The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, August 5-11
Heartworn Highways (1976)
Directed by James Szalapski
A bittersweet amble down memory lane for lovers of the “outlaw country” movement. Mumblemouthed good ol’ boy Mack McGowan provides a little perspective, explaining that the Grand Ol’ Opry had “gotten a little bit snobbish” and the outlaws got back to the basics. But mostly, the film sidesteps explication—the musicians generally aren’t even identified until the final credits—to deliver a nearly nonstop stream of songs, interspersed with anecdotes and observations, from the likes of Guy Clark (soulful), David Allan Coe (hitting the bad-boy chord a tad too hard) and Townes Van Zandt (sweetly funny and searingly poetic). The filmmaking is often clunky, but all is forgiven when a beautiful young Steve Earle holds the other musicians around the kitchen table spellbound during the long, drunken jam session that ends this tender time capsule. Elise Nakhnikian (August 6, 6:30pm at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s “Sound + Vision”)