What Ho, Stockahz! Can you believe it?!? Here we are at the dawn of yet another December, and not just the usual December NY'ers carry around in their souls all year! I'm talkin' the ACTUAL month! How can this be? How can this freakin' BE??? Seems like only yesterday we were locked in battle between those who loved SPECTRE and its detractors, waiting with giddy anticipation for J. J. Abrams' boost or crush in the form of Episode VII, and us rep circuit-minded diggin' into the Douglas Sirk trib at the Film Society and the Lonely Places: Film Noir series at
Museum of the Moving Image. In between that time and the present we've enjoyed a myriad of remarkable series and events, like
the director tribs to Sam Peckinpah, Theo Angelopoulous, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Brian De Palma, and Otto Preminger; the overview of postwar Japanese Musicals and reappraisal of Universal Studios' period under Carl Laemmle Jr's tenure; and most wonderfully the openings of two new rep houses in our movie-mad metropolis, Bushwick's Syndicated and the LES' Metrograph! It's proven quite the year for 2017 to try and top. It's also been a hard slog if you're a film fanatic, as we've lost some of the brightest lights in the entertainment biz this past solar cycle. I won't attempt a listing, I'll only plead with the coming year to be just a little kinder to us. This medium that we love is already made of stardust, it is so easily blown away. Let us hang onto it a little longer, okay '17? Ok. Now to our regualrly scheduled sked!

Those of you familiar with this here web-thingy I like to electronically scribble within know that each month I like to confer what I like to call Big Dawg status to that series or screening I deem that 31 days' most unmissable. Last month that esteemed esteem went to MoMA and their always fascinating, often mind-blowing series To Save and Project, their 14th annual celebration of cinema spared time's ravage. It gave us restorations of classics and curios like Anthony Mann's HE WALKED BY NIGHT, Robert Aldrich's EMPEROR OF THE NORTH and King Hu's LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN, as well as several reprieves from the "lost film" list like John Ford's THE BRAT and Felix Feist's DELUGE. Best of all was what the Museum termed the "world premiere" of Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, which unsurprisingly never looked or sounded better. Great fest as always, and can't wait for its 15th iteration!

Au hasard Balthazar, Stockahz! Welcome to the last weekend update of the month of November in the year 20 wait that actually wasn't any kind of greeting French or otherwise. It's a title of a Robert Bresson film and translates to "Balthazar, at random". I just feel like a French intro makes me seem so much smarter, more erudite, so much more important to the rep film conversation. Who'm I kiddin'? You see right through me, you with your Bazin essays committed to memory, your Monaco treatises at yer fingertips, your Lumenick Turkey List prepped for the deep-fryer. Why even pursue the ruse? If you'll forgive me, and we can make amends, I'll give this whole intro thang another go. With abject honesty my objective. Or object honesty my abjective. I forget. Nonetheless, in the spirit of authenticity, here goes;

Die Dreigroschenoper, mein liebschen! Oh hell I'm just making it worse. Let's move on shall we? Arigato.

New, ongoing and concluding series this last weekend of the month include Kurosawa and Mifune at IFC Center, Willy Wonka & Workshops and See it Big! Holiday Films at Museum of the Moving Image, Modern Matinees: The Body Politic at MoMA, That's Entertianment: MGM Musicals Part II at BAM Cinématek, the aforementioned trib to Bresson at Metrograph, Voyeurism, Surveillance and Identity in the Cinema at Anthology Film Archives, 3D Auteurs and Film Forum Jr. at, you guessed right, Film Forum. The concerted controversy be thus;

Once again my best wishes to you and yours, to friends and fam, to those I routinely press the flesh with and them that I only know from the onlineverse. Here's hoping everyone is warm in the embrace of their people today, and are mindful of their good fortune. Cheers, Stockahz! And don't forget the Zantac!

- Joe Walsh

Surprised I got nothing to say? After the week we just had? You don't know me. You NEVER knew me! I'm going to SCREA- yeah just kiddin' Week sucked. Things suck. Let's focus on what don't suck so much, meaning our wonderful rep film circuit, which this week includes 3D Auteurs at Film Forum, Modern Matinees: The Body Politic and To Save and Project: The 14th International Festival of Film Preservation at MoMA, That's Entertainment: MGM Musicals Part II at BAM Cinématek, Memorable Fantasies: Jorge Luis Borges & Adolfo Bioy Casares on Film at Anthology Film Archives, Total Verhoeven at the Film Society, See It Big! Holiday Films at Museum of the Moving Image, and the eternaly swank Cabaret Cinema at the Rubin Museum of Art. The crimes be thus;

Hello, Stockahz, hello. I hope this missive finds you in healthy body and spirits. It's been a tough week, no doubt, for a great many of us. General elections every 4 years tend to have that effect on us, whether we voted for the winner or the loser. We are of course in a different situation that we're used to, here at home and those viewing from abroad. Different players, different stakes, different consequences. I neither want to make light of the situation in an attempt to soothe wounds, nor concede that it is proof of the Sissyphean nature of our efforts, those of us who desire progress. The truth is we don't know the world we live in at the moment. Not yet. We're in a limbo state, where all we can rely on are the signposts that brought us to this moment in the dark, and depending on what you were looking for on this road, those signs bade quite ill indeed.

So while I don't want to spread disingenuous platitude like so much laquer on an old chair, I do want to propose the notion that perhaps our darkest hour may not have arrived, or that it may still be thwarted going forward. It's going to take a great deal of strength and hope and work, but if I can offer this weekly column as anything more than just glib weekend cinema-going suggestion, it's to propose that optimism, like energy, can never be destroyed. It can be displaced, it can be dispersed, it can be made to shift from one area to another without our control. It can sometimes seem to disappear, never to return. Here's the thing, and after days of searching for something, ANYthing worth a damn to say in the wake of such despair, I think I've landed on this pertinent reminder: optimism never goes away. Never. Optimism belongs to us, it's never far from us, and it is the seed from which great ideas and their ultimate realizations spring. So in that spirit, I've chosen to focus on some of the choicest examples of the Cinema of Hope this weekend. If nothing else maybe it'll just help make you forget the events of this week for a couple of hours, which might be Medication enough. Maybe though, just maybe, it'll inspire.

New and ongoing screenings this week include Kurosawa and Mifune at IFC Center, 3D Auteurs and Film Forum Jr. at Film Forum (you guessed it!), Bresson on Cinema at BAM Cinématek, To Save and Project: The 14th Annual International Festival of Film Preservation and Tom Hanks: A Tribute at MoMA, Memorable Fantasies: Jorge Luis Borges & Adolfo Bioy Casares on Film and The Medium is the Massacre at Anthology Film Archives, Total Verhoeven at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and the serenely cool Cabaret Cinema at the Rubin Museum. The shenanigans be thus;

Greetings and salutations, Stockahz! Welcome to another moth's Overview from Yours Truly! Here's hoping October treated you splediferously and set a high bar in terms of filmgoing reward, because November only promises more and better treasure to be had on NYC's rep film circuit! Hard to believe there's only two months left in the calendar year entitled 2016. We began in fashion horrific, mourning the back-to-back loss of David Bowie and Alan Rickman. We still have this mammoth monolitihc mishegoss of a General Election mere days from now, a hellish hump to climb indeed. However, once the dust has settled, and hopefully our Democracy has prevailed and remains intact, we can turn our sights back to the healing merits of cinema, that excursion and short-term stay into the collective dark with our fellow man and woman. If ever there existed a more wondrous, communal healing process, I haven't yet experienced it. Maybe baseball, but that's it. As I said, there's a great deal to look forward to, so let's get to it!

Hallo my Halloween Hungry Stockahz! I'm back with your last weeknd roundup of October '16! Lord how this month has flown past, mebbe solely because as much as we want time to slow the hell down a patch, we also can't wait to get to the day of the year when candy is free and we get to dress up like the thing that scares us most. No election jokes, please.

I've added a day to the Pick list and cut off the usual look forward to the week to come, only because November 1st falls on this upcoming Tuesday, when the new interactive rep calendar will be going live, and the Overview of the this year's 11th month will be following shortly after. So let's close this month out clean and start the next just as cleanly. The hijinks are aplenty this 4-day span, so let's get to it.

New and ongoing series this weeknd include Kurosawa & Mifune at IFC Center, Modern Matinees: B is for Bogart and Tomu Uchida: A Retrospective at MoMA, 13 Cats at BAM Cinématek, Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z, Trouble Every Day: Halloween at Metrograph and Old & Improved at Metrograph, The Medium is the Massacre and The Genre Terrorist: Lucio Fulci at Anthology Film Archives, Krzysztof Kieslowski: A Complete Retrospective at Museum of the Moving Image, and the tyke-terrifying Film Forum Jr. at, well, Film Forum. The heebies and the jeebies be thus;

Well AhWooooooooooooooooooooooo Stockahz! The annual Fest o' da Dedski knowns as All Hallows Eve approacheth once more, which means kids worldwide eagerly pitching ideas for ever more elaborate costuming and strategic mapping of Treat-rich territories in order to procure maximum candyage. Oh, what an age, what bliss to skip down the sidewalk as one's fave horror/sci-fi character to cast spells that would conjure ghouls and ghosts from their always temporary slumber to wreak fright uponst one's home nabe. Oh, to be 42 again.

It is in this spirit that I dedicate this week's Picks to those screenings most Halloween-appropriate. And lord there's much to draw from thankfully. For those who find themselves drawn not to a holiday celebratd 3 months too early at Duane Reade, thre's plenty else to choose from. From those who can't get enough of the heebies and their accompanying jeebies, read on. New and continuing series this week include Kurosawa & Mifune at IFC Center, Modern Matinees: B is for Bogart , Breaking Bard: Shakespeare on Film and Tomu Uchida: A Retrospective at MoMA, the feline-festooned 13 Cats at BAM Cinématek, The Genre Terrorist: Lucio Fulci at Anthology Film Archives, Cabaret Cinema at the Rubin Museum, Old & Improved and Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z at the Metrograph, and the outside-the-box-monickered Film Forum Jr. At Film Forum. Let's roll.

Has it already been a week, Stockahz? It seems like just yesterday that I was hippin' ya to my Picks 'n predilections concerning the 2nd weekend of October 2016. So much has transpired since then, since we discussed all this cinemtic on NYC's repertory circuit. Things non-cinematic to be sure. Things wierd, even. things downright perplexing, even. Things I never thought I'd ever see in a Presidential election in my life okay I'm not gonna get drawn into it again I promised myself. We've all been through quite enough in the real world the last 7 days and from what I can tell we're all exhausted by it. I can attest to that fact. So let's sink into the sweet, comfortable folds of the reel world for a time and heal a bit, allowing the manufactured dreams of the movies to inform our own personal concoctions. Let us go and make our visit.

Continuing series this week include Modern Matinees: B is for Bogart, Marlen Khutsiev and Breaking Bard: Shakespeare on Film at MoMA, Krzysztof Kieslowski - A Complete Retrospective & the Agnes Varda appeciation at Museum of the Moving Image, Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z and Old & Improved at the Metrograph, the newly-returned Film Forum Jr. at , you guessed it, Film Forum, and, sadly, the final days of the 54th New York Film Festival at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. That last one is always greatly missed. The rundown as follows;

I'm back, Stockahz! After a week's backoff due to the concocting of this month's rep circuit calendar and its accompanying Overview, I've returned to provide you with my newly-chosen Weekend Update format, which not only pares down the work for yours truly but also allows for the crank e-mail responses to sorta bundle up in one big bunch for me to address. With the trash icon. It's just better this way all around, trust me kids.

Notable events and series include Modern Matinees: B is for Bogart and the trib to dissident Russian auteur Marlen Khutsiev at MoMA, Krzysztof Kieslowski: A Complete Retrospective at Museum of the Moving Image, The Associates and Aldrich and Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z at the Metrograph, and of course the second and last week of the NYFF54 , specifically its Revivals and Retrospective series. The all-nite Rock 'n Roll and everyday party be thus;