Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Victor Garber, Paul Shaffer, and other entertainment icons got their start in a 1972 Toronto production of the musical Godspell. You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution…is the documentary that lived to tell the tale! 

Featuring interviews with the surviving cast members, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mike Myers, and more, the film recounts a pivotal moment in comedy history, in hilarious, moving, and inspiring detail. 

An entire civilization must confront its destiny in alternative-animation pioneer René Laloux’s final feature, Gandahar, a cult classic of mind-bending science fiction that has been restored in 4K thanks to fine folks at Janus Films! 

In a distant world, a merciless army of automata attacks Gandahar, turning its peace-loving people to stone. Hoping to discover the source of these Men of Metal, a council of matriarchs enlists the brave yet inexperienced warrior Sylvain (Pierre-Marie Escourro), who, while journeying through his planet’s outer regions, teams up with the Deformed, a race cast out from Gandahar after failed science experiments rendered them mutants. Soon, Sylvain learns that a gargantuan brain called Metamorphis (Georges Wilson) is responsible for his utopian society’s strife, and together with the beautiful Airelle (Catherine Chevallier), travels through time to defeat him, in the process risking their lives and Gandahar’s very existence.

Featuring stunningly surreal creatures and wondrously bizarre environments designed by renowned comic-book artist Caza, Gandahar is a visceral, visionary head-trip in which animation opens a gateway to the furthest reaches of the imagination.

Based on the beloved fantasy novel by Peter S. Beagle, 1982’s The Last Unicorn is a beautiful – and beautifully strange – animated fantasy. The film follows a solitary unicorn (Mia Farrow) who learns that she may be the last of her kind. Setting out to find other surviving unicorns, she encounters bumbling magician Schmendrick (Alan Arkin) and spirited Molly Grue (Tammy Grimes), who join her on a journey that leads to the castle of the sinister King Haggard (Christopher Lee). Featuring iconic storybook animation by Rankin/Bass, The Last Unicorn has endured as a singular cult classic, equally beloved as a cherished family favorite and a genuinely strange piece of 1980s fantasy.

Part of our Unsung 80’s Soundtracks series, The Last Unicorn’s is built around an unlikely collaboration between composer Jimmy Webb and the the harmony-rich folk-rock of America, who perform the film’s songs. Webb wrote the score as well as the songs, including the haunting title track, “The Last Unicorn,” which became one of America’s most enduring songs from the film. America also performs “Now That I’m a Woman,” “In the Sea,” and “That’s All I’ve Got to Say,” while Webb’s orchestral score gives the film much of its wistful, dreamlike quality. A ’70s soft-rock trio scoring an animated medieval fantasy may seem like an unlikely pairing, but somehow, it works perfectly.

The second feature directed by Todd Haynes,the Oscar-nominated filmmaker of Far from Heaven and Carol, Poison is the next film up in our Art House 101: Global Queer Cinema series.

This groundbreaking American Indie was the most fervently debated film of the early 1990s and a trailblazing landmark of queer cinema. A work of immense visual invention, Haynes’ spectacular follow-up to his legendary Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story is audacious, disturbing and thrillingly cinematic.

Inspired by the writings of Jean Genet, Poison deftly interweaves trio of transgressive tales-“Hero,” “Horror” and “Homo”-that build toward a devastating climax. “Hero,” shot in mock TV-documentary style, tells a bizarre story of suburban patricide and a miraculous flight from justice; “Horror,” filmed like a delirious ’50s B-movie melodrama, is a gothic tale of a mad sex experiment which unleashes a disfiguring plague; while “Homo” explores the obsessive sexual relationship between two prison inmates.

A runaway hit which made national headlines when it was attacked by right-wing figures including Dick Armey, Ralph Reed and minister Donald Wildmon, Poison is unsettling, unforgettable and thoroughly entertaining.

Something has survived.

Our Spielberg Summer series ventures to The Lost World: Jurassic World, the oft-maligned sequel to the 1993 classic.

When mathematician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is pulled back into the dinosaur project after a second island is discovered, he joins a rescue expedition that quickly becomes a fight for survival as corporate greed and apex predators collide. What begins as a mission of observation spirals into full-scale chaos when dinosaurs prove, once again, who is higher on the food chain.

Darker and much more unruly than its predecessor, The Lost World: Jurassic Park explores the consequences of trying to manage wonder once it’s been unleashed. Spielberg leans into scale and spectacle, building some of the best set pieces of his career, each more intense than the last.