Film events to catch in New York City this summer

Future Imperfect: The Uncanny in Science Fiction

From July 17 through August 31, the Museum of Modern Art is screening up to 70 sci-fi movies. The film series will explore ambitious contributions to the genre, including expected hits from the likes of Steven Spielberg (Close Encounters of the Third Kind), as well as experimental additions from filmmakers like Michael Snow (Wavelength).

One highlight is Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly, a mind-bending animated film based on Philip K. Dick’s novel about an undercover cop who discovers the conspiracy behind a dangerous new drug.

Japanese Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film

Running at Japan Society until July 23rd, this annual series delves into recent Japanese cinema. The festival’s centerpiece, Over the Fence, is a drama from Nobuhiro Yamashita about a man learning carpentry to overcome past trauma.

Other highlights are Daguerrotype, a French language film (named after the 19th-century photographic process) from prolific director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and a preview of the anime feature In This Corner Of The World by Sunao Katabuchi, about a girl struggling to feed her family in Hiroshima during World War II.

Scary Movies X

At Lincoln Center’s Film Society until July 20th, catch a blend of new horror along with the genre’s most infamous titles. Director and actor Bob Balaban will be in attendance at screenings for his 1989 film Parents, the grisly tale of a boy who fears his dinner is actually human remains, and My Boyfriend’s Back (1993), wherein a zombie teenager dutifully turns up to take his date to prom.

The 10th-anniversary edition of Scary Movies is also showing Australian thriller Killing Ground by Damien Power, in which a camping trip inevitably turns into a horrific ordeal, and 1981 slasher film Happy Birthday To Me by J. Lee Thompson, which reminds us of the horror of being a teenager.