Making plans for the summer

Over at the always-hoppin’ Wexner Center for the Arts, everyone is gearing up for the upcoming summer season. Generally, during the summer the Wex runs a relatively light schedule, highlighted by a handful of recent releases and an always fun themed series of classic movies. Some series that they’ve run in recent years have been a tribute to “Cool Guys” ranging from Lee Marvin to Zbigniew Cybulski, a “Summer Abroad” featuring classic films from around the world, and last summer’s tribute to Stanley Kubrick, featuring every single one of his features (yes, including Fear and Desire, which was kind of disappointing in my opinion). Last week, Film/Video gurus Dave Filipi and Chris Stults announced this summer’s series, entitled Soundtrack Available: Music in American Film. Here’s the complete schedule:

Thu, July 2
7 PM 2nd Film 9 PM
Mean Streets
(Martin Scorsese, 1973)
Saturday Night Fever
(John Badham, 1977)

Thu, July 9
7 PM 2nd Film 9 PM
Purple Rain
(Albert Magnoli, 1984)
Beat Street
(Stan Lathan, 1984)

Thu, July 16
7 PM 2nd Film 9:10 PM
Velvet Goldmine
(Todd Haynes, 1998)
The Virgin Suicides
(Sofia Coppola, 1999)

Thu, July 23 7 PM
Dazed and Confused
(Richard Linklater, 1993)

Thu, July 23 Dusk
Free
Wex Drive-In
American Graffiti
(George Lucas, 1973)
Outdoors on the Wexner Center Plaza

Thu, July 30
7 PM 2nd Film 8:40 PM
Rushmore
(Wes Anderson, 1998)
Manhattan
(Woody Allen, 1979)

Thu, Aug 6
7 PM 2nd Film 9:25 PM
Urban Cowboy
(James Bridges, 1980)
The Graduate
(Mike Nichols, 1967)

Thu, Aug 13
7 PM 2nd Film 9:40 PM
Jackie Brown
(Quentin Tarantino, 1997)
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
(Amy Heckerling, 1982)

Thu, Aug 20 7 PM
New 40th Anniversary Print
Easy Rider
(Dennis Hopper, 1969)

Thu, Aug 20 Dusk
Free
Wex Drive-In
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
(Joel Coen, 2000)
Outdoors on the Wexner Center Plaza

Thu, Aug 27 7 PM
Magnolia
(Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)

A pretty cool list overall, says I. Naturally, there are a few movies I would could’ve made the cut- Ghost Dog and Buffalo ‘66 would’ve fit perfectly here, to cite two examples that spring immediately to mind. But honestly, it’s hard to argue with anything they’ve chosen, even the ones I don’t particularly like. I really didn’t care much for Purple Rain when I last saw it in college, but that’s not the music’s fault. And while I’ve never been a fan of Fast Times, there’s no denying that the collective music-selecting acumen of Cameron Crowe and Amy Heckerling made for some of the movie’s best moments. O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a particularly inspired selection, considering that the Coens somehow turned an album full of old-timey country standards into one of the best-selling albums of 2001. I’m guessing I’ll be there pretty much every week, but the one I’m most pumped for is Manhattan, since I’m a complete pushover for black-and-white ‘Scope and I’ve never seen it on the big screen. And the restored print of Easy Rider promises to be gorgeous- the movie’s pretty flawed, but seeing it projected will allow me to bask in those beautiful Laszlo Kovacs lens flares.

More information on the series can be found here.