Unless otherwise noted, all screenings are free and will be shown by video projection as part of the Chicago Park District’s “Movies in the Parks” series. Films marked with an asterisk (*) are highly recommended.

Barbershop painted an affectionate portrait of a black community centered on a 40-year-old barbershop in South Shore; this sequel ups the ante, asking whether urban renewal means anything now other than turning neighborhoods into giant malls. Ice Cube returns as Calvin, the crabby but decent proprietor of the shop his late father established in 1958; spared in the ’68 riots, it may yet fall to Nappy Cuts, an opulent spa being erected across the street. A slimy developer (Harry J. Lennix) with plans for a cineplex has talked most of the businesses on the block into selling out, but Calvin doesn’t want to disband his collection of barber-comedians, among them Cedric the Entertainer, Leonard Earl Howze, and Eve. Kevin Rodney Sullivan directed. PG-13, 118 min. (JJ) Midway Plaisance, 59th and Woodlawn, Wednesday, July 21, 7:00, 312-742-7529

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Alfred Hitchcock’s most abstract film (1963), and perhaps his subtlest, still yielding new meanings and inflections after a dozen or more viewings. As emblems of sexual tension, divine retribution, meaningless chaos, metaphysical inversion, and aching human guilt, his attacking birds acquire a metaphorical complexity and slipperiness worthy of Melville. Tippi Hedren’s lead performance is still open to controversy, but her evident stage fright is put to sublimely Hitchcockian uses. With Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette, and Jessica Tandy (and does anyone besides me believe that Mrs. Brenner was having an affair with Dan Fawcett?). 120 min. (DK) A 35-millimeter print will be shown as part of the Chicago Outdoor Film Festival. Also on the program: a Mickey Mouse cartoon. Grant Park, Lake Shore Drive and Monroe, Tuesday, July 20, 8:53, 312-744-3370

The Fighting Temptations

Lerner and Loewe’s musical masterwork, reimagined for film by director George Cukor. Cukor doesn’t try to hide the stage origins of his material; rather, he celebrates the falseness of his sets, placing his characters in a perfectly designed artificial world. Every frame of this 1964 film bespeaks Cukor’s grace and commitment–it’s an adaptation that becomes completely personal through the force of its mise-en-scene. Rex Harrison deserved his Oscar for his performance as Henry Higgins, and Audrey Hepburn (though her singing voice is dubbed) is an enchanting presence and a clever actress. The ending has been criticized, but I find Cukor’s stroke of anticlimax impeccable. With Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White, and Gladys Cooper. 170 min. (DK) Oz Park, 2021 N. Burling, Saturday, July 17, 8:30, 312-742-7898

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