Our second Volunteer Of The Month pick is Richard Ayoade’s Submarine, courtesy of our volunteer Lyrio! 

Meet Oliver Tate: a Welsh teenager armed with a vocabulary beyond his years, a trench coat he barely fills, and a plan to lose his virginity before his birthday. Also on his list? Saving his parents’ crumbling marriage and keeping his mystic next-door neighbor from stealing his mum.

Ayoade’s directorial debut is a funny, melancholic, and stylized coming-of-age tale, drawing from the deadpan charm of Wes Anderson and the aching awkwardness of early adolescence. Featuring a tender original soundtrack by Alex Turner (of Arctic Monkeys), Submarine is both acerbic and sincere—a story about first love, emotional repression, and the anxiety of being a legend in your own mind.

A24 Films is proud to present the newest film in their 2025 slate–Sorry, Baby.

Written, directed by, and starring Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby follows Agnes, a once-promising academic whose life is frozen in the aftermath of a shattering personal betrayal—known only as “the bad thing.” Over the course of five emotionally intricate chapters, the film traces Agnes’s attempts to move forward while stuck in place, navigating the small-town routines of her adult life in New England. When her childhood friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie) returns from New York, their reunion reignites buried tensions, old comforts, and the question of whether healing is possible—or if survival is enough.

A sharply observed and darkly funny portrait of internalized grief and human connection, Sorry, Baby is both intimate and expansive, capturing the textures of time, memory, and the strange ways people grow apart, then back together.

The Frida Cinema is excited to present the brand new candy-colored absurdist animated comedy Boys Go To Jupiter!

The story follows Billy 5000, a teenage gig worker in suburban Florida. He tries to earn enough money to move out of his sister’s garage. His plans are disrupted by the arrival of a gelatinous alien named Donut. Billy must protect Donut from the schemes of the Dolphin Groves Juice Company and its CEO, Dr. Dolphin.

Boys Go To Jupiter features a cast of comedic talent, including Jack Corbett as Billy 5000, Janeane Garofalo as Dr. Dolphin, Tavi Gevinson as Glarba, Elsie Fisher as Beatbox, and Joe Pera as Herschel Cretaceous, among many others!

This August, The Frida Cinema proudly presents Greenaway & Nyman, a film series celebrating four of the most iconic collaborations between filmmaker Peter Greenaway and composter Michael Nyman.  Our series’ third film is 1988’s Drowning by Numbers, Greenaway’s wickedly playful and morbid game of murder, repetition, and structure.

Joan Plowright, Juliet Stevenson, and Joely Richardson star as three women from the same family, all of whom are each named Cissie Colpitts. Under seemingly rational pretenses, each woman drowns her own husband — but rather than seek justice, local coroner Madgett (Bernard Hill) becomes complicit, lured by his own ambitions. Structured like a counting game by literally placing the numbers 1 through 100 sequentially within its visuals and dialogue, Drowning by Numbers is an exercise in visual beauty marked by escalating absurdity, a grimly comic dark fable about rules, rituals, fate, and numbers.

Nominated for the Palm d’Or at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, Drowning By Numbers took home the festival’s Best Artistic Contribution prize, and won the Best Director Award at the Seattle International Film Festival.

On Wednesday, August 20th, join us as we welcome writer/director Allan Moyle and producer Sandy Stern to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of writer-director Allan Moyle’s Pump Up the Volume, a fiery snapshot of early 90’s rebellion that’s endured as a cult classic, as well as a rallying cry for freedom of expression and speaking truth to power.

Christian Slater stars as Mark Hunter, a shy, bookish teenager who transforms into “Hard Harry” by night – an anonymous pirate radio DJ who broadcasts raw, uncensored thoughts to his audience of fellow high schoolers. As Harry’s shows begin to touch on themes of depression, authoritarianism, and hypocrisy, his rants grow bolder, enshrining him as a folk hero to his disaffected young fans – as well as a target for school administrators and the FCC. Highlighted by a sharp script, Slater’s magnetic performance, strong supporting turns by Samantha Mathis, Ellen Greene, and Annie Ross, and a popular soundtrack featuring Sonic Youth, Pixies, Concrete Blonde, and Leonard Cohen, Pump Up the Volume my be ultra-90’s in style, but its themes of censorship, alienation, identity, and the desperate need to be heard in a world that too often refuses to listen, remain sadly timeless.

ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Stick around after the show for a conversation with special guests Allan Moyle and Sandy Stern!

Allan Moyle is a Canadian writer and director known for his offbeat, character-driven films that often explore youth rebellion, outsider identity, and the transformative power of music. He gained cult acclaim with his sharp, politically charged 1990 teen drama Pump Up the Volume, and his vibrant 1995 ensemble piece set inside a struggling indie record store, Empire Records; both films have found a devoted following for their quirky charm, quotable dialogue, and celebration of teen individuality. Almost 50 years since his directorial debut, 1977’s The Rubber Gun, Moyle’s work remains beloved for its sincerity, countercultural spirit, and empathy for misfits on the fringes.

Sandy Stern is an accomplished film producer known for championing bold, unconventional storytelling across a wide range of genres. He rose to prominence with the 1990 cult favorite Pump Up the Volume, which established his reputation for backing visionary, risk-taking filmmakers. Over the next decade, Stern played a key role in bringing to life some of the most inventive and iconoclastic films of the era, including Todd Haynes’ 1998 glam-rock fantasia Velvet Goldmine, Spike Jonze’s 1999 mind-bender Being John Malkovich, and the subversive 2004 teen satire Saved!  Whether producing edgy dramas, surreal comedies, or heartfelt misfit tales, Stern’s work consistently foregrounds fresh voices and offbeat perspectives, making him a vital figure in the landscape of American independent cinema.

The Frida Cinema is excited to present the brand new candy-colored absurdist animated comedy Boys Go To Jupiter, with the star of the film, Jack Corbett, joining us in-person for a Q&A after the screening!

The story follows Billy 5000, a teenage gig worker in suburban Florida. He tries to earn enough money to move out of his sister’s garage. His plans are disrupted by the arrival of a gelatinous alien named Donut. Billy must protect Donut from the schemes of the Dolphin Groves Juice Company and its CEO, Dr. Dolphin.

Boys Go To Jupiter features a cast of comedic talent, including Jack Corbett as Billy 5000, Janeane Garofalo as Dr. Dolphin, Tavi Gevinson as Glarba, Elsie Fisher as Beatbox, and Joe Pera as Herschel Cretaceous, among many others!