Movies This Week: June 15-21, 2012

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It's the kind of week that makes me want to play hookey every day and hang out in movie theaters. The Paramount is showing two films from 1937 this weekend: The Awful Truth (one of my very favorites) and Grand Illusion. The weekdays are devoted to a combination of Alfred Hitchcock and Jimmy Stewart -- check the Paramount and Stateside calendar for details.

I don't know what you all are doing on Monday night, but I'm going to see the Film Foundation's restored print of Night of the Hunter at Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz. And if I'm feeling energetic I might stick around for the Music Monday selection afterward: Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train. How's that for a double feature?

Alamo Drafthouse really does have a great lineup of special screenings this week. The weekend Late Show selection at Ritz is Galaxy Quest, if you can dare Sixth Street on Friday or Saturday night. Weird Wednesday is practically mainstream with The Sword and the Sorceror, as part of the Alamo "Summer of 82" series. And this month's Girlie Night movie may actually get me to attend something called Girlie Night: 10 Things I Hate About You, playing different Drafthouse locations in the next week or so.

Finally, the Central Texas-shot Bernie (Don's review) continues to screen at Arbor, Violet Crown, the Tinseltown theaters and Hill Country Galleria. Chip and I saw it earlier this week and I enjoyed it as much on a second viewing as he did on a first. It is worth seeing if only for Sonny Carl Davis's description of Texas regions, which needs to be posted online somewhere for everyone to see, perhaps a website for Texas tourism (hah).

Movies We've Seen

Hysteria -- It's a Victorian fairy tale that probably has very little factual basis, and the ending is obvious even from the movie posters. But this movie about the invention of the vibrator is great fun to watch, and it's nice to see Maggie Gyllenhaal in something I like. Debbie agrees in her review and says it's "sure to amuse anyone who enjoys a good double entendre." (Violet Crown, Arbor)

Safety Not Guaranteed -- This sweet yet geeky romantic comedy, which played SXSW, is one of my favorite films of 2012 so far, starring Mark Duplass and Aubrey Plaza. From Debbie's review: "Safety Not Guaranteed weaves comedy, romance, suspense and science fiction into a heartfelt and engaging story where viewers root for the characters." (Arbor)

Rock of Ages -- Mike says, "Tom Cruise proves you can't teach an old dog new tricks, in this case, singing. His $70 million adaptation of the musical brings rock to the Glee set. Unfortunately, the movie includes really bad vocal performances from Cruise, who has turned up the crazy past 11 to Rutger Hauer for his performance as a washed-up glam rocker." Look for his review this weekend. (wide)

That's My Boy -- As is becoming Slackerwood tradition, Don Clinchy bravely volunteered to endure the latest Adam Sandler movie. Here's a preview from this weekend's review: "With That's My Boy, Adam Sandler has done the seemingly impossible: He's made a movie even worse than Jack and Jill and about 37 times as offensive. A better title would be That's My Racist Fart Joke." (wide)