Lifeboat

Opening:

THE BOXTROLLS—Animated children’s movie from the studio that created ParaNorman and Coraline. Directed by Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi. Flix, Hamburg Palace, Maple Ridge, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria, Sunset Drive-In, Transit Drive-In

THE EQUALIZER—In-name-only remake of the 80s TV series with Denzel Washington as a lone wolf who takes on the Russian mafia in Boston. With Marton Csokas and Chloë Grace Moretz. Directed by Antoine Fuqua (Olympus Has Fallen). Reviewed this issue. Flix, Maple Ridge, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria, Sunset Drive-In, Transit Drive-In

LOVE IS STRANGE—Drama staring John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as a Manhattan gay couple who lose their home as a result of getting married. Co-starring Marisa Tomei. Directed by Ira Sachs (Married Life). Reviewed this issue. Amherst

THE SKELETON TWINS—Drama starring Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader as long-estranged twins who reconnect after a bizarre coincidence. With Boyd Holbrook, Ty Burrell and Luke Wilson. Directed by Craig Johnson (True Adolescents). Reviewed this issue. Amherst, Eastern Hills

ETC:

A HARD DAY’S NIGHT (1964) and PINK FLOYD THE WALL (1980)—The most vivacious and joyful example of rock & roll cinema followed by the bleakest. Fri-Sun dusk. Transit Drive-In

A LETTER TO MOMO (2011)—Anime about a lonely girl trying to adapt to a new life when her mother moves her from Tokyo to a small island. Sat & Sun 11:30am. North Park

LIFEBOAT (1944)—The first and most successful of Alfred Hitchcock’s usually self-defeating experiments in restricting his cinematic canvas. A lifeboat in the Atlantic ocean holds nine people: eight survivors of a ship torpedoed by a German submarine, and one of the sub’s crewmen. The war propaganda aspect dates it (even Spielberg might consider the Nazi caricature a bit excessive), but it remains interesting as an exercise in style. With William Bendix, Tallulah Bankhead, Walter Slezak and Hume Cronyn. Sat Sun Tue 7:30 pm. Screening Room

REDEMPTION: THE NO KILL REVOLUTION IN AMERICA—Documentary on the movement to find alternatives to euthanizing animals at shelters. Sat 7 pm. Amherst

THE RED HOUSE (1947)—Mystery with a typically fine performance by Edward G. Robinson as a farmer who buries a secret from his past in a shed on his property. With Judith Anderson, Lon McCallister, Rory Calhoun and Julie London. Directed by Delmer Daves (3:10 to Yuma). Tue 7:30 pm. Screening Room

ROBERT WILSON—Compilation of documentary footage taken behind the scenes of some of the avant garde director’s stage projects, in advance of his Oct. 9 appearance at the Albright-Knox. Free and open to the public. Tue 7 pm. Hallwalls

TRANS-EUROP EXPRESS (France, 1966)—A drug smuggler (Jean-Louis Trintignant) on assignment in Belgium becomes obsessed by a beautiful woman (Cousin Cousine’s Marie-France Pisier) One of Alain Robbe-Grillet’s most accessible and entertaining works, a thriller that both comments on and satirizes itself as well as giving the notoriously intellectual director a chance to indulge his personal fixation with bondage. Thu Oct. 2, 7 pm. Hallwalls

THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA—Modern dress adaptation of Shakespeare’s comedy, presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Starring Mark Arends, Michael Marcus, Sarah MacRae, and Pearl Chanda. Directed by Simon Godwin. Thurs Sept. 25 7pm. Amherst

VIRIDIANA (Spain, 1961)—Luis Buñuel hit the peak period of his career with this subversive drama about a novitiate sent to spend time with her perverse uncle. Famous for the scene in which a group of beggars recreate the image of the Last Supper, it is the film that perhaps best illustrates Buñuel’s credo, “Thank God I’m an atheist.” Starring Silvia Pinal, Francisco Rabal and Fernando Rey. Presented as part of the Buffalo Film Seminars. Tue 7 pm. Amherst

WHO IS DAYANI CRISTAL?—Documentary in which actor Gael García Bernal and filmmaker Marc Silver travel with a group of immigrants headed for the US-Mexican border in search of the identity of a dead man found nearby. Presented as part of the Buffalo Humanities Festival. Free and open to the public. Thurs Sept 25 5 pm. Screening Room, 112 Center for the Arts, UB North Campus