29

TUESDAY

“As God is my witness, I’ll never play James Bond again, you sons of bitches!” Well, that’s not the exact quote. But following his appearance in the 1971 flick Diamonds Are Forever, Sean Connery stated that he would not reassume the mantle of 007 (the second of three such claims he made) and set out to pursue roles in more challenging films. However, if John Boorman’s 1974 sci-fi-flop-turned-cult-hit Zardoz is any indication, by “challenging,” Connery meant dressing up in a red diaper, climbing inside a flying stone head that’s worshipped as a god, and being whisked away to a mystical wonderland known as the Vortex, where a secret society of psychic immortals chill out all day, isolated from the rest of the world. Connery’s Fu Manchu mustache and waist-long ponytail aside, Zardoz can just as easily be enjoyed as a catastrophically failed attempt at religious and social commentary for both Boorman and Connery and as an entertainingly campy—if occasionally tedious—dystopian fantasy. Bring your false idols when the film screens at 8 p.m. at Dr. Dremo’s Taphouse, 2001 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington. Free ($2 suggested donation). (202) 736-1732. (Matthew Borlik)