We’re heading into Oscar-bait season for Hollywood, when the biggest movies tend to suck up all the oxygen. Just as worthy are the offerings from the art house scene, which reliably features smaller films - indie features, classic films and documentaries - that may lack studio marketing muscle but can be just as worth your time. A quick sampling of what’s on offer.
"The Zero Theorem" - Christoph Waltz looks to discover the meaning of life once and for all in director Terry Gilliam's newest film, and the futuristic visuals - a strange, larger-than-life candy-colored creepiness mixed with plenty of grime and lost souls - are exactly what you'd hope from the man who made "Brazil." Gilliam reportedly saw the budget of "The Zero Theorem" slashed to $8 million, less than half of what was originally planned. Plenty of metaphor and metaphysics, with cameos from Matt Damon and Tilda Swinton.
"A Girl in Every Port" - Born 100 years ago, Henri Langlois was the French film preservationist who co-founded the Cinematheque Francaise, where his screenings famously influenced future new wave filmmakers, including Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. Block Cinema (at Northwestern University) celebrates his centennial through the end of the year with an "eclectic selection of works showcasing many of the films and filmmakers he championed," including the 1928 silent "A Girl in Every Port" from director Howard Hawks and starring Louise Brooks. The film screens on a double bill with Georges Melies' wonderful short "A Trip to the Moon" from 1902 (which features that iconic shot of the man in the moon with a bullet-shaped rocket stuck in the middle of his face).
"Jimi: All Is by My Side" - This Jimi Hendrix biopic starring Andre Benjamin from director John Ridley (the Oscar-winning writer-producer of "12 Years a Slave") takes place in 1966, before he hit it big, when the guitarist first made a splash as an unknown in London's music scene. Worth noting: Hendrix's estate would not license any of his music for the film, and his then-girlfriend has taken issue with the movie's portrayal of his violent side with her.
"The Dog" - Sidney Lumet's "Dog Day Afternoon" from 1975 was based on a true story. A new documentary from filmmakers Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren takes a closer look at the story of John Wojtowicz who attempted to rob a bank in Brooklyn to help pay for a sex change for his longtime partner. Al Pacino played a character based on Wojtowicz in the '75 film, which affected Wojtowicz (who died in 2006) in unexpected ways. The directors filmed him over a period of 10 years, and their resulting documentary includes archival interviews and footage of the robbery, capturing a "rare subject whose real life was more complex, more borderline-unbelievable and more gloriously strange than the one presented on the big screen."
"Advanced Style" - Flip through any style magazine, and the marketing message is clear: Fashion is for the young. Everyone else might as well shop at Chico's and be done with it - except plenty of women staring down retirement age and beyond haven't lost their urge to dress with more panache than a pair of polyester elastic waist pants can offer. "I am dressed up for the theater of my life," is how one woman puts it in filmmaker Lina Plioplyte's documentary, based on a blog of the same name, which follows seven women who fit this bill. "I don't want to go around like a dreary old lady," says one. "You don't want to look crazy," says another. "The object is to look as chic as you can, but your average person in the street would never wear this." One of the film's obvious drawbacks is that it only focuses on New York, and although it's true this species of fashionista is easiest to spot in Manhattan, it's not a phenomenon exclusive to that hermetic world.
Fatal Frame - Not your usual scary movies: A lineup of avant-garde horror films is on the docket on Halloween Eve courtesy of South Side Projections. All are on 16 mm, including 1928's "The Fall of the House of Usher," which tackles Edgar Allan Poe's tale of madness with a German expressionist treatment "courtesy of bold shadows and prismatic effects," in the words of programmer Michael W. Phillips Jr. (not to be confused with Tribune film critic Michael Phillips). Also on the lineup are 1998's "Nocturne," about a woman who may or may not have murdered her husband, and 1949's "On the Edge," which centers on a "mysterious figure trapped in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and includes a soundtrack by experimental composer Charles Ives."
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