Capital Projections: Rockumentary edition
Capital Projections is The DC Line’s selective and subjective guide to some of the most interesting arthouse and repertory screenings in the coming week.
HALSTON
With the recent release of excellent films on businesswoman Iris Apfel and designer Alexander McQueen, we seem to be living in a golden age of fashion documentaries. Director Frédéric Tcheng ups the glittering ante with this inventive profile of Halston, whose deceptively simple garments defined the 1970s. Born Roy Halston Frowick, the ambitious clothier first made his mark with hats, becoming head milliner at New York’s prestigious Bergdorf Goodman department store and creating the iconic pillbox topper that Jacqueline Kennedy wore at her husband’s 1961 presidential inauguration. By the end of the 1960s, his bold patterns took off, their clean lines and minimalism reflected in the sans-serif font of the logo his company still uses. From uniforms to ready-to-wear lines, his handiwork was everywhere, but Halston’s ultimate goal to “dress America” may have contributed to his downfall. A highly publicized deal with mass-market retailer J.C. Penney resulted in a loss of quality control and the perceived diminishing of a once-exclusive brand name.
Known for a celebrity entourage that included Andy Warhol and Elizabeth Taylor, Halston was a regular at the elite discotheque Studio 54. So his very ’70s story has more than enough pizazz to fuel a thrilling film, and Tcheng makes the most of this distinctly “Me Decade” drama. The fashions may seem dated today, as do the visuals of the era — most of the file footage used is taken from videotape that lacks the clarity of classic film stock or modern digital formats — yet Tcheng uses the glitchy, fuzzy aesthetic to accurately convey what this media darling looked like in the media of the time. Halston died from an AIDS-related cancer in 1990; this film is both reverent to his honor and appropriately dazzling.
Watch the trailer.
Opens Friday, June 7, at E Street Landmark Cinema. $12.50.
ECHO IN THE CANYON
Characterized by chiming guitars and poetic lyrics, the 1960s folk-rock scene that emerged from the largely residential Los Angeles neighborhood of Laurel Canyon should guarantee a lively documentary with a catchy soundtrack. Thanks to colorful raconteurs like Brian Wilson and David Crosby (who were part of the scene) and Tom Petty (who was influenced by it), all a filmmaker should have to do is line up subjects and let the camera roll. But Echo in the Canyon, which pays homage to these musicians, is only intermittently compelling. First-time director and former record label executive Andrew Slater tells the story with the help of musician Jakob Dylan, one of the film’s executive producers (and Bob’s son). While vintage footage of the scene’s major acts and interviews with surviving players are often insightful, the movie spends too much time on footage of a 2015 tribute concert (produced by Slater and Dylan) in which contemporary artists such as Beck, Cat Power and Fiona Apple perform cover versions of classics by the Byrds and the Beach Boys. As I wrote in my Washington Post review, it “feels like a mixtape that pairs classic recordings with uninspired cover versions of the same songs. Which would you rather hear?”
Watch the trailer.
Opens Friday, June 7, at E Street Landmark Cinema and Angelika Mosaic. $12.50,
RUDEBOY: THE STORY OF TROJAN RECORDS
Although a certain blockbuster Disney franchise didn’t seem to get the memo, it’s hard to tell the story of the Caribbean without music. Fortunately, the organizers of the 19th annual DC Caribbean FilmFest, which runs from June 6 through 12 at the AFI Silver and Cultural Center, honor tropical subgenres with several musical titles, including this vivid documentary about Jamaica’s signature sound. Home to such artists as Desmond Dekker and Jimmy Cliff, Trojan Records, founded in London by Kingston-born businessman Lee Gopthal, rose to prominence in the 1960s along with the development of ska and reggae. The label’s releases provided a taste of home for Jamaicans who had come to the U.K. with hopes of a better life. Featuring re-enactments of pivotal moments in reggae history and interviews with major figures like producer Lee “Scratch” Perry, Rudeboy is essential for fans of the music. But the movie also tells a hopeful story of racial unity, as reggae’s infectious rhythms inevitably moved beyond the Jamaican community. Some viewers may be surprised to learn that black music was embraced by white skinheads in the 1960s — and later, by punk rockers — who found a kinship with their tales of working-class oppression. Such crossover appeal is perhaps mirrored in the popularity of hip-hop among white audiences today.
Watch the trailer.
Saturday, June 8, at 7:30 p.m. and Tuesday, June 11, at 9:20 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center. $13.
ROLLING THUNDER REVUE: A BOB DYLAN STORY BY MARTIN SCORSESE
By 1975, Bob Dylan was used to playing to huge crowds in venues too large for him to truly connect with his audience. His Rolling Thunder Revue tour that year was a noble corrective, concentrating on smaller venues and featuring all-star guests such as Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn, Joni Mitchell and Ronee Blakely. Martin Scorsese’s new documentary about the rock legend assembles restored footage from the fabled 1975 tour and the artist’s first on-camera interview in more than a decade. Rolling Thunder Revue will premiere on Netflix on June 12 (soon after the June 7 release of a 14-CD companion set), but Smithsonian Theatres gives you a chance to experience it with a big screen and a sound system that is probably better than what you’ve got at home.
Watch the trailer.
Tuesday, June 11, at 6:30 p.m. at the National Museum of American History in the Warner Bros. Theatre. $15.
THE RUNNING ACTRESS
With starring roles in no fewer than three films in the program, prolific actress Moon So-Ri (The Handmaiden) is the MVP of this year’s Korean Film Festival, which runs at the Freer Gallery of Art and the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center through July 1. On Friday night, she visits the Freer to introduce her 2017 directorial debut, a semi-fictional portrait that depicts the struggles of a 40-something actress (herself) who’s starting to have trouble finding meaty roles. Moon’s film examines her creative life in three segments that veer from the comic to the tragic. The comic tone, emphasized by a lighthearted score that suggests a Hallmark Channel product, works against the film’s serious references to issues of sexism and ageism. But by the end of the film, in a segment set at a director’s funeral, Moon finds a bittersweet voice that one hopes she expands upon in future films.
Watch the trailer.
Friday, June 7, at 7 p.m. at the Freer Gallery of Art. Free.
POROCORA
The National Gallery of Art’s series Reinventing Realism: New Cinema From Romania, which runs through June 16, continues with this 2018 thriller from director Constantin Popescu. “Romanian thriller” may sound like an oxymoron given the slow-moving tendency of the country’s New Wave cinema, but the 153-minute mystery takes on a somber theme that might be familiar to fans of such stark dramas as Cristian Mungiu’s Graduation: the breakdown of the family. The movie tells the story of Tudor Ionesco, a distraught father whose relationship with his wife descends into a whirlwind of blame and despair after their young daughter disappears from a playground. Variety writes that Porocora, obliquely named after a South American tidal bore, “is a simmering, gradually harrowing film heavy on incidental information at the frayed edges of its drama.”
Watch the trailer.
Sunday, June 9, at 4 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art in the East Building Auditorium. Free.
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