Some Like it Hot (1959)
“I’m a man!” “Well, nobody’s perfect.” In Billy Wilder’s seminal screwball comedy, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis star as two musicians who mask themselves as women in order to avoid the gangsters hot on their trail. But it’s Marilyn Monroe who steals the show as the irresistible, ukulele-playing singer who tests the mens’ commitments to their disguises. Hollywood, May 5.
Season of the Witch (1973)
Originally released under the title Hungry Wives, this supernatural drama from George A. Romero follows a neglected suburban housewife (Jan White) who turns to witchcraft as a salve for her loneliness. More of a character study tracking the ‘70s decline of the tradwife ideal rather than a traditional horror, which perhaps makes it even more compelling. Clinton, May 6.
Black Sunday (1960)
Italian horror maestro Mario Bava’s influential debut film centers on a witch who is sentenced to death by her own brother—and vows to return and enact bloody vengeance. 200 years later, she does just that. The film’s brutal gore was so controversial that it was banned in the United Kingdom. Clinton, May 6.
Akira (1988)
This massively influential anime, adapted from the eponymous 1982 manga and set in the cyberpunk dystopia of 2019 Neo-Tokyo, centers on the leader of a motorbike gang as he attempts to save his telekinetic friend from a corrupt government. Widely credited for catapulting the Japanese art of anime into the Western mainstream. Hollywood, May 7.
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Sofia Coppola’s ethereal coming-of-age tragedy, adapted from Jeffrey Eugenides’s 1993 novel, mythologizes the nymphish and doomed Lisbon sisters (Kirsten Dunst included) through the eyes of a group of neighborhood boys—and Coppola’s own perceptive, dreamy, distinctively female gaze. Hollywood, May 9.
ALSO PLAYING:
5th Avenue: In the Mood for Love (2000), May 6-8. Cinemagic: Doctor Mordrid: Master of the Unknown (1992), May 6. Clinton: Black Moon (1975), May 5. The Wicker Man (1973), May 7. In the Mirror of Maya Deren (2001), May 9. Hollywood: Marathon Man (1976), May 4. Midnight Cowboy (1969), May 6. Shadow of a Doubt (1943), May 7-8. Requiem for a Dream (2000), May 7. Mommie Dearest (1981), May 8. Fist of the White Lotus (1980), May 10.