Local & Repertory

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Brazil Terry Gilliam’s grim, near-great Orwellian satire from 1985 stars Jonathan Pryce as the meek clerk who becomes an unlikely and reluctant resistance fighter in a fascist future. A big, messy, angry, and wildly inventive picture, Brazil didn’t win a popular following during the fat Reagan-Thatcher years. It argues that revolution is often accidental, and repression constant. And happiness may lie only in the memory of an old show tune. With Kim Greist as the girl of Pryce’s dreams and Robert De Niro as his more dashing comrade in arms. Sadly, this will be the last-ever midnight movie at the Egyptian—unless it’s used by SIFF next year. (R) BRIAN MILLER Egyptian, 805 E. Pine St., 720-4560, landmarktheatres.com, $8.25, Fri., June 21, 11:59 p.m.; Sat., June 22, 11:59 p.m.

Deconstructing the Beatles Visiting Beatles scholar Scott Freiman walks you through the intricacies of the White Album and Revolver in this lecture series, illustrated with film clips and audio samples. (NR)

SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., 324-9996, siff.net, Sat., June 22, 4:30 p.m.; Sun., June 23, 12:30 & 4:30 p.m.

Kung Fu Grindhouse

Mutant Hunt (1987) precedes the David Carradine-starring Future Force (1989), in which our hero turns against the ranks of his own vigilante police force to protect a journalist. Go figure. 21 and over. (NR)

Sunset Tavern, 5433 Ballard Ave. N.W., 784-4880, sunsettavern.com, Free, Mon., June 24, 6 p.m.

Lady Terminator Screened as part of the Bad Movie Art series, this 1989 possession movie has nothing to do with the famous action-movie franchise. Instead, its anthropologist heroine is possessed by the spirit of some malign being, then goes on a killing spree. (R)

Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave., 686-6684, central-cinema.com, $1.50, Wed., June 19, 7 p.m.

Manborg From Canada, this recent cheapo sci-fi flick features a hero who is, yes, half man and half machine. It can’t be half as bad as Transformers, right? (NR)

Grand Illusion, 1403 N.E. 50th St., 523-3935, grandillusioncinema.org, $5-$8, Fri., June 21, 11 p.m.; Sat., June 22, 11 p.m.

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Movie Mondays Back in 1996, Doug Pray’s raucous, lively grunge documentary Hype! won the Golden Space Needle Award at SIFF. Many years later, we can appreciate that moment as a pinnacle in Seattle music history. Many of the local bands portrayed—Nirvana, Soundgarden, The Gits, 7 Year Bitch—are gone. Some persist (Mudhoney, The Melvins), and the status of others is uncertain (Pearl Jam). Well-edited and containing an amazing array of concert footage, Hype! is celebratory yet skeptical; both the director and the musicians seem aware that something so suddenly inflated (i.e., grunge) is bound to burst. 21 and over. Ticket price is your drink price. (NR) BRIAN MILLER The Triple Door, 216 Union St., 838-4333, thetripledoor.net, $3, Opens June 24, Mondays, 8 p.m. Through Aug. 19.

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N-E-X D-O-C-S SEE THE WIRE, PAGE 15.

Occupy Love Discussion follows this recent documentary about the Occupy Wall Street movement. (NR)

Keystone Congregational Church, 5019 Keystone Place N., 632-6021, keystoneseattle.org, Free, Fri., June 21, 7 p.m.

Play It as It Lays SAM concludes its two-film salute to Anthony Perkins with this 1972 adaptation of the Joan Didion novel. Perkins and fellow ‘60s icon Tuesday Weld play casualties of Hollywood during the decade of its decline. (NR)

Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave., 654-3100, seattleartmuseum.org, $8-$13, Fri., June 21, 7:30 p.m.

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Portrait of Jason SEE THE WIRE, PAGE 15.

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Shaun of the Dead Co-screenwriters Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s 2004 “rom-zom-com” shows laudable imagination and irreverence. Shaun (Pegg) is an utter dullard, an interim electronics store manager who frequents the same London dive bar every night, retains boorish college crony Ed as a flatmate, and can’t be bothered to disengage from PS2 long enough to accommodate easily aggravated girlfriend Liz. When a (never-explained) zombie plague commences right outside Shaun and Ed’s door, they’re hilariously oblivious. However, Wright and Pegg do share Kevin Smith’s weakness for extracting lame life lessons out of inspired lunacy. (R) ANDREW BONAZELLI Central Cinema, $6-$8, June 21-25, 7 & 9:30 p.m.

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Silent Movie Mondays Concluding the series, with music from organist Jim Riggs, is the sweeping romantic adventure A Throw of the Dice, an exotic 1929 adventure that marries German craftsmanship with Indian artistry and lore for a magnificent, bigger-than-life production. (NR) SEAN AXMAKER The Paramount, 911 Pine St., 877-784-4849, stgpresents.org, $5-$10, Mon., June 24, 7 p.m.

A Treaty Animator Justin Mata presents a short work inspired by Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian (among other sources). Fellow artist Nicole Rathburn also presents her work. (NR)

Jack Straw New Media Gallery, 4261 Roosevelt Way N.E., 634-0919, jackstraw.org, Free, Fri., June 21, 7 p.m.

Ongoing

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Before Midnight

Before-ophiles already know that Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) are now a couple and the parents of adorable twin girls. On vacation in Greece, the Paris-based family is contemplating a move to the U.S., where novelist Jesse’s teen son lives. But Celine has a career back in Paris, and she naturally takes his suggestion as an affront. Before Midnight becomes their on-again/off-again argument about who has to sacrifice what for a relationship, what sexual spark keeps it burning, and how shared romantic history becomes both a burden and a bond. Your tolerance or enthusiasm for the third chapter of Celine and Jesse’s intermittent romance will depend on your feelings about Richard Linklater’s last two talkathons featuring the same duo: 1995’s Before Sunrise and 2004’s Before Sunset. That’s really all the guidance you need: If you cherish the first two movies, as I do, the third installment feels necessary—a midlife tonic for all those foolish old romantic yearnings, a trilogy driven by fallible, relatable characters rather than franchise economics. (R) BRIAN MILLER Ark Lodge, Kirkland Parkplace, Egyptian, Sundance, others

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The East Brit Marling teams once more with Sound of My Voice director Zal Batmanglij for The East, another intense piece that operates on a bigger scale. Hired by a private intelligence agency to infiltrate an eco-terrorist group called The East, Sarah (Marling) rolls into the unwashed ranks of these self-styled environmental avengers. They repay corporate atrocities by visiting similar outcomes on the offending CEOs and their families—an oil company exec might get toxic sludge dumped in his house, for instance. Sarah begins to see things from the other side, and it helps that the nouveau hippies in the crowd are charismatic (Alexander Skarsgård), devoted (Ellen Page), and attractive. Patricia Clarkson adds frost as Sarah’s boss, and her resemblance to Marling is a mirror for the younger woman’s choice: Develop a conscience or become me someday. (R) ROBERT HORTON Pacific Place, Sundance, others

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Frances Ha Co-written by and starring Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach’s latest is an unabashed tribute to the actress’ distinctive charms. The outline of a typical indie picture is in place, as we follow 27-year-old Frances and her New York apartment-hopping over the course of a few months. In the early reels, we mark Frances’ closeness to her BFF Sophie (Mickey Sumner), a bond that will fray as Sophie gravitates toward her boyfriend. The appeal of Frances Ha comes from Gerwig’s pluck and the film’s sprightly sense of play. Many scenes last only a few seconds, and consist of the kind of overheard conversational snippets that capture the found poetry of random eavesdropping. These bits provide a sense of Frances’ life, and perhaps hint at its disconnectedness. Shot in cheap-looking black-and-white, the film also conjures up Baumbach’s love of the French New Wave, and his soundtrack is peppered with vintage ’60s music by Georges Delerue. Frances Ha succeeds on its genuinely inventive rat-a-tat rhythm and Gerwig’s unpredictable delivery. (R) ROBERT HORTON Oak Tree, Meridian, Sundance, others

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The Kings of Summer This movie doesn’t exist in a real world, but in the enchanted realm of a teenage summer. Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts layers the film with dewy inserts that would not be out of place in a Terrence Malick picture. Three high-school lads build a ramshackle house of their own in a clearing in some woods outside their suburban Ohio hometown. Joe (Nick Robinson) has had it with his ill-equipped father (Nick Offerman); both are working through hostilities connected to the death of Joe’s mother. Joe’s friend Patrick is almost as disenchanted with his parents, so he joins his bud for the adventure. With its tale of breaking away, the movie supplies its own metaphor as a quiet respite in the hustle and bustle of a blockbuster summer at the movies. (R) Robert Horton Harvard Exit, Sundance