Get your fill of ultraviolence when Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 A Clockwork Orange gets a two-day run as part of the River Oaks Theatre Weekend Midnight Movie series. Kubrick described A Clockwork Orange as “a running lecture on free will” and set it in a dystopian near-future England. It’s the shocking story of a gleeful sociopath, Alex (Malcolm McDowell). We watch as he ruthlessly rapes, beats and robs random strangers for no better reason than that he enjoys it. Okay, that’s disturbing. Then we watch as government officials subject Alex to brutal aversion therapy to extinguish his violent tendencies. (The therapy includes showing him hours and hours of savage images while his eyelids are pried open.) Yeah, that’s also disturbing. Then we watch as a “reformed” and violence-free Alex is thrown back into the world and falls prey to his previous victims (who have now adopted his hostile behavior as a result of Alex’s attacks). The film closes as Alex regains his natural predator personality. And, oh yeah, that’s really disturbing. Exercise your free will and see one of the most controversial films ever made.
11:55 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 2009 West Gray. For information, call 713‑866‑8881 or visit landmartheatres.com. $10.50.
Fri., Jan. 16, 11:55 p.m.; Sat., Jan. 17, 11:55 p.m., 2015
This article appears in Jan 15-21, 2015.