Whether you consider him a groundbreaker or a hack—rarely, it seems, is there a middle ground—director Quentin Tarantino has an obvious knack for picking up on our pop-culture fixations. This is a filmmaker who has crafted long stretches of dialogue around the naming conventions of fast food, and who regularly delves into our B-movie past to pluck some near-forgotten but still-ripe fruit: kung fu epics, exploitation films, and ’70s-era fonts have all felt the Tarantino touch.
Sometimes, though, his films seem a bit overstuffed; after two and a half hours of dizzying references it starts to feel like he’s flipping through the channels. It’s no surprise, then, that one of the most enjoyable parts of Grindhouse (the 2007 double feature he co-directed with Robert Rodriquez) turned out to be the series of fake film trailers and theater announcements that Tarantino dreamed up to splice into the feature. He charged his co-directors with the task, and today one of those trailers—Rodriquez’s blurb for the “Mexploitation” film Machete—has become a real movie.
Danny Trejo stars as the title character, an ex-federale gone rogue. After a run-in with local drug lord Torrez (Steven Seagal, trying for a comeback), Machete finds himself adrift in Texas, trying to pick up odd jobs. The oddest comes from a local businessman—assassinate a Senator (Robert De Niro) who holds strong anti-immigration views. When it turns out to be a double-cross, Machete bands together with a rag-tag posse of immigrants to take his revenge on the men who tried to wrong him. Like the films that inspired it, Machete isn’t likely to earn many awards, but as a tribute to a bygone kind of filmmaking it’s sure to be a goofy—and gory—bit of nostalgia.
*
If that isn’t quite your idea of nostalgia, you might be interested in heading out to Shelburne Falls this weekend, where the people at Pothole Pictures will be celebrating the centennial year of film legend Akira Kurosawa with a screening of Ran, his stunning 1985 take on Shakespeare’s King Lear. Set in feudal Japan, it tells the story of a powerful but aging warlord and his three sons, two of whom conspire to strip their father of his standing. When the remaining son tries to warn his father, he is banished for his trouble. Though Kurosawa had earlier looked to Shakespeare—his 1957 film Throne of Blood is an adapted Macbeth—the epic Ran is the film better remembered today. It screens at Memorial Hall on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
*
Also this week: Amherst Cinema opens Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, a documentary look at the famous but troubled artist. Downtown darling, Warhol collaborator, and heroin addict, Basquiat was 25 at the height of his meteoric career; he would be dead two years later. Built on a rare interview with the artist shot over 20 years ago by director Tamra Davis—then a friend of Basquiat’s—her film explores his life, including the often glossed-over racism of the downtown art scene, through interviews with art world icons such as Julian Schnabel and Larry Gagosian.
At Cinemark Theaters in Hadley, the clock rolls back even further when they team with a certain British supergroup to present a one night only event on Tuesday. Ladies & Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones Flashback to 1972 features Mick and Keith at the height of their glory, on tour in North America promoting the release of Exile on Main St., still a frequent choice among critics for best Stones record. To top it off, the two-hour presentation will also feature an interview with Mick Jagger.
Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com.
