The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, January 18-24
Mac & Me (1988)
Directed by Stewart Raffill
Should you stake your family’s happiness and survival on some All-American corporate products? Mac & Me says yes, or else wheel off a cliff to your doom. Inspired by Steven Spielberg’s triumphs in capturing the world’s tears/dollars via a cuddly, candy-eating alien in 1982’s ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, Stewart Raffill (between The Ice Pirates and Mannequin II) attempted to warm audiences with his own suburban sci-fi. Instead, we got the equivalent of a six-years-neglected batch of McDonald’s fries nuked in the microwave. On a desert planet—presumably where the E.T. Atari games were buried—NASA picks up a family of unhealthy-looking pucker-mouthed aliens. The youngest of them—later dubbed “Mac,” which means “Mysterious Alien Creature,” and nothing more—latches onto a family: Christine Ebersole raising two boys (teenage Jonathan Ward and wheelchair-bound Jade Calegory) on her own. Blatant product placement wrapped around bumbling hijinks ensue—in lieu of a bike chase, see G-Men tail Calegory through the suburbs on foot! Witness lives get saved via Coca-Cola’s revitalizing elixir, teaching the world to sing in perfect harmony! Get down with the McDonalds dance number, even if I feel sluggish after eating one Big Mac! This shameless fever dream of Reagan-era ideals—maintaining a big home on a retail salary; riding away in a pink Cadillac after achieving citizenship—is made even more fascinating when you consider that Alamo allows you to watch it while eating upscale versions of the junk food depicted onscreen. Touché. Max Kyburz (January 18, 9:30pm at the Alamo Drafthouse)