A weekly roundup of what else is screening around town.
$3.50-$8.50. 108 E. Butler Ave. 215.345.7855. www.amblertheater.org
In the Shadow of the Moon
(2007) (Shown on film): Surely NASA can stand one straightforward filmic missive? Skipping the pomp and circumstance of For All Mankind and untold numbers of IMAX docs, this British doc presents a 101 on the history of the American space program. As space exploration is diverted by empty political grandstanding and memorable soap-opera theatrics, Moon reminds us, among other things, that the last person to achieve something notable off our planet is really goddamn old. B Thurs., April 10, 7pm.
Free. Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St. 215.573.3234. www.armcinema25.com
Nazarin/The Rapture
(1959/1991) (Shown on video): A bit late for Lent but welcome nonetheless, the newest Andrew's Video Vault celebrates anticlericalism, kicking off with one from the master. Luis Bu�uel's Nazarin, from toward the end of his Mexican period, finds a priest (Francisco Rabal) who tries to live according to Christ and almost winds up with a similar end. Even before the plot deigns to have Rabal put on death row, the film has operated as an all-out assault on both Christian piety and the organized religion built around it. In the film's funniest attack, Rabal is chided by an appalled bourgeois priest after he states his plan to live penniless. Nazarin lacks the comic touch of Bu�uel's Viridinia or Simon of the Desert, its anger coming through more than its yuks. The night's second feature The Rapture, however, suggests what would happen if Bu�uel was wrong and the crazy fundamentalists were right. Mimi Rogers plays a libertine-turned-fundamentalist who's so sure the apocalypse is nigh, she'll gun down family members. Michael Tolkin, who wrote The Player, dreams up a booby-trapped look at religion, steadily building to a brazen climax. B/B+ Thurs., April 10, 8pm.
$3.50-$9.25 (unless otherwise noted). 824 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr. 610.527.9898. www.brynmawrfilm.org Spy Kids
(2001) (Shown on DVD): Apparently Danny Trejo's Machete Cortez--of the first-rate Grindhouse trailer and the forthcoming direct-to-video actioneer--debuted here. Huh. B- Sat., April 12, 11am.
Shakespeare Film Forum
The Ambler/Bryn Mawr/County triumvirate dedicates the next several weeks to one of cinema's most prolific talents, with 701 credits and counting on IMDb under "writer" alone. This being Shakespeare, the series gets two separate lectures at its three venues, with Bryn Mawr College's English chair Katherine Rowe gracing the BMFI. See County for another. Wed., April 16, 7pm.
$4-$7. 227 Bridge St., Phoenixville. 610.917.0223. www.thecolonialtheatre.com
Brazil
(1985) (Shown on film): Terry Gilliam graduated from "mere" Monty Python member to artistic martyr with this dizzyingly dense nod to Kafka and Orwell, which managed to escape studio knives relatively unscathed thanks to its makers' borderline psychotic campaigning and general noise-making. Sure, such tactics have unduly encouraged the likes of Southland Tales' Richard Kelly, but why punish the movie that gets it right? A- Sun., April 13, 2pm.
$3.50-$8.50. 20 E. State St., Doylestown. 215.345.6789. www.countytheater.com
Share this Story: