“Nothing Lasts Forever,” Anthology Film Archives, July 16, 19The former “Saturday Night Live” writer Tom Schiller’s rare and hilarious genre-pastiche, which has only screened for audiences a handful of times since it was canned by MGM in 1984 — Bill Murray reportedly demanded that it be included in a retrospective of his film work at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2004 — will be featured in a new series at Anthology Film Archives titled “One Film Wonders,” highlighting auteurs who made one film and then vanished. “Nothing Lasts Forever” stars Zach Galligan (the kid from “Gremlins”) as Adam Beckett, who, after a disastrous attempt at becoming a concert pianist in Europe, arrives in a future New York City with dreams of becoming an artist. But his ambitions are crushed immediately when he arrives at the Port Authority, which has taken control of the city and limits how many people enter and exit. Because there are too many artists already and he doesn’t have a portfolio of work to show, he is told that he must take the Port Authority-issued artist test, which requires him to sketch a nude woman in four minutes.Naturally he fails the test, and is placed in a job overseeing the entrance to the Holland Tunnel (with former “SNL” cast member Dan Aykroyd as his rambling boss). After dabbling in the future-city’s conceptual art scene — the most famous member is Klaus Weiner, whose ongoing project requires him to be constantly walking on a treadmill while counting to 100, over and over again — he meets an old homeless man outside a concert who tells him he can become a true artist if he performs the unusual task of infiltrating the moon, which has been colonized as a shopping destination for senior-citizens. Soon enough, he is aboard a bus, manned by Bill Murray, shooting into space.Absurd and inventive, “Nothing Lasts Forever” is a cult film without a cult. Schiller, who made some of the best short films during his time at “SNL” (he would continue to work there after “Nothing Lasts Forever” for a few years), eventually transitioned into making commercials. This is his only film, and the rights are currently owned by Turner. It has never been released in any format, although it occasionally pops up on Turner Classic Movies in the middle of the night.“Cold Turkey,” Anthology Film Archives, July 13, 15, 17Here we have another pick from the “One Film Wonders” series. “Cold Turkey,” a satire about addiction and corporate malfeasance, was co-written and directed by Norman Lear, who, a few years later, would begin his career as one of the most famous television producers of all time (“All in the Family,” “Sanford and Son,” “The Jeffersons”). Comedian Bob Newhart stars as an advertising executive who pitches a puzzling campaign to the tobacco industry — offer a town $25 million if the entire population can stop smoking for a month. The publicity would be great for the cigarette companies, and smoking is so addictive that no community would be able to completely quit “cold turkey.” But one small town takes up the challenge and begins to succeed, although it seems like the citizens will kill each other before the 30 days are up.“Hollywood Shuffle,” Brooklyn Academy of Music, July 17Robert Townsend’s self-financed comedy about being a black actor in Hollywood – scary as it is funny because, like the best satire, it’s not that far off from the truth — will screen at BAM as part of its huge and indispensible “Indie 80s” series, which runs through August. Townsend co-wrote, directed, and stars in the film as Bobby Taylor, a struggling actor who is auditioning for the part of a pimp in a new film, even though he feels guilty about taking on such a stereotypical role. Intercut throughout the narrative are various sketches, performed by Townsend and the “Hollywood Shuffle Players,” that riff on the hypocrisy and racism in the film industry. The most famous is the fake-infomercial for “Black Acting School,” but my favorite is the “Siskel & Ebert” parody, “Sneaking in the Movies.”“Clouds of Sils Maria, IFC Center, through July 14Olivier Assayas’s latest film, about the complications of living your life within fictional stories, has been enjoying a lengthy and surprising run at the IFC Center for a few months, and is worth seeing during its last two days at the theater if you haven’t yet. Juliette Binoche gives one of the best performances of her career, but it’s Kristen Stewart, in the role of Bincohe’s dedicated assistant (for which she was the first American actress to win a Cesar Award, the French equivalent to the Oscars), who steals the film.“Jellyfish Eyes,” IFC Center, opens July 15The artist Takashi Murakami’s beguiling but strangely sweet directorial debut is like a remake of “Spy Kids” directed by Bong Joon-ho. Masashi (Takuto Sueoka) moves to a small town with his single mother, and meets a jelly-fish like creature he begins to call Kurage-bo. As the two become acquainted, we discover that the town’s children all have different, strange looking friends, but the reason they exist may not be so innocent.
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