Now Showing: The Film Forum and The Eden Drive-In

Today, we look at various movies which are being screened in both large markets and small towns, on the east coast of the United States.

We start in New York, where tonight the Film Forum screens both "The French Connection" at 7:10 p.m. and "The Honeymoon Killers" (pict. bottom) at 9:30 p.m. Both films are being screened as part of the Film Forum's True Crime series which also features Charlie Chaplin's "Monsieur Verdoux." "The Honeymoon Killers" has developed a cult reputation since being released in the early 1970s; the film revolves around a man and a woman who lured victims with lonely hearts ads in local newspapers. The film is indeed based on a true story, and it is a jarring film about a cross country killing spree. IFC once showed the film on Valentine's Day!

The Film Forum is also screening the cinematic gem "The Third Man" with Orson Welles at 4:50; 7:10 and 9:20 p.m. in addition to two earlier in the day matinees.

We move south to Washington, DC, where the E-Street Cinema is screening the new indy film "The Stanford Prison Experiment" at 2:05, 4:35, 7:05, and 9:30 p.m. The film is also showing at the a/perture Cinema in Winston-Salem, NC, at 11:45 a.m., 4:30 p.m., and 7:15 p.m.

Some three and a half hours south of Washington, DC, the Hull's Drive-In in Lexington, Va., will be screening a double-feature: "Magic Mike XXL" and "Ted 2" (pict. top) starting at 8:55 p.m. In Blacksburg, Va., the Lyric Theatre is showing the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson biopic "Love and Mercy" at 7:00 and 9:30 p.m.

In the small town of Eden, NC, which neighbors Henry County (Martinsville), Va., the Eden Drive-In is showing the new version of "Vacation" (the center image is of the original 1983 Chevy Chase version) along with "Southpaw," a boxing movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal starting at sun down which was 8:25 p.m. last night.

In Chapel Hill, NC, the Varsity Theatre will be screening "Mad Max: Fury Road," one of the best reviewed films of the year at 9:20 p.m.

Finally, Cine, a cinema in Athens, Ga., is holding a special screening of John Carpenter's "Escape from New York" starring Kurt Russell at 10:30 p.m.

http://www.varsityonfranklin.com

http://www.filmforum.org

http://www.edendrivein.com

http://www.aperturecinema.com

http://www.thelyric.com

http://www.hullsdrivein.com

http://www.athenscine.com

Last Ten Films We've Seen: Looking for Prozac Nation

Greetings to our blog readers in Cuba, Slovakia, and Finland......we are delighted that full diplomat relations have been established between our country the United States and Cuba!

Here are the last ten films we had seen as of last week. "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" and "Prozac Nation" have been notoriously hard to find, so we glad to have them off of our cinematic bucket list. "Love and Mercy" is the new film about Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. He was played by two actors: Paul Dano (the young Wilson) and John Cusack (the older Wilson).

The pedestrian stop and go lights at the bottom are a holdover from East Germany in Berlin; "A Coffee in Berlin" is the only foreign-language film on this particular list, though "Prozac Nation" has a Norwegian director.

Fun thing we learned while putting this list together is that over $1 million of $7 million budget for "Dazed and Confused" went to film's soundtrack; we assume this means Foghat's 1975 rock hit single "Slow Ride" is expensive!

We originally got this idea from "Film Comment" magazine http://www.filmcomment.com

Here is the list:

1. Looking for Mr. Goodbar. director: Richard Brooks. 1977 w/Diane Keaton

2. Prozac Nation. dir: Erik Skjoldbjaerg. 2003.

3. The Lineup. Don Siegel. 1957

4. Bone. Larry Cohen. 1972.

5. A Coffee in Berlin. Germany. Jan Ole Gerster. 2012.

6. The Immigrant. James Gray. 2013.

7. Trishna. Michael Winterbottom. 2011.

8. Dazed and Confused. Richard Linklater. 1993

9. Entourage. Doug Ellin. 2015.

10. Love and Mercy. Bill Pohlad. 2014.

Merry Christmas from The Beach Boys

Today's tradition of us finding some kitschy or unusual cultural entity wish everyone a happy holiday or birthday continues as we wish you a Christmas by way of The Beach Boys (if you like this idea, give me credit; if you don't, then send an email to Javier our Honduran college student intern who is on loan to us from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.)

We learned while researching this that The Beach Boys' 1965 album "Smile" was completely shelved and the inferior "Smiley Smile" was released instead. Though Brian Wilson, who was lead singer at the time, rerecorded "Smile" in 2004 as a solo venture.

There were more than 400,000 covers of the "Smile" album which were stored in a Pennsylvania warehouse that were destroyed in the 1980s.

Among the singles from the commercially unsuccessful "Smiley Smile" lp was "Good Vibrations."

So, with that being said: "Merry Christmas from The Beach Boys."