A Streetcar Named Desire parks in the City Market, Deadpool drops, Tale of Tales shocks, and more must-sees

May 4, 2016

Thursday 5.5
Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon get deposited in the black-and-white world of a 1950s sitcom in 1998’s Pleasantville, new on Netflix this month. As they bring modern attitudes about sex, race and personal freedom to this don’t-rock-the-boat environment, the characters who change their habits begin to appear in color. Citizens who embrace these new ideas are marked this way, too, and soon the town leaders turn against them. You can safely embrace nonconformity with the whole family by watching this underrated gem tonight.

Friday 5.6
File under Weirdly Inappropriate: Elia Kazan’s sexually charged 1951 Tennessee Williams adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire is showing tonight for free in the park just northwest of the City Market, as part of the city’s two-day celebration of downtown’s new streetcar. Which means you can sit on the lawn and watch nearby families watch Marlon Brando assault Vivien Leigh with pent-up masculine rage. The film’s claustrophobic New Orleans setting has nothing to do with KC’s two-mile downtown streetcar route, but the word “streetcar” is in the title, so there you go.

Saturday 5.7
Italian director Matteo Garrone is best known for his epic 2008 crime drama, Gomorrah, but his first English-language film, Tale of Tales, a decidedly R-rated adaptation of a 17th-century fairy tale collection with lots of practical effects and handsome cinematography, has vexed critics and audiences since its premiere at last year’s Cannes. It takes three stories of selfishness and lust and doesn’t shy away from the violence, nudity and consequences that come with them. It stars Salma Hayek, John C. Reilly and Vincent Cassel, and it opened at Screenland Crossroads last night.

Sunday 5.8
Until the last few episodes, the second season of The Last Man on Earth has all but ignored its post-apocalyptic mystery in favor of childish group-dynamic comedy. Since Will Forte’s brother (Jason Sudeikis) literally dropped to Earth from a space station and picked up a sibling rivalry right where it left off, the show bears no signs of slowing its constant re-invention. Stream back episodes on demand via Hulu, and DVR tonight’s episode on Fox. That will give you a week to catch up before next Sunday’s season finale.

Monday 5.9
A slow-burn character study disguised as a revenge movie and peppered with sudden violent outbursts, Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin is a true indie success story. Saulnier’s newest tension-filled flick, Green Room, is in theaters now and proves this master of tension is no flash in the pan, so it’s a good time to rent the film that put him on the map just two years ago. I’ll leave it at that and let the film’s surprises work their own magic. Blue Ruin is available on Amazon, iTunes, YouTube and Google Play.

Tuesday 5.10
No one expected Deadpool to be a $361 million-grossing smash hit. Today, as it is released on an extras-packed Blu-ray, let’s ponder the real lesson to be learned from the movie: Yes, it was an R-rated superhero movie, but that doesn’t mean Hollywood should beef up the violence and language for this genre going forward. What it means is that audiences are sick of the superhero formula and crave something new. If that’s an immature, foul-mouthed, meta superhero parody, so be it. More subversion, please.

Wednesday 5.11
The first time I noticed Scarlett Johansson in a movie was 2001’s superior teen-malaise flick Ghost World. She and Thora Birch play high school grads who lure sad-sack Steve Buscemi into what he thinks is a serious dating relationship after seeing his “singles wanted” ad. Having directed Crumb, director Terry Zwigoff knows his outsiders well, and Buscemi is as heartbreaking as usual in a role that should have received awards attention. It’s new this month, streaming on Amazon Prime.