- Time Bandits
For the rest of the month, the Logan Theatre hosts a retrospective of films by Terry Gilliam, the favorite director of college freshmen everywhere. All kidding aside, I have a begrudging fondness for the expatriated director, whose films are famous for their elaborate concepts, sociopolitical satire, and highly detailed production design. Admittedly, most of my gripes have nothing to do with the director himself—I hate that La Jetée is regarded by some as little more than a prequel to 12 Monkeys, and the cult surrounding the philosophically juvenile Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is completely insufferable—but I nevertheless admire his work.
- Jabberwocky (1977) Maybe the director’s weirdest movie, quite a feat considering his filmography as a whole. The film is willfully untethered, a chaotic mishmash of black humor, children’s fantasy, medieval folklore, absurdist theater, and Grand Guignol. The film sometimes feels like a Python riff—structurally, it’s similar to The Holy Grail and Life of Brian, an episodic collection of set pieces whose effectiveness as narrative depends entirely on how much the viewer is willing to forgive—but Gilliam takes a sure step toward cementing his own unique style.
