Celebrate Hard Times During the Holidays With Midnites For Maniacs At Castro and Roxie Theatres
Jesse Hawthorne Ficks (the Maniac) returns yet again to the Castro and Roxie Theatres Friday, December 20 with his final event of 2013. Appropriately enough, he’ll be screening Christmas films which, as per usual Maniac style, are underappreciated or underrated in some way. Ficks doesn’t set out to just screen films that are underseen, but regularly includes well known, even hugely popular films in his lineups. He’s quick to point out, however, that just because a film was a hit or has become infamous in some way doesn’t mean that it can’t be misunderstood. Sometimes a movie has been acknowledged for one reason when there are many more facets to its greatness.
And so this holiday season he’ll be bringing Home For the Holidays (1995) and Love Actually (2003) to San Francisco’s beloved Castro Theatre. The latter is exactly the type of film Ficks loves to screen and dissect at length before and after the viewing. Shown on it’s 10th anniversary, Love Actually is one of only three films directed by Richard Curtis — he’s much more prolific as a writer — and has since become a Christmas staple for cable channels everywhere. Not only will attendees get to see it in it’s 35mm original print, but they will also be subject to Ficks’ witty stage banter on how he sees the film fitting into the Christmas film canon.
Before that, however, Jodie Foster’s directorial effort Home for the Holidays kicks things off at 7:15pm. A perhaps lesser known holiday film, it chronicles a woman played by Holly Hunter spending Thanksgiving with her dysfunctional holiday. Thanksgiving may have passed but the time for spending time with crazy family members hasn’t.
Following both of these screenings, Ficks will lead the Maniacs crowd on a theater crawl over to the Mission’s Roxie Theater for the third and final film of the night, Harmony Korine’s Trash Humpers (2010), which begins promptly at midnight. As with all Midnites for Maniacs events, it’s not only a time to see films in 35mm as they were originally intended but to also be a part of an audience looking to become engaged with the films they are watching. Of course, the real draw is Ficks’ own opinions on why he chose the films he did, as well as the trailer reels he cuts before each film to get the full, classic film experience.
Head over to the Midnites for Maniacs website for more information.
