Ever notice how lame most summer movies are? With the exception of the surprisingly good "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," virtually every movie of last summer was crap. If it's not filled to the frame with CG atrocities (I'm lookin' at you, "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"), it's just boring.
Thankfully, there's a place for all the whiny, pretentious film buffs like myself to go: the glorious art house cinemas of D.C. The movie-going masses - usually scared by words like "foreign," "subtitled" and "independent" - will run from these theaters in a frenzy to have their $9 encourage the same old tired blockbusters.
Now this is not to say that every Hollywood film is bad and every summer blockbuster is crap. "Spider-Man" rocked and "Spider-Man 2" is going to totally bring it, but the "Spider-Man" films are directed by Sam Raimi, who got his start in these art theaters with his "Evil Dead" films. But for every "Spider-Man," there are a bunch of misses. Most of them are either sequels, adaptations or sequels to previous adaptations.
Where are the original ideas? Some of you may be thirsting for something different. Well, here's your chance. Here are some real films coming out this summer by real filmmakers. While the Landmark theaters on E Street and in Bethesda don't sell student-discounted tickets, these films will be definitely worth the extra few bucks.
1. "Coffee & Cigarettes" (May 14)
Writer-director Jim Jarmusch ("Stranger Than Paradise," "Down by Law") combines a series of black and white conversational vignettes combining several eccentric celebrities as they sip coffee and smoke cigarettes.
The huge cast is divided into small groups, consisting of Tom Waits and Iggy Pop, Cate Blanchett and her cousin (also played by Cate Blanchett), Jack and Meg White, Roberto Benigni and Stephen Wright, and Bill Murray with the RZA and the GZA from the Wu-Tang Clan, just to name a few.
2. "Baadasssss!" (May 28)
This is Mario Van Peebles' adaptation of his father Melvin Van Peebles' novel "How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Yo' Ass," which chronicles the fight to make the first ever blaxploitation film, "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song." Melvin wrote, directed and starred in "Sweet Sweetback," which debuted in 1971 under the guise of a porno film. It led the way for films like "Shaft," "Dolemite" and "Foxy Brown," but remains to this day far more experimental and avant-garde in its filmmaking approach than the films that followed it.
3. "Napoleon Dynamite" (June 11)
Fresh-out-of-college writer-director Jared Hess' debut film about a very socially awkward young man was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and also took top honors at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. "Napoleon Dynamite" was shot in Hess' hometown of Preston, Idaho, and stars newcomer Jon Heder along with Diedrich Bader ("Office Space," "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back") and Haylie Duff (acting superstar/pop phenomenon Hilary Duff's older sister).
4. "Garden State" (July 30)
The trailer for this film is a series of beautifully shot images and sequences set against the song "Let Go" by Frou Frou. Similar to the trailer for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," which combined director Michel Gondry's impressive visuals with "Mr. Blue Sky" by the Electric Light Orchestra, the trailer to the debut film of Zach Braff ("Scrubs") makes you really want to see the movie without showing you the whole movie. Braff plays Andrew Largeman, who, after the death of his mother, returns to his home state of New Jersey, stops taking his medication and meets Sam (Natalie Portman). "Garden State" debuted at Sundance earlier this year and, if its trailer is any indication, looks like the visual epitome of an "art" film. "Garden State" also co-stars Ian Holm and Method Man. How hot is that?
5. "Hero (Ying Xion)" (Aug. 20)
Director Yimou Zhang's martial arts epic features Jet Li ("Fist of Legend"), Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggie Cheung from Wong Kar Wai's "In the Mood For Love," Zhang Ziyi from Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and Donnie Yen ("Iron Monkey"), just to name a few. Miramax bought the U.S. distribution rights to "Hero," but has been sitting on the film for almost two years. Miramax insisted it needed to be re-cut and edited for American audiences; that is until Quentin Tarantino - who's recently been bringing in double the box-office for Miramax by splitting his epic homage film "Kill Bill" into two volumes - convinced the studio to release the film uncut and in its original form. The film will be billed as "Quentin Tarantino Presents," similar to the way Miramax released the 1993 kung-fu film "Iron Monkey" in the United States in 2001. Tarantino has a guaranteed fan base that will see a film with his name on it, so the studio was convinced it will return a certain amount of money in its theatrical run. Forget all the $100 million-plus budgets and CG-animated crap (except for "Spider-Man 2" because that looks out of control). "Hero" is the must-see film of the summer.
