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Weekend Movie Guide 09/23: Circumstance & House of Boys
CIRCUMSTANCE courtesy Participant Media / Roadside Attractions
The tension between Iran's repressive regime & its large, vocal youth population breaks through in bits & pieces from artists like Kiosk & films like No One Knows About Persian Cats. Sundance Audience Award winner Circumstance is another story smuggled from the Tehran underground (though shot in Lebanon for fear of crew safety). It's even more provocative than that of the rockers.
Atifeh & Shireen pursue the same pleasures we do: experimentation with drugs & alcohol, lip-syncing to pulsing Western music, dancing sans headscarves in secret clubs. Only in Iran, these activities incur police response. But their most dangerous enjoyment is each other's company. In a country whose president infamously declared that "we don't have homosexuals", their budding relationship threatens not only their lives but an already-tense family dynamic. Circumstance plays at Laemmle locales in Santa Monica, Encino & out in Claremont.
Set a world away in the mid-80s Amsterdam club scene, House of Boys revels in the freedom of lights, leather, synth & the shirtless. But when the music stops, a carefree community must come together to aid loved ones dying from the then-unknown AIDS virus. A survivor of this scene, Luxembourgian director Jean-Claude Schlim pays tribute to both its theatrical & tragic nature.
Cult actor Udo Kier (whose filmography flirts with arthouse & exploitation) personifies this balance as Madame, a no-nonsense, all-drag cabaret owner. Beloved Brit Stephen Fry also stars as a concerned doctor, while UK up-and-comers Benn Northover (Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2) & Layke Anderson play the lads. House of Boys opens exclusively at Laemmle's Sunset.
Are you an adventurous film-goer? Check out our weekly guide to the best of LA's repertory theaters, exclusive screenings & midnight movies. This week we have special coverage of two titans of terror & a truly Horrible second-year anniversary.
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Wide Release
Abduction (Reviews) (Showtimes)
Dolphin Tale (Reviews) (Showtimes) (3D Showtimes)
Killer Elite (Reviews) (Showtimes)
Moneyball (Reviews) (Showtimes)
Limited Release
Archie's Final Project (Reviews) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
Berlin '36 (Reviews) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (Reviews) (Nuart Theatre)
Bobby Fischer Against the World (Reviews) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3)
Circumstance (Reviews) (Laemmle's Claremont 5) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
House of Boys (Reviews) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
In Search of God (Reviews) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
Jane's Journey (Reviews) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
Machine Gun Preacher (Reviews) (AMC Century City 15) (Arclight Hollywood)
Mausam (Reviews) (Laemmle's Fallbrook 7)
Pearl Jam Twenty (Reviews) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
Programming the Nation? (Reviews) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
Puncture (Reviews) (The Landmark)
There Was Once (Reviews) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
To Catch A Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks On America (Reviews) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
The Weird World of Blowfly (Reviews) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
That's all for this week. See you at the movies!
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