Don't put your lips on that thing!

2001: A Space Odyssey

(1968)

First impetus for watching this was seeing the recent Planet of the Apes sequel; second impetus was a friend's report of having seen it in a 70mm print.

I was 14 when this came out, and I remember that, as with many films of the era, I read the Mad magazine parody before seeing the film (the monolith was likened to the box the U.N. Secretariat building came in; an ape in the opening sequence says it's inspiring him to do intelligent things. "Like what?" another ape asks. "Like getting out of this film"). Then when I saw it, it was in Beardstown, Illinois, with my brother. He's 9 years older, so we didn't hang much; it's the only time I remember just the two of us seeing a movie together.

It blew my mind then, and it blows my mind only a bit less now.

Primates with guns

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Crit

What this film teaches us:

• Prejudices notwithstanding, we're all pretty much alike at bottom. I'm sorry, but it's true.
• As suggested by Genesis, specifically the story of Cain and Abel, the treachery gene expressed itself very early in our evolution.
• The use of personal pronouns is a critical marker in intellectual development.
• The law remains in effect that every cinematic season must include at least one film with the Band's "The Weight" in the soundtrack.

Left unclear until at least the next sequel is how long it will take the apes to establish a government and, more to the point, to develop a soccer team capable of competing for the World Cup. In the meantime, congratulations to die Mannschaft, whose crisp passing and shrinkwrap defending made me less ashamed of my homo sapiens membership than I might otherwise have been.

Trailers

• Into the Storm--Wow--best sound I've ever heard from a trailer, I think.

Soldiers and soldier's wives

Fort Apache

(1948)

Nineteen forty-eight, on the heels of glorious military victory and shivering from an increasingly cold war, seems an unlikely time for a critical examination of the thin margin between valor and vainglory, which is another reason why this is one of John Ford's most complex films and one of his greatest accomplishments. But hey, I really just watched it in honor of the recently departed Shirley Temple. Or not.

Beasts of Brixton

Attack the Block

(2011)

Sometimes first impressions are right, and this really is as terrific a low-budget sci-fi flick as I thought it was the first time. Writer-director Joe Cornish, overdue for a follow-up, is apparently working on a historical drama called Section 6.

The Germans have outlawed miracles

Casablanca

(1942)

Usually I like to get a little closer to Bastille Day before my annual screening of my all-time favorite film, but after rooting for the Germans against the French in the World Cup today, I felt the need to restore some balance.

I've noticed this before, but I don't think I've ever mentioned it: get a load of the louche portrait of Hitler hanging in Strasser's office when he fields Renaud's call late in the film. Portrait of the dictator as a young Oscar Wilde.

Night of the living pets

Frankenweenie

(2012)

The first experiment goes perfectly, as Victor sparks his beloved mutt Sparky, killed by a car, back to life. The next experiment, performed with less pure motives, is more spectacular but ultimately less successful, and once every kid in the neighborhood gets hold of the secret, and science loses all connection with the heart, mistakes are made. Fierce and outsized mistakes, a dead turtle becoming Gamara-like, sea monkeys becoming Gremlinesque, and a cat named Mr. Whiskers, just as annoying in life as the name suggests, morphing into a fanged, batwinged harpy.

It's a pleasant enough flick, but I feel sorry for all the little kids who saw this and then were crushed to know that their own dead Spunkies and Tiges are staying dead for the duration, and hooking them up to car batteries is, at best, going to have no effect whatever. What a ripoff.

My favorite part of the movie, I think, was the Karen O song in the end credits, at the same time an original piece of ear candy and an hommage to the Mickey and Sylvia classic "Love Is Strange."

Wandering steps and slow

Snowpiercer

Crit

Part Brazil, part Road Warrior, part Soylent Green, part Star Wars, part Clockwork Orange . . . well, let's just say part every dystopian revolution flick and every postapocalyptic disaster flick of the past half-century, but what a stunning pastiche it is. It never lets you get comfortable, but it does occasionally let you think you know roughly where it's going. However, you're wrong: though the setting adheres to its schedule with ultra-Mussoliniesque fidelity, the flick goes exuberantly off the rails. Like Joon-ho Bong's earlier The Host and Mother, this film defiantly eats sushi and does not pay.