October is upon us, and things are getting spooky here at The Frida! Creepy AF returns this Friday with Jason X, the 10th installment in the long-running Friday the 13th franchise. Then OC Pride strikes again Saturday night with a 30th anniversary screening of Disney’s Hocus Pocus. Later in the month, we’ve got screenings of horror classics like Robin Hardy’s original 1973 The Wicker Man and The Exorcist, screening as part of our Friedkin Weekends series. But it’s not all screams and scares this month: we’ve also got Joachim Trier’s 2011 drama Oslo, August 31st hitting our screen this weekend.
The second film in Trier’s Oslo trilogy, the story unfolds over one day in the life of Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie), a young recovering drug addict, who takes a brief leave from his treatment center to interview for a job and catch up with old friends in Oslo. Loosely based on the novel Will O’ the Wisp by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, Oslo, August 31st is a dark, yet graceful example of Trier’s directorial talent, cemented by a phenomenal lead performance from Lie.
If you’ve never seen Oslo, August 31st before (or at least on the big screen), you can thank Toheed Chaudhry, one of two October Volunteers of the Month, for this chance to see it! Another newbie, Toheed joined the Frida team this year and has bounced around different shifts before finally settling in with the Friday night crew. As such, I’ve had plenty of opportunites to chat with him before sitting down for our interview. A relatively laidback guy, he speaks with a gentle intelligence and precision that I feel came through in his clear, uncomplicated answers. It was quick as far as interviews for the blog go, but I think it’ll pique readers’ curiosity about Oslo, August 31st and hopefully get them to come out for it this weekend.
How did you find out about The Frida Cinema?
So my friend and I wanted to watch Aftersun back in January of this year and it wasn’t playing in any major theaters near us (we live in Irvine). He saw that it was playing at The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana and I was like “That’s only a 15 minute drive,” so we came out here and watched that. It was the day after my birthday, and I was like “It would be cool to volunteer here” and then I started a few months after that.
What made you want to volunteer here?
I think I just thought it was a cool environment and I thought that it would be cool to just get started. Just very simple, just like that.
Tell us a little bit about Oslo, August 31st.
So it’s the second movie in Joachim Trier’s Oslo trilogy. I saw Worst Person in the World last year sometime and I loved that, so that was actually my number one pick. But Oslo is right up there, number 2. Both were in my top 10 of all time, I love both movies.
Oslo is just a really good portrayal of a realistic depressed character going through drug addiction and recovering from that. I feel like Joachim Trier is really good at creating characters that you can relate to even though you’ve never been in those situations, so I think that’s why I chose that movie.
What were your other choices for Volunteer Pick of the Month?
So Worst Person in the World was one of my other picks just because I love Joachim Trier for the same reasons as Oslo. It makes you feel like you’re in the shoes of the characters even if you’ve never been in that situation.
And the other pick was Revenge of the Sith, the Star Wars movie cause it’s one of my favorite movies of all time, first movie I remember seeing, and it would just be really cool to see it in a theater.
What is your favorite Frida memory?
It might be from before I started volunteering here. I saw RRR back in March and the crowd for that was amazing. It’s the best theater experience I’ve ever had.
During volunteering, the shifts are just fun, a lot of fun sometimes.
If you could program any movie here, what would you pick?
It’s a boring answer but a Star Wars marathon would be really cool, just Episodes I through VI. I’d be there for it, 18 hours long or something, but I’d be there for it.
Oslo, August 31st screens starting Friday, October 13th.
Friday, Oct 13th – 5pm
Saturday, Oct 14th – 7:15pm
Tickets