“Time Out of Mind,” IFC Center, opens September 9
The premise of this film is pretty simple and it’s basically all you really need to know to go and see it: Richard Gere plays a homeless guy on the streets of New York. Based on his comments last year at the New York Film Festival, he actually spent a lot of time “getting into character,” which is confirmed by this tabloid story that came out during the film’s shooting. It’s a different kind of role for Mr. American Gigolo, and he does a decent job stumbling through the blank canvas of the movie. The camera often catches Gere’s character from far away, dwarfing him into the surrounding chaos of New York City, and is a little heavy-handed at times in its penchant for realism. That said, the film, directed by Oren Moverman, is attempting something, even if it doesn’t always succeed, which is better than most. Also, Ben Vereen completely steals the movie as Gere’s homeless friend, and deserves a film of his own.
“The Glass Shield,” Brooklyn Academy of Music, September 8
This police drama from Charles Burnett (“Killer of Sheep,” “To Sleep With Anger”) is as pertinent today as it was when it was made in 1994. Michael Boatman stars as an African-American detective assigned to an all-white unit in Los Angeles; his only confident is a female detective (Lori Petty), with whom he quickly bonds. Eager to please, he begins his time there allowing the other officers to berate him and turns away when he sees corruption, telling his friends who question his job that he is a “peace officer.” But when’s he involved in the unlawful arrest of a man (Ice Cube) who is then pinned with a murder charge, the young officer begins to fight against the structural racism of the LAPD. Burnett’s film is screening as part of BAM’s “Set It Off: LA Hip-Hop on Film,” a series that runs through September 8.
“Cooley High,” Museum of the Moving Image, September 13
A 40th anniversary screening of “Cooley High” is part of a celebration at the Museum of the Moving of Michael Schultz, an underappreciated director whose status is partly due to his diverse and often low-budget, genre-zig-zagging work. “Cooley High” was made for American International Pictures and mixes coming-of-age teen hijinks — chasing girls, skipping class — with social commentary on the treatment of black youth in Chicago. It’s easy to see how the it set the template for a lot of what followed on film, even if some of the jokes, four decades later, are difficult to relate to. Schultz went on to work with Richard Pryor and many others, but never made a film as beloved as “Cooley High.”
“An Evening with the Safdie Brothers,” Film Society of Lincoln Center, September 9
This is a double-feature, folks, and one that might be a bit of a bummer: the Safdie Brothers will present their awesome bit of magical-hobo-realism “Heaven Knows What,” which I saw last year and loved but disturbed me so much I don’t know if I can ever see it again. The filmmaking bros will also present Jerry Schatzberg’s junkie-drama “The Panic in Needle Park,” starring Al Pacino and written by Joan Didion and her husband, John Gregory Dunne. Additionally, the brothers have an exhibition opening at Fort Gansevoort Gallery this week that is worth checking out.
“The State of Things,” IFC Center, September 11-13
I’ve already written about how much I enjoyed this movie, and now, if you live in New York, you can see it. The film is screening as part of the IFC Center’s big Wim Wenders retrospective, and is premiering as a new 4K digital restoration (a few months ago I had to watch a film print like an old fuddy duddy).
