The Outsiders: When they were young and poor

This weekend's worthwhile cinematic happenings around New York:

--So let's just say you did not get your Matt Dillon fix earlier this week on The Reeler. Well, Francis Ford Coppola heard your prayers and has answered them with The Outsiders: The Complete Novel, which gets a theatrical showing in New York this weekend ahead of its two-disc DVD release Sept. 20. Basically, you have a bunch of "new" old footage spliced in with the "old" old footage, which, like Apocalypse Now Redux, saves Coppola from having to make an actual new movie. But if the only thing he planned to direct anyway was The Godfather, Part IV (he is evidently only producing Walter Salles' On the Road), then maybe we should just call it a wash. Fair enough, Francis?

--As a tried-and-true J-school wonk, I have been quite enjoying the autoerotic stimulation the media have doled out to themselves in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. That said, our memories are mighty short vis a vis 9/11 and Iraq, and Danny Schechter's new documentary Weapons of Mass Deception sets out to remind us how it was only yesterday we had the Bush Administration's cocks in our mouths. A wake-up call against complacence or a delusional left-wing hype job? You be the judge when WMD airs on IFC Sunday night at 10 p.m.

--Speaking of Hurricane Katrina, one of the eerie coincidences following New Orleans' decimation is this weekend's Quad Cinema engagement of Make It Funky! Michael Murphy's concert film/documentary features everyone from New Orleans natives the Neville Brothers to Bonnie Raitt to Keith Richards expounding on the virtues of the Big Easy's funk and R&B roots. In other words, this could be the last film ever made about music in New Orleans—at least featuring new footage. Repeat after me—fuck.