Laura’s square-jawed Dana Andrews) who exposes frauds, only to discover that a coven leader (Niall MacGinnis) may actually known how to summon dark forces. It may be the masterpiece of director Jacques Tourneur, who established himself as an expert in building mood and ratcheting up our fears of the unseen and unknown (especially in his collaborations with producer Val Lewton, including the original Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie). If the X-Files sequel and M. Night Shyamalan’s recent efforts left suspense-seekers disappointed, Curse of the Demon will show you how it’s done.

Curse of the Demon screens at 1 and 10 p.m., Aug. 23.

Bookmark It

“A tidal wave of terror engulfs the screen!” On Saturday the Silver Scream Spook Show, the Plaza Theatre’s raucous monthly screening of classic — or at least memorable –horror movies, presents It Came From Beneath the Sea from 1955. The legendary Ray Harryhausen provided the special effects for this tale of a giant octopus that wreaks havoc, memorably putting the squeeze on the Golden Gate Bridge. Fun fact: to save time, Harryhausen only animated six of the model’s tentacles and nicknamed it a “hextapus.” Incidentally, It seems to have inspired the neat-o giant “kraken” scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest. It Came From Beneath the Sea plays at 1 and 10 p.m. on Saturday, July 26. Here’s the vintage trailer:

Bookmark It

There are Twinkies with more depth. There were probably better ways for Gene Kelly to finish off a big-screen career. There was never an opportunity for Olivia Newton-John to show off leg warmers.

But there’s no denying the musical power of the soundtrack to 1980’s Xanadu, which screens tonight at 9:30 p.m. as part of the Plaza Theatre’s Summer Camp series. Directed by (believe it or not) Robert Greenwald — more recently known for his politically charged documentaries such as Outfoxed and Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price — Xanadu sluggishly tells the story of a frustrated artist, Sonny Malone (Michael Beck) who inadvertently summons a roller-skating muse, Kira (Newton-John), just as his befriending an aging Hollywood hoofer (Kelly) leads to a partnership in a nightclub.

(more…)

Bookmark It

Yup, you read it right. Everybody’s favorite Hellion, Crispin Glover (pictured, in Epic Movie), will host a two-night stand at the Plaza Theatre in which the sometimes brilliant actor, director and author will show off his stuff.

This, according to a press release from the Plaza’s Jonathan Rej:

The evening begins with Crispin Hellion Glover’s Big Slide Show, an hour-long dramatic presentation in which the actor narrates images from eight of his illustrated story books. The feature film It Is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. screens next, followed by a question & answer period moderated by Crispin himself, who will then sign books (for sale in the lobby) after the Q&A session.

It Is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. goes into uncharted cinematic territory with screenwriter Steven C. Stewart starring in this semi-autobiographical, psycho-sexual, tale about a man with severe cerebral palsy and a fetish for girls with long hair. Part horror film, part exploitation picture and part documentary of a man who cannot express his sexuality in the way he desires, (due to his physical condition), this fantastical and often humorous tale is told completely from Stewarts actual point of view as that of someone who has lived for years watching people do things he will never be able to do. Here, Stewarts character is something of a lady-killer, seducing a troubled, recently divorced mother (Margit Carstensen), her teenage daughter and any number of other ladies he encounters along the way. According to Crispin Glover, Stewart “wanted to show that handicapped people are human, sexual and can be horrible. He also states that It is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. will probably be the best film he has anything to do with in his entire career. Crispin Glover and his co-director David Brothers wanted to bring Stewart’s story to the screen.

(Photo courtesy 20th Century Fox)

Bookmark It

Contrary to a blog rumor we read earlier today, the Plaza Theatre is not on the brink of closure.

“We are definitely not closing,” says Jonathan Rej, owner of the 69-year-old art deco movie house on Ponce De Leon Avenue. “We’ve had a couple of slow months, but it’s gonna take more than that for us to close up shop.”

Rej says he suspects the closure rumor might have been started by a disgruntled former employee. He also says the bloggers who’ve repeated the rumor have neither telephoned nor e-mailed him. Rej’s e-mail address is on theater’s website.

(Photo by Jim Stawniak)

Bookmark It