George Orwell was one of the most radical and visionary authors of the 20th Century, whose 1940s novels, such as 1984 and Animal Farm, foretold a chilling, all-too-believable authoritarian future that has become scarily prescient in our modern era. Acclaimed director Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro), working in collaboration with the Orwell Estate, seamlessly interweaves historical clips, readings from Orwell’s diary, cinematic references, and dynamic modern day footage to craft the definitive portrait of the writer himself–Orwell: 2+2=5. 

Peck, who has his his own personal connection to the material–as an 8-year-old he was forced to flee the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti–doesn’t just present the information but shows new ways of seeing it, drawing patterns and connections we might not otherwise realize, and creating a stimulating and thought-provoking experience for the viewer at every turn. 

As terms like “Big Brother” and “Newspeak” become more prevalent and ominous with each passing day, Orwell: 2+2=5, featuring award-winning actor Damian Lewis as the voice of Orwell, provides a stirring depiction of the dangers of power and the fragility of so-called civilized society, told through the eyes of a man from the past who just might hold the key to the world’s future.  

It’s still Spooky Season in our hearts, so we’re dusting off  a few screenings of Frank Capra’s Arsenic and Old Lace!

Cary Grant stars as Mortimer Brewster, a newlywed whose trip home to visit his eccentric Brooklyn family turns into a macabre comedy of errors. His sweet, elderly aunts (Josephine Hull and Jean Adair) have a deadly hobby: poisoning lonely old men with elderberry wine and burying them in the basement. Add in a delusional brother who thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt, another who’s an unhinged criminal dead ringer for Boris Karloff, and a frantic race to keep the police—and his new bride—none the wiser.

A twisted favorite of ours that’s bursting with screwball energy and classic Cary Grant charm, Arsenic and Old Lace proves that murder can be murderously funny?

American auteur Kelly Reichhardt (First Cow, Certain Women, Wendy & Lucy) is back with her latest straight from the Cannes Film Festival! The Mastermind, starring Josh O’Connor and Alana Haim, is Reichardt’s detour into the crime/heist genre, told only the way that she can. 

In a sedate corner of Massachusetts circa 1970, an unemployed carpenter turned amateur art thief plans his first big heist. When things go haywire, his life unravels.

The Mastermind is being hailed as one of Reichardt’s boldest gambits. With a standout central performance by Josh O’Connor and a director pushing her signature minimalism into new terrain, it’s one of our most anticipated releases of 2025. 

Animation lovers, we didn’t forget about you this Spooky Season! We’re delighted to be running 20th anniversary screenings of Nick Park’s claymation caper Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit!

Cheese-loving eccentric Wallace and his cunning canine pal, Gromit, investigate a mystery in Nick Park’s animated adventure, in which the lovable inventor and his intrepid pup run a business ridding the town of garden pests. Using only humane methods that turn their home into a halfway house for evicted vermin, the pair stumble upon a mystery involving a voracious vegetarian monster that threatens to ruin the annual veggie-growing contest.

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit combines stop-motion wizardry, cozy British humor, and monster-movie parody into one endlessly charming package.

David Lynch’s 2001 masterwork Mulholland Drive is returning to The Frida for a limited four day run as part of our 21st Century Cult series! And for our 7PM screening on Sunday, November 2nd, we are delighted to be joined in-person for a post-screening Q&A with actor Richard Green, who portrays “The Magician” in the film.

Blonde Betty Elms has only just arrived in Hollywood to become a movie star when she meets an enigmatic brunette with amnesia. Meanwhile, as the two set off to solve the second woman’s identity, filmmaker Adam Kesher runs into ominous trouble while casting his latest project.

Mystifying and terrifying audiences for over twenty years, Mulholland Drive remains one of the greatest films ever made in any genre and in any decade. Lynch’s stranglehold on his one-of-a-kind tone puts him into the rarified air of the true masters of the medium. Seeing it on the big screen with an audience is a holy grail of modern cinema-going experiences.

Wake up, Donnie…

Happy Halloween! Donnie Darko, one of the definitive Frida Cinema fan favorites, is finally returning to our screens for the first time in almost two years!

Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a troubled teenager in 1988 Virginia, plagued by visions and sleepwalking episodes. One night, a bizarre accident nearly kills him when a jet engine crashes into his bedroom. Surviving only because he wandered outside, Donnie begins seeing a terrifying figure: a man in a grotesque rabbit suit named Frank, who tells him the world will end in 28 days.

Before Stranger Things combined science fiction, Spielberg-ian thrills, and 1980s nostalgia to much acclaim, Richard Kelly set the high-water mark with Initially beset with distribution problems, it would slowly find its audience and emerge as arguably the first cult classic of the new millennium.