Each week, our seasoned film critics bring you the very best of New York City's alternative movie screenings and events
Every week, we round up the best movie events happening outside New York’s multiplexes, from major international film festivals (such as Sundance, the Toronto International Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival) and revivals at Film Forum and BAM to one-off movie screenings and in-person Q&As with stars, filmmakers and experts. New York also has a thriving film scene in galleries and pop-up venues, and in the summer months, you’ll find a wealth of outdoor screenings in NYC parks and gardens across the city.
Hollywood, take note: When it comes to postapocalyptic films, audiences are fine with a little bit of crazy—or a lot of it. This South Korean thriller by Bong Joon-ho (now getting Oscar buzz for Parasite) is set on a speeding train containing the last of humanity. The movie finds room for class warfare, bizarre humor and a snobby Thatcherite turn by the mighty Tilda Swinton.
Film at Lincoln Center, Upper West Side (filmlinc.org). Sun 12 at 4pm, Tue 14 at 1pm; $15.
Question: What do you get when a music-video director known for his visual extravagance decides to make his own version of The Princess Bride, complete with swimming elephants, Charles Darwin, copious hallucinations and way too much self-importance? Answer: this goofy, cup- runneth-over fairy tale that is the definition of indulgence. Still, if Tarsem’s name were Matthew Barney, he’d get a lot more love from the snob squad.
Alamo Drafthouse, Downtown Brooklyn (drafthouse.com). Wed 15 at 9:30pm; $10.
No one is making movies like the British retro-stylist Peter Strickland, who cops the grammar of early-’70s exploitation cinema—all zooms and blurs and synth squiggles—and infuses it with modern-day pain. His fourth feature represents a continuing evolution: It’s the most sensitively acted and smartest film you’ll ever see that also includes sex with mannequins.
Alamo Drafthouse, Downtown Brooklyn (drafthouse.com). Thu 9 at 9:30pm; $12.
Everybody remembers Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in drag, affecting hideous falsettos and tottering around in high heels.ButCurtis’s devastating Cary Grant impression is the film’s comic highlight. Marilyn Monroe ain’t too shabby, either, as Curtis’s object of affection.
Film Forum, Greenwich Village (filmforum.org). Sat 11, Sun 12 at 11am; $9.
This tale of two sisters and their adventures with a goofy-looking forest spirit is the most kid-friendly Studio Ghibli film as well as one of the most beautiful. Plus, there's a cat bus. (Don't ask—just go.)
IFC Center, Greenwich Village (ifccenter.com). Thu 9–16 at various times; $16.
Miss that Christmas Eve screening? Here's your chance to make it up. Deceptively hidden under layers of gorgeous surfaces, Paul Thomas Anderson’s borderline-sick romance waltzes toward a riveting tale of obsession. If this is Daniel Day-Lewis’s way of dropping the mic (purportedly, he’s retiring), then he’s picked a fine exit, bringing to life a fastidious fashion designer who, in 1950s London, falls for a lissome waitress (Vicky Krieps).
Metrograph, Lower East Side (metrograph.com). Thu 9 at 5:30pm, Fri 10 at 3:30pm; $15.
Admit it: The “Dueling Banjos” theme is already reverberating in your head. And if it’s not, then you should definitely take a shot on this—one of the most harrowing survival films ever made, a crucible of class warfare and primal fear.
Film at Lincoln Center, Upper West Side (filmlinc.org). Thu 9 at 2pm, Sun 12 at 8:45pm; $15.
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