What the hell does it mean? Whatever the hell you want it to mean. Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi classic became a baby boomer touchstone and paradigmatic trip movie for all kinds of reasons, both sound and unsound, stoned and not. For me, it’s all about the astonishing 70mm cinematography—Kubrick himself won an Oscar for the film’s visual effects, the only award bestowed—and spaceship ballets. The rap against the director is that he’s clinical and cold, so where better to stage an emotionally opaque drama than in space? 2001 is as much about planets as people. And HAL the computer is, after all, a major and fully developed character (and certainly more memorable than poor Keir Dullea). (G) BRIAN MILLER

Wed., Sept. 3, 7:30 p.m.; Thu., Sept. 4, 7:30 p.m., 2008