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February at the Drafthouse: Celebrate Valentine’s Day with a storybook love
The season of love is upon us now, which can be a bit of a double-edged sword depending on your relationship status. Valentine’s Day can either be a good excuse to celebrate the love that you share with your partner, or a day to shut yourself inside in order to avoid an overly saccharine, Hallmark holiday.
Luckily for Austin film lovers, the Alamo Drafthouse gives plenty of options to choose from this month. Whether you want to compare your love with that of Westley and Princess Buttercup, or you just want to watch a stream of kickass, Hong Kong action films, in the end you’ll realize that the Drafthouse has always be the one who loves you the most.
Studio Ghibli Retrospective
Director Hayao Miyazaki has blessed film-lovers with perhaps the most astounding oeuvre of beautiful and heartfelt films to ever come out of the Land of the Rising Sun. This month, the Drafthouse will begin a special retrospective series of the films of Studio Ghibli, the animation and film studio built upon the foundation laid by Miyazaki.
The series will kick off on Feb. 10 with the most well known Miyazaki film in the West, the Oscar-winning Spirited Away, and will continue with Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro and Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind, all in 35mm subtitled prints. Since we all have some time to wait for the next Pixar feature, this month will be a good time to get a fix for quality animated films.
Asian Invasion Hong Kong-a-Thon
This single-day movie extravaganza looks further towards mainland Asia to bring you a look at just how crazy and awesome the Hong Kong film industry can be.
Curated by Grady Hendrix of the New York Asian Film Festival and Lars Nilsen of Fantastic Fest, this marathon of five films seeks to expose an American audience to some lesser-known Hong Kong exploitation flicks. That might suggest to not get your hopes up to see Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan, but there’s no telling what might show up during the secret line-up.
And to help get you through the 10 hours of solid ass kicking, an offering of Hong Kong-centric food and drink options will be provided along with some other special surprises.
Master Pancake: Con Air
It’s going to be difficult to not pick a Master Pancake show as a monthly must-see, mostly because every film they do pick to mock seems to be so damn perfect.
While the team of professional movie scoffers will have their sights set on The Notebook to begin the month, they'll be turning their attention towards the Nick Cage and Bruckheimer mash up of planes, guns, mullets and Steve Buscemi. The Notebook is also can’t-miss, but Con Air is one of the most star-studded, awesomely bad popcorn flicks to ever hit theaters like a C-130 in the middle of the Las Vegas Strip.
AGFA presents: Top Secret Surprise Title
I don’t have any clue what film will be screening for the final Weird Wednesday at the Drafthouse, but who doesn’t love surprises? Those surprises can be even more tantalizing when involving a particular mystery title specially selected from the American Genre Film Archive.
Drafthouse founder Tim League and programmers Lars Nilsen and Zack Carlson are active participants and advisors for the AGFA, and when a film is hyped as being “hyper-offensive, unreasonably disgusting and strange,” it might just be a worthwhile night to spend your leap day.
The Princess Bride Quote-Along and Feast
Finally, we come to the greatest way to ever celebrate Love Day. The Princess Bride should be mandatory viewing on Feb. 14, even if you’re single at the moment. It's infinitely heartwarming and quotable, so it makes the perfect Quote-Along film for The Action Pack's Valentine’s evening.
But why stop at a movie when you might as well get a full four course meal? For Valentine’s at every Drafthouse location, audiences will feast upon such delicacies as “seared R.O.U.S.” (that's Rodent of Unusual Size), among other things.
The Valentine’s feast will also include the debut of the Drafthouse’s new signature wine line, “The Bottle of Wits”. The limited label will include both an “Inconceivable Cab” and an “As You Wish White.” The wines will be available to purchase at all Drafthouse locations as well as online, but will only be offered through 2012 to honor the 25th anniversary of the film.
And if you happen to miss the one-night feast, take heart knowing that The Princess Bride will still screen as a Quote-Along throughout the month, allowing plenty of opportunities to shout out in public that your name is Inigo Montoya.
To check out more awesome events happening at the Drafthouse this month, peruse through their calendar of events to find just what’s right for you. Maybe at one of those events you get lucky and meet your own true love.