2005 Moonlit Matinees

The Pittsburgh area's best independent theater, The Oaks Theater, released this Summer's Moonlit Matinee schedule.

Highlights include: An Evening with Bruce Campbell, Meet the Feebles, The Usual Suspects, and A Clockwork Orange.

The highlight of all highlights looks like it will be an Evening with Crispin Glover. Here are some details of his film, "What Is It?": Ten years and numerous incarnations in the making, Crispin Hellion Glover's “WHAT IS IT?” is an aptly titled film that defies easy summarization but is a triumph of cinematic irreverence and uncompromising creativity. The film (which contains graphic sexuality) flows between controversial imagery and story lines: a minstrel in blackface who aspires to be an invertebrate by injecting snail enzymes into his cheek; a Shirley Temple dictator in Nazi garb; a naked man with cerebral palsy lying on a giant seashell, being fondled by a naked woman wearing a monkey mask; talking snails getting repeatedly salted; and watching over all, an enthroned Glover in a full-length fur coat…It is a thoroughly challenging visual experience as well as a compelling allegory for society and its outcasts. As the visual absurdity of the film rides along at a fever pitch, Glover's innate humanism injects the seemingly inhuman scenario with a deep pathos that captures the viewers' attention and consideration. Truly one of the most original films ever created, “WHAT IS IT?” will shock, intrigue, confound, disturb, and amaze even the most jaded viewers. (Trevor Groth, Sundance Film Festival)