The State Theater of Ann Arbor caters to true film lovers unlike any other theater I know. They pillage through piles of Sundance favorites to find the ones we really need to know about. They resurrect cult classics on select Saturdays at midnight, and they use a discerning eye when deciding what Hollywood big budget films they’ll put up on the marquee. And who can forget about The Rocky Horror Picture Show? They play it two nights in a row on two separate occasions per year—and they bring in a professional theater crew to reenact it live in front of the screen. So when they recently announced that September will be Quentin Tarantino month, it seemed like a logical next step for a theater that is consistently striving to honor great cinema.
The video clerk turned actor, turned screenwriter, turned critically acclaimed director has an impressive catalog of history-changing masterpieces, but the State Theater has chosen what are arguably his four most significant films to share with midnight moviegoers: his gritty, out-of-nowhere debut, “Reservoir Dogs” (Sept. 10), the decade-defining “Pulp Fiction” (Sept. 17) and his ultra-violent multi-genre fantasy, “Kill Bill Vol. 1” and “Kill Bill Vol. 2,” which will be played back to back (Sept. 24).
I’m in no rush for summer to be over, but I couldn’t think of a more stylish way to welcome fall.