{"id":307349,"date":"2026-05-09T07:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T07:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/307349\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T07:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T07:00:17","slug":"the-weird-allure-of-altmans-popeye-plus-the-best-films-in-l-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/307349\/","title":{"rendered":"The weird allure of Altman’s ‘Popeye,’ plus the best films in L.A."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hello! I\u2019m Mark Olsen<\/a>. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.<\/p>\n

This newsletter is about going to the movies, of course, but it\u2019s about writing and reading about movies, too. And so it was exciting news this week that Film Comment<\/a>, the venerable but shuttered publication that helped foster cinephilia in America, would return as a quarterly online publication.<\/p>\n

A complete archive<\/a> is now available online, going all the way back to the earliest issues in 1962. Looking for landmark writings by Manny Farber, Paul Schrader, Richard Corliss, Amy Taubin, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Kent Jones or countless others? It\u2019s all there and well worth digging into. I began my career as an intern at Film Comment, publishing some of my own earliest pieces, and still consider it a North Star for writing about movies. Its return is most welcome.<\/p>\n

Agn\u00e8s Varda\u2019s bruising brilliance \"A <\/p>\n

Sandrine Bonnaire in the 1985 movie \u201cVagabond.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Criterion Collection)<\/p>\n

Though she became better known for her free-spirited, pixie-ish persona later in life, French filmmaker Agn\u00e8s Varda was also capable of the bruising emotions of 1985\u2019s \u201cVagabond,\u201d arguably her greatest fiction feature and winner of the Golden Lion at Venice and the C\u00e9sar for best actress for star Sandrine Bonnaire. Opening with the lead character found dead in a ditch, the film flashes backward to piece together her life from the memories of others, creating a fragmented portrait of an enigmatic young woman\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Mezzanine<\/a> will screen the film on Saturday at 2220 Arts + Archives, followed by a conversation between art critic Megan O\u2019Grady and former Times staffer Carolina Miranda. Writing about the film in 1986, Sheila Benson said<\/a>, \u201cJust how Agnes Varda has kept \u2018Vagabond\u2019 from being a monumental downer is interesting, but she has. It is haunting. It is melancholy \u2026 but ultimately, beyond its central tragedy, it is an exhilarating film, the sort you leave burning to talk about with friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

A cartoon comes to life \"A <\/p>\n

Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall in the 1980 movie \u201cPopeye.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Paramount Pictures \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

It is one of the most deranged credit blocks imaginable: an adaptation of \u201cPopeye\u201d directed by Robert Altman, produced by Robert Evans, with a screenplay by Jules Feiffer, music by Harry Nilsson and starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall. When it was first released in December 1980, it was seen as too weird for kids and too naive for adults, but it has since been reconsidered as a unique snapshot of intersecting talents \u2014 a strange, wonderful, one-of-a-kind movie.<\/p>\n

Vidiots<\/a> will screen the film on Saturday afternoon with actors Paul Dooley and Donovan Scott, who played J. Wellington Wimpy and Castor Oyl. In our original 1980 review that is more positive than one might expect, Charles Champlin wrote, \u201cIts difficulties arise not from a lack of ambition and innovation but from excesses of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neil Young + Devo = gloriously weird \"A <\/p>\n

Neil Young in the 1982 movie \u201cHuman Highway.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Shakey Pictures)<\/p>\n

Neil Young\u2019s place as a singer-songwriter and musician is unassailable \u2014 he\u2019s an irascible, restless troubadour. But his sidebar work as a filmmaker, typically under the name Bernard Shakey, has had more sporadic and unpredictable output.<\/p>\n

Young\u2019s 1982 film \u201cHuman Highway\u201d is probably the pinnacle of his work as a director, starring Young himself in an offbeat story of a small community in the shadow of a nuclear power plant. Dennis Hopper, Dean Stockwell, Devo<\/a> and even former Times music critic Robert Hilburn all appear. Now Instant Image Hall<\/a> will be screening the film on Saturday and Sunday along with a selection of Devo music videos in celebration of an exhibition at the MutMuz gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After Young premiered a new cut of \u201cHuman Highway\u201d a decade or so ago, I somehow found myself sitting across from him<\/a> at a diner on a rainy midnight in downtown Toronto. (This job does have its moments.)<\/p>\n

\u201cMy films are not super commercial, but they mean something to me,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n

An Oscar-winning debut \"Three <\/p>\n

Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger and Jack Nicholson in the 1983 movie \u201cTerms of Endearment.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Paramount Pictures)<\/p>\n

Part tearjerker, part family drama and part comedy, 1983\u2019s \u201cTerms of Endearment\u201d trademarks a certain bittersweet tone that is still just pure magic. The story of a mother (Shirley MacLaine) and daughter (Debra Winger) across many years of ups and downs in their relationship, the film was the feature debut for James L. Brooks<\/a> as writer-director and won five Oscars, including three for Brooks. The Academy Museum<\/a> will play the film in a new 35mm print on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

When the movie came out on 4K disc in 2023, I spoke to Brooks about it. He talked about<\/a> how even though it does have moments of great emotional weight, it was intended to play with a lighter tone overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole thing was to make it as a comedy,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cThe whole thing was to clock laughs. You had to, in order to do it right. And of course, once the audience leaves and it has its afterlife, it\u2019s a drama because people are watching it alone. But I swear to you, in the theaters it was a comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u201990s noir ripe for rediscovery \"Two <\/p>\n

Rachel Ward and Jason Patric in the 1990 movie \u201cAfter Dark, My Sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Kino Lorber)<\/p>\n

Set in the Coachella Valley with the woozy feel of a day drunk and a sense of uneasy menace, 1990\u2019s \u201cAfter Dark, My Sweet\u201d is an adaptation of the novel by pulp icon Jim Thompson, directed by James Foley.<\/p>\n

Jason Patric, then only 23, stars as Kevin Collins, known as Collie, a former boxer who escapes from a mental institution and is now just drifting. He falls in with Fay (Rachel Ward), an enigmatic, lonely alcoholic widow, who in turn introduces Collie to a shady man known as Uncle Bud (a delightfully sleazy Bruce Dern). Soon Collie is ensnared in a plot to kidnap a sickly rich boy that immediately goes off the rails.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday at Vidiots<\/a>, there will be a screening of Patric\u2019s personal 35mm print of the film \u2014 a gift he received some 20 years ago and has never watched before. (It is said to be in pristine shape.) Along with a video introduction from actor and filmmaker Alex Winter, there will be a Q&A afterward with Patric moderated by critic and scholar Travis Woods, who contributed a commentary track to a recent Australian Blu-ray release of the film.<\/p>\n

Patric organized the screening as a tribute to director Foley, who died in May 2025<\/a> at age 71. \u201cAfter Dark\u201d landed in between Foley making \u201cWho\u2019s That Girl\u201d with Madonna and the David Mamet adaptation \u201cGlengarry Glen Ross.\u201d Among his other credits are \u201cAt Close Range,\u201d \u201cFear\u201d and the last two \u201cFifty Shades\u201d movies.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a good friend of mine at the time,\u201d says Patric on a recent phone call from Santa Monica. \u201cI know this was his favorite movie and it was closest to him. It\u2019s the only movie that he had actually written that he directed. And I thought the best way to do that is just to show the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patric, who says Collie is his favorite character in a career that also includes \u201cThe Lost Boys,\u201d \u201cRush\u201d and \u201cYour Friends & Neighbors,\u201d was first given the script and in turn gave it to Foley; developed it further together, trying to retain the language of Thompson\u2019s novel. (The screenplay is credited to Foley and Robert Redlin.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really a subjective piece of filmmaking,\u201d says Patric. \u201cSo as Collie\u2019s figuring things out, the audience is figuring things out.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her original review of the film, Sheila Benson wrote<\/a> that \u201cCollie is one of those roles actors lust after, the damaged dreamer, maybe dumb, maybe dangerous, and Patric demolishes the conventions of the role with breathtaking skill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter Dark, My Sweet\u201d landed just ahead of the Tarantino-inspired crime movie boom of the mid-\u201990s, alongside such noir-influenced precursors as Dennis Hopper\u2019s \u201cThe Hot Spot,\u201d John Dahl\u2019s \u201cKill Me Again\u201d and Stephen Frears\u2019 Thompson adaptation \u201cThe Grifters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just such an exciting film to want to reintroduce to audiences,\u201d said Woods in a call. \u201cAnd to get the opportunity to see this film on the big screen, which most people haven\u2019t had that opportunity for 36 years, it\u2019s just one of those really cool, really only in Los Angeles cinematic moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

New this week \"A <\/p>\n

Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel, photographed at the Sunset Marquis in April.<\/p>\n

(Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

The unlikely duo of James Cameron and Billie Eilish co-directed a 3D concert film drawn from Eilish\u2019s 2025 tour, \u201cBillie Eilish \u2014 Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D).\u201d Film critic Amy Nicholson and pop music critic Mikael Wood traded their thoughts on the movie.<\/a> Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel is among the world\u2019s most accomplished filmmakers and the true crime tale \u201cOur Land (Nuestra Tierra)\u201d is her first documentary. Carlos Aguilar spoke to Martel <\/a>about it.\u201cMad Bills to Pay\u201d expands to multiple Laemmle venues after a weekend run in the Vidiots microcinema. Carlos Aguilar spoke to director Joel Alfonso Vargas<\/a> about portraying the Dominican American community in the Bronx. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hello! I\u2019m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[9628,9629,9631,2790,2242,9630,9632,5686,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,9626,4287,425,9627,1791,8074],"class_list":["post-307349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-angelina-jolie","tag-barry-jenkins","tag-david","tag-dead","tag-drama","tag-evil","tag-good-work","tag-killing","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-lovers","tag-movie","tag-series","tag-short-film","tag-times","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}