The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

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The far-out title is a giveaway: Buckaroo Banzai is a comic sci-fi adventure with an unusual dramatis personae — one that includes Dr. Emilio Lizardo (John Lithgow), John Bigbooté (Christopher Lloyd), and New Jersey (cowboy-garbed Jeff Goldblum), a member of our hero's pack of assistants, the Hong Kong Cavaliers. Pre-Robocop Peter Weller plays the eponymous polymath — physicist, martial artist, '80s rock star — who battles the Lizardo-led Red Lectroids from Planet 10; they're after his "Oscillation Overthruster," which they need to open a portal to the quarantined dimension in the title. With the aid of a Rastafarian alien, Buckaroo must — to say those three little words — save the world. Sacrosanct for aficionados (known as the Blue Blazer Irregulars), this fantastic cult film is a guaranteed trip.

North by Northwest Titles

Under the Rainbow

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There's no place like the Culver City Hotel, which accommodates a bingo-card of comic stereotypes in Under the Rainbow: Japanese tourists, little people, and aristocrats who slip into "Made at Warner" accents. Directed by the who-dini behind Son in Law, Steve Rash, this 1981 farce stars Chevy Chase as a secret agent who's out to protect eccentric royals from Europe. Meanwhile — and there are umpteen "meanwhile"s in this loopy film — Carrie Fisher plays the love interest/talent scout looking to cast munchkins for The Wizard of Oz. Zee Führer has also sent a pint-sized spy to meet a white-suited Japanese counterpart — simple, except there's a platoon of the identically dressed at the hotel.

Celebrate Brooklyn presents Dean & Britta's 13 Most Beautiful... Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests w/ Crystal Stilts

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Between 1964 and 1966, Andy Warhol amassed 472 Screen Tests, immortalizing the Factory coterie, friends, and random posers in four-minute bursts of lustrous, slow-motion monochrome. Facing the camera, each sitter acts and reacts idiosyncratically: Edie Sedgwick stares into the near-distance with a dear-in-headlights allure; Lou Reed looks tough as he knocks back a Coke; and Dennis Hopper zones out, only to slacken into a mischievous smile. Dean & Britta score 13 of these minimalist portraits with hypnotic originals, covers, and instrumentals — i.e. during Nico's vignette, they redo "I'll Keep It With Mine," which Dylan penned for the Teutonic chanteuse. Beforehand, the Crystal Stilts set the evening's lost-in-thought tenor with some gloomy, garage-pop.

Fela Kuti: Music is the Weapon

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At the start of this compulsive 1982 profile, the Afrobeat pioneer lets loose a serious boast: "I will be President of Nigeria." As support, the filmmakers shuttle between footage of Fela's infectious performances at his Afrika Shrine and interviews in which the "prophet" sounds off on multinationals, the "spiritual life" of music, and Nigeria's militaristic regime. An irrepressible man of the people, it's Fela's personal life that fascinates — his Western education, his 27 wives (married en masse in 1977 and called the Queens), his love of crime-ridden Lagos, and his righteous struggle for African unity.

Animation Block Party

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The Animation Block Party returns to Brooklyn to draw in newcomers and connoisseurs. On Friday, Rooftop Films opens the fest with shorts by Bill Plympton and past audience-pleaser Ben Meinhardt — plus a string of animated nods to Bruce Lee, Craig T. Nelson, and the Ocean's 12 clique. Come Saturday and Sunday, BAMCinématek becomes a mecca with four standout programs: the first caters to experimental tastes, while the student-prevalent second is decidedly lighter, with tales of an existential juice box and an exploration of the word "butterface;" the inimitable Don Hertzfeldt anchors a third program that includes Douchey the Douchebag expounding on the risks of J-walking; and discovery — whether it be Amelica, land of bears, or a lost mother — is rife in the closing lineup.

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

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There's sorcery in D.A. Pennebaker's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, a "glitter chrome" record of David Bowie's last concert as the orange-haired camp icon. Throughout, the lads and lasses present at the Hammersmith Odeon on July 3, 1973, move as if under the influence of a holy spirit. Indeed, from the neon credits on — and in spite of spotty, red-hued visuals that seem transmitted from Mars — Bowie struts with such glitz and sass that you're taken aback with appreciation for this showman. As the four-piece cycles through a classic playlist, that "character looking for a film" flaunts a catalog of outré-wear, each cockeyed outfit more impressive than the last.

G.I. Joe Fest

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Before the franchise gets the Transformers treatment, Hasbro's most popular action figures arrive at the 92Y with decidedly more expressive performances. Tonight, the combat-ready plastics appear onscreen for the G.I. Joe Fest, which provides an occasion to share make-believe scenarios that put the "k" in front of the toy lover's id. The subjects of these stop-motion animated shorts are idiosyncratic: there's one in which G.I. Joe and Cobra settle their feud on the dance floor; another about the folly of the War on Drugs; and salutes to adventure classics like Indiana Jones and the Antarctic screamer The Thing.

Contempt

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Jean-Luc Godard's most "commercial" effort, Contempt describes the iconoclast's opinion towards that "school" of filmmaking, as well as the state of union between a for-hire screenwriter (Michel Piccoli) and his spouse (Brigitte Bardot). There's trouble in paradiso from the start, with Bardot's famous anatomy inspiring a "totally, tenderly, tragically" ado. Making home-matters worse, a cocksure American producer (Jack Palance) proceeds to make bedroom eyes at Bardot after hiring her husband to emend Fritz Lang's art-haus Odyssey. The artistic and marital compromises that arise from this ménage à trois are couched in an epic tone, thanks to classical meditations and the imperial vistas of location-shot Italy.

Escoffier Dinner

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For its eighth Monthly Dinner, Monkey Town serves up one of the most chewed-over films in history — Last Year at Marienbad (1961) — alongside six chateau-worthy courses taken from Auguste Escoffier's famous cookbook. Although the numbers on tonight's carte du jour could pass as a caloric meter on the uptick, they actually refer to the recipes' order (out of 2,973) in Escoffier's culinary Bible; to taste, #720 is potage derby, a cream of rice soup, chicken, foie gras, and truffles, while #2015 is a salade niçoise. The coded menu seems particularly apt for Alain Resnais' glyph-rich study of memory, in which the leads are called A and X.

Nick Ray Festival

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At the tail end of Nicholas Ray's 1954 alt-Western Johnny Guitar, a moribund old hand utters a triumphant alas to his boss, Joan Crawford: "Look... everybody's looking at me. It's the first time I ever felt important." Appreciation for the outsider ripples across Ray's oeuvre, from the running lovers of his inspiriting debut, They Live By Night, to the torn-apart adolescents of Rebel Without a Cause. Film Forum reminds New York cineastes why this auteur merited that famed bouquet from Godard ("le cinéma, c'est Nicholas Ray") with 14 films over the next two weeks. Other essentials include the marvelous noir-in-snow, On Dangerous Ground, and the jazzy, Technicolor palette of Wind Across the Everglades.

Binge and Purge

This is a short animation from Ben Meinhardt; hope you are as amused by it as I was.

Binge and Purge - Vancouver Film School (VFS)

King of Pop, Master of the Music Video: A Tribute to Michael Jackson

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Michael Jackson's personal life might have been an unholy tangle, but the King of Pop's music and videos will remain sacred to the masses — there have been few artists who warrant a pilgrimage to see their feet. Tonight, bump his many hits on earbuds as you take the train up to Harlem for what should be a fabulous and boisterous occasion. A selection of his innovative music videos makes for a mesmerizing opening hour. Afterward, John Landis and Jerry Kramer's 1983 making-of-Thriller documentary supplies a fix of nostalgia and euphoria before everyone can participate in a rendition of that signature, otherworldly dance.

Red Dawn

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Bourne scribe Tony Gilroy recently attached his name to the why-oh-why remake of Red Dawn, ostensibly to update the paranoiac tone of the Cold War original and, surely, to reshape the action into something foreign for '80s Swayze: realistic. Tonight, catch John Milius' bloody, far-out 1984 ode to that rat-ta-tat-tat, as part of a series out to re-screen early-HBO Film classics. It's best to forget our recent nuclear accord with Russia, as our comrades — with their preposterous, Cuban-supported invasion of the Midwest — are stopped "butt cold" by the Wolverines, a ragtag resistance made up of just-graduated Swayze, juvenile guerrillas like Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey, and plenty of all-empowering firearms.

West Side Story

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"Be lithe or die" sums up the m.o. of West Side Story, that 1961 musical in which all of multi-ethnic New York appears ready to baile. The tale is famously star-crossed: Romeo translates in city patois as Tony (Richard Beymer), a reformed lad whose street cred stems from co-founding the Jets, an Anglo gang at tragic odds with the Puerto Rican Sharks — Juliet/Maria (Natalie Wood) happens to be their leader's sister. Although this supercharged film was lifted from Broadway with its dream tandem — Stephen Sondheim's lyrics and Leonard Bernstein's score — untouched, it's co-director/choreographer Jerome Robbins' nimble and ultra-expressive dances that last, with each pirouette announcing a "Beat-It" threat.

Humpday

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Don't let the doltish title dissuade: Humpday is a truly astute comedy of manners. Herein lies the basic setup behind Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy, namely two old, now-opposite homeboys who reunite in the Northwest for a brief furlough from their separate paths. Joshua Leonard (of Blair Witch notoriety) portrays the transient, would-be artist Andrew to Mark Duplass' plain-vanilla Ben who, with "pleats, pedometer, and a wife (Alycia Delmore)," nears that how-did-I-get-here family life. Then one drunken night, the two restless heteros determine to shoot a porn film together for The Stranger's annual amateur festival; doubtless, the hanky-panky doesn't come out the way they expect. Throughout, director Lynn Shelton oversees the bromantic pursuit of happiness with penetrating wit and insight.

French New Wave Essentials

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As with best-loved athletes, certain last names can be tonic: Godard, Truffaut, Resnais, Chabrol, Demy. It's been a half-century since the French New Wave auteurs — sick and critical of the fusty cinéma de papa being manufactured on home soil — issued a series of heady, change-of-pace debuts. This canonical series includes chef d'oeuvres like Agnès Varda's by-the-moment beauty Cleo 5 to 7 and Eric Rohmer's exquisite My Night at Maud's, plus two trailblazers in Jean-Pierre Melville's all-or-nothing noir Bob Le Flambeur and Roger Vadim's Bardot-baring And God Created Woman. Of the five Godards set to unspool, the must-see is Alphaville, in which the future is rendered a hardboiled, sci-fi netherworld.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

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Tinseltown's motto is simple: when in doubt, redouble. Last month's Washington & Travolta rendition of the 1974 metro thriller, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, was just business as usual, another in a conga line of follow-the-leader remakes. Tonight's outdoor screening proves yet again that the original can't be eclipsed. In this NYC classic, Walter Matthau's half-empty-finding transit lieutenant becomes the negotiator when four armed men methodically hijack a midday six train. Marshaled by Robert Shaw and his sonorous voice, the ad-hoc crew — each anonymous robber called Mr. Blue, Grey, and so on — demands a million-dollar ransom for the passengers before setting a tense and ingenious getaway in motion.

Swayze Days of Summer

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Call it happenstance: the role of Danny Zuko, Grease's rebel-with-cause-to-boogie, not only thrust John Travolta onto center stage, but eventually led studios to another low-rent thespian, one Patrick Wayne Swayze. Swayze, who was a figure skater of some repute at the time, soon became the '80s idol that nobody kept in the corner. This month, 92Y presents four of his superheated classics from the decade. Naturally there's Dirty Dancing, but the camp starts with the outrageous Road House, in which Swayze plays a philosophizing he-man who rescues a Missouri nightclub from the local scumbags. He's another saves-the-day hero in the futuristic Shane-wannabe Steel Dawn (not to be confused with his Red Dawn, sadly not featured in this series); Twitter fans selected early favorite The Outsiders to bookend this summer-appropriate series.