Easy Living

Opening:

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATED SHORTS—The short films that you never seem to have a chance to see aside from the few seconds they show when the nominations are read. There are separate programs for live action and animated shorts. Reviewed this issue. Eastern Hills, Market Arcade

BULLET TO THE HEAD—Sylvester Stallone as a New Orleans hitman who teams up with a Washington cop to battle a mob boss. Co-starring Sung Kang and Sarah Shahi. Directed by Walter Hill (Supernova). Flix, Maple Ridge, Regal Elmwood, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit

STAND UP GUYS—Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin—well, with a cast like that does it even matter what the movie is about? With Julianna Margulies and Lucy Punch, Directed by Fisher Stevens. Reviewed this issue. Amherst, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit

WARM BODIES—Zomedy. Starring Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, John Malkovich and Rob Corddry. Directed by Jonathan Levine (50/50). Flix, Maple Ridge, Market Arcade, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

ETC:

THE COMEDY—The title is ironic for this microbudgeted improvised feature starring Tim Heidecker (of “Tim & Eric Awesome Show”) as a an aging Brooklyn hipster who reacts to his life of privilege with offensive word games directed at his friends and strangers in his neighborhood. Co-starring Eric Wareheim, James Murphy and Gregg Turkington. Directed by Rick Alverson. Squeaky Wheel

EASY LIVING—This overlooked screwball comedy classic stars Jean Arthur as a struggling Manhattan shopgirl whose life changes when an expensive fur coat falls on her out of the blue. It was written by Preston Sturges and bears all the hallmarks (and the stock company of character actors) familiar from his self-directed films like The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek. With Edward Arnold, Ray Milland, Franklin Pangborn, and William Demarest. Directed by Mitchell Leisen (Midnight). Fri 7:30 pm. The Old Chestnut Film Society, Philip Sheridan School, 3200 Elmwood (836-4757)

THE OLD DARK HOUSE—Fans of Gods and Monsters will want to see James Whale’s peculiar black comedy, a straight-faced parody of haunted house mysteries made shortly after Frankenstein. Starring Melvyn Douglas, Boris Karloff, Charles Laughton, Gloria Stuart, Ernest Thesiger, Eva Moore, and Raymond Massey. Screening Room

PETER GABRIEL: NEW BLOOD—Concert documentary of Peter Gabriel’s 2011 concert at the Hammersmith Apollo theater in London, performing 22 of his classic songs accompanied by a 45 piece orchestra. Amherst

THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH (1955)—The film that gave the world the iconic image of Marilyn Monroe having her skirt blown up over a subway grating. This adaptation of the Broadway hit about a about a married man (Tom Ewell) contemplating adultery while his family is away for the summer is so dated as to seem a remnant of some extinct civilization. Director Billy Wilder was forced to sanitize the play’s original ending. Screening Room

TEJIDAS JUNTAS/STITCHED TOGETHER—Documentary portrait of Dominican workers and students who banded together to battle worker exploitation in the global garment industry by forming an independent garment factory out of the ashes of a sweatshop that produced Nike TM apparel. Presented by the University at Buffalo Gender Institute. Free and open to the public. Tues 5:30, 107 Talbert Hall, University at Buffalo North Campus.

LES VISITEURS DU SOIR (France, 1942)—Shot during the German occupation of France and possibly intended as an allegorical attack on the Nazis, this fantasy takes place in the late middle ages at a castle where two emissaries of the devil (Alain Cuny and Arletty) try to break up a wedding by breaking the hearts of everyone involved. Directed by Marcel Carne (Children of Paradise). Presented as part of the Buffalo Film Seminar. Market Arcade.