{"id":910383,"date":"2026-07-03T18:46:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T18:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/910383\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T18:46:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T18:46:21","slug":"jaws-is-the-movie-of-the-fourth-of-july-plus-the-weeks-best-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/910383\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Jaws’ is the movie of the Fourth of July, plus the week’s best films"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hello! I\u2019m Mark Olsen<\/a>. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.<\/p>\n

July is another month absolutely packed with essential repertory screenings at venues all over Los Angeles. It\u2019s genuinely impossible to attend everything that feels like a must-see. Joshua Rothkopf and I compiled a list of the 10 movies you need to see in L.A. this month<\/a> to help in making some tough decisions.<\/p>\n

On Monday at the Academy Museum will be a 30th anniversary screening<\/a> of Wes Anderson\u2019s debut feature, \u201cBottle Rocket,\u201d<\/b> which introduced the world to his still-evolving mix of whimsy and melancholy with an unmistakably specific sense of style. Anderson will make a rare Los Angeles appearance at the event, along with actor Luke Wilson and producer James L. Brooks. <\/p>\n

The New Beverly<\/a> will have a double bill on July 9 and 10 of Paul Brickman\u2019s \u201cRisky Business\u201d<\/b> and Steve De Jarnatt\u2019s \u201cMiracle Mile,\u201d<\/b> two neon-drenched artifacts of the 1980s that both feature scores by the German electronic group Tangerine Dream. (Be sure to also note the screening of \u201cSorcerer,\u201d featuring another of their pulsing scores, below.)<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

John Travolta in Brian De Palma\u2019s 1981 thriller \u201cBlow Out.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Criterion Collection)<\/p>\n

On July 10 there will be a 35mm screening<\/a> at the Academy Museum of Brian De Palma\u2019s paranoid 1981 thriller \u201cBlow Out,\u201d<\/b> starring John Travolta as a sound recordist who accidentally captures a political assassination. Anyone who still hasn\u2019t gotten enough from the Fourth of July will want to see this for the thrilling fireworks display as part of its finale.<\/p>\n

On July 12 at the American Cinematheque\u2019s Los Feliz Theatre<\/a> will be a screening of Alexander Mackendrick\u2019s show-biz noir \u201c<\/b>Sweet Smell of Success\u201d<\/b> in 35mm with an introduction from filmmaker Shane Black, who presumably learned a thing or two about snappy, acid-drenched dialogue from the film. Black will also be appearing at the Culver Theater<\/a> on July 22 for a 10th anniversary screening of his crime comedy \u201cThe Nice Guys.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

As part of the American Cinematheque\u2019s ongoing 70mm festival<\/a>, on the 22nd there will be a screening of Damien Chazelle\u2019s 2022 \u201cBabylon,\u201d<\/b> a bold and ambitious look at the early days of Hollywood starring Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt. It was a box office disaster when it came out but has already seen a passionate fan base grow around it.<\/p>\n

Have a killer holiday \"Three <\/p>\n

Richard Dreyfuss, left, Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw in the 1975 movie \u201cJaws.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Universal Pictures)<\/p>\n

There is something rather wholesome about the fact that Steven Spielberg\u2019s 1975 seaside horror-thriller \u201cJaws\u201d<\/b> has become the official unofficial movie of the Fourth of July. Set amid a beach community suddenly beset by a great white shark as the town prepares for the holiday, the movie is a mix of \u201970s-style ramshackle, good-natured ease and precison-tooled action that prefigures the blockbuster era of the \u201980s. Even now at more than 50 years old, there is something undeniable about the movie\u2019s ability to entertain, delight and terrify an audience.<\/p>\n

This weekend \u201cJaws\u201d is playing at venues all over the city, including the Frida Cinema<\/a> and the Academy Museum<\/a>, as well as Vidiots<\/a>, the Gardena Cinema<\/a> and other theaters.<\/p>\n

An underground masterpiece \"A <\/p>\n

An image from Ken Jacobs\u2019 2004 movie \u201cStar Spangled to Death.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Los Angeles Filmforum)<\/p>\n

When acclaimed avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs died last year at age 92, the world lost one of its most singular voices. In tribute to Jacobs and as a celebration of the 250th anniversary of America, on Sunday at 2220 Arts + Archives, Los Angeles Filmforum<\/a> will show his \u201cStar Spangled to Death,\u201d<\/b> a six-and-a-half-hour masterpiece that took decades to complete.<\/p>\n

Beginning work on the project in the 1950s, Jacobs would eventually premiere the film in 2004. It is an epic compilation of his own imagery, some of it of his longtime friend and colleague Jack Smith, along with found footage that coalesces into a grand statement on nothing less than the state of the nation. Jacobs himself described the film as a portrait of \u201ca stolen and dangerously sold-out America, allowing examples of popular culture to self-indict.\u201d<\/p>\n

A tribute to Marjane Satrapi \"A <\/p>\n

An image from the 2007 movie \u201cPersepolis,\u201d directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud.<\/p>\n

(Sony Pictures Classics)<\/p>\n

In tribute to Iranian French cartoonist and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi, who died at age 56 last month, the Los Feliz 3<\/a> will have a 35mm screening of her 2007 animated film \u201cPersepolis\u201d<\/b> on Thursday. Director Ana Lily Amirpour will introduce the movie, which was nominated for an Oscar for animated feature.<\/p>\n

Based on Satrapi\u2019s own autobiographical graphic novel, \u201cPersepolis\u201d is about a young girl coming of age during Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolution told with bold line drawings and a belief in the freedom of the imagination.<\/p>\n

Love, crime and sweat \"Two <\/p>\n

Katy O\u2019Brian, left, and Kristen Stewart in the 2024 movie \u201cLove Lies Bleeding.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Anna Kooris \/ A24)<\/p>\n

Some movies arrive seeming ready made as cult revival objects. Ross Glass\u2019 2024 \u201cLove Lies Bleeding\u201d<\/b> was overlooked when it was first released but seems ripe for rediscovery. In a story that knowingly plays with the motifs of classic film noir and crime dramas, Kristen Stewart plays a hapless, easily manipulated loner in a small dead-end town who falls in with a mysterious and charismatic drifter played by Katy O\u2019Brian. Their chemistry is electric and gives the film a real charge.<\/p>\n

The film will show on Thursday at the Frida Cinema<\/a> as part of its ongoing Nu-Classics series, along with a conversation between actors and online personalities Maggie Mae Fish and Abigail Thorn.<\/p>\n

In an interview at the time of release, Glass talked about<\/a> the film\u2019s appeal, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s people meeting each other and falling in love for the first time and those whirlwind sort of first few weeks. Going into it, I don\u2019t think I was specifically thinking of it as horny, but I definitely knew going into it that I wanted it to feel sweaty and intense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Road to nowhere \"A <\/p>\n

An image from William Friedkin\u2019s 1977 adventure movie \u201cSorcerer.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Criterion Collection)<\/p>\n

Though it is a movie we have talked about here before, it is always worth mentioning when there is a screening of William Friedkin\u2019s 1977 \u201cSorcerer.\u201d<\/b> It will be playing tonight in the main room at the Academy Museum<\/a> in a recent 4K restoration, which should be big and loud. The score by Tangerine Dream should be even more brain-rattling than usual in that venue.<\/p>\n

The film notoriously first opened a week after \u201cStar Wars\u201d in 1977 and was left in the dust, though it has more recently become revered as one of Friedkin\u2019s best \u2014 a movie of relentless, ratcheting tension. An adaptation of the novel that also inspired 1953\u2019s \u201cWages of Fear,\u201d Friedkin\u2019s film is about a group of desperate men, each on the run from something, who must transport a truckload of nitroglycerine through a dangerous South American jungle.<\/p>\n

New this week<\/p>\n