Fireworks, parades, patriotic bunting—and one sound that doesn’t belong. A scream? A gunshot? A tire blowout? No Fourth Of July celebration at The Frida would be complete without Brian De Palma’s 1981 masterpiece Blow Out!

John Travolta gives one of his best performances as Jack Terry, a sound technician for low-budget horror flicks who accidentally records a political assassination while gathering ambient sound one night. What follows is a paranoid plunge into reel-to-reel surveillance, media manipulation, and a conspiracy no one wants to hear.

A riff on Antonioni’s Blow-Up and Coppola’s The Conversation, but soaked in De Palma’s signature split-diopter style and operatic tension, Blow Out turns patriotic imagery into a nightmare canvas—stars and stripes flickering under streetlamps and firecrackers masking murder. Featuring Nancy Allen, John Lithgow in full psycho-mode, and a finale that literally weaponizes Independence Day spectacle, this is one of the sharpest political thrillers of the 1980s and one of De Palma’s true masterpieces.

Celebrate coming of age in America with a double feature of Dazed And Confused and American Graffiti as part of of our Fireworks At The Frida series! Before there were cell phones, apps, or curfews that mattered, there were nights like these—fast cars, cheap beer, perfect soundtracks, and too many big questions for one summer to answer.

Dazed and Confused (1993, dir. Richard Linklater)
It’s the last day of school in 1976, and the teens of Austin, Texas are ready to get high, get loud, and maybe think about the future… later. Richard Linklater’s laid-back classic is a stoned love letter to aimless youth, cruising backroads, and those nights that feel like they’ll never end. Featuring Matthew McConaughey in his breakout role and one of the all-time great rock soundtracks.

American Graffiti (1973, dir. George Lucas)
One last night before college, 1962: four friends hit the streets of Modesto, California, chasing girls, chasing cars, and wondering what comes next. George Lucas’ nostalgic cruiser is the original coming-of-age night-out movie—an ode to golden oldies, neon diners, and growing up when you’re not quite ready to.

There will be a 15 minute intermission between both films. One ticket gets you full access to two movies!

July’s Volunteer Of The Month pick is Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, courtesy of River!

A meticulously crafted tale of murder, theft, pastry, poetry, and polite panic, The Grand Budapest Hotel is Anderson at his most whimsical, melancholic, and madcap. Set in a fictional Eastern European republic between the wars, the film charts the adventures of legendary concierge Gustave H. (a pitch-perfect Ralph Fiennes) and his loyal lobby boy Zero as they’re swept into a plot involving a stolen painting, a greedy family, prison breaks, fascists, and a disappearing world of civility.

Blending Anderson’s signature pastel-perfect aesthetics with a screwball crime caper and a poignant elegy for lost elegance, the film boasts an ensemble bursting at the seams: Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Saoirse Ronan, Jeff Goldblum, F. Murray Abraham, Harvey Keitel, Léa Seydoux, Jude Law, and—of course—Bill Murray.

Celebrate the birthday of visionary director Jean Cocteau as we present a special run of Beauty and the Beast!

Born July 5th, 1889, Jean Cocteau was a poet, painter, playwright, and filmmaker whose imagination knew no borders—and no film better captures his singular vision than La Belle et la Bête (1946), a masterpiece of surreal romanticism that turns a fairy tale into living myth.

Starring Josette Day as the gentle, radiant Belle and the great Jean Marais as the tortured, leonine Beast, Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast is a marvel of shadow, texture, and cinematic illusion. Made just after WWII on a shoestring budget and with raw ingenuity, the film conjures real magic without special effects. This isn’t Disney–it’s real cinema magic.