Idiotka screens March 13 as part of the Dairy Arts Center's Friday Night Weird film series. Courtesy: Virgo Films
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug. Just ask Shay Wescott, the Dairy Arts Center’s resident “Queen of the Weird,” who has a bevvy of backward-glancing films lined up for the nonprofit arts center’s weekly underground cinema showcase at the Boedecker Theatre.
“This month, we have three films looking back through a present lens,” Wescott tells Caribou Current during our regular rundown of what’s in store for the multidisciplinary arts center’s upcoming screenings. “They are love letters to lo-fi technology, silent film and even reality TV, but in Friday Night Weird fashion, not all are what they appear to be.”
The year is 1987, and it’s a lonely one for Conor (Albert Birney) and his dog Sandy. Lost in the glow of early Macs and late-night horror movie marathons, the lines of reality start to blur with the arrival of a mysterious new computer game called OBEX.
Shot in striking black and white, the surreal new offering from writer-director Birney explores our digital past to comment on the crushing isolation of our hyper-online present. But don’t expect a sociology lecture from this audacious and uncanny sci-fi meditation that has already proven a hit with Friday Night Weird audiences.
“We rarely show a film more than once; the ‘one night only’ format demands you make the time for it,” Wescott says. “But Albert Birney’s 2021 film, Strawberry Mansion, was the first Friday Night Weird sellout post-pandemic, so we have a bit of a soft spot for him.”
“OBEX also hits a lot of marks for Millennial and Gen X audiences coming to this program; the filmmaking and world of the film itself are gloriously lo-fi (and super satisfying to fans of a particular kind of ASMR), with a Jane Schoenbrun-esque approach to reminiscence — balancing both the seductive and sinister qualities of our nostalgia.”
Slay, Serve, Survive. It’s more than the title of a fictional reality show at the heart of Idiotka, the new dark comedy from filmmaker Nastasya Popov. It’s an edict Margarita (Anna Baryshnikov) will need to follow if the disgraced fashion designer is going to save her babushka’s West Hollywood apartment.
“For those who can’t get enough of the America’s Next Top Model documentary, or have had it unwillingly thrust into their psyche, Idiotka comes just in time,” Wescott says. “The reality show within the film is more Project Runway than ANTM, but it has all the familiar beats we can’t get enough of: the manipulation, manufactured drama, and a level of vapidness that is its own artform.”
“But what makes Idiotka charming, and a more worthwhile use of those 90-ish minutes you can’t get back, is its cast of characters,” she continues. “Camila Mendes makes for a pitch perfect villain; a judges panel of players from the ‘Charli xcx cinematic universe’ are delightedly self aware; and Anna Baryshnikov (yes, the daughter of Mikhail Baryshnikov) is magnetic in her first leading role.”
The guttural growl of ’90s grunge icon Eddie Vedder may not be the first thing that pops into your mind when considering the world of silent cinema, but unexpected pairings are the name of the game at Silents Synced. Launched by Josh Frank, operator of the Blue Starlite Mini-Urban Drive-In Movie Theatre — a former staple of Minturn, Colorado, with a location still operating in Austin, Texas — the film series is an unlikely marriage of past and present.
The latest program features A Woman of the World, following the midwestern uproar caused by a liberal European countess (Pola Negri), soundtracked by the seminal Pearl Jam albums Vs. and Vitalogy. Proceeds support the band’s nonprofit foundation, which is donating earnings to Austin Women’s Health, a local provider supporting reproductive care in Frank’s hometown.
“This is the arthouse version of The Dark Side of the Rainbow; the pairings are truly curated and synced with intentionality and the images on screen are just as compelling,” Wescott says. “While the themes of A Woman of the World will feel dated, this Silents Synced gives us the privilege of seeing one of cinema’s original Vamps, Pola Negri, on the big screen — which is cause for celebration, particularly during Women’s History Month.”
SCREEN TIME: Friday Night Weird screenings take place each week at the Boedecker Theatre inside the Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. $7-$14
Other Highlights
Science on Screen: Twisters (6 p.m. Tuesday, March 24) + Arrival (6 p.m. Monday, March 30)
Youth Advisory Board: Lady Bird (8:30 p.m. Friday, March 27)
Sirat (Various times, Tues.-Sun., March 25-29)
