Midnight screenings of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ invade ‘Star Wars’ space

Recently on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” Mark Hamill called his “Star Wars” films “space westerns.”

And that’s exactly right. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s too bad that franchise’s massive success has made true science-fiction films — conceptual works that question our society and our direction — relatively rare. So it’s good news that Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” is invading the space of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” this weekend at the Clay Theatre.

Nearly 50 years after its release, it still is “The Ultimate Trip,” as the film’s advertising proclaimed. Like the original “Star Wars” would nine years later, “2001” became a cultural phenomenon. Kubrick and Arthur C.