REEL TALK

CASABLANCA | MORTICIA ADDAMS

This is a good one, and it’s set in a bar so it’s considered fair game if you happen to have a drink or two before showing up—but please, no vodka martinis. I’m really not sure what else I’m supposed to say about Casablanca. It’s up near the top of a lot of serious people’s best films of all time. If you like movies, you’ll like this one. As for the extra space after this line … use it to reflect on Humphrey Bogart. [PG | Brattle Theatre, Thu 5.5.11]

BEAUTIFUL DARLING | SHARON MARSH

I hope nobody reading this is transphobic. If you are, please cut it out. You should have a little respect for Candy Darling, a pioneering transgendered woman who stared in two of Andy Warhol’s Factory movies, Flesh and Women in Revolt. She was 25, blonde and dreamed of being a movie star. And that “Take a Walk on the Wild Side” song is about her. “But she never lost her head / Even when she was giving head.” Good for you, Candy. Good for you. [NR | Coolidge Corner Theatre, Fri 5.6.11]

CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS | BECKY KATSOPOLIS

Okay, filming is allowed, but only for six days using battery-powered equipment that must be carried. Only bring three people and shoot only four hours per day. Special shoes must be worn at all times. Those were some of the conditions Werner Herzog had to agree to before he was allowed inside the Chauvet Cave, the site of the oldest human pictorial artwork (which is 30,000 years old FYI). Of course, nobody else gets to go in. [G | Kendall Square Cinema, 5.6.11]

THOR | ANGELA BOWER

For asking Heimdall (Idris Elba) why he’s the only black Norse God, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is (rightfully) declared a racist and sent to live on earth amongst the puny humans. Realizing what a douche he’s been for caring about skin color—let alone the skin color of a fictional character—he decides to defend the earthlings from evil and get a Facebook page to improve his public relations. Both plans work splendidly, and Thor decides that living on Earth may not be so bad after all. [PG-13 | Wide release, Fri 5.6.11]

SUMMER OF GOLIATH | KATE TANNER

A documentary-narrative smashup like MTV’s My Life as Liz—except in rural Mexico. Instead of teenagers going to college, it begins with a young man nicknamed—not Liz—but Goliath, because he is said to have killed his girlfriend. As the villagers begin to tell stories, we learn more about both Goliath and a woman, Teresa Sanchez, who was abandoned by her cheating husband, just like Bryson did to Liz in season two.  I kinda lost interest in this one. [NR | Harvard Film Archive, Sat 5.7.11]