The Caveman of Atomic City; Free CeCe; The General Specific
cabin he lived in with his wife, Eurithe, takes the same meditative but upbeat tone as the Twitter account. Purdy, who died in 2000, is presented as a flawed man — a loyal friend and devoted debater of life’s mysteries who loved to entertain other writers at his home but who was uninterested in fatherhood. In copious archival footage, voice recordings, and photography, the writer is revealed as a hard-drinking, rough-andtumble sort. Eurithe, in her nineties and still spry enough to assist with the restoration of her old home as a writers’ retreat, is the stalwart star of the show. Purdy was a quiet man, she says, her eyes tired and her smile thin. All the rest was image. — Jennifer Levin Violet Crown, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20; 11 a.m. Oct. 22; 3:10 p.m. Oct. 23
THE CAVEMAN OF ATOMIC CITY documentary, 79 minutes, not rated, 2.5 chiles
Just outside a town known for its weaponry and secrets, in the shadow of the Los Alamos National Lab, a man who calls himself micromike lived undetected in caves for several years. He has given up most earthly comforts to pursue a unified theory of connectedness called gravionics, which unites science, love, and spirituality. Though he now lives in a proper (solar-powered) house, he is no less eager to share his message, which has a lot to do with a giant meteorite from Mars that he has in his possession. Filmmaker Paul Ratner follows micromike around, weaving his story into the history of Los Alamos, atomic theory, and the ways in which the scientific establishment receives the ideas of outsiders. micromike presents a compelling character study, and the film’s strongest moments have him opining (opaquely) against the stunning Northern New Mexico landscape he knows and loves so well. But along with skeptical scientists, disjointed storytelling and amateurish graphics dilute micromike’s already muddled message. — Molly Boyle The Screen, 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20; 1 p.m. Oct. 23
FREE CECE documentary, 100 minutes, not rated, 3.5 chiles
Laverne Cox (Orange Is the New Black) guides viewers through this informative and challenging account of the incarceration of CeCe McDonald, a transgender woman who went to prison after fatally stabbing a man for assaulting her outside a Minneapolis bar in 2011. The documentary opens with the chaos of the altercation and is front-loaded with McDonald’s arrest and trial, during which the media and legal system portrayed her as a man and the incident as a standard street fight. The case inspired an international human rights outcry. Director Jacqueline Gares uses footage from interviews with trans-rights advocates and McDonald’s mother, juxtaposing the interviews with more mundane moments, such as when McDonald must recreate her wardrobe and beauty routine after being released from prison. The movie reveals assumptions about trans women of color and the transgender community, the high rate of violence they face, and what it means to be gender-non-conforming in open society and within the prison system. Cox’s interviewing skills visibly improve as she gets more deeply involved with the project, and McDonald, who becomes a prison abolitionist, is revealed as a resilient, bighearted person who comes out on the other side of her ordeal a thoughtful, focused activist. — J.L. Violet Crown, 3:15 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20; 3:15 p.m. Oct. 21
THE GENERAL SPECIFIC comedy, 80 minutes, not rated, 3 chiles
Matthew Stanasolovich’s comedy about a young man who returns to New Mexico to wreak havoc on the lives of family and friends is the first feature from the writer-director, an Albuquerque native who shot The
General Specific in New Mexico using mostly nonactors. In the film, Alexander McHarren (Elliot Gross) is a recent dropout from an Ivy League university who uses his arcane knowledge of medieval philosophy to derail conversations, attacking the people he meets with unprovoked but pointed criticisms, all the while keeping his motivations hidden.
It is a picaresque and episodic tale of disruption. Alexander is like a phantom from the id, appearing to hold others to account for real and imagined slights against him. But it’s a credit to Gross’ acting and Stanasolovich’s script that we can relate to him and that he makes us laugh. — M.A. Jean Cocteau Cinema, 10 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20; 8:30 p.m. Oct. 22