2005_09_movieguide_gardner.jpgIt's Labor Day which means the "official" (if not the technically scientific) summer is coming to and end. No more summer Fridays and no more outdoor Summer film series. After this year's (dare-we-say unwarranted) freak-out about box office grosses, Hollywood studios are likely happy to close the book on the season. Labor Day weekend is notoriously weak for the box office, therefore, we're not generally treated to anything good. In fact, the major studios think of this holiday weekend (and much of September) as a bit of a dumping ground. However, there's still plenty to see in and around New York, and although most people are probably trying to find their way out of town, that should just make it easier for you to score a seat in your favorite air-conditioned movie theatre.

  • A Gothamist pick: We are treated to one new release this week which is certainly worthy of your time and attention. The Constant Gardener is an adaptation of John Le Carré's novel ostensibly about the pharmaceutical industry's taking advantage of poor health-stricken Africa, but this film from Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles (who made the phenomenal City of God is so much more and hands-down one of the best movies of 2005. It's being sold as a thriller which might be slightly disingenuous; while there is a bit of an unravelling mystery, the film is more of a social commentary told through a love story and one man's awakening to the world around him. Both Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz are excellent in their respective roles, and visually The Constant Gardener is stunning. Meirelles has solidified his place as one of the most interesting and exciting filmmakers on the world scene.

    More new releases and a trip around the week's other screenings after the jump:

  • Midnight movie showdown: The IFC Center and the Landmark Sunshine take the gloves off with two heavyweights at midnight on Friday, Saturday and Sunday! In one corner, the still spanking new IFC Center offers Martin Scorsese's magnificent Taxi Driver. Try to avoid bumping into people on 6th Avenue around 2 AM or you're liable to get a "You talkin' to me?" Meanwhile, across town at the Sunshine, everyone should be shouting at the screen, "Hey McFly!" (uhm, not really, please) as Robert Zemeckis's 1985 classic (yeah, we said it!) Back to the Future unspools. Ah to have a DeLorean with a Flux Capacitor.
  • Last Chance? Today is the last day to catch We Jam Econo: The Story of The Minutemen at Anthology Film Archives. Only two chances left tonight at 7 and 9 to see this documentary about one of the greatest bands to come out of L.A. (or anywhere for that matter) in the early '80s. Their story tragically ended with the 1985 death of co-founder D. Boon. The film features rare live performance footage and interviews with Minutemen Mike Watt and George Hurley as well as other musicians like Thurston Moore, J. Mascis and John Doe.

    Meanwhile, the IFC Center might be the place to hang this weekend. The documentary everyone in-the-know has been buzzing about for weeks isn't the box office conquering penguin porn but rather Darwin's Nightmare which takes a look at how the introduction of the non-native Nile Perch fish to Lake Victoria for purely commercial reasons by the Western dining industry destroyed all the other sea life upon which the locals in Tanzania had depended and survived. The film was supposed to close last week but has been held over. Don't miss it.

    Also new at a theater near you

    • Margaret Cho: The Assassin Tour: A concert film of the comedienne's most recent show, taped in May in Washington D.C. Love her or hate her ... well, actually, since people tend to love her or hate her, that's basically it. (Opens tomorrow at The Quad Cinema)
    • Games of Love and Chance: Gothamist has seen plenty of gritty and realistic treatments of American adolescent life. French writer/director Abdellatif Kechiche's film features a bunch of non-pro teen actors encountering their own issues of social status and gender relations. A French Kids? Maybe not quite that harsh or exploitative, but worth a look. (Now playing at IFC Center)
    • A Sound of Thunder: More like a whisper. Gothamist barely knows this film thanks to Warner Bros. complete lack of promotion. We haven't seen a trailer, nor a TV ad; not even a poster of this wide release starring Edward Norton Burns, Catherine McCormack and Ben Kingsley. We're not surprised, though. A hack director like Peter Hyams will trump good talent any day.
    • The Transporter 2: Because The Transporter was such a huge hit, we barely remember it. If "barely" means "don't."
    • Underclassman: The burn-off of Miramax releases just as the Weinstein brothers prepare to leave their company continues with this "comedy" featuring major toplining star Nick Cannon. Nick Cannon. You know. He's got that hot MTV show and he was in that genius Can't Buy Me Love remake. He's huge, I tell you. And this time he's a cop who has to go undercover at a prep school in order to bust-up a group of car thieves. (Yawn.) Marcos Siega, whose Pretty Persuasion just opened a few weeks ago, directs.
    • Ritual: Miramax dump part deux. This remake of the 1943 Jacques Tourneur classic B-horror flick I Walked With a Zombie was originally made under the Tales From the Crypt banner before it was apparently placed into one only to unfortunately rise from the dead.
    • 9/11/03:A Day in the Life of New York: That's right. 9/11 isn't just about 2001 anymore ... except when it is. This doc spent the second anniversary of 9/11 hanging out with New Yorkers of varying degrees of prominence in an attempt to see how life in NYC was changed by that fateful day. (Now playing at Two Boots Pioneer Theater)
    • Call Me Malcolm: A documentary about a transgendered priest born Miriam but now Malcolm (you read that correctly) and his journey of self-acceptance, love and faith. (Now playing at Two Boots Pioneer Theater)
    • William Eggleston in the Real World: Filmmaker Michael Almereyda gives us a peak into the life and mind of noted and influential photographer William Eggleston. (Now playing through 9/13 at Film Forum)

    Other films and programs of note

    • The Fifth New York Korean Film Festival is back with an opening night bash tomorrow at Ruby Falls and screenings through Tuesday at The Lighthouse Theater before moving to to BAM Rose Cinemas from Sept. 7-11.
    • 2005_09_movieguide_favela.jpgSpeaking of festivals, here's another chance to see the winner of the "Best New Documentary Filmmaker" award from April's Tribeca Film Festival: Tomorrow at 7:30 and again at 9:30 in honor of Brazilian Independence Day at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, you can catch the energizing Favela Rising, the story of the Afro-Reggae movement in the slums of Rio which tried (and largely succeeded) in getting kids to leave the drug gangs in favor of music and dance. Ironically, Tribeca award aside, the film isn't as great as the story these filmmakers were lucky enough to tell. The story of Afro-Reggae leader and co-founder Anderson Sá is one that will make everyone want to get up and cheer at the end.
    • Who said outdoor screenings were done for the summer? Us! We don't believe you. (Don't scroll back!) Brooklyn's Rooftop Films series still has a few weeks left. Tomorrow night on top of the Automative High School in Williamsburg you can catch "Bigger Than France", a bunch of "Little films from Texas at a Labor Day BBQ," which are just what they sound like -- seven short films made by Texas filmmakers preceded by a Texas BBQ. Food at 8 PM, films at 9, with live music from PG6 sandwiched in between at 8:30.
    • If you ever wondered what Billy Bob Thornton was doing before Sling Blade and carrying vials of Angelina Jolie's blood around his neck, head out to Coney Island Saturday night for the Coney Island Saturday Night Film Series at the Coney Island Museum (1208 Surf Ave.) for the 8:30 PM showing of Chopper Chicks in Zombietown. Why, yes it is a Troma film. Why do you ask?
    • Also at MMI this weekend are two of the best examples of the French New Wave from one of its masters, Jean-Luc Godard: Breathless and Contempt. (Go here for showtimes.)
    • So you think you're all artsy and indie, huh? You hate that crap Hollywood gives us? If it's not playing at the Sunshine, the Angelika or Lincoln Plaza Cinemas it's not worth your time? The more avant-garde the better cause everything else is crap? Alright, then you should be first in line tomorrow at Anthology Film Archives for the 8 PM screening of Michael Snow's 1967 seminal work Wavelength. 45 minutes of one single (sort of, but not technically) slow zoom across a room. An often empty room. With music and sound effects. And occasionally some people, but not many, and not so often. Go be mesmerized by the anti-Michael Bay movie.
    • Film Forum continues its month of "Summer Samurai" with new 35 mm prints of two classics from the '60s: today through Saturday is Kihachi Okamoto's Kill! followed on Sunday through Tuesday by Masaki Kobayashi's Harakari. And if you enjoyed Takeshi "Beat" Kitano's Zatoichi last year, you might want to check out the earlier fourth installment of Japan's most popular samurai series on Wednesday: Zatoichi the Fugitive, showing as a double feature with Samurai Assassin.
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    • Lincoln Center and the Walter Reade Theater decided to bring us a Labor Day weekend filled with gorgeous, vivid, scrumptious Technicolor. You know, that color process they used way back before any of us had our own digital cameras and iMovie? "Technicolor Dreaming" includes original prints of eight of the prettiest pictures you're likely to see, and projected onto the Walter Reade's big screen is the way to see them. Notable highlights: 1950s melodrama master Douglas Sirk's Written on the Wind with Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall (Friday at 4:30 PM; Sunday at 2 PM); and quite simply the greatest movie musical (and flat-out one of the best movies) of all time, Singin' in the Rain. Sure it's Gene Kelly's and Debbie Reynold's movie, but Donald O'Connor will always manage to make us laugh.
    • Speaking of laughing, few writers have ever come close to matching the biting wit of Preston Sturges. Catch one of his best films, and one of the better screwball comedies ever, The Lady Eve at Barbès in Park Slope as the resurrect their Traveling Cinema series after a two month hiatus. Film purists note: Barbès shows 16 mm prints only. On the other hand, admission is free and you can drink from the bar.
    • In case you find Sturges a bit dated (which he's not, and shame on you for even thinking it), you can catch Clueless at MoMA this Saturday at 2 PM. Stop laughing. You don't believe MoMA would feature Alyssa Silverstone within its hallowed halls? You obviously have them confused with The Met. It's part of their continuing "112 Years of Cinema" series. Also still running is the "Anime!!" series. Gothamist is most excited, however, by "Alexander Mackendrick: Auteur and Academic", series showcasing the work of the underrated American-born, Scotland-raised filmmaker behind such great movies as The Ladykillers (the original) and Sweet Smell of Success. Mackendrick's career as a director was a short one after some flops in the '60s, but he went on to influence generations of directors by becoming the dean of the CalArts film program. Catch his first film Whisky Galore! on Monday at 8 PM, his great Ealing comedy The Man in the White Suit starring a young Obi-Wan on Wednesday at 6 PM and the tearjerker Mandy that will always be overshadowed by the later Miracle Worker but might as well be a textbook for visual storytelling.