2006
Looking back on standout films celebrating their 20th birthdays.
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE 2006
Father Richard (Greg Kinnear) is desperately trying to sell his motivational success program... with no success. Meanwhile, "pro-honesty" mom Sheryl (Toni Collette) lends support to her eccentric family, including her depressed brother (Steve Carell), fresh out of the hospital after being jilted by his lover. Then there are the younger Hoovers - the seven-year-old, would-be beauty queen Olive (Abigail Breslin) and Dwayne (Paul Dano), a Nietzsche-reading teen who has taken a vow of silence. Topping off the family is the foul-mouthed grandfather (Alan Arkin), whose outrageous behavior recently got him evicted from his retirement home. When Olive is invited to compete in the "Little Miss Sunshine" pageant in far-off California, the family piles into their rusted-out VW bus to rally behind her - with riotously funny results.
Saturday, September 5
Sunday, September 6
Director: Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton
Starring: Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Paul Dano
Runtime: 101 min., USA
Language: English
INLAND EMPIRE 2006
“Strange, what love does.” The role of a lifetime, a Hollywood mystery, a woman in trouble . . . David Lynch’s first digitally shot feature makes visionary use of the medium to weave a vast meditation on the enigmas of time, identity, and cinema itself. Featuring a tour de force performance from Laura Dern as an actor on the edge, this labyrinthine Dream Factory nightmare tumbles down an endless series of unfathomably interconnected rabbit holes as it takes viewers on a hallucinatory odyssey into the deepest realms of the unconscious mind.
Sunday, September 6
Director: David Lynch
Starring: Laura Dern, Jeremy Irons, Justin Theroux
Runtime: 180 min., USA
Language: English
THE FALL 2006
In silent-era Hollywood, stuntman Roy Walker (Lee Pace, Foundation, Bodies Bodies Bodies) is brought to a hospital after an on-set accident. There, he befriends a young girl (Catinca Untaru) and tells her a fantastical tale of epic heroes taking revenge on an evil ruler. The story transports her from the hospital into the exotic landscapes of her imagination.
A monumental production that filmed over four years in 28 breathtaking locations across multiple continents, with dazzling costumes designed by Academy Award® winner Eiko Ishioka, THE FALL remains one of the most gorgeous films ever made, a genre-defying cult classic like no other.
Saturday, September 12
Sunday, September 13
Director: Tarsem Singh
Starring: Lee Pace, Justine Waddell, Leo Bill
Runtime: 117 min., USA
Language: English
PAPRIKA 2006
The late Satoshi Kon is one of the great directors of Japanese anime films, with a remarkable oeuvre of four completed features, including Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress, and the dark series Paranoia Agent, before his untimely death at the age of 46. His mind-boggling film Paprika—which turns 20 this year—revolves around the theft of a powerful dream machine at a psychiatric lab. The heroine, Atsuko Chiba, is a scientist who enters her patient’s dreams as her alter-ego Paprika. As she/they chase down the thief, reality and dreams merge to dangerous effect while the stolen dream machine claims more victims, who are overwhelmed by a stunning and grotesque dream parade of inanimate objects, trash and toys, and cultural icons—one of the film’s most enduring images. (MoMI)
Monday, September 14
Friday, September 18
Director: Satoshi Kon
Starring: Megumi Hayashibara, Tohru Emori, Katsunosuke Hori
Runtime: 90 min., Japan
Language: Japanese w/ English subtitles
THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP 2006
In this stellar companion piece to ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, love is a Rube-Goldberg machine, a succession of impossibilities beating with a papier-mâché heart. Stéphane (Gael García Bernal) is a charming oddball, a daydreamer who confuses his fantasies with reality and falls in love with the girl next door (Charlotte Gainsbourg), literally. As each approaches the other with trepidation, their tentative flirtation is at risk of becoming yet another dream he may soon awake from. A quirky wonder, euphoric from start to finish. (Braindead)
Saturday, September 26
Sunday, September 27
Director: Michel Gondry
Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Miou Miou
Runtime: 106 min., France
Language: English
SLITHER 2006
Eternally indebted to Fred Dekker’s ‘50s-throwback creature feature NIGHT OF THE CREEPS, James Gunn takes his Troma bonafides to a major studio for an all-out assault of gory fun. Hitching a ride on a meteor, an alien parasite transformers town crank Grant Grant (a next-level Michael Rooker) into a grotesque, tentacled supa monster with an army of zombifying space slugs. Can goof-off town sheriff Nathan Fillion save the day? Or will it be his beleaguered wife Elizabeth Banks? One thing’s for sure, seeing this on the big screen will cure all ills for the week. (Jake Isgar/Alamo Drafthouse)
Wednesday, September 30
Director: James Gunn
Starring: Elizabeth Banks, Nathan Fillion, Michael Rooker
Runtime: 96 min., USA
Language: English