by Adam Riske and Patrick Bromley
Double Feature 1:
Adam: #1: Wildcats (1986)
Patrick: #2: White Men Can’t Jump (1992)
Patrick: Trailers/Shorts: Play It to the Bone, Major League, Champions
Patrick: Theme: Woody & Wesley Play Sports
Patrick: The only things I know about Wildcats is that Goldie Hawn coaches a football team (Can you BELIEVE IT? A WOMAN.) and that it features early performances from both Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson as players. Since they’ve both made a number of sports movies, I thought it might be fun to pair it with your favorite comedy even though we played it at the Cinemarink pretty recently. I love their chemistry together and I think I even like their separate sports movies. It will be…a planet…of athletes.
Adam: I don’t know much about Wildcats either. I own it on a 4-film favorites DVD (Football Collection with Any Given Sunday, We Are Marshall and The Replacements) and have always known of it because of it being the first Snipes-Harrelson team-up. I’m eager to give it a watch. Pairing it with my favorite comedy of all-time (White Men Can’t Jump) is chef’s kiss. You know what movie is underrated? Champions. I feel like that would have been a cable staple 30 years ago. P.S. Your Harrelson Apes bit is somehow even funnier in writing. How did you do that?
Double Feature 2:
Patrick: #1: Sea of Love (1989)
Adam: #2: Mad Dog and Glory (1993)
Adam: Trailers/Shorts: The Color of Money, Clockers, Kiss of Death
Adam: Theme: Screenplay by Richard Price
Adam: I was going in a few different directions for this double (Comeback Al Pacino, Late '80s John Goodman, 1989 Universal) but I found myself curious about the other writing credits for whomever wrote the awesome Sea of Love (there’s nothing better than a frantic-in-love Pacino) and once I saw Richard Price’s resume it seemed like a no brainer to dedicate the night to his work. I think Sea of Love would pair well with Mad Dog and Glory because they involve both crime and romance, albeit one is a thriller, and the other is more of a comedy. Sea of Love isn’t super heavy though so the pivot shouldn’t be too jarring. P.S. The Color of Money is maybe the only Scorsese movie I don’t care for. I should probably rewatch it, right?
Patrick: I really like The Color of Money, but I can’t promise that a rewatch would fix any issues you have with it. I really like this double a lot and not just because we get to see the softer sides of Neil McCauley and Vincent Hanna. I like everything Richard Price has written, apparently, though I will admit that most of my affection for Kiss of Death is baked into the roided up Nic Cage performance. We could call this one Two Prices for the Price of One Price. It rolls off the tongue.
Double Feature 3:
Patrick: #2: Your Friends & Neighbors (1998)
Patrick: Trailers/Shorts: Closer, Marriage Story, Gone Girl
Patrick: Theme: Love is the Worst
Patrick: I recently rewatched Carnal Knowledge, one of my favorite Mike Nichols movies (Erika gifted me the 4K for Christmas), and realized that Neil Labute owes his entire career to that movie. It’s all about how cruel people can be to each other in relationships. Nichols remade it years later to lesser effect as Closer, though I know you like that movie more than me. We should maybe wait until February and program this for Valentine’s Day just to see how many couples we can get to break up during this double.
Adam: I have both you and Erika to thank for my DVD of Carnal Knowledge which you so generously gave me. I haven’t seen it and now I have to decide if I’ll watch the disc or wait for…this night…at…our imaginary…rep…theater. Haha. I’ve never seen Your Friends & Neighbors either so I’m looking forward to this pairing. I’m a fan of several Nichols and Labute movies so there’s a good chance I’ll like these too. I’ll come dressed to impress because there will be an unexpected (except by you) influx of singles at the end of this double feature.
Double Feature 4:
Patrick: #1: The Notorious Bettie Page (2005)
Adam: #2: Rounders (1998)
Adam: Trailers/Shorts: The Thirteenth Floor, The Shape of Things, Millers in Marriage
Adam: Theme: Mol of Fame
Adam: I wasn’t sold on “It Girl” Gretchen Mol in the late ‘90s but every once in a while, I’m reminded by how great she can be. The Notorious Bettie Page is a prime example and so is Millers in Marriage. I love Rounders so I’ll make any excuse to program that in a double feature. This would be a fun night with two really solid movies. Hopefully we can get Mol to show up for a Q&A. Do I need to see The Thirteenth Floor?
Patrick: No, The Thirteenth Floor isn’t very good and doesn’t give her enough to do. It’s too bad she was typecast as “WASP girlfriend” in the late ‘90s and early 2000s because she’s capable of so much more. You know I love Mol Movies. Could we pass out Oreos at the screening so everyone could twist them open during Rounders?
Double Feature 5:
Patrick: #2: Nixon (1995)
Patrick: Trailers/Shorts: Boogie Nights, Dick, Wonderland
Patrick: Theme: Big Dick Night
Patrick: I love Showdown in Little Tokyo for a lot of reasons: the action is over the top and amazing, Brandon Lee pops as a movie star, and the chemistry between Lee and Dolph Lundgren is so much fun. One of the things that really sticks in my memory is the insane dialogue, like the running bit about how Dolph Lundgren has the biggest dick anyone has ever seen. I thought we should build a double feature around that exchange. What better and more obvious pick to pair it with than Oliver Stone’s Nixon? I like that movie. Oliver Stone really had a run, didn’t he? The length of Nixon won’t even matter because Showdown is so short. I thought this through.
Adam: I programmed Showdown in Little Tokyo to give a tribute to the late Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, who was an awesome character actor and often a big dick in the movies he appeared in, so this is fantastic. I love Showdown too, and it’s a movie I haven’t seen enough times to know the beats so I can’t wait to see it again on the big screen. I like the theatrical cut of Nixon. The director’s cut is too much Tricky Dick. This double feature is so funny.
Double Feature 6:
Patrick: #1: Casino (1995)
Adam: #2: Jane Austin's Mafia! (1998)
Adam: Trailers/Shorts: Goodfellas, A Bronx Tale, Analyze This, Mickey Blue Eyes
Adam: Theme: '90s Mob Movies
Adam: It’s hard to chase Casino with anything so I went with a light, fluffy, ephemeral mob parody as the second feature. Mafia has the benefit of containing an extended Casino bit and being so inconsequential that I wouldn’t feel bad if people left halfway through the movie because after Casino you’re completely satisfied.
Patrick: Great call. I’m due for a rewatch of Mafia. Is it funny? I like the idea of chasing Casino with nonsense. Do you think Jay can come to the screening to share Mohr stories live?
Adam: My memory is that Mafia has its moments but doesn’t work as a whole, but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen it. I’m already trying to get Jay Mohr on the phone.
Double Feature 7:
Patrick: #2: Dracula 2000 (2000)
Patrick: Trailers/Shorts: Fantasia 2000, Kiss “2000 Man” Video, Test Tube Teens in the Year 2000
Patrick: Theme: In the Year 2000
Patrick: Putting “2000” after something to signify it came out in 2000 is kind of stupid, right? I say this having not seen Fantasia 2000. Is it good? Godzilla 2000 and Dracula 2000 aren’t, but they’ll play well together as nu metal spins on classic monsters. We could have Spider host the screening!
Adam: Fantasia 2000 is a comfort movie and has some high highs, but it also has these interludes where famous composers and celebrities are like “Isn’t this stupid? which is weird. I really want to see Godzilla 2000 now that I’m a much bigger Godzilla guy than I was in 2000. Did you know I saw Dracula 2000 with my Mom? She was great. If none of my friends would go with me, she always would. I should’ve been friends with Spider. He would’ve seen Dracula 2000 cause everything you say to him makes him one step closer to the edge and he’s about to break.
Double Feature 8:
Patrick: #1: The Butcher’s Wife (1991)
Adam: #2: Simply Irresistible (1999)
Adam: Trailers/Shorts: Mystic Pizza, Eat Drink Man Woman, Little Italy
Adam: Theme: Love is on the Menu
Adam: This might be one of my favorite subgenres: love in eateries. I’ve never seen The Butcher’s Wife, but I’ve always wanted to because of the poster and it being Demi Moore’s movie shortly after Ghost. Simply Irresistible is, quite frankly, exactly that. I love that movie. It’s the best thing Sarah Michelle Gellar has ever done. Both movies also have a sort of magical realism, so I think they’ll play well together. And Simply Irresistible has a magic crab. We should sell plush versions of it in the lobby because everyone will want one at the end of the night. It’s like giving your significant other a rose.
Patrick: I’ve seen The Butcher’s Wife and it’s not great but it’s super charming in a VHS programmer kind of way. I miss when stars made these kinds of miscalculations. Now their bad choices are so safe. I haven’t seen Simply Irresistible, though, so I like that each movie on the bill is new for one of us. This is the movie where Buffy and Powder float because of food and love, right? I remember when it was in theaters and Doug accidentally walked into a showing and watch a couple minutes because he couldn’t remember we were supposed to be seeing Playing By Heart.
Double Feature 9:
Patrick: #2: North (1994)
Patrick: Trailers/Shorts: The Princess Bride, The Wolf of Wall Street “Equalizer” scene, The Sure Thing, All in the Family episode
Patrick: Theme: Rob Reiner Tribute
Patrick: I mean, we have to. The American President is Top 5 Reiner for me and I want to pair it with North because I only saw it once in the ‘90s and didn’t think it was that bad. I want to reclaim it because it’s the only bump in his perfect run through 1995. I don’t think I’ve been able to process how sad I am about what happened to him and his wife because 50 bad things have happened since then. Maybe a night of his movies will help.
Adam: I’m so sad about Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner. It’s awful. Doing a tribute night to Mr. Reiner’s work had to be done. I rewatched The Sure Thing over break and it made me feel some comfort and I’m about to rewatch Stand By Me this weekend, which I’m picturing might be the toughest of his filmography to get through now. I’ve been on a The West Wing kick, so having a Reiner-Aaron Sorkin collaboration as a headliner seems like a good way to spend an evening and I look forward to myself (and the audience) watching North with kinder eyes. I love Roger Ebert, but c’mon, even if he thought North was that bad, he was being a little bit performative with his reaction.
Double Feature 10:
Patrick: #1: The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996)
Adam: #2: Straight Talk (1992)
Adam: Trailers/Shorts: Pump Up the Volume, The Fisher King, Private Parts
Adam: Theme: Radio Show Hosts
Adam: The thing I love about radio show hosts is they always have something to say. That’s not true, but they’re fun on screen at least. I saw The Truth About Cats & Dogs once and didn’t love it but it’s the type of mid-'90s programmer I find comforting and could watch anytime. I’ve been eyeballing a DVD of Straight Talk at a used record store for about a year but haven’t bought it because it’s $8. I should just get it over with and buy it because it’s an unseen Michael Madsen and early '90s Chicago movie. This would be a fun night!
Patrick: Yeah, I weirdly love this double. I saw The Truth About Cats & Dogs many times in theaters because it was the height of my Janeane Garofalo obsession and going there was like getting to go spend time with my girlfriend. I was (am) unwell. Straight Talk gets by on Dolly Parton’s considerable charm. It’s a shame she didn’t make more movies because she’s such a natural. Let’s broadcast live from this double. We can totally Talk Hard!
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