Tag: Malco Summer Drive-In

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Film Features Film/TV

Thriving at the Drive-In

photo: Courtesy Joe Bob’s Drive-In Jamboree Joe Bob Briggs’ Drive-In Jamboree comes to Memphis.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. No one feels the truth of that old saw like Joe Bob Briggs. Born John Bloom in Dallas, Texas, he has been celebrating low-budget horror, sci-fi, kung fu, and just plain weird films for decades. He holds a journalism degree from Vanderbilt University and adopted his nom de plume in the mid-’80s while writing humorous reviews of exploitation and grind-house films for Texas Monthly. From 1986 to 1996, he hosted Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theater on The Movie Channel, where he perfected his public persona. 

The films he featured every week were as viscerally thrilling as they were cheaply made. And if the plots were stupid or the acting subpar, well, all the better. On both the original show and his subsequent stint on TNT’s MonsterVision, Briggs rated films on how many scenes of badassery they contained. If, for example, a crazed killer used a pair of shears on his victim, Briggs would dub it as an incident of “scissor-fu.” 

The movies he championed were always associated with drive-in theater culture. The first drive-in opened in New Jersey in 1933, and the concept quickly spread across the country. During their peak popularity in the 1950s, drive-ins catered to families by adding playgrounds and featuring mostly kid-friendly offerings. But low-budget, independent filmmakers who produced more outré fare often found it easier to book their films in rural drive-ins rather than movie palaces in the urban core. During the 1970s, gas price shocks and the rise of home video took a toll on drive-in culture, and many of the theaters that survived into the 1980s did so by specializing in the kind of shocking exploitation films that couldn’t get on a screen anywhere else. For Briggs, this is true cinema, and more mainstream fare or art films are mere “indoor bullstuff.” 

Since 2018, Briggs has been a fixture on Shudder, the streaming service devoted to horror, with his new show The Last Drive-in. This weekend, July 8th-10th, Briggs comes to Memphis for the second annual Joe-Bob’s Drive-In Jamboree. “I love Tennessee, and I love Memphis,” Briggs says. “It’s the city of great music, great festivals, great barbecue, and the most hospitable people in the world.” 

The Bluff City is also home to one of the biggest and most successful drive-in theaters in the world. Unlike many other theaters of its kind, the Malco Summer Drive-In survived the expensive conversion to digital projection thanks to the investment of the locally based theater chain’s then-president and drive-in aficionado Jimmy Tashie. That investment paid off big time during the coronavirus pandemic, when the surviving drive-ins were the only places where an audience could safely watch movies together. Last year’s drive-in fest was held at the Mahoning Drive-In in Lehighton, Pennsylvania. It was such a big success that this year’s edition had to move to bigger digs. “We were bulging at the seams,” says Briggs. “When they called it the drive-in Woodstock, that included the mud! It was a wonderful event, but there were so many fans who tried to buy tickets and couldn’t get in. We’re adding screens, adding capacity, and adding a convention element in the daytime. And I couldn’t be happier about partnering with Malco Theatres, people who have been exhibiting movies all over the South for 107 years.” 

The weekend starts in Midtown on Thursday at Crosstown Theater with Briggs presenting his one-man show “How Rednecks Saved Hollywood,” with more than 200 clips of scenes tracing the evolution of the redneck stereotype from Thunder Road (a pioneering car-chase movie from 1958 starring Robert Mitchum as a Tennessee bootlegger running from the law) to Deliverance, Smokey and the Bandit, and Forrest Gump. The three-day drive-in culture convention will be held at the Hilton Memphis, with dozens of vendors and special guests. On Friday night, the Malco Summer Drive-In will host a cast and crew reunion for Halloween III: Season of the Witch — a film Briggs has long criticized because it doesn’t feature franchise villain Michael Myers. Then, on Saturday, Briggs and his crew will stage a live version of his Shudder show with a secret double-feature of blood-splattering exploitation goodness. On Sunday, Briggs will host the World Drive-In Movie Festival, featuring 10 indie productions that carry on the gonzo traditions of the drive-in. Briggs will present the filmmakers, who were chosen from hundreds of entries, with the Hubbie Award — a trophy made from an engraved Chevy hubcap. 

Tickets to individual events and VIP passes for the entire festival are available at joebobsjamboree.com. 

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Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Spend Saturday Night with David Bowie at the Drive-In

Ever since Ziggy Stardust left Earth in January, 2016, there’s been a David Bowie-shaped hole in the world. Let’s face it: Things have been going downhill ever since. You can get a recharge of that Thin White Duke energy at the Malco Summer Drive-In Saturday night as the monthly Time Warp Drive-In celebrates Bowie’s film career.

From the beginning, Bowie’s music and persona were tied up with acting. He trained as a mime, which heavily influenced his stage presentation; “Cracked Actor” is a standout track on his 1973 record Aladdin Sane. When Bowie got in front of a camera, the results were spectacular. He’s almost always the most interesting thing on the screen. Watch him effortlessly dominate Tony Award winner Hugh Jackman in this scene from The Prestige.

Christopher Nolan’s best film is not on the Time Warp marquee this week, but you won’t be disappointed with the selections. First up is a cult masterpiece from 1986, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. I recently revisited the dark fairy tale with actor and Black Nerd Power podcaster Markus Seaberry as part of my Never Seen It series, and it’s a highly entertaining read. The best part is our back and forth about the prominent Bowie package, which is actually thematically relevant in this story about pubescent ennui. Here’s Jennifer Connelly facing her greatest fear: David Bowie’s sexuality.

Speaking of David Bowie’s sexuality, the next film is a steamy goth horror classic from the late director Tony Scott. Released three years prior to Labyrinth, the same year as Bowie’s epochal Let’s Dance album, The Hunger stars Bowie and Catherine Deneuve as incredibly sexy vampires who take a shine to a doctor, played by Susan Sarandon. Here’s the classic opening sequence featuring Bauhaus performing “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” that made a million black roses bloom.

The final movie in the Time Warp is another celebrated cult oddity. First gaining attention with the documentary about the rise of The Sex Pistols, The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle, Julien Temple was one of the hottest music video directors of the 1980s, creating classic clips for Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, The Rolling Stones, and, of course, Bowie. Absolute Beginners was his high ’80s musical about the birth of rock-and-roll in England. It’s a fascinating mixture of eye-popping visuals and extremely questionable decisions. It spawned one of Bowie’s biggest hits, the theme song “Absolute Beginners,” which he does not perform in the movie. Watch the money burn in this incredibly over-the-top musical number.

The Time Warp Drive-In starts at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 24, at the Malco Summer Drive-In.

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Sundance Film Festival Sets Lineup for Memphis Screenings

Kentucker Audley in Strawberry Mansion

With the COVID pandemic still paralyzing the film world, the Sundance Film Festival is partnering with Indie Memphis to bring cutting-edge cinema offerings to the Bluff City. In an ordinary January, filmmakers and execs from all over the world would gather in Park City, Utah, for America’s premiere independent film festival. But this year, the “festival flu” can kill you, so Sundance is learning from other festivals, such as Oxford and Indie Memphis, and putting on an online and in-person festival. Expanding their reach coast to coast, Sundance is hosting film screenings at socially distanced venues January 28th-February 2nd.

In all, more than 70 feature films will play Sundance either virtually or at in-person screenings around the country. Ten of them will screen at the Malco Summer Drive-In. Memphis’ opening night film features a former filmmaker who got his start at Indie Memphis. Kentucker Audley’s most recent win at Indie Memphis was 2012’s Open Five 2. Now based in Brooklyn, he teamed up with Albert Birney in 2017 to direct and star in Sylvio, a comedy about a “small town gorilla” who becomes an unlikely reality TV star. Audley and Birney’s follow-up is the romantic sci-fi fantasy Strawberry Mansion, which will premiere on January 28th. Audley stars as James Preble, a “dream auditor” in a future world where people must pay royalties if intellectual property appears in their subconscious minds. James meets an artist, played by Penny Fuller, who makes him question everything he thought he knew.

Friday, January 29th, features two films. I Was A Simple Man by Hawaiian director Christopher Makoto Yogi, whose 2018 film August at Akiko’s won an Honorable Mention at Indie Memphis, is the portrait of a dying man who remembers his less-than-idyllic life in Oahu. The second film of the evening is Cryptozoo, an animated film about a couple who stumble onto a supernatural zoo for Bigfoots and Mothmen.

Cryptozoo

Saturday and Sunday will also have double features, including Rebecca Hall’s Passing, which stars Tessa Thompson as a Black woman trying to appear white in 1920s America, and All Light, Everywhere, a “essay film” by Theo Anthony, the documentary director behind 2016’s enlightening urban eco-saga Rat Film. Another promising documentary in the lineup is Ailey, director Jamila Wignot’s portrait of the modern dance pioneer Alvin Ailey.

Ailey

Stay tuned for more coverage of Sundance in Memphis. Tickets and passes are available at the Indie Memphis website. 

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Cover Feature News

2021: Here’s Looking at You

If 2020 was the year of despair, 2021 appears to be the year of hope.

Wanna see what that could look like? Cast your gaze to Wuhan, China, birthplace of COVID-19.

News footage from Business Insider shows hundreds of carefree young people gathered in a massive swimming pool, dancing and splashing at a rock concert. They are effortlessly close together and there’s not a mask in sight. Bars and restaurants are packed with maskless revelers. Night markets are jammed. Business owners smile, remember the bleak times, and say the worst is behind them. How far behind? There’s already a COVID-19 museum in Wuhan.

That could be Memphis (once again) one day. But that day is still likely months off. Vaccines arrived here in mid-December. Early doses rightfully went to frontline healthcare workers. Doses for the masses won’t likely come until April or May, according to health experts.

While we still cannot predict exactly “what” Memphians will be (can be?) doing next year, we can tell you “where” they might be doing it. New places will open their doors next year, and Memphis is set for some pretty big upgrades.

But it doesn’t stop there. “Memphis has momentum” was Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s catchphrase as he won a second term for the office last October. It did. New building projects bloomed like the Agricenter’s sunflowers. And it still does. Believe it or not, not even COVID-19 could douse developers’ multi-million-dollar optimism on the city.

Here are few big projects slated to open in 2021:

Renasant Convention Center

Throughout 2020, crews have been hard at work inside and outside the building once called the Cook Convention Center.

City officials and Memphis Tourism broke ground on a $200-million renovation project for the building in January 2020. The project will bring natural light and color to the once dark and drab convention center built in 1974. The first events are planned for the Renasant Convention Center in the new year.

Memphis International Airport

Memphis International Airport

Expect the ribbon to be cut on Memphis International Airport’s $245-million concourse modernization project in 2021. The project was launched in 2014 in an effort to upgrade the airport’s concourse to modern standards and to right-size the space after Delta de-hubbed the airport.

Once finished, all gates, restaurants, shops, and more will be located in a single concourse. The space will have higher ceilings, more natural light, wider corridors, moving walkways, children’s play areas, a stage for live music, and more.

Collage Dance Collective

The beautiful new building on the corner of Tillman and Sam Cooper is set to open next year in an $11-million move for the Collage Dance Collective.

The 22,000-square-foot performing arts school will feature five studios, office space, a dressing room, a study lounge, 70 parking spaces, and a physical therapy area.

The Memphian Hotel

The Memphian Hotel

A Facebook post by The Memphian Hotel reads, “Who is ready for 2021?” The hotel is, apparently. Developers told the Daily Memphian recently that the 106-room, $24-million hotel is slated to open in April.

“Walking the line between offbeat and elevated, The Memphian will give guests a genuine taste of Midtown’s unconventional personality, truly capturing the free spirit of the storied art district in which the property sits,” reads a news release.

Watch for work to begin next year on big projects in Cooper-Young, the Snuff District, Liberty Park, Tom Lee Park, and The Walk. — Toby Sells

Book ‘Em

After the Spanish flu epidemic and World War I came a flood of convention-defying fiction as authors wrestled with the trauma they had lived through. E.M. Forster confronted colonialism and rigid gender norms in A Passage to India. Virginia Woolf published Mrs. Dalloway. James Joyce gave readers Ulysses. Langston Hughes’ first collection, The Weary Blues, was released.

It’s too early to tell what authors and poets will make of 2020, a year in which America failed to contain the coronavirus. This reader, though, is eager to see what comes.

Though I’ve been a bit too nervous to look very far into 2021 (I don’t want to jinx it, you know?), there are a few books already on my to-read list. First up, I’m excited for MLK50 founding managing editor Deborah Douglas’ U.S. Civil Rights Trail, due in January. Douglas lives in Chicago now, but there’s sure to be some Memphis in that tome.

Next, Ed Tarkington’s The Fortunate Ones, also due in January, examines privilege and corruption on Nashville’s Capitol Hill. Early reviews have compared Tarkington to a young Pat Conroy. For anyone disappointed in Tennessee’s response to any of this year’s crises, The Fortunate Ones is not to be missed.

Most exciting, perhaps, is the forthcoming Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda prose anthology, expected February 2nd. The anthology is edited by Memphis-born journalist Jesse J. Holland, and also features a story by him, as well as Memphians Sheree Renée Thomas, Troy L. Wiggins, and Danian Darrell Jerry.

“To be in pages with so many Memphis writers just feels wonderful,” Thomas told me when I called her to chat about the good news. “It’s a little surreal, but it’s fun,” Jerry adds, explaining that he’s been a Marvel comics fan since childhood. “I get to mix some of those childhood imaginings with some of the skills I’ve worked to acquire over the years.”

Though these books give just a glimpse at the literary landscape of the coming year, if they’re any indication of what’s to come, then, if nothing else, Memphians will have more great stories to look forward to. — Jesse Davis

Courtesy Memphis Redbirds

AutoZone Park

Take Me Out With the Crowd

Near the end of my father’s life, we attended a Redbirds game together at AutoZone Park. A few innings into the game, Dad turned to me and said, “I like seeing you at a ballpark. I can tell your worries ease.”

Then along came 2020, the first year in at least four decades that I didn’t either play in a baseball game or watch one live, at a ballpark, peanuts and Cracker Jack a soft toss away. The pandemic damaged most sports over the last 12 months, but it all but killed minor-league baseball, the small-business version of our national pastime, one that can’t lean on television and sponsorship revenue to offset the loss of ticket-buying fans on game day. AutoZone Park going a year without baseball is the saddest absence I’ve felt in Memphis culture since moving to this remarkable town in 1991. And I’m hoping today — still 2020, dammit — that 2021 marks a revival, even if it’s gradual. In baseball terms, we fans will take a base on balls to get things going before we again swing for the fences.

All indications are that vaccines will make 2021 a better year for gathering, be it at your favorite watering hole or your favorite ballpark. Indications also suggest that restrictions will remain in place well into the spring and summer (baseball season). How many fans can a ballpark host and remain safe? How many fans will enjoy the “extras” of an evening at AutoZone Park — that sunset over the Peabody, that last beer in the seventh inning — if a mask must be worn as part of the experience? And what kind of operation will we see when the gates again open? Remember, these are small businesses. Redbirds president Craig Unger can be seen helping roll out the tarp when a July thunderstorm interrupts the Redbirds and Iowa Cubs. What will “business as usual” mean for Triple-A baseball as we emerge from the pandemic?

I wrote down three words and taped them up on my home-office wall last March: patience, determination, and empathy. With a few more doses of each — and yes, millions of doses of one vaccine or another — the sports world will regain crowd-thrilling normalcy. For me, it will start when I take a seat again in my happy place. It’s been a long, long time, Dad, since my worries properly eased.— Frank Murtaugh

Film in 2021: Don’t Give up Hope

“Nobody knows anything.” Never has William Goldman’s immortal statement about Hollywood been more true. Simply put, 2020 was a disaster for the industry. The pandemic closed theaters and called Hollywood’s entire business model into question. Warner Brothers’ announcement that it would stream all of its 2021 offerings on HBO Max sent shock waves through the industry. Some said it was the death knell for theaters.

I don’t buy it. Warner Brothers, owned by AT&T and locked in a streaming war with Netflix and Disney, are chasing the favor of Wall Street investors, who love the rent-seeking streaming model. But there’s just too much money on the table to abandon theaters. 2019 was a record year at the box office, with $42 billion in worldwide take, $11.4 billion of which was from North America. Theatrical distribution is a proven business model that has worked for 120 years. Netflix, on the other hand, is $12 billion in debt.

Will audiences return to theaters once we’ve vaccinated our way out of the coronavirus-shaped hole we’re in? Prediction at this point is a mug’s game, but signs point to yes. Tenet, which will be the year’s biggest film, grossed $303 million in overseas markets where the virus was reasonably under control. In China, where the pandemic started, a film called My People, My Homeland has brought in $422 million since October 1st. I don’t know about y’all, but once I get my jab, they’re going to have to drag me out of the movie theater.

There will be quite a bit to watch. With the exception of Wonder Woman 1984, the 2020 blockbusters were pushed to 2021, including Dune, Spielberg’s West Side Story remake, the latest James Bond installment No Time to Die, Marvel’s much-anticipated Black Widow, Top Gun: Maverick, and Godzilla vs. Kong. Memphis director Craig Brewer’s second film with Eddie Murphy, the long-awaited Coming 2 America, will bow on Amazon March 5th, with the possibility of a theatrical run still in the cards.

There’s no shortage of smaller, excellent films on tap. Regina King’s directorial debut One Night in Miami, about a meeting between Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown, premieres January 15th. Minari, the stunning story of Korean immigrants in rural Arkansas, which was Indie Memphis 2020’s centerpiece film, lands February 12th. The Bob’s Burgers movie starts cooking April 9th. And coolest of all, next month Indie Memphis will partner with Sundance to bring the latest in cutting-edge cinema to the Malco Summer Drive-In. There’s plenty to be hopeful for in the new year. — Chris McCoy

Looking Ahead: Music

We usually highlight the upcoming hot concerts in this space, but those are still on the back burner. Instead, get a load of these stacks of hot wax (and streams) dropping next year. Remember, the artists get a better share when you purchase rather than stream, especially physical product like vinyl.

Alysse Gafkjen

Julien Baker

One of the biggest-profile releases will be Julien Baker’s Little Oblivians, due out on Matador in February. Her single “Faith Healer” gives us a taste of what to expect. Watch the Flyer for more on that soon. As for other drops from larger indie labels, Merge will offer up A Little More Time with Reigning Sound in May (full disclosure: this all-Memphis version of the band includes yours truly).

Closer to home, John Paul Keith’s The Rhythm of the City also drops in February, co-released by hometown label Madjack and Italian imprint Wild Honey. Madjack will also offer up albums by Mark Edgar Stuart and Jed Zimmerman, the latter having been produced by Stuart. Matt Ross-Spang is mixing Zimmerman’s record, and there’s much buzz surrounding it (but don’t worry, it’s properly grounded).

Jeremy Stanfill mines similar Americana territory, and he’ll release new work on the Blue Barrel imprint. Meanwhile, look for more off-kilter sounds from Los Psychosis and Alicja Trout’s Alicja-Pop project, both on Black & Wyatt. That label will also be honored with a compilation of their best releases so far, by Head Perfume out of Dresden. On the quieter side of off-kilter, look for Aquarian Blood’s Sending the Golden Hour on Goner in May.

Bruce Watson’s Delta-Sonic Sound studio has been busy, and affiliated label Bible & Tire Recording Co. will release a big haul of old-school gospel, some new, some archival, including artists Elizabeth King and Pastor Jack Ward, and compilations from the old J.C.R. and D-Vine Spiritual labels. Meanwhile, Big Legal Mess will drop new work from singer/songwriter Alexa Rose and, in March, Luna 68 — the first new album from the City Champs in 10 years. Expect more groovy organ and guitar boogaloo jazz from the trio, with a heaping spoonful of science-fiction exotica to boot.

Many more artists will surely be releasing Bandcamp singles, EPs, and more, but for web-based content that’s thinking outside of the stream, look for the January premiere of Unapologetic’s UNDRGRNDAF RADIO, to be unveiled on weareunapologetic.com and their dedicated app. — Alex Greene

Chewing Over a Tough Year

Beware the biohazard.

Samuel X. Cicci

The Beauty Shop

Perhaps a bit hyperbolic, but the image that pops into my head when thinking about restaurants in 2020 are the contagion-esque geo-domes that Karen Carrier set up on the back patio of the Beauty Shop. A clever conceit, but also a necessary one — a move designed to keep diners safe and separated when going out to eat. If it all seems a little bizarre, well, that’s what 2020 was thanks to COVID-19.

We saw openings, closings, restrictions, restrictions lifted, restrictions then put back in place; the Memphis Restaurant Association and Shelby County Health Department arguing back and forth over COVID guidelines, with both safety and survival at stake; and establishments scrambling to find creative ways to drum up business. The Beauty Shop domes were one such example. The Reilly’s Downtown Majestic Grille, on the other hand, transformed into Cocozza, an Italian ghost concept restaurant put into place until it was safe to reopen Majestic in its entirety. Other places, like Global Café, put efforts in place to help provide meals to healthcare professionals or those who had fallen into financial hardship during the pandemic.

Unfortunately, not every restaurant was able to survive the pandemic. The popular Lucky Cat Ramen on Broad Ave. closed its doors, as did places like Puck Food Hall, 3rd & Court, Avenue Coffee, Midtown Crossing Grill, and many others.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Working in the hospitality business requires a certain kind of resilience, and that showed up in spades. Many restaurants adapted to new regulations quickly, and with aplomb, doing their best to create a safe environment for hungry Memphians all while churning out takeout and delivery orders.

And even amid a pandemic backdrop, many aspiring restaurateurs tried their hand at opening their own places. Chip and Amanda Dunham branched out from the now-closed Grove Grill to open Magnolia & May, a country brasserie in East Memphis. Just a few blocks away, a new breakfast joint popped up in Southall Café. Downtown, the Memphis Chess Club opened its doors, complete with a full-service café and restaurant. Down in Whitehaven, Ken and Mary Olds created Muggin Coffeehouse, the first locally owned coffee shop in the neighborhood. And entrepreneurial-minded folks started up their own delivery-only ventures, like Brittney Adu’s Furloaved Breads + Bakery.

So what will next year bring? With everything thrown out of whack, I’m loath to make predictions, but with a vaccine on the horizon, I’m hoping (fingers crossed) that it becomes safer to eat out soon, and the restaurant industry can begin a long-overdue recovery. And to leave you with what will hopefully be a metaphor for restaurants in 2021: By next summer, Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman’s Hog & Hominy will complete its Phoenician rebirth from the ashes of a disastrous fire and open its doors once again.

In the meantime, keep supporting your local restaurants! — Samuel X. Cicci

“Your Tickets Will be at Will Call”

Oh, to hear those words again, and plenty of arts organizations are eager to say them. The pandemic wrecked the seasons for performing arts groups and did plenty of damage to museums and galleries.

Not that they haven’t made valiant and innovative efforts to entertain from afar with virtual programming.

But they’re all hoping to mount physical, not virtual, seasons in the coming year.

Playhouse on the Square suspended scheduled in-person stage productions until June 2021. This includes the 52nd season lineup of performances that were to be on the stages of Playhouse on the Square, The Circuit Playhouse, and TheatreWorks at the Square. It continues to offer the Playhouse at Home Series, digital content via its website and social media.

Theatre Memphis celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2021 and is eager to show off its new facility, a major renovation that was going to shut it down most of 2020 anyway while it expanded common spaces and added restrooms and production space while updating dressing rooms and administrative offices. But the hoped-for August opening was pushed back, and it plans to reschedule the programming for this season to next.

Hattiloo Theatre will continue to offer free online programming in youth acting and technical theater, and it has brought a five-week playwright’s workshop and free Zoom panel discussions with national figures in Black theater. Like the other institutions, it is eager to get back to the performing stage when conditions allow.

Ballet Memphis has relied on media and platforms that don’t require contact, either among audience members or dancers. But if there are fewer partnerings among dancers, there are more solos, and group movement is well-distanced. The organization has put several short pieces on video, releasing some and holding the rest for early next year. It typically doesn’t start a season until late summer or early fall, so the hope is to get back into it without missing a step.

Opera Memphis is active with its live Sing2Me program of mobile opera concerts and programming on social media. Its typical season starts with 30 Days of Opera in August that usually leads to its first big production of the season, so, COVID willing, that may emerge.

Courtesy Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Dana Claxton, Headdress at the Brooks earlier this year.

Museums and galleries, such as the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, National Civil Rights Museum, and the Metal Museum are functioning at limited capacity, but people can go and enjoy the offerings. The scope of the shows is limited, as coronavirus has put the kibosh on blockbuster shows for now. Look for easing of protocols as the situation allows in the coming year. — Jon W. Sparks

Politics

Oyez. Oyez. Oh yes, there is one year out of every four in which regularly scheduled elections are not held in Shelby County, and 2021 is such a year. But decisions will be made during the year by the Republican super-majority of the state legislature in Nashville that will have a significant bearing on the elections that will occur in the three-year cycle of 2022-2024 and, in fact, on those occurring through 2030.

This would be in the course of the constitutionally required ritual during which district lines are redefined every 10 years for the decade to come, in the case of legislative seats and Congressional districts. The U.S. Congress, on the basis of population figures provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, will have allocated to each state its appropriate share of the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. And the state legislature will determine how that number is apportioned statewide. The current number of Tennessee’s Congressional seats is nine. The state’s legislative ratio is fixed at 99 state House members and 33 members of the state Senate.

Tennessee is one of 37 states in which, as indicated, the state legislature calls the shots for both Congressional and state redistricting. The resultant redistricting undergoes an approval process like any other measure, requiring a positive vote in both the state Senate and the state House, with the Governor empowered to consent or veto.

No one anticipates any disagreements between any branches of government. Any friction in the redistricting process will likely involve arguments over turf between neighboring GOP legislators. Disputes emanating from the minority Democrats will no doubt be at the mercy of the courts.

The forthcoming legislative session is expected to be lively, including holdover issues relating to constitutional carry (the scrapping of permits for firearms), private school vouchers (currently awaiting a verdict by the state Supreme Court), and, as always, abortion. Measures relating to the ongoing COVID crisis and vaccine distribution are expected, as is a proposal to give elected county executives primacy over health departments in counties where the latter exist.

There is no discernible disharmony between those two entities in Shelby County, whose government has devoted considerable attention over the last year to efforts to control the pandemic and offset its effects. Those will continue, as well as efforts to broaden the general inclusiveness of county government vis-à-vis ethnic and gender groups.

It is still a bit premature to speculate on future shifts of political ambition, except to say that numerous personalities, in both city and county government, are eyeing the prospects of succeeding Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland in 2023. And several Democrats are looking at a potential race against District Attorney General Amy Weirich in 2022.

There are strong rumors that, after a false start or two, Memphis will follow the lead of several East Tennessee co-ops and finally depart from TVA.

And meanwhile, in March, the aforesaid Tennessee Democrats will select a new chair from numerous applicants. — Jackson Baker

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See New Ballet’s Nut Remix at Malco Summer Drive-In

CREDIT: Andrea Zucker/Courtesy New Ballet Ensemble & School

If your holiday thing is the Nutcracker and you are not real nuts about seeing an adaptation, all I have to say is that sometimes a remake gets it right. Really right. That is definitely the case with Nut Remix, a modern reinvention of Tchaikovsky’s classic Nutcracker, by the savvy and talented team from New Ballet Ensemble & School.

The performance is set on Beale Street. The mash-up of dance and music styles really works. From ballet to breakdancing and flamenco to Memphis jookin, this uniquely Memphis production will mesmerize you from start to finish. This year, the production will be screened at the drive-in for your safety. If you’ve seen the production on stage and have made it your annual holiday tradition or if you’re seeing it for the first time, I can’t think of a better place to experience the magic of Memphis. Just remember to register for your tickets in advance. As part of the school’s mission to make the arts accessible to everyone, this screening is pay-what-you-can with a suggested donation of $40 per car.

Andrea Zucker/Courtesy New Ballet Ensemble & School

Nut Remix

Be sure to do it soon. After last week’s screening, word got around. According to New Ballet, “We sold out our original goal of 150 cars for next week’s screening, and we are now increasing our capacity to accommodate more viewers.”

Experience this uniquely Memphis reimagining of the Nutcracker with the whole family from the comfort and safety of your car.

New Ballet’s “Nut Remix,” Malco Summer Drive-In, 5310 Summer, Thursday, Dec. 17, 6:30 p.m., pay-what-you-can with a suggested donation of $40 per car.

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Simply Having A Bloody Christmas Time Warp Drive-In

Black Christmas

It’s that time of year again. While everyone is trying to get in the holiday spirit, the Time Warp Drive-In offers spirits of a different kind. Every December, the retro cinema experience from Black Lodge, Mike McCarthy, Piano Man Pictures, and Holtermonster Designs brings the most bizzare Christmas films they can find to the Malco Summer Drive-In. The seventh edition of Strange Christmas features a doubleheader of holiday horror.

The first film is an unlikely classic. 1974’s Black Christmas is an early entry in the post-Exorcist horror boom. The cast is certainly impressive: It stars 2001: A Space Odyssey‘s Keir Dullea, Enter the Dragon‘s John Saxon (who would later make a career out of playing cops in horror flicks), and future Lois Lane Margot Kidder. It was directed by Bob Clark, a former semi-pro football player turned ’70s low-budget auteur. Clark’s unlikely career included both the seminal teensploitation Porky’s and the beloved holiday comedy A Christmas Story. Black Christmas was Clark’s second film, and is now widely recognized by horror aficionados as a foundational slasher flick. It certainly decks the halls with the slasher trappings: A group of teenagers, mostly women (in this case, a sorority house), a remorseless killer whose motives are unclear to the victims, and a devilish creativity in murder techniques. You know how plastic bags are sometimes printed with suffocation warnings? Yeah, that.

Simply Having A Bloody Christmas Time Warp Drive-In

Black Christmas left a long legacy. John Carpenter cited it as an inspiration for Halloween, and it’s been remade twice, most recently last year as a feminist parable by indie director Sophia Takal. One of its most infamous descendants is the second film on the Strange Christmas bill, Silent Night, Deadly Night. Released in 1984 at the height of the Reagan-era slasher fad, Silent Night, Deadly Night was released the same day as A Nightmare on Elm Street. The film’s graphic TV commercials sparked such outrage that it was picketed by the PTA and pulled from release after only six days — but not before it made $2.5 million dollars. It seems the world wasn’t ready for a killer dressed as Santa Claus.

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Tickets to the Time Warp Drive-In Strange Christmas Double Feature are $10, and masks are required for visits to the concession stand and bathrooms. Gates open at 6 p.m., show starts at 7 p.m. 

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Time Warp: Zombies Take the Drive-In this Saturday

CREDIT: Facebook/Time Warp Drive-In

This dusk-till-dawn Halloween horrorthon movie event features four beloved flicks of undead insanity, including Zombieland, Re-Animator, Night of the Living Dead, and Return of the Living Dead.

Most of us are zombied-out after what seems like a decade of TWD. Oh, wait. It has been 10 years. Those jerks are no better off, and the series should have been canceled when (spoilers) Negan lost Lucille and became a wuss. But let’s stay on topic.

The films that will be showing at this edition of the Time Warp Drive-In are classics. You might have piled your friends in the trunk of your 1968 Dodge Charger to see cult classic gore at the drive-in for an original showing of Night of the Living Dead in the late ’60s. A quick internet search reveals that the Dodge Charger still has the roomiest trunk. Pile them in again for a night at the drive-in starting with Zombieland, the 2009 zom-com starring Woody Harrelson. These films are pure undead brain gold.

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Braaaaaaaains!

Shout-out to former Contemporary Media co-worker Celeste Dixon who is part of the art and film collective Piano Man Pictures, which is offering “vintage intermission insanity between all films.” It’s nonstop horror, y’all.

We’re all pretty happy that the Time Warp is back after a COVID intermission. Just a reminder to wear your mask when outside your car or going to the snack bar so we can continue to enjoy future warped events.

Night of the Living Time Warp: Zombies Take the Drive-In, Malco Summer 4 Drive-In, 5310 Summer, Saturday, Oct. 17, 7:15 p.m., $10.

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Celebrate Pride with Drag N Drive at Malco Summer Drive-In

CREDIT: Facebook/Memphis Pride Fest

True story. Back in the heyday of Memphis gaydom — anyone here remember GDI on the River? — a friend organized a couples dance-off at a local disco. The winning couple had a wardrobe malfunction as they were accepting their standing ovation and awards. In front of God and everybody, a male bosom was exposed — from the Missus.

This caused a huge scandal in that the competition was supposed to be for man/woman couples only. Not that it was explicitly spelled out in the rules or anything. Turns out the Missus and Mister were really two Misters. Judges and sponsors lost their minds, and the couple was disqualified. That’s a big old “boo to you” for the Memphis mindset at the time regarding gay rights.

Facebook/Memphis Pride Fest

Memphis Pride Fest

What happened next only happens in John Waters’ movies — and Memphis in the early ’80s. The winning gal came back to the disco in full drag with a peashooter. Her chauffeur did donuts in the parking lot while she shot rounds in the air from the convertible’s boot, yelling a litany of expletives.

My friend, who shall remain anonymous to protect the guilty, said, “It was the most horrific, surreal, and hysterical thing I’ve ever seen in my life. It was great.”

You’ve come a long way, baby. These days, Memphis celebrates all kinds of diversity. Memphis Pride will kick off with a Drag N Drive double-feature. Join Memphis Pride at Malco’s Summer Drive-In. You’ll get a fantastic drag show sandwiched between screenings of Birdcage and Milk.

Wardrobe malfunctions encouraged.

Drag N Drive, Malco Summer Drive In, 5310 Summer, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 7 p.m., midsouthpride.com, $25 per carload.

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Bob Marley, The Beatles, and The Force Awakens This Weekend at the Drive-In

Bob Marley plays the December 1976 Smile Jamaica concert in the documentary Marley.

Five months into the pandemic, the Malco Summer Quartet Drive-In is one of the few places in America where you can see a movie with an audience. This weekend’s mixture of new releases and legacy titles looks to be the best crop of films at the drive-in since the beginning of the theater shutdowns in March.

Robert Nesta Marley would have been 75 last February, had he not died in 1981 at the age of 36. The Marley estate commissioned a new documentary series on the reggae artist’s impact for YouTube, and has re-released the 2012 documentary Marley to drive-ins this month. Marley is as close to a definitive biography of the artist as is possible to take in in one sitting. The portrait it paints of Marley is of an imperfect man elevated to the status of a world leader by the dint of his musical genius.

Marley’s crossover into the political realm births one of the most remarkable scenes in the documentary. In 1976, Marley became embroiled in a bitter presidential election in his native Jamaica. Two days before he was scheduled to play at the Smile Jamaica concert, a hit squad attempted to assassinate Marley in his home. His wife and manager were seriously wounded, and Marley was hit in the arm and chest. The day of the show, after Marley announced he had enough strength for one song, 80,000 people showed up in a park in Kingston. Marley came out, showed his wounds to the crowd, and played an incendiary, 90-minute set.

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Marley is paired in a double feature with a different kind of music film. Yellow Submarine is a landmark 1968 animated feature that set original compositions by The Beatles to some of the grooviest images psychedelia ever produced. In addition to the famous theme song, the soundtrack features some quality post-Pepper jams like George Harrison’s ethereal “All Too Much” and John Lennon’s stomper “Hey Bulldog.” It’s the most artistically important of the three films the Beatles starred in during their decade in the spotlight, and just plain fun to boot.

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Over on screen three, a double feature of recent blockbusters will scratch your itch for big summer movie fun. Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the first installment in the sequel trilogy. Beginning the saga of Rey, the novice Jedi, and ending the story of Han Solo, it’s also the best film J.J. Abrams ever made. The 2015 trailer is an all-time classic teaser that set the franchise reopener on track to gross over $2 billion.

Bob Marley, The Beatles, and The Force Awakens This Weekend at the Drive-In (3)

TFA is paired with Jumanji: The Next Level, the 2019 sequel to the surprisingly watchable Jack Black/Karen Gillian vehicle that also starred some guy named Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. I feel like that guy could go far.

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On screen four, the highest grossing movie of 2020, Bad Boys For Life, continues its improbable afterlife. As I said in my review from the long-ago days of January, “The thing you need to know about Bad Boys For Life is that Michael Bay didn’t direct it.”

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Paired with Will and Martin is the latest grindhouse horror revival from IFC, which has released a string of low-budget horror titles to what passes for success in the movie business this year. The Rental is billed as the first AirBnB horror film, and it looks like some sleazy fun.

Bob Marley, The Beatles, and The Force Awakens This Weekend at the Drive-In (5)

You can buy tickets to the Malco Summer Quartet Drive-In double feature specials on the Malco website. 

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Malco Theatres Begins Phased Reopening

After three months of shutdown, Memphis-based Malco Theatres has announced a plan to reopen all of its movie theaters. Malco owns 33 theaters with more than 340 screens across six states in the Mid-South.

Beginning on Monday, June 15th, Malco will reopen four locations in Mississippi: The Desoto Cinema Grill in Southaven, the Olive Branch Cinema Grill, the Tupelo Commons Cinema Grill, and the Renaissance Cinema Grill in Ridgeland. In Tennessee, the initial wave of reopening includes the Smyrna Cinema; while in Kentucky the Owensboro Cinema Grill will begin screenings on June 15th. In Memphis, the Malco Summer Drive-In remains open seven days a week with a slate of double features across its four screens.

“Malco is very excited to re-open theaters and welcome our customers back,” says Malco President/COO David Tashie. “We have been diligently working on implementing new measures and protocols to ensure the safety of our guests and employees, and we cannot wait for everyone to enjoy a night out experiencing movies on the big screen again.”

At this point in the year, we should be seeing mainline Hollywood studios rolling out their big guns for the summer season, But since the coronavirus pandemic shut down public gatherings in March, the studios have either rescheduled releases or shunted films into streaming services or video on demand. A handful of drive-in theaters across the country have been the only outlet for new releases. The current box office leader is The Wretched, a low-budget horror from IFC that became the first film to sit at number one for more than five weeks since 2017’s Black Panther. The Wretched has brought in $1.1 million since its release on May 1st. For comparison, Black Panther earned $700 million domestically and $1.1 billion worldwide.

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The initial offerings include new releases The King of Staten Island, starring SNL alum Peter Davidson and directed by comedy auteur Judd Apatow, and The High Note, a musical comedy featuring Dakota Johnson and Black-ish star Tracee Ellis Ross. There will also be summer classics such as Jaws, Ferris Beuller’s Day Off, Madagascar, and the Indiana Jones trilogy, as well as pre-COVID 2020 releases The Invisible Man, Trolls: World Tour, and I Still Believe.

Malco Theatres Begins Phased Reopening

Malco plans to reopen a new batch of theaters every week, with the goal of having the entire network operational by July 14th for the release of Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated, sci fi spy film Tenet.

You can purchase tickets for reserved seating in advance and review the newly implemented pandemic safety measures on the Malco website.