The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, August 5-11
Let’s Get Lost (1988)
Directed by Bruce Weber
Immersed in dazzling underground jazz joints and hiding beneath an umbra of smoke, we find craggy, solemn Chet Baker—a man whose tremendous talents don’t quite supersede his notorious behavior. Weber’s improvisational film (about, candidly, an improvisational trumpeter and singer) focuses on the tumultuous relationships throughout Baker’s life (several wives, heroin, alcohol, lady nicotine) and how the James Dean-esque boy from Oklahoma was catapulted into the West Coast scene, only to plummet soon afterward. The film is comprised of recent takes of Baker in the studio, and with friends (notably––?––Flea), alongside old footage of the Steve Allen show and other enigmatic performances. The friendly anecdotes and weary insight from ex-friends and -lovers provide a beautiful catharsis from Baker’s volatile life, which ended months before the movie’s premiere. Samantha Vacca (August 9, 4pm, 9pm at BAM’s “Indie 80s”)