Here we are — the final leg of the year with summer vacation
only inches from reach. Spring Quarter may bring more pleasant skies and an
easier climate, but, like any long haul, you still have to trudge your way
through the dreck — in our case, those last labs on cardiac output and
12-pagers on feminism in Maoist China — before basking in the sun. That’s where
La Jolla Village Cinemas come in, offering their late-night celluloid escapism
“Midnight Madness” this quarter with a mix of sci-fi insanity and cool-as-ice
cult films. Check out your favorite movies on the big screen with Friday and
Saturday showings, featuring live music, trivia contests (with prizes) and
plenty of excuses to leave that course reader on your desk.

“TRON”

4/11,12

Despite everyone’s denial of ever seeing this film (save for
Chief Wiggum), the 1982 virtual reality adventure remains, yes, ridiculously
cheesy in today’s age of image manipulation, but also strangely exhilarating in
its somewhat archaic representation of a pre-Al Gore cyberspace. Jeff Bridges
stars as ace hacker Flynn, forced to digitally combat the sinister Master
Control in a computer mainframe that looks like someplace between what’s inside
Bill Gates’ mind and that “Simpsons” episode where Homer falls into the third
dimension. So what if it was produced by Disney? Visually, “Tron” was the
“Matrix” of its time, enthralling crowds while you were still learning how to
spell c-a-t on Reader Rabbit.

“BRAZIL”

4/18,19

Catch a glimpse of the animated sequences of any Monty
Python episode or film and you’ll know that the cartoonist, Terry Gilliam, is
one trippy fuck. You’d figure his expedition into live action film would force
him to tone down his wildly absurd ideas, but alas, “Brazil,”
a modern adaptation of George Orwell’s seminal “1984,” is as psychotic and
weird as his work with a pencil. Ensconced in a labyrinthine bureaucracy,
government stooge Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) embarks on a fantastical romance
with subversive Jill (Kim Greist) with the help of flying plumber Robert De
Niro, all the while avoiding his devil-in-disguise boss played by Python alum
Michael Palin.

“FEAR & LOATHING in LAS VEGAS”

4/24,25

Hunter S. Thompson’s literary masterpiece is a legendary
descent into the neon-lit American dream of the early 1970s, not the gritty
drug-infested world touted by dorm room posters. It’s a flowing narrative
assault of words and a sea of fine-tuned observations on society gone berserk.
The always inventive Terry Gilliam gripped onto the material and let it spin
him down Highway 15 toward Sin City, alongside Johnny Depp (with the spot-on
monotone voice of Thompsonas disguised as journalist Raoul Duke) and a slovenly
Benicio Del Toro as attorney-at-law Dr. Gonzo. Between the endlessly engaging
musings of Depp-as-Duke-as-Thompson (“I knew it was a crime; I did it anyway”)
and the visual intoxication (Circus Circus ether binge), Gilliam’s adaptation
translates Thompson’s words with surreal precision, making for a raucous and
revealing ride.

“A CLOCKWORK ORANGE”

5/3,4

While our current senses have been numbed to the culture’s
violent tapestry, there’s still something shocking that lurks in the depths of
Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film, “A Clockwork Orange,” an oddball coming-of-age
tale chastising and lauding every element of society. Demonic in conception and
relentless in execution, Kubrick weaves a brutal portrait of Alex (Malcolm
McDowell), a near-anarchist youth who relishes in all forms of ultra-violence
and rape before being “reformed” by the government. The film contains some of
the most exquisitely excruciating scenes ever shot, including a wickedly ironic
bit which will forever make you quiver whenever you hear the tune “Singin’ in
the Rain.”

“THE BIG LEBOWSKI”

5/9,10

Can there be a more appropriate sage for the everyday
20-something than Jeffery Lebowski, aka the Dude? Has no job, bowls to relax,
uses illicit substances while driving to Creedence tapes, fights fascism —
these are the true hallmarks of a modern-day messiah. The Coen Brothers, recent
Oscar recipients, offer an offbeat take on noir novels with the post-“Tron”
Jeff Bridges caught in a tangled web of lies, money, nihilists and rugs, along
with Vietnam
vet pal Walter (John Goodman) and sad-sack bowler Donny (Steve Buscemi).
There’s no rhyme or reason to the quest that takes the Dude across Los
Angeles, but half the fun is letting him steer you
from behind the wheel.

“PULP FICTION”

5/16,17

Quentin Tarantino’s existential and postmodern approach to
dime store novels hasn’t changed much since it took the Cannes Film Festival by
storm nearly 15 years ago. Audiences in 1994 were taken aback by the film’s
near-cartoon pace and the splashy, comical approach to violence, and while
today’s theater-goers still relish Samuel L. Jackson’s opening retort and Uma
Thurman’s femme fatale, it’s now put in the perspective of Tarantino’s full
career, with the stylized “Kill Bill” films and the grossly undervalued “Jackie
Brown.” Love or hate him, the man knows his way around retro cool and drags you
along by the collar the whole way. The Jack Rabbit Slim dance, the Royale with
cheese, Bruce Willis putting a katana to Zed’s backdoor cruelty — all are
chiseled into cinematic history, and seeing it on the big screen reveals just
how immortalized this classic stands todayw layer…