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PrintEssential summer movies to see
Forthcoming in the Circle’s Midnight Movie series, a pair of top-notch, popcorn-ready, summer-friendly classics.
Yes, the series of midnight movies at the Circle Cinema (12 S. Lewis Ave.) is a year-round deal, and, yes, the theater often shows great stuff.
But focusing on just the films slated for this month and next, there’s something especially fitting about combining can’t-miss/feel-good summertime movies with the cultish/devoted moviegoers who tend to flock to screenings at midnight.
It’s what the business folks who go in for buzzwords sometimes call “synergy” — or “a mutually advantageous conjunction.” It’s win-win.
Here, then, are the next two installments in the Circle’s midnight lineup. For more information, call 592-FILM or visit www.circlecinema.com.
5/28-29 “Ghostbusters”
One of the most successful (as in, highest-grossing) comedies ever to come out of Hollywood, this 1984 movie is what started it all, franchise-wise.
The “Ghostbusters” brand is, by now, familiar to many — there have been two animated series for TV; various comic books, toys and video games; and a theme park attraction. Probably also a breakfast cereal, at some point, but I’m just guessing on this last one.
Plus, of course, there was the likewise blockbusting sequel, “Ghostbusters II,” which appeared in 1989. (And in case you’ve not yet heard, a “Ghostbusters III,” at long last, is due in theaters sometime in 2011.)
It’s easy to see how “Ghostbusters” became such a cultural phenomenon. First off, the breezy, charming performances by lead actors Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis come to mind. These three comic aces — Aykroyd and Ramis also co-scripted — play a trio of parapsychologists in New York City who, after losing their jobs as university professors, go to work as ghost exterminators.
(I’ve always thought the funniest parts of this movie are those scenes depicting the TV commercials this trio creates to pitch its phantom-wrangling enterprise to the public — the ads are hilariously dead-on, in that local-TV way.)
Then there’s the film’s perfect blend of gag lines and gadgets, of comedy and technology. Maybe it’s because I first saw “Ghostbusters” as a young teen (at the bygone Spectrum Twin, as I recall), but I’d have to say that the trio’s cool car (a retro ambulance, of sorts) and flashy gizmos (laser guns connected to backpacks; handheld devices that can only be operated by sci-fi geeks; a “containment system,” wherein the trapped ghosts are stored, et al.) are just as important to the appeal of this movie as are its funny lines.
And then there are all the terrific on-location shots of New York appearing throughout, as well as the 11th-hour debut of the immortal Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (a creature that actually appears at several points within the aforesaid “Ghostbusters” brand).
And let’s not forget that chart-topping theme song, although — with apologies to Ray Parker Jr. (who performs it in the film) — we might well try to. The equally annoying and memorable call-and-response refrain of this tune — “Who ya gonna call?” / “Ghostbusters!” — pretty much spells out the whole audience-enticing, crowd-pleasing vibe of the movie. You can’t help but sing along. Irresistible entertainment.
6/25-26 “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”
The other landmark American sci-fi movie released in 1977 — the one that had nothing to do with “the Force” — was, as with “Ghostbusters,” a major and immediate box-office success. “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” from writer/director Steven Spielberg, was nominated for eight Academy Awards; the one Oscar it received was for cinematography.
Again, like “Ghostbusters,” music is a big part of what’s happening here. Indeed, it’s a crucial aspect.
The film’s score, created by the legendary composer and frequent Spielberg collaborator John Williams, has as its backbone a now-famous five-note motif — “dah-dah-dah-DAH-dah,” to put it crudely — that matters not only to the soundtrack of the movie but also to its drama, its substance.
(Come to think of it, there are probably few other films — excluding musicals and dance revues, mind you — in which the music is so important in terms of action, meaning, development, etc. In other words, “Close Encounters” has some great points to make about the “universal language” of music.)
Also, if you’re keeping score at home, a “close encounter” of the first kind refers to a UFO sighting. That of the second kind: obtaining physical evidence. And of the third: contact.
There’s your basic outline, in fact, for a story in which Richard Dreyfuss, in fine form (and less frenzied than he usually seems onscreen) as a John Q. Public living in Indiana, is oh-so-mysteriously drawn to Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. There, at a site that’s been sealed off by the U.S. Army, a certain group of visitors is due to arrive soon …
Seeing this wonderfully escapist movie again recently, for the first time in years, I was struck by Spielberg’s magnificent pacing: the setup of the seriously engrossing premise, then the buildup, then the payoff. And what a payoff. The arc of the narrative, and the rate at which it unfolds, are both excellent. If you look back at Spielberg’s best films over the years, this seems like one of his supreme gifts as a storyteller.
Lastly, film buffs will recognize François Truffaut, the late, great French filmmaker, doing a rare actor’s turn in a key role in “Close Encounters.” Also noteworthy is the appearance here by journeyman supporting actor Bob Balaban, who actually kept a detailed notebook during the making of the film. Those notes were then published as a book — now available as “Spielberg, Truffaut & Me: An Actor’s Diary” — which is a very funny, interesting and insightful “how a movie really gets made” type of memoir.
Scott Gregory hosts “All This Jazz” on Public Radio 89.5 KWGS, where he’s also the producer and editor of “Studio Tulsa.”
