Programmer's Picks - Monday, September 8
The Baltimorons, Hard Boiled, Crimson Peak and more!
It’s been a long time since I’ve updated this newsletter. A lot has happened in the last month, and I’ll write about it eventually, but in the meantime, I wanted to dip my toes into regular posting by shouting out some of the films and events coming up this week at the River Oaks Theatre that I’m particularly excited for:
Because of how busy work has been since I joined the River Oaks Theatre team, I have not had a chance to visit a single film festival since March '24. It's not all bad. I certainly don't miss eating like crap, operating on next to zero sleep, or waiting in line (actually, I do miss waiting in line, as it was a great chance to catch up on my reading), but what I do miss are "nice" movies.
Hollywood is a jungle, and to cut through the vines, movies have to become cynical and a little bit mean. But at film festivals, you routinely have a chance to see movies that make you smile, feel warm inside, and leave you optimistic about humanity and its ability to connect with others.
Case in point: THE BALTIMORONS. The film premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival and won the Audience Award for Narrative Spotlight. It is directed by Jay Duplass and co-written by Duplass and star Michael Strassner. The film follows a man adrift from his life who finds an unexpected connection with his dentist after an emergency oral surgery on Christmas Eve. It's a romantic comedy about an unlikely pair who discover that there is always room for second chances. It's sweet, empathetic, and, above all, really, really funny.
Strassner is an incredible new discovery - able to channel the nervous energy of his comedic forefathers while also exuding a deep sense of understanding. And by understanding, I mean that you know this guy - he's your friend, your brother, your cousin, the dude who invites you to trivia night while chitchatting at the watercooler. Strassner is a perfect everyman, approachable, likeable, charming. There's no questioning why Liz Larsen's dentist would start to fall for the strange man who inserted himself into her life.
You can see THE BALTIMORONS early at a screening at the River Oaks Theatre TONIGHT (Monday, September 8). Strasner will be in attendance for a Q&A, and I'm super excited for Houston audiences to discover this super charming, super nice movie.
Grab your tickets now! We will also open the film for a full run beginning Friday if you can’t make tonight’s screening. Grab tickets to those shows here.
Last night I watched HARD BOILED at the River Oaks Theatre with a nearly sold-out audience in our main auditorium (250 seats). The film is part of a Hong Kong Cinema Classics retrospective I put together in conjunction with Shout! Studios and GKids. The series features a dozen classics from directors like John Woo, Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, and Ching Siu-tung - all films that were previously next to impossible for theaters to program in the last decade. The movies have all been given a loving restoration, including remastered transfers, new subtitles, and a pounding new audio track. In other words, they look and sound damn good.
I had watched HARD BOILED for the first time about five years ago, but seeing it last night with a packed audience was like watching it for the first time. Woo’s incredibly inventive action choreography, stylish camera movements, and unexpected editing choices make HARD BOILED feel like the Rosetta Stone for the last few decades of blockbuster filmmaking. The movie is just an utter joy to watch with an audience, and I’m so excited to both share the remaining films with Houston audiences and watch a good chunk of them on the big screen myself. This week, we have encores of A BETTER TOMORROW tonight (Monday, September 8) and Thursday, September 11; HARD BOILED encores on Tuesday, September 9 and Thursday, September 11; BULLET IN THE HEAD on Sunday, September 14; A BETTER TOMORROW II on Sunday, September 14 and Monday, September 15; and A BETTER TOMORROW III: LOVE AND DEATH IN SAIGON on Monday, September 15.
Tickets for ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER go on sale this week, but we’re playing Paul Thomas Anderson classics all month at the River Oaks Theatre. BOOGIE NIGHTS might be my favorite of Anderson’s films. It’s an epic-sized duel tribute and cautionary tale to the adult film industry, tracking its rise and fall in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Mark Wahlberg, star of the film, likes to talk about how he regrets making the film but, Mark, this is probably the best thing you’ve ever done. I say that not having tasted a Whalburger… But, seriously, BOOGIE NIGHTS is an incredible cinematic experience and if you live in or near Houston, you’ll have a chance to see it either Wednesday, September 10 or Sunday, September 21. Grab tickets here. We are also screening THERE WILL BE BLOOD on Wednesday, September 17 and Thursday, September 18.
On Thursday, September 11, I will host what will probably be the final Tape Worms Mystery VHS screening for a bit. These shows have been a ton of fun, but I want to alter the format a bit going into the second year of my tenure with the River Oaks Theatre. For this final show, I can promise something weird, unexpected, and next-to-guaranteed to never stream on Netflix. Grab tickets here.
On Friday, we’re hosting a screening of THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST with filmmaker Ben Masters and Southwest Regional Director of 'American Rivers' Matt Rice for a Q&A. The documentary is a gorgeously shot portrait of the flora and fauna that exist on the shores of the Colorado River. I have not seen the film yet, but I loved Masters’ previous documentary DEEP IN THE HEART: A TEXAS WILDLIFE STORY and look forward to watching his new movie. Grab tickets here.
In anticipation of the master’s new film FRANKENSTEIN this October (and in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month), we’re screening a bunch of Guillermo del Toro films this September at the River Oaks Theatre. Del Toro is one of my top five filmmakers. I love the fact that he will approach any project, be it personal allegory or big-budget blockbuster, and give it the same amount of detail and world-building. His movies are just top-to-bottom gorgeous and really come to life on the big screen. This week, you can catch his kaiju hullabaloo, PACIFIC RIM, on Friday, September 12, or his gothic ghost love story, CRIMSON PEAK, on Saturday, September 13 and Thursday, September 18.
We finish up a two-week mini-retrospective of Samuel Fuller films on Sunday, September 14, with a screening of THE NAKED KISS. Fuller, who got his start working as a pulp novelist and reporter, fled the studio system after years of writing westerns and war pictures to make genre movies that smuggled in social messages and dealt with extremely controversial topics. With THE NAKED KISS (1964), Fuller turns the spotlight onto a former prostitute whose attempt to hide out in suburbia goes awry when she finds out the wholesome mainstream society she craved isn’t so wholesome after all. Grab tickets here.
Also playing this week at the River Oaks Theatre: THE PRINCESS DIARIES (part of Cozy Cinema) on Tuesday, September 9 at 7:15 PM; DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE (shows start Thursday, September 11); and LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION on Saturday, September 13.