Send listings two weeks in advance to film@seattleweekly.com
All That Heaven Allows Douglas Sirk is an acquired taste. For some, his 1955 cross-class melodrama of forbidden love between widowed Jane Wyman and hunky landscaper Rock Hudson is a romantic delight. Others will resist the kitsch of Sirk's artificial world and palette, but that's nothing a few strong drinks won't fix. (NR) Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave., 206-686-6684. $5. 7 and 9:15 p.m. Wed. Feb. 15-Fri. Feb. 17.
Dr. Strangelove Our own Tim Appelo delivers an introduction to Stanley Kubrick's classic 1964 A-bomb farce. You know the plot: Sterling Hayden launches an attack wave of B-52s to wipe out Russia—which has a retaliatory doomsday machine. Intentions—for good or evil—have their opposite effect in Strangelove's satire. Our meek president (Peter Sellers) only hastens war with his pacifism. Wimpy Brit Lionel Mandrake (Sellers again) ends up feeding ammo to Hayden instead of stopping him. And in the sole remaining B-52, the resourceful bomber crew led by pilot Slim Pickens perseveres on its glorious flight—in a backhanded celebration of all the courage and determination that makes our country great. And we're rooting for them the entire way. (NR) Experience Music Project (JBL Theater), 325 Fifth Ave. N., 206-367-5483. $5-$6. 4 p.m. Sun. Feb. 19.
The Eyes of the Rainbow Black Panther figure Assata Shakur is profiled, including the period of her political exile in Cuba. (NR) Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave., 206-686-6684. $5. 7 and 9 p.m. Wed. Feb. 22.
Eyes on the Prize The award-winning 1987 civil-rights miniseries is screened two episodes per evening through February. Discussion follows. (NR) Bethany United Church of Christ, 6230 Beacon Ave. S., 206-324-1041. 7 p.m. Fri. Feb. 17-Sat. Feb. 18.
Far From Heaven Todd Haynes made this 2002 film in the übersaturated style of Douglas Sirk's great '50s melodramas. He sets his domestic tragedy in smug and insular 1957 Connecticut, where TV sales-exec Frank (Dennis Quaid) and Cathy (Julianne Moore) are dubbed "Mr. and Mrs. Magnatec" by admiring neighbors. Quaid is unexpectedly touching as the perfect gray-flannel-suited husband who's blindsided by his growing recognition of his homosexuality. As the housewife who falls for her black gardener (the quietly magnetic Dennis Haysbert), Moore is at some nearly magical pitch: controlled yet incendiary. (PG-13) SHEILA BENSON Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave., 206-686-6684. $5. 4:30, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Sat. Feb. 18-Sun. Feb. 19.
Film Lecture Everett Herald critic Robert Horton shows clips from Kubrick, Hitchcock, Polanski, and others to illustrate how directors use space on film, with reference to the Frye's current Candida Höfer show. Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave., 206-622-9250. 2 p.m. Sun. Feb. 19.
Garden State In his 2004 directing debut, TV's Zach Braff plays an actor returning to his New Jersey hometown after making it as a small Hollywood star. He hangs aimlessly with his drug-saturated former schoolmates (including Peter Sarsgaard, in the film's one great performance) until he meets Natalie Portman, who doesn't come off as an outrageous outsider, just an elfin actress doing her waifly duty. Still, her charisma and Braff's every-guy affability get them a fair distance into a hazily enchanted Jersey woods. I can't wait for Scrubs to get canceled so Braff can concentrate on making his film career snap into better focus. (R) TIM APPELO Egyptian, 801 E. Pine St., 206-781-5755. $6-$9. Midnight. Fri. Feb. 17-Sat. Feb. 18.
The Greater Circulation Drama school students may be the best audience for this quietly arty feature by Bay Area avant-gardist Antero Alli. Three actresses and a male director—who had an affair with one of them previously—are rehearsing an adaptation of Rilke's Requiem for a Friend. Oh, but it's not a conventional stage performance; it's a "ritual," per the recently widowed director. Meanwhile, some nebbishy alt-weekly reviewer is spying on their workshop; in black-and-white flashbacks, the same actor plays Rilke, who originally wrote Requiem to eulogize an artist who died in childbirth. Themes of creation and mortality are solemnly addressed, while some guy called "the Embryo" rolls around on the floor among the three muses. ("I don't understand what's happening!" one exclaims.) Did Rilke's friend die for the wrong form of creation? Can women be both artists and mothers? Has anything changed in the last 100 years? Well, you can ask the filmmaker himself, as Alli will attend the screening. (NR) Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., 206-267-5380. $8. 8 p.m. Wed. Feb. 22.
I Just Keep Quiet The Refugee Women's Alliance presents a 20-minute short on human trafficking, preceded by a reception and followed by remarks by Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske. (NR) Harvard Exit, 807 E. Roy St., 425-707-2720. $10. 6:30 p.m. Thurs. Feb. 16.
Indian Film Lecture and Screening Currently teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, film scholar Gayatri Chatterjee delivers a talk on "the desirable and the good," followed by a subtitled screening of Jogan (1950), a tragedy set in the 16th century. (NR) UW Thomson Hall, Rooms 317 and 211. 1:30 (lecture) and 3:30 p.m. Fri. Feb. 17.
Infra-Man The Shaw brothers try their hand at the superhero game in this 1975 chopsocky spectacular, to hilarious cult-movie effect. If you like bad dialogue, non-stop wire work, bizarre costumes, and kick-ass kung fu, this movie's for you. And Roger Ebert loves it. (NR) Grand Illusion, 1403 N.E. 50th St., 206-523-3935. $5-$7.50. 11 p.m. Fri. Feb. 17-Sat. Feb. 18.
