With all of the buzz surrounding a velociraptor training Chris Pratt, a microscopic Paul Rudd, and the Rock fighting rocks, it’s easy to get caught up in the summer blockbuster jamboree. Still, sometimes there’s a need to discover films boasting slightly-less dinosaurs. Fortunately, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art has you covered with these August screenings.
The Stanford Prison Experiment
Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez
5:30 & 8 p.m. August 1st, 2 & 5:30 p.m. August 2nd
Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s The Stanford Prison Experiment both launches us into the peak of summer and plunges us into the dark depths of human psychology. Inspired by one of the most infamous research experiments of all time, The Stanford Prison Experiment takes a look at how quickly unassuming groups can fall into utter sadism. Snagging a best screenplay honor at Sundance, the film illustrates this awry scenario in a way no other narrative has, and rivals Craig Zobel’s Compliance. A cast featuring Billy Crudup and a slew of newcomers provide the fuel to this depraved engine.
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Fabergé: A Life of its Own
Director: Patrick Mark
5:30 & 8 p.m. August 6th, 2 p.m. August 9th
Over the duration of this season, OKCMOA has been home to the masterful jewelry of Fabergé. Bringing the exhibition full circle, Fabergé: A Life of its Own details conversations with the Fabergé family, several experts on the artist, and the exhibition’s curator Dr. Géza von Habsburg. Any attendee of the display will unearth waves of context for the historic craftsmen. If you have yet to catch the exhibition, make haste, and rest your eyes on this doc while doing so.
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The Wolfpack
Director: Crystal Moselle
5:30 p.m. August 7th, 5:30 p.m. August 8th, 5:30 p.m. August 9th
If you failed to catch the screenings of Crystal Moselle’s The Wolfpack a few weeks back, fear not; the Angulo siblings have returned for an encore. Stuck in an impoverished household at the will of their alcoholic father, seven children spend most of their time memorizing and reenacting the films of their parent’s titanic DVD library. If our review didn’t quite get the point across, The Wolfpack observes life’s peculiarities in a way few previous works have managed.
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Tangerine
Director: Sean Baker
8 p.m. August 7th, 8 p.m. August 8th
Lauded as both a monument in technical filmmaking and LGBT cinema, Sean Baker’s Tangerine strikes an epitomizing chord of this decade. The film follows Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) and Alexandra (Mya Taylor), two transgender sex workers, as they make their way through the L.A. underground in search of Sin-Dee’s adulterous boyfriend. Filmed with modified iPhones in true guerilla fashion, Tangerine takes a darkly comedic look at the lives of prostitutes. Often hurling the actresses into situations unbeknownst to the surrounding public, Baker’s method would make Lars Von Trier proud.
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The Look of Silence
Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
5:30 & 8 p.m. August 14th, 8 p.m. August 15th, 5:30 p.m. August 16th, 5:30 p.m. August 20th
In 2012, Joshua Oppenheimer shook audiences with perhaps one of the most important (and troubling) documentaries of all time, The Act of Killing. The documentarian concludes his intimate look at the Indonesian genocide in The Look of Silence, a film that follows the victims of the lethal cataclysm. Adi, an optometrist living on the brink of poverty, seeks to confront one of the killers presented in Oppenheimer’s previous film, yielding an encounter as powerful as it is disconcerting. Very few films are realistically considered necessary, and The Look of Silence may be among the few.
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Court
Director: Chaitanya Tamhane
5:30 p.m. August 15th, 2 p.m. August 16th
From the mind of one the youngest directors, Chaitanya Tamhane, Court observes Vira Sathidar, a folk singer and activist looking to rectify India’s shattered legal system. The film dissects the lopsided caste system that has plagued the nation with inequality and discrimination. Echoing shades of Ronit Elkabetz’s Gett, Court seeks reform through the vehicle of drama. Making noticeable waves in foreign film festivals, Court could mark the freshmen effort of an inevitable auteur.
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Horse Money
Director: Pedro Costa
8 p.m. August 20th
Examining the history and present of Portugal through the life of a man named Ventura, Pedro Costa’s Horse Money is illustration incarnate. Ventura, suffering from a severe disorder spurred by anxiety, pieces together the fractured reality of his motherland. With only a single screening, Horse Money’s presence at OKCMOA is as momentary as life itself.
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Best of Enemies
Director: Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville
5:30 & 8 p.m. August 21st, 5:30 & 8 p.m. August 22nd, 2 & 5:30 p.m. August 23rd
Oklahoma’s heat seems lukewarm in comparison to the fire ignited between William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal in 1968. Assembled by Robert Gordon and 20 Feet from Stardom’s Morgan Neville, Best of Enemies follows the series of intense debates between the two aforementioned intellectuals, programming that would mold the landscape of television irrevocably. Regardless of which camp you ultimately fall within, Best of Enemies is difficult to deny.
