Underrated ‘Carlito’s Way’ gets a showing at the Castro
“Carlito’s Way”: Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas” has become a rock-solid American classic on the order of “The Godfather.” Less known and sadly neglected is “Carlito’s Way,” Brian De Palma’s tour de force starring Al Pacino as a Puerto Rican criminal trying to go straight as a discotheque owner in the 1970s. They play together in a crime-filled double feature Sunday, Nov. 22, at the Castro Theatre. “Goodfellas” doesn’t need my help, so the focus here is on “Carlito’s Way,” which is rarely screened in rep houses. Dripping with delirious style and excess (the New Yorker said the climax “suggests what Orson Welles could have done with a Steadicam”), the film was named the best of the 1990s by the influential French magazine Cahiers du Cinema. But the crux of the film is the very interesting relationship between Pacino and his sleazy lawyer, played by a terrific Sean Penn. 4:45 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22 (with “Goodfellas” at 2 and 7:30 p.m.). Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St., S.F. (415) 621-6120. www.castrotheatre.com. Rock Your Body: Justin Timberlake Sing-A-Long Show: The folks that bring you S.F. In-dieFest invite you to a mass karaoke, singing along with Justin Timberlake videos, including “SexyBack” and, yes, “Dick in a Box.” 9:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 20, at the Roxie Theater, 3117 16th St., S.F. (415) 863-1087. www.roxie.com. “Escape From New York”: The first of four John Carpenter-Kurt Russell collaborations was in a sense an underground hit in the summer of 1981; it did decent box office, but got sort of lost in the shuffle among “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Superman II” and “Clash of the Titans,” all released within a couple of months of each other. And yet it’s just as much a classic now, buoyed by Carpenter’s gritty sense of fun and Russell snarling through his signature performance as Snake Plissken, a convict recruited to rescue the kidnapped U.S. president (Donald Pleasance) from Manhattan, which has turned into a maximum-security prison zone. Midnight Friday and Saturday, Nov. 20 and 21. Landmark’s Clay Theatre, 2261 Fillmore St., S.F. (415) 5619921. www.landmarktheatres.com.