Still Not Buried

In 1985, a tripwire bomb murdered Palestinian-American poet and teacher Alex Odeh, the night he was scheduled to speak at a Jewish community center in Santa Ana. The FBI quickly identified suspects, yet the cold-case doc Who Killed Alex Odeh? is a loaded question because the mystery is why the investigation was left to rot. It's about the systemic devaluing of these lives and how "national security" can make a mockery of justice. Winner of the Sundance Special Jury Award for Journalistic Excellence, and co-directed by a Jewish-American and a Palestinian-American, the film demonstrates the bridge-building Odeh himself practiced.

Over the span of almost two decades, Thao & the Get Down Stay Down evolved from indie alt-folk to nu-disco grooves and art rock, until frontwoman Thao Nguyen retired the band in favor of her first solo album as THAO. Co-produced with Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner of Tune-Yards, "Show Me" adds sunshine-warm pop with a trip-hop pulse to the now Oakland-based singer-songwriter's frank, hushed vocals about queer love and post-divorce reckoning, featuring collaborations with Neko Case (the slinky "Catch as Catch Can") and eight-time Grammy nominee Adrian Quesada ("Nguyen Nguyen Lose Lose").

Terence Fisher was 52 when legendary UK studio Hammer handed him The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), which proved what a late bloomer with a Technicolor painter's eye could do with a written-off genre. Though he refused the word "auteur," Metrograph's "Terence Fisher: Hammer's Master Smith" (ongoing through November 8) bluntly makes the case for the king of mid-century Gothic chills, including a Halloween triple bill: the aforementioned Curse (4K restoration), plus Horror of Dracula (1958) and The Brides of Dracula (1960) in 35mm. Peter Cushing's Van Helsing stakes it, and Christopher Lee is counting on you.

Two Questions for Jenn Wexler. The Brooklyn-based filmmaker (The Ranger, The Sacrifice Game) takes the helm of The Last Temptation of Becky, the third Becky franchise installment, which sends Lulu Wilson's Nazi-killing heroine to Poland as the CIA's youngest operative, up against Neil Patrick Harris' basement-dwelling Hitler acolytes. The film screens nationwide as a one-night event on November 4 (and 5th, see showtimes). We caught up by Zoom:

Your Instagram is @bubblegumandblood, which is a good shorthand for your films. How did that sensibility shape your approach to Becky? It's so funny, I made that in 2009 because those are the kinds of movies that I felt, at that time, spiritually involved with. Now that I am a filmmaker, it's fun because I do want to keep making movies in that kind of vein. I was a big fan of the Becky movies to begin with. I really resonated with this young girl fighting off these older dudes. [Producer] Chadd Harbold knew my films and felt I would be a good fit. So I met with Lulu, we hit it off, and it was like: "Let's go kill some Nazis."

Are you dressing up for Halloween this year? I'm gonna be Alice, Sweet Alice. We already have a yellow raincoat, because a few years ago [my husband] Sean went as the kid from It, so I'm gonna dress up like a schoolgirl with my mask and knife. Probably my favorite costume of all time was when my friend and I were "The Morning After." We wore men's shirts, very short shorts and heels, fucked up our makeup, had cigarettes dangling, and I put a condom in my hair. But my best horror costume? Sean and I went as the leads from Midsommar; he was Florence Pugh in the white dress and crown, and I was the boyfriend inside a bear. Then I reused that a couple years later as Cocaine Bear.