MoMA honoree Alexander Mackendrick (L) coaxes horrible badness from Sweet Smell of Success' Burt Lancaster

Jesus. I fucking hate spending $20 to get into the Museum of Modern Art, and I am too broke/cheap to spring for a membership. But the Film Department makes it almost impossibly challenging to stay away with series like those starting next month, showcasing both director Alexander Mackendrick and the indie heroes at New York's Killer Films.

The Mackendrick series runs Sept. 5-30 and features all nine of the director's films, from his great British work for Ealing Studios (The Ladykillers, The Man in the White Suit) to his American masterpiece, Sweet Smell of Success—my own favorite film and arguably the best NYC movie ever made. Mackendrick's widow Hilary will be on hand to introduce the Sept. 29 screenings of Whisky Galore! and Sweet Smell, while a panel discussion of Mackendrick's film and academic work will close the retrospective on Sept. 30.

Later in the month, Christine Vachon and Co. get the MoMA treatment with Swoon: 10 Years of Killer Films. Which is only a tad confusing since the selections date back to 1989 and the old-school Apparatus years, but whatever: Whoever thought of celebrating Killer's colorful canon of everything from avant-queer iconography (Poison, Swoon) to transgressive camp (A Dirty Shame, Hedwig and the Angry Inch) to subtle suburban masterworks (Safe, Happiness) should be nominated for some sort of humanitarian prize. Of course, Vachon and partners Katie Roumel and Pamela Koffler themselves may deserve the prize first for guiding these and numerous other embattled classics to the screen (and still accepting unsolicited screenplays for review, as far as I know), but maybe a MoMA nod is close enough.

The only thing missing here is a screening of Todd Haynes' Superstar, which would nicely tie everything back to its underground roots and whose appearance on a big screen would more than compensate for the $20 cost of admission. Failing that, a few special events include Mary Harron introducing the NYC premiere of her The Notorious Bettie Page, as well as other screening introductions by Todd Haynes and John Waters.

MoMA also features a week-long Ross McElwee series next month, which you can read plenty about over on Cinematical. Start saving up or planning your necessary robberies now.