All for the Taking

Blow Out (Fri., May 12, 7:30 p.m., $15-$50, International House, 3701 Chestnut St., 215-895-6535) It's taken a while, but Friends of the Boyd have finally worked their way around to the finest movie ever filmed in Philadelphia. While we're launching superlatives, it's also native son Brian De Palma's masterpiece and houses the best performance of John Travolta's career (not to mention a superlatively creepy turn by John Lithgow). As a low-rent sound recordist who inadvertently tapes the assassination of a presidential front-runner, Travolta is vaulted from horror movies to real-life horrors, with only his reel-to-reel to defend himself. When he matches his sound to a flip-book movie jury-rigged from the still photos of Dennis Franz' blackmailing P.I., it's like being present at the birth of cinema, only the image is infused with dread as well as possibility. The movie's climactic showpiece, a chase through the city's "Liberty Day" parade, is an ironic recapitulation of a patriotic spectacle that had to be reshot after the reels of film were stolen from a parked car. That story and others will no doubt be recounted at the pre-screening dinner, where Tom McCarthy, Michael Tearson and Dave Roberts will be on hand to share their memories of the filming. Fifty bucks gets you into the 6 p.m. dinner; $15 covers the 7:30 screening and after-party.

All for the Taking (Fri., May 12, 7 p.m., $5, Scribe Video Center, 4212 Chestnut St., 215-222-4201) George McCollough's documentary puts a face on the City of Philadelphia's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative. In the name of urban renewal, the city has put through thousands of eminent-domain seizures, relying on the expanded definition ratified by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. Previously employed to clear land for public projects, eminent domain's "best use of the land" can now be applied to private development if the city decides that the economic upside outweighs the homeowner's rights. McCollough concentrates on individual stories, like that of Carolyn Thomas, the 62-year-old who was offered only $40,000 for her Hoops Street home, half of that for moving expenses. Battling the city, she gets the amount up to $70,000, but is forced to pack in the dark when her electricity is shut off early, and is eventually charged over $9,000 for the demolition. As other cities follow Philadelphia's lead, the movie argues that abuse of eminent domain will continue to grow—at least unless more people realize what's actually at stake.