Banned. Protested. Worshipped. See It On 16MM is back with another screening on celluloid, and this time it’s John Waters’ dirty masterpiece Pink Flamingos!
Welcome to Baltimore’s trashiest backyard, where the grass is plastic, the chickens are nervous, and Divine reigns supreme. Part shock comedy, part underground rebellion, Pink Flamingos (1972) is John Waters’ cult atomic bomb—an unholy hybrid of sleaze, satire, and pure punk provocation that shattered the rules of good taste and built a throne from the pieces.
Starring the legendary Divine in her filth-crowned breakout role, Pink Flamingos follows a depraved battle for the title of “Filthiest Person Alive,” with kidnappings, foot-licking, meat theft, and one very infamous dog-walk that sealed the film’s place in midnight movie infamy. The competition? Mink Stole and David Lochary as the Marble family—suburban perverts running a black market baby ring out of a pink split-level. It only gets worse (and by worse, we mean better) from there.
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Pee-wee’s Big Adventure is turning 40, and you better believe we’re playing it!
Before the Large Marge nightmares, before the Alamo letdowns, before you learned what a “Pet-O-Rama” even was… there was the bike. And for Pee-wee Herman, the bike meant everything. Released in 1985 and directed by a then-unknown Tim Burton, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure is the movie that launched a thousand catchphrases, made breakfast machines cool again, and turned a gray-suited man-child with a red bowtie into a pop icon.
Co-written by Paul Reubens and the legendary Phil Hartman, the film is a candy-colored cross-country odyssey filled with ex-cons, cowboys, biker gangs, dinosaurs, and one very memorable basementless Alamo. As surreal as it is sincere, Big Adventure is a perfect mix of Burton’s gothic whimsy and Reubens’ manic, offbeat charm—an outsider comedy that became a generation’s inside joke.
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Celebrate coming of age in America with a double feature of American Graffiti and Dazed And Cofused 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.
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.
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.
There will be a 15 minute intermission between both films. One ticket gets you full access to two movies!
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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!
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Batter up! The Sandlot has made the starting lineup for our Fireworks At The Frida week!
The year is 1962. The neighborhood is endless summer. And the only thing bigger than the legend of “The Beast” is the size of the laughs, heart, and pure baseball magic in The Sandlot—the ultimate coming-of-age classic for anyone who’s ever played a game with a taped-up ball and a dream.
Directed by David Mickey Evans and narrated with perfect golden-hour nostalgia, The Sandlot follows new kid Scotty Smalls as he fumbles his way into a ragtag crew of backyard ballplayers led by the mythic Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez. There are scraped knees, Fourth of July night games, fairground crushes, lost baseballs, and epic attempts to recover a Babe Ruth–signed ball from the clutches of one monstrous dog next door. You’re killin me, Smalls!
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Dan O’Bannon’s The Return of the Living Dead is coming (back from the grave) to The Frida Cinema for its 40th Anniversary as part of our Fireworks At The Frida week!
What if Night of the Living Dead got punk, got louder, and got way, way messier? Enter 1985’s The Return of the Living Dead—the film that gave zombies the power to run, talk, and specifically request brains. A gleefully anarchic horror-comedy that helped redefine the undead for an entire generation, this movie turns graveyards into dance floors and medical supply warehouses into apocalyptic battlegrounds.
Directed by Dan O’Bannon (co-writer of Alien) and featuring a killer soundtrack of ’80s punk and death rock (The Cramps, 45 Grave, T.S.O.L.), the film follows a group of hapless employees and way-too-cool punks as they accidentally unleash a toxic gas that reanimates corpses—starting with a tar-covered nightmare named Tarman and escalating into full-blown zombie chaos.
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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.
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Arthouse 101: Japanese Cinema enters the 80’s with Jûzô Itami’s acclaimed Tampopo (original Japanese title: Tanpopo), an award-winning 1985 film that is truly like no other in our series – or in movie history, really. This deliriously inventive comedy follows a widowed ramen shop owner who, with the help of a mysterious trucker (a stoic parody of Clint Eastwood), sets out to create the perfect bowl of noodles. Along the way, we meet an ensemble of eccentric characters whose lives revolve – sometimes absurdly, sometimes erotically – around food.
Nominated for the Best Screenplay and Best Director awards by the National Society of Film Critics, Tampopo is billed as the first “ramen western,” Tampopo is both a genre spoof and a soulful tribute to Japanese cuisine and community. It’s a movie about perfection, pleasure, and the strange, spiritual rituals we attach to what we eat.
Arthouse 101: Japanese Cinema is a curated 12-film trip through the evolution of Japan—from the quiet post-war resilience of the 1940s all the way to the radical reinventions of the 1990s. This July-October, we will explore a new facet of this incredible nation’s cinematic journey throughout the 20th century. All films will be presented in their original Japanese language with English subtitles, at a reduced ticket price of $8.
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Ten years ago, a wildly original, and unapologetically raw movie exploded onto the indie film scene–shot entirely on an iPhone and changing the rules of what independent cinema could look and feel like. This Art House Theater Day, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Sean Baker’s Tangerine, a landmark in queer and DIY filmmaking. More details are to be announced, but the screening will also include exclusive content with Arthouse Theater Day Ambassador Sean Baker himself!
Set against the sun-soaked, neon-drenched streets of Los Angeles on Christmas Eve, Tangerine follows Sin-Dee and Alexandra–two Black trans sex workers and best friends–as they embark on a chaotic and deeply heartfelt odyssey through Hollywood in search of a little revenge. Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor give breakout performances that forever redefined representation and visibility on screen.
More than just a technical marvel or an underdog success story, Tangerine remains a vital portrait of friendship and life lived loud on the margins. On its 10th anniversary, it still feels as urgent as ever.
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Join us for a special one-off screening of indie darling Guacamole Yesterdays, and stick around after the show for an in-person Q&A with director Jordan Noel and writer/producer Hudson Phillips!
After a devastating separation, cartoonist Ames (Sophie Edwards, This World Alone) begins therapy with a specialist (Adetinpo Thomas, Hawkeye) who employs an experimental technology that enables Ames to relive and reshape the memories of her relationship with her husband, Franklin (Randy Havens, Stranger Things). As Ames revisits moments from their first date to their final goodbye, the boundaries between memory and reality start to dissolve. To avoid losing herself completely, she must confront the truth she’s been desperately avoiding.
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