The Zero Theorem
Terry Gilliam returns with another Dystopian Sci-Fi thriller, the third installment in a series that began with Brazil and followed with 12 Monkeys. Qohen Leth (Christropher Waltz) is an eccentric computer programmer who works for an ominous and shadowy entity known simply as Management, but finds himself in the midst of an existentialist crisis, trapped in a new world order that leaves no room for individual expression.

Maybe if Management had installed a ping-pong table in the lobby and set aside mandatory nap-time hours for their programmers, they wouldn’t be having this issue with the wayward Qohen Leth. Friday September 19th through Thursday September 25, various showtimes at IFC Center; tickets, $14

 

Art and Craft
A documentary about ultimate troll Mark Landis,  one of the most successful art forgers of all time. He’s never been busted for giving away hundreds of fakes– from Picassos to 15th century icons– to various art institutions across the United States over a period of 30 years. The filmmakers also follow Matthew Leininger, a registrar who’s become obsessed with tracking Landis’s forgeries and is hellbent on exposing him. “What’s so strange about Landis is that he isn’t in it for the money,” Leininger explains.”He likes to dupe museum professionals, and he likes to see the stuff on display.” Friday, Sept. 19 through Thursday, Sept. 25, various showtimes at Angelika Film Center, Lower East Side; tickets, $14

 

Millennium Mambo
A young woman, Vicky, looks back on her life 10 years prior, when she was working as a hostess at a bar, in-and-out of troubled relationships, and boozing and drugging her way through the Taipei club scene. This isn’t Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s most critically acclaimed film. One critic wrote that “disjointed and fragmentary, Millennium Mambo frequently confounds.” But went on to concede the film is still “lovely and elusive, enthralling and empty.” But Millennium Mambo‘s appeal is in the filmmaker’s fondness for the sort of disjointed, dizzying, washed-out portrayal of youth shared by at least one writer we can think of who also happens to have a connection to Taipei. Millennium Mambo is part of Museum of the Moving Image’s month-long retrospective of Hou Hsia-Hsien’s films, Also Like Life. Friday, September 19th, 7:3-0 pm at the Museum of the Moving Image, Long Island City; tickets $12 at the door.

 

She’s All That
Seeing all the awkward teens around the city parade back to school probably inspired you to reminisce at least a little bit about your own youth. Or maybe the sight actually reawakened awful memories of the never-ending soul-crushing trauma of teenage-hood. But simmer, because this weekend you can reprogram the lingering horror and replace it with the drama, redemption, and eventual triumph of She’s All That. If that proves to be unsuccessful, you can spend a night debating whether Freddy Prinze, Jr. was actually attractive and trying to figure out how on earth he came to be the late ’90s heartthrob. This is one of the great mysteries of the pre-Millennium y’all. Friday September 19th and Saturday September 20th, 12:00 am at Sunshine Cinema, Lower East Side; tickets, $10

 

Heavenly Creatures
Hey! It’s the work of Peter Jackson long before he made those awful movies– uh whatever they’re called. But seriously, this movie is fantastic, and it’s based on a totally true, totally bizarre case of murder in 1950s New Zealand. Two young girls, Juliet (Kate Winslet) and Pauline (Melanie Lynskey), are best pals who develop a deep, borderline obsessive romantic relationship. Frightened by the girls’ intense connection, their parents go to great lengths to separate them. But the pair are totally not about that, so they do the only thing they really can and kill Pauline’s mother. Friday Sept. 19 and Saturday, Sept. 20, 12:10 am at Nitehawk Cinema, Williamsburg; tickets, $11